Conscious death and afterlife meditation

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"Death" ("marana") means the death of the idea of a "person" or "self"; as defined in SN 12.2, which refers to the death of "beings" ("satta"). "Satta" is merely a "view" or "idea" (SN 23.2; SN 5.10).

For the untrained mind, this "death" is traumatic & brings suffering. But for the trained mind, when the mind experiences "Emptiness" ("Sunnata"), this is also includes experiencing the death of the "self-idea" but in a peaceful way (which is why Emptiness is not called "death").

"Conscious death" occurs via the experience of the Empty Mind; free from all "self-views".

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From what I gather trying to fall asleep consciously will prepare one for consciously dying.

And what I know from personal meditation experience is that:

  • awareness is not eternal. It arises and ceases like any other of the khandas. So, it's definitely not a soul.
  • meditation can continue independent of any awareness of the body. If there is no body sensation then the mind will turn to other objects: mind itself, mind states, feeling of calm and so on.

I guess that meditation itself can also be a good preparation for death. In one of the last retreats I was in a state where I no longer felt any breath, the heartbeat was gone, any bodily sensation was gone. It's quite interesting to see if and if so, how the mind reacts to this.

That's all I can offer.

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In Anapanasati, awareness of breathing. Buddha mentioned that it is possible to focus on breathing until the last breath is drawn and when there is no more breath, there is no place for conciseness to exist (consciousness cannot exist without one of 4 skandhas). And when no longer have consciousness to count as self, name/form ends.. and so on

The problem is counting as self is that will go on and continue to count other consciousness out there and calls it as self, thus rebirth. the definition of sattanam is not easy to understand. Technically, there is nothing to transmigrate but the dilution of self. Thats how i understand it.

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You might follow Buddha's example who entered the fourth Jhana, but it is only possible while you are aware of your peaceful death, the fact that you are dying slowly, so therefore - not very reliable advice.

Apart from that, only thing I know of about conscious death is MaraαΉ‡asati, which are only preparatory contemplations and meditations on death. These are closely related to Right effort. But it is not really same as meditating through death.

For Vajrayanic approach, Tibetans have the whole technique and special meditation practice on the moment of death and what follows (Bardo), which is divided in many phases of dying, also including the clear light you see at the moment of death. I presume you're not into Tantra so this is of little use though.

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