The Art of Dying

by S.N. Goenka, Virginia Hamilton (Editor)

Weaving together material from many sources, this collection provides a context for understanding death—whether our own or a loved one's—and experiencing it with awareness and equanimity. It features passages from the Pali texts, writings of S. N. Goenka, poems, theoretical expositions, a question-and-answer section, and compelling essays by or about meditators confronting the end of life. With humility, tenderness, and often a smile, they learn to accept their own impermanence, suffering, and nonself. Much of this material was collected from the archives of the International Vipassana Newsletter .

Genres: Buddhism, Meditation, Spirituality, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Eastern Philosophy, Death

174 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Ekta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very helpful because it talks of the ones fear I have - dying of a painfully dreadful disease. Beautiful stories of how meditators approached their death even in the face of dreadful diseases. The only type of story I would add is that of a family facing a disease like Alzheimer's or any other dementia because in those conditions, one loses the brain - the one thing that allows us to focus on the impermanence. Just curious how meditators live through something like that.

[Nina Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book after finishing my first vipassana. The book contains stories of long time vipassana mediators/their loved ones experiencing death.

[Hina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book on the last day of a 10-day Vipassana course and am so very glad I did. It nicely ties up everything you learn about the technique and helps address some of the scary and difficult questions about death and the impermanence of existence. There are interviews and essays from Vipassana meditators in the book about how they dealt with the death of loved ones and came to terms with their own terminal cancers and found refuge and peace through meditation. A powerful book that moved me to tears many times while reading.

[Arunothia Marappan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could, I would give a 5+ rating to this treasure! I’m so blessed to have come in contact with Vipassana as taught by S.N Goenka Ji, so blessed that I keep trying to keep up my practice and so blessed that so many people are there to help me on this journey. Highly recommend this book to all Vipassana practitioners!

Reference: Dhamma.org

[Ashok Krishna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential read in current chaotic times!

Will share the full review shortly.

[Sadhna H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book through attending a death cafe in my community. I took a Vipassana meditation course a few months prior, so it felt like a bit of fate that this book found its way to me through a stranger.

The book contains accounts of vipassana meditators facing terminal illness, as well as reflections from family members navigating their grief of losing a loved one.

We are always in the process of dying, and by remaining in the present through observation and an embodied understanding of impermanence, suffering begins to loosen its grip. It’s not about how to avoid pain, but more so about meeting it with awareness, resulting in acceptance.

[giselayvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of stories, poems, and articles related to death and the art of dying. It was thoughtfuly put together, but not powerful or insightful. It was a nice reminder to continue practicing.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully set of inspirational stories on how people are able to face dire situations with calm and poise.

[Karlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prepare to die. Accepting death. Your own and that of others.

Fine for the secularly minded too. Actually richer, I found, than the sister volume The Art of Living.

Vipassana essential imho.

[Lia D'Amico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lindo livro sobre viver o Dhamma por meio do Vipassana

[Carlos Oliveira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprei esse livro após meu segundo curso de meditação Vipassana em Santana de Parnaíba/SP Quantas estórias e sabedoria contida nos relatos! Enfrentar a morte com a consciência de anicca e equanimidade é um desafio e tanto, mas me senti motivado a continuar minha prática para que possa cultivar tais qualidades em minha vida e na morte.

[Meng Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful stories about how vipassana practice helps one when death comes.

[Durgesh Deep · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has inspirational stories & interviews of Vipassana meditation practitioners who were going through terminal illness. How through the help of continued Vipassana practice, they calmly dealt with death. How their loved ones dealt with the situation of going to lose their family member soon. This book also contains some of the important concepts that are taught in 10 day Vipassana meditation course. This would be beneficial to both practitioners & non-practitioners and might also motivate non-practitioners to take up 10 day vipassana course.

[Kristie Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book on Vipassana and Facing the end of life

This book contains excerpts from Goenkaji and articles from this involved in his Vipassana institute. Most of the articles were.written by people and were terminally ill. They write about their illness and fears head on in a very calm manner. Later in the book, excerpts from retreats and talks by Goenkaji, help to.better define vipassana and how to do and it's benefits. Highly recommended for people who are struggling with loss and grief and for those that want to learn more about vipassana.

[Gaurav]

Highlight (blue) - Page 88
You can have a little bit of pain and it seems really intense, especially if there’s a lot of negativity around. Or you can have a great deal of pain, but because the positive vibrations are so strong you don’t feel it.
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“all the legs of the tripod support each other.”
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Continuity of practice is the secret of success. When it is said that you should be continuously aware, it means that you must be aware with wisdom of sensations in the body, where you really experience things arising and passing away. This awareness of impermanence is what purifies your mind—the awareness of the sensations arising, passing. Intellectualizing this truth will not help. You may understand: “Everything that arises sooner or later passes away. Anyone who takes birth sooner or later dies. This is anicca.” You might understand this correctly but you are not experiencing it. It is your own personal experience that will help you purify your mind and liberate you from your miseries. The word for “experience” used in India at the time of the Buddha was vedanā, feeling by experiencing, not just by intellectualization. And this is possible only when sensations are felt in the body. Anicca must be experienced. If you are not experiencing it, it is merely a theory, and the Buddha was not interested in theories. Even before the Buddha, and at the time of the Buddha, there were teachers who taught that the entire universe is in flux, anicca—this was not new. What was new from the Buddha was the experience of anicca; and when you experience it within the framework of your own body, you have started working at the deepest level of your mind.
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When you start realizing the fact that even the most pleasant sensations you experience are dukkha (suffering), then you are coming nearer to liberation.
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Anything that arises in the mind turns into matter, into a sensation in the material field. This was the Buddha’s discovery. People forgot this truth, which can only be understood through proper practice.
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when passion or fear arises, a particular type of biochemical substance starts flowing in the blood. A vicious circle starts that keeps repeating itself. There is a flow, an intoxication, at the depth of the mind. Out of ignorance we get intoxicated by this particular biochemical flow. Although it makes us miserable, yet we are intoxicated; we want it again and again. So we keep on generating anger upon anger, passion upon passion, and fear upon fear. We become intoxicated by whatever impurity we generate in our minds. If we say that someone is addicted to alcohol or drugs, this is actually untrue. No one is addicted to alcohol or drugs. The truth is that one is addicted to the sensations that are produced by the alcohol or drugs.
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There can’t be world peace just because we want world peace—“I am agitating for world peace; therefore it should occur.” This doesn’t happen. We can’t agitate for peace. When we are agitated, we lose our own peacefulness. So, no agitation! Purify your mind; then every action you take will add peace to the universe. Purify your mind. This is how you can help society; this is how you can stop harming others and start helping them. When you work for your own liberation, you will find that you have also started helping others to come out of their misery. One individual becomes several individuals—a slow widening of the circle. There is no magic, no miracle. Work for your own peace, and you will find that you have started making the atmosphere around you more peaceful—provided you work properly.
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A good solution; it avoids both extremes—suppression and expression. Burying the negativity in the unconscious will not eradicate it, and allowing it to manifest as unwholesome physical or vocal actions will only create more problems. But if you just observe, then the defilement passes away and you are free of it.
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This mental-physical phenomenon is like a coin with two sides. On one side are the thoughts and emotions arising in the mind; on the other side are the respiration and sensations in the body. Any thoughts or emotions, any mental impurities that arise manifest themselves in the breath and the sensations of that moment. Thus, by observing the respiration or the sensations, we are in fact observing mental impurities. Instead of running away from the problem, we are facing reality as it is. As a result, we discover that these impurities lose their strength; they no longer overpower us as they did in the past.
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Mettā is not prayer, nor is it the hope that an outside agency will help. On the contrary, it is a dynamic process producing a supportive atmosphere in which others can act to help themselves.
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Vipassana ultimately has a dual function: to bring us happiness by purifying our minds, and to help us foster the happiness of others by preparing us to practice mettā. What, after all, is the purpose of freeing ourselves of negativity and egotism unless we share these benefits with others? In a retreat we temporarily cut ourselves off from the world in order to return and share with others what we have gained in solitude. These two aspects of the practice of Vipassana are inseparable.

[Steven Deobald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly accessible, this book would make a good companion for anyone's meditation practice — but it would also make a good companion for anyone who has gone through, or is currently going through, the loss of a loved one. Most of the stories and interviews are with vipassana meditators who have only been meditating a short while (5 to 10 years) and found themselves with terminal cancer at a relatively young age. Each meditator has a very different story to tell and they all seem to relate to death quite differently, which was interesting (and surprising) and made reading each of their interviews worthwhile.

Goenkaji's first essay will be a bit impenetrable for someone who has never meditated before, and it appears early in the book. For that reason, it's unlikely that many non-meditators will finish this book. It's a beautifully-arranged series of essays and interviews, though, and hopefully a book we'll see floating around.

[Prashant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profound meditations and testimonials of people who came close to their own or their loved ones death.

A death may not always be a real one, metaphorically we all die many times in our lives, when our older self isn't working for us anymore, and we want to reborn with newly aquired insights.

"In retrospect, miseries of this mind seem the most valuable, since it was due to that unbearable pain the search for a cure began. And slowly, ever so slowly, came the understanding the disease is only in the mind."

[Phil Calandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Art of Dying" is about the technique of Vipassana Meditation and how it enables the practitioner to approach life and, specifically, the death experience with equanimity and awareness. The book includes the writings of S.N. Goenka, compelling and uplifting about meditators who are confronting the end of life and who have succeeded in accepting their own suffering with humility and composure. I would highly recommend this book.

[Lisha Doucet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book while serving a vipassana course. It was in the dhamma library. The stories of people's experience with death were so well told and it was an inspiration. I especially found the practice of death meditation to be quite compelling. I recommended it to all my fellow servers.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are in the depths of fear of death or if someone you care about it, this is probably a wonderful companion. Outside of that, it can feel heavier on tradition than you might like. The last couple chapters are universal and great short talks about Vipassana.

[Pratibha Baveja · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is best suited for individuals who are practicing Vipassana meditation, as it contains stories that are closely tied to the nuances of this technique. Those unfamiliar with Vipassana may find it challenging to fully grasp the themes that are presented.

[Prakash Rajendran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its not fair to rate this book. The interviews were numbing!

[Arun Grover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life, as understood by Vipassna Meditators. Includes real life stories/experiences of Vipassna meditators as they face terminal illness and death, fearlessly.

[Gabriele · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were wonderful, other parts of the book not so much.

[Shivam Patil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books which one have to read in this lifetime ...This is the previous books...

[Manos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Α truly wonderful book, perhaps will make more sense to someone who's competed the 10d Vipassana course or is familiar with the basics of Buddhist philosophy.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds us the that life is precious and death is to also be lived well

[Arthur e Luísa · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Não suprima um sentimento negativo. Observe ele até que ele seja recorrente e perca a força. Só assim você irá superá-lo”

[Dulini · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good to learn the experiences of vipassana practitioners. It would have been better if there were more details about how the vipassana meditation is practiced.

[Sahithi Maley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Topics covered from the 10 days course. Heartbreaking interviews of practitioners facing imminent death and how vipassana is helping them. Felt repetitive and wishy washy.

In case the concept of death and impermanence aren’t integrated this book can be quite triggering