11/05/2025
So grateful for the opportunity to attend a weeklong retreat on the topic of Maraṇasati, the mindfulness of death, last week.
This practice was first introduced to me in November of 2015 when I ended up at Kopan Monastery in Nepal for a monthlong study on the Buddhist dharma and path.
In 2019, on a pilgrimage to India, I downloaded an audio book titled “The Five Invitations” by Frank Ostaseski creator of the Zen Hospice project. I had great curiosity on the fragility of this life, the death process and the rituals surrounding death.
As I arrived in Varanasi, India I made it a point to go to the cremation site near the Ganges and be an observer to this process and it awakened me to life in such a powerful way. I sat there for hours, mostly in silence. Not crying. Not alarmed. Simply observing what is real. That we are born. And, that any point, this body may die.
One of the invitations Frank mentions in his book is:
DONT WAIT!
Last week, I got to hear him speak at the retreat and in a full cycle moment, a rememberance to not take this fragile life for granted and an urgency to awaken to truth and to reality.
There is a compounding effect on the benefits of a meditation practice and to sit with others. There is great benefit to claim back our attention and presence. Somehow, the loving-kindness and compassionate heart becomes easier to access, at least for me, when I am not in the rat race and can slow down enough to savor this life and relax into it, with all the difficult and painful. Including it all.
It is with so much gratitude to the teachers who supported me while there, and all who made it possible for me to attend. May you find some moment today to remind yourself of the preciousness that is the essence of who you are, the goodness that just may have been lost, but it is still there. May you live, fully! 🫶
