I started off 2024 by participating in a 1 – year program offered by Sage-ing International that is based on Stephen Levine’s book “A Year to Live”. I was planning on publishing blog posts once a month throughout the year sharing my experiences and insights while working through this program. However; I was unable to do so.
I encountered several challenges. The first one was that it was very difficult to maintain my perception that I only had 1 year left to live. I would get that sense when our monthly event drew near and would maintain that sense for a day or two after the event for the month ended. However, that sense would dissipate very quickly as I would get carried away with life’s events involving my job, marriage, children, etc. I was not able to publish my monthly blog post as I had intended at the start of the year.
However, I have learnt a lot from this program so far. I have learnt to work in three primary areas to prepare for dying and for death, viz., Practical, Relational and Spiritual. The Practical area comprises of estate planning, Medical Directives and crafting our own memorials. The Relational area comprises of Life Review, taking care of unfinished business and writing legacy letters. I learnt the important practice of “Life Review” that consists of practicing gratitude and forgiveness by reflecting on our lives starting from our birth and ending with our current ages. Finally, the Spiritual area comprises of knowing what we want when dying.
I also learnt about the “sweeping meditation”. Stephen says that before we can leave the body effortlessly, we have to inhabit it fully. A remarkable means for heightening life as well as preparing for death is to enter the body whole-heartedly, sensation by sensation. It is a gentle guiding of awareness through the body beginning at the top of the head and extending to the tip of the toes. This is also referred to as a “body scan” exercise.
I learnt a very profound meditation called “Dead for a day”. This is a daylong contemplation where we imagine that we died the previous day. We walk the streets as if we are not here. We see the world in our absence. While outlining this practice Stephen says that something essential is drawn to the surface when we recognize that this day may be the last day of the rest of our life. It is difficult to maintain this perception for a whole day as our habitual thoughts and emotions rise to the surface and overtake our efforts to sustain this practice. However, there are bound to be moments where we can still our minds as we contemplate the world in our absence. All these meditations are not just one-time exercises, they are meant to be practices over and over again till they take hold in our minds and bodies. Towards that end, I remain grateful for learning about these practices while in this program. I will write another blog post next month (i.e. December 2024) where I will describe how this program ends and the benefits I received from it.
