Memento Mori Meditations Guide - Part 2

This is part 2 of my Memento Mori Meditations Guide.

If you haven’t read part 1, read it here before reading this one.

Last time we talked about reading and writing death meditation.

As I said, all of the types of meditation that we will discuss build on each other.

Your writing meditation builds on your reading meditation, and two types of meditation that I will talk about today will build on what you wrote in your writing meditation.

Dedicated Time Meditation

We could also call this one "traditional meditation," "mindfulness meditation," or whatever name comes to your mind that reminds you of the usual and widely accepted idea of what meditation is.

The point is that you are taking a certain period of time out of your day to meditate on death. And when I say "mediate," I’m referring to the meaning of this word that we discussed in part 1 of this guide. Meditate, as in to ponder, contemplate, reflect on, think about.

This is an active effort. This is not about you clearing your mind or somehow expecting your mind to do the job for you without any active participation on your part. This is where your writing meditation comes into play.

If you went straight into this type of death meditation without previously doing the reading and writing meditation, you would most probably end up being stuck. Just sitting there and thinking about death isn’t exactly the most natural thing for us to do. What precisely should you think about? Death is too broad of a term. What should the direction of your thoughts look like? Where should this meditation lead?

These questions are the reasons why you are doing the reading and writing meditation first. Reading, to become more familiar with the idea of your mortality and different aspects of it. Writing, to explore those ideas further, on a more personal level.

Because you did your reading and writing meditation, you already have some ideas forming in your mind and you have a structure to follow once you sit down with yourself and start meditating on death.

At first, it can be as simple as repeating everything that you’ve written down in your writing meditation. You don’t have to memorize it and repeat it word for word. And it’s up to you if you are going to repeat it out loud or in your mind. There are no rules. The main thing is that you keep building on the meditations that you’ve already been doing. Repeat those same thoughts, same questions, and same answers if you’ve been able to come up with some.

As you repeat them, some new questions will arise, and you might be able to approach some old questions from a new perspective. Some new answers will arise, some old ones will become reinforced, and you will start feeling them rather than just understanding them, and some answers will change and evolve.

I would suggest that you start doing this type of meditation in the same way that you would do traditional mindfulness meditation. Find a comfortable place where you can be by yourself. Preferably a quiet room where there are no distractions.

Once you’ve put in the reps (hours) into this type of meditation, you can become more flexible with your setting. For some time now, I’ve been doing my dedicated time meditation on my morning walks. Note that, even after 1000 days of meditating on death, I still wouldn’t do this type of meditation in a busy area where there are a lot of people and different sounds coming at me from different directions. I do it on my morning walk where I’m still by myself and somewhat isolated. The main difference from the traditional setting is that my body is moving and I am allowing my eyes to wander around and take in different things while I’m meditating.

One scenario where I still sit down in silence to meditate on death is when there is a big decision that I need to make or something that I need to resolve with myself.(more of this in one of the next parts of this guide.)

On-The-Spot Meditation

This type of meditation is pretty much what the name says — a type of meditation that can be done literally anywhere and anytime, and doesn’t have a fixed structure to it.

It will rarely last more than a couple of minutes, and it can be as short as 10–15 seconds.

You can use it to snap yourself out of mindlessly going through your day.

So maybe you are on one of your instagram scrolling sessions, or stuck in a youtube recommendations loop. You are aware that you are not actively searching for a piece of content, nor do you expect something valuable to come up. You are just wasting your time and cannot bring yourself to stop.

Or maybe you are not exactly wasting your time. Maybe you are following your daily schedule, but you are going through the motions. You are disengaged from life. You are there physically, but you are not actually there. Remember the coffee lady self-actualization story?

In both cases, you use a quick, on-the-spot memento mori meditation to bring yourself back into the moment.

"Your time here is limited. Your life could end tomorrow, or it could even end later today. Do you really want to spend your time being disengaged from life?"
(I tell this to myself probably couple of times a week when I’m having a hard time putting my phone down. About a year ago, I was telling this to myself multiple times a day.)

Basically, these on-the-spot meditations can snap you out of being oblivious to the fact that you are alive right now, and that this is the only moment that you can be fully in.

Or, and this is maybe my favorite thing about them, on-the-spot memento mori meditations can be used to get you to take action.

Maybe there is a task that you have to do. Maybe you even want to do it, or you at least want the outcome of completing that task. But you cannot get yourself to do it.

Or maybe you are afraid to take the next step, which you know is necessary.

So, whether you are procrastinating out of pure laziness, or you are hesitating out of fear and insecurity, on the spot meditation can be used.

"Memento Mori. There is no time for procrastination, there is no time for hesitation. Both being lazy and being afraid is natural. But you cannot afford to let those to stop you from taking action."
(An actual meditation I’ve written down for myself and used. Give it a try.)

What I’ve found useful in these situations is having your own memento mori phrase and using it for on-the-spot meditation. One whole part of this guide will be dedicated to explaining the idea behind having your own phrase and how to create it.

Finally, something important about on-the-spot mediation is to address what could be a frequently asked question about it:
"How do I even get to the point of doing this meditation? I am maybe wasting my time on social media, or I’m going through the day without ever being in the moment. But in order to use this meditation to snap out of it, wouldn’t I first need to snap out of it, at least enough so that I’m aware of what I’m doing?"

And my answer would be this:
Let’s not fool ourselves. We are never fully oblivious to the fact that we are wasting our time and our lives. No matter if you are mindlessly scrolling through social media, or wasting your time at work just looking at the spot on the wall, waiting for your shift to be over, there is always at least one moment when you are fully aware of what you are doing. You are fully aware that you are letting your life pass by, one unused moment after another. And then, most people choose to ignore that moment of awareness. I don’t blame them, it’s uncomfortable. But it is up to you to use that moment. And doing memento mori meditation will probably make it even more uncomfortable, at least initially. But so be it. Make wasting your life feel so uncomfortable that you stop wasting it.

Thank you for reading.

Just kidding. Of course I won’t let you leave without a challenge.

If you’ve done at least a couple of sessions of both reading and writing meditation, you are ready to start practicing these next two types.

Do a session of dedicated time meditation in the morning. Start with 5 minutes.

Be intentional about noticing an opportunity to do on-the-spot meditation. Notice yourself wasting your time and don’t ignore it. Don’t give yourself another excuse. Remember the things you read here. Remember the thoughts from your previous meditations. There is no time for you to waste.

Now really, thank you for reading. Talk to you soon.

Click here to read Part 3 of Memento Mori Meditations guide.

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