Befriending Mortality: Living an Awakened Life through Mindfulness of Death
With Nikki Mirghafori
March 31 - April 4, 2025
In this transformative workshop, you will explore Maranasati, mindfulness of death, a profound practice for embracing life’s natural cycles of birth and death with greater aliveness, presence, and fearlessness. By facing impermanence directly, you can open your heart to live with deeper intention, presence, and less fear, freeing yourself to embrace life in its fullest expression.
Guided sitting and walking meditations will be at the heart of our time together to help us anchor into the body, quiet the mind, and discover peace amid the ever-changing nature of life. We’ll create spaciousness for silence, allowing insights to emerge naturally. Contemplative practices will guide us as we reflect on powerful meditative inquiries. Reflective writing, such as crafting your own obituary, will offer deeper self-exploration. Creative exercises, like haiku writing, will provide a way to express these insights through art, transforming our contemplation into beauty.
Through small group inquiry, we will share and deeply listen to one another’s reflections, fostering a supportive community connected by our shared humanity. We’ll practice letting go, finding ease with the unknown, and addressing the heart’s unfinished business. As we cultivate metta (loving-kindness), we soften our fears and grief with compassion, gradually transforming them into equanimity and acceptance.
Join us in this exploration of mortality to see death as a wise teacher and life as an opportunity for authenticity, love, and presence. This workshop is open to anyone ready to deepen their connection with mortality and embrace life and death with an open heart.
About the Leader
Nikki Mirghafori
Nikki Mirghafori, PhD, is an empowered Buddhist teacher, Stanford University-trained compassion cultivation instructor, former Berkeley academic, artificial intelligence scientist, start-up advisor and author. She serves on the Teachers Council and the Board of Directors at Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Center. www.NikkiMirghafori.com
Learn more about Nikki MirghaforiCategories : Mindfulness & Spirituality, Psychology & Self-Awareness