The Purpose of the Practice
The purpose of this practice is not to provoke fear of death. If a person experiences this feeling, it means they are not approaching the practice in the right way.
The right approach is not to enter with a mind that already holds a deeply rooted belief that death is complete annihilation and the end of existence, but with a mind that has begun to see the impermanence of everything in the world, including its own mental states, and to realize that it cannot find security in anything.
This spontaneously loosens the mind's attachments, and a sincere longing for Truth begins to awaken.
Visualization as a Means of Contemplation
During the practice, do not judge the thoughts and visualizations of the mind. The mind can be an extraordinary instrument and an ally in becoming aware of our own true nature.
If you have a vivid imagination, you can use visualization as a means of evoking different sensations and feelings that may further loosen your attachment to the illusion of permanence.
Visualization expresses itself differently in every person. What matters is discovering what works for you.
Breathing as a Direct Experience
If visualization does not help you deepen your practice, but instead causes your mind to become absorbed in stories, then try resting your attention on your breathing and discovering life and death within it.
How often are you consciously aware of your breath throughout the day?
Usually, you take it for granted. But if your next breath did not come for an entire minute, you would experience it as more important than anything currently happening in your mind.
Observing the breath is an extraordinary opportunity to realize how fragile life is, and how one day the next inhalation will not come. But right now, it is here.
Every inhalation is life, and every exhalation is death. These are the two sides of the same coin.
Deepening your awareness of breathing in this way helps us recognize the still presence that lies behind them.
There is no need to control your breathing. That is not what matters in this practice. What matters is that which moves the breath in and out.
Awareness Beyond the Object
If neither visualization nor attention to the breath feels right for you, you can simply rest in awareness as a felt experience, rather than as concentration.
Try to feel the very act of awareness itself, rather than the object toward which it is directed.
If you deepen this state, only awareness without an object will remain.
In this pure, objectless awareness, there is no self, no duality, no life, and no death.
