Meditation
The best way to ensure a joyful, peaceful, and dignified death is to find one's point of stillness and consciousness, made accessible through meditation practice, and connect with that state while moving through both the life and death process.
There are the 'externally' focused preparation actions outlined in the Death Plan, and then there are the 'internally' focused actions, which are found in Meditation and Prayer. A balanced approach in all directions will ensure the best aligned results.
Teachings of Prayers and Meditations for managing Death, and the other states of consciousness that one moves through in the cycles of life and death, are found in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, written by Guru Rinpoche, (Padmasambhava).
Meditation Practice
It is recommended to have a Meditation Practice. Meditation is supportive of a healthy, balanced, joyful, meaningful, and connected life, as well as death.
There are many different ways to practice Meditation and many different lineages and teachers. The key is to find modalities and teachers, that you connect with and get you into practicing meditation DAILY, and regularly in group, and keeps you engaged over time. A good teacher and modality will also typically have a sangha (a community that practices and gathers together).
It is okay to not practice meditation daily, however, it is understood across Vedic and Buddhist traditions that daily practice is necessary to truly train one's consciousness to be able to stay aware enough to consciously move through death and leave, and out of the stream of conditioned reactions (the river), in order to consciously orient towards the joy and allow it to happen.
Monastic based traditions espouse meditation many if not most hours of the day. That is good for them. Most humans would dramatically benefit from 15 - 20 minutes each day in the morning and 10-15 minutes in the evening.
If you are practicing imperfectly, but keep on practicing, that is the best you can do, and it is enough.
Here are some things you can consider to boost your practice:
(1) Aim towards a daily practice.
- First thing in the morning is often the best and most easeful time to meditate.
- Try one or more modalities that you connect with.
- There are also apps and prerecorded great meditations available on Youtube and Soundcloud.
(2) Set a timer.
-Maybe you start with 3 minutes and work your way up to an hour.
-A minimum of 20 minutes is recommended to set your day.
-An hour is ideal for your overall energy system.
(3) Put your phone to use.
-Consider recording yourself on 'time lapse' on your phone to keep you off of checking it.
(4) Have an accountability buddy (see Coaching offerings below).
(5) Join a class, workshop, or regularly meeting Sangha.
(6) Find Meditations online you that like, bookmark them, and come back to them.
- Some sites to try with longer format pre-recorded meditations: Youtube and SoundCloud.
(7) Go to a Sound Bath.
The Joyful Death Institute also offers Meditation Coaching support.
See below.
Meditation Coaching
It takes a month of repeating an activity to create the foundation for a habit to form. For some two months is a golden runway, and for some 90 days is the best window to ensure a daily habit is formed.
We are available to provide coaching and daily support for the duration of time it would be supportive of you to have an accountability buddy for your daily meditation practice.
30 Day Habit Support
over Zoom + Text
Meditation Check-Ins
$125-$550
Sliding Scale
60 Day Habit
Support
over Zoom + Text
Meditation Check-Ins
$250-$1100
Sliding Scale
90 Day Habit Support
over Zoom + Text
Meditation Check-Ins
$375-$1650
Sliding Scale
"Rev Jessica helped me connect with meditation tools that worked for me and helped me form the habit of a morning practice."
-G. Smith
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