How Does Buddhism Help Us Accept Mortality?

One aim of Buddhism is to help us accept our mortality and so come to terms with death. We'll look at how his mortality was the Buddha's concern when he began his search, how coming to terms with mortality functions in various forms of deep meditation practice, and even how it plays a central role in mindfulness. Finally we will compare such practices to the concept of "exposure therapy" found in contemporary psychology. 🧡 If you find this material useful, check out my Patreon page and get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: https://www.patreon.com/dougsseculardharma 🧡 You can also make donations through: https://paypal.me/dougsdharma 📙 Check out my book, A Handbook of Early Buddhist Wisdom, with a Foreword by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi: https://books2read.com/buddhisthandbook ☸️ Free mini-course at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org. 🎙Check out my podcast with Jon Aaron, Diggin' the Dharma: https://digginthedharma.com/ ✅ Videos recommended: Playlist on deep states of meditative absorption in early Buddhism: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0akoU_OszRiHHGTYuHmFs3pkjbpzzWtB ✅ Books mentioned: Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation — https://amzn.to/48ZanLM Patrick Olivelle (trans.) The Early Upaniṣads — https://amzn.to/42Jpyqf ✅ Suttas mentioned: https://suttacentral.net/mn26/en/sujato (The Noble Search) https://suttacentral.net/sn45.8/en/sujato https://suttacentral.net/mn39/en/sujato https://suttacentral.net/mn50/en/sujato https://suttacentral.net/mn10/en/sujato https://suttacentral.net/an10.72/en/sujato (Thorns) ✅ Other references: https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/uddaka-ramaputta-and-the-upanishads/28890 https://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/wp-content/uploads/10.13-Maha-Assapura-S-m39-piya.pdf https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/exposure-therapy Webpage: https://www.dougsdharma.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onlinedharmainstitute/ Mastodon: https://mindly.social/@dougsdharma Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dougsdharma/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@dougsdharma Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dougsdharma.bsky.social Thumbnail image courtesy the Metropolitan Museum: Buddha, 3rd c. CE Andhra Pradesh, India. ❤️ Thanks to Patreon Patrons: Anonymous (3) John Oborne DunJing Jimmy Maa Debbie Mattison Steve H. Ron Peat Michael S. Kearns Anne Matthew Smith Shantha Wengappuli Karma_CAC Jorge Seguel Christopher Apostolof GailJM David Bell T Pham VCR Upayadhi Andi and Erik ATGuerrero686 Michael Scherrer khobe schofield Alex Perdomo Benji Forsyth Blaze Way Sonny Flink Steve Marlor Joy L Lee Andrew Tom Anthony Tucker Karlee R Ethan M Billy in Singapore Olivia Otter Carl Lennartson xiao mao Jeff Harvey Andrew Ingrouille Kenneth Grandchamp Rene Gariepy Russell Needham Smoggyrob Mac Roja Bernardo Clémence Ortega Douville Kwan Alex Scott Johnston Richard J Beninger Nathanael O. Arnquist SaturnianMandala Trin P Letesa Isler Dorien Izel Robert Paterson Jake Tobiason Louvenia Ortega Steve S. Richard Rappuhn Sarah Kress John Aaron Paul Niklewski Kong Ing Kai Dave Gorman rhys reed Osanda Wijeratne Scarlett Farrow BJ - RetreaTours™ Michael Lefsky Matthieu Tregnier Roland Harris 00:00 Intro 00:42 Bodhisatta’s “noble search” 02:17 The formless attainments 05:43 The fourth jhāna 09:02 The cessation of perception and feeling 10:24 Mindfulness meditation and mortality 12:30 Psychological “exposure therapy” 13:35 Nirvana and death: the goal Note: as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon links are affiliate links where I will earn a very small commission on purchases you make, at no additional cost to you. This goes a tiny way towards defraying the costs of making these videos. Thank you!