How To Free Yourself From The Pain Of Attachment and Death: 21 Lamrim Meditations

I really enjoy talking to my clients and recently myself and a client were talking about death and impermanence and the pain of attachment, and he told me about Lamrim, which he followed up by giving me "The New Meditation Handbook" by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso to investigate further, which I very much look forward to when I get moments away from my counselling training course work and work ☺️🙏🏻!

Lamrim is a Tibetan Buddhist system that presents the Buddha’s teachings as a 21-step path for transforming the mind and moving away from fear and attachment-driven living to wisdom, compassion, and liberation. Step 1 is contemplating the fact that our current human life is precious and rare.

Step 2 was the step we talked about, as it tackles death and attachment. This step asks us to meditate on death to help us gradually replace this deceptive thought that we are “not really going to die” with the more truthful awareness: “I may die today.” This meditation on our death and impermanence is designed to overcome the laziness of attachment, which is our strong desire for worldly pleasures that causes us attachment, fear and empty lives and distracts us from liberating ourselves from suffering this in this life and our next life. We need to contemplate and meditate on our death again and again, saying “I may die today” and “I am going to die” until we feel a deep realisation of death, and then we can release ourselves from the “laziness of attachment”.

Attain permanent liberation from the sufferings of death

I recommend doing this meditation 5 to 7 days a week, for 10-20 minutes each time, or as long and often as you can. You can also combine it with the Buddhist Metta meditation that Metta Yoga and Massage was inspired by, and in a nutshell, you meditate on “May I be happy, may those I love, those I am neutral toward, those I struggle with, and all beings be happy, safe, and at ease.” The 21 Lamrim meditations are as follows, if you are interested in understanding more about them and the peace they bring to your life.

21 Lamrim Meditations

1. Our Precious Human Life – Reflect on the rarity and value of being human.

2. Death and Impermanence – Contemplate that life is short and uncertain.

3. The Danger of Lower Rebirth – Reflect on the suffering of less fortunate rebirths.

4. Taking Refuge – Rely upon the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

5. Karma: Actions and Their Effects – Understand cause and effect.

6. Renunciation for Samsara – Develop a wish to be free from cyclic existence.

7. Developing Equanimity – Treat all beings impartially.

8. All Living Beings Are Our Mothers – Recognise the kindness of others.

9. Remembering the Kindness of Living Beings – Cultivate gratitude.

10. Equalising Self and Others – Reduce self-cherishing.

11. The Disadvantages of Self-Cherishing – See how self-centredness harms us and others.

12. The Advantages of Cherishing Others – Appreciate the benefits of caring for others.

13. Exchanging Self with Others – Deepen empathy and compassion.

14. Great Compassion – Develop strong concern for the suffering of all beings.

15. Taking – Take on the suffering of others (similar to Tonglen).

16. Wishing Love (Loving-Kindness) – Radiate goodwill and friendship.

17. Giving – Cultivate generosity and kindness.

18. Bodhichitta – Develop the mind of enlightenment to help all beings.

19. Tranquil Abiding (Shamatha) – Train a calm, stable, concentrated mind.

20. Superior Seeing (Vipashyana) – Develop insight into reality and emptiness.

21. Relying Upon a Spiritual Guide – Strengthen guidance and support for your practice.

Each step is a meditation topic that can be approached as analytical/reflective (for example, thinking deeply about death); contemplative (for example, holding a visualisation or feeling, such as gratitude); or concentration/insight (for example, developing wisdom, such as vipashyana).

Benefits From Practising All 21 Lamrim Meditations

• Greater motivation and clarity in life (because you reflect on impermanence, causality, and values).

• Reduced attachment and fear, increasing peace of mind.

• Cultivation of compassion, altruism, and emotional balance.

• Development of concentration and insight, leading to calmer, clearer mind states.

• A systematic path toward deep spiritual transformation rather than scattered meditation topics.

We have all we need without the outside noise, and if we simply access it, we increase the peace and contentment of our lives and the world tenfold. Have a blessed day.