Death & Mortality Contemplation

Mortality awareness is a contemplative practice across most traditions: memento mori (Stoic / Christian), maranasati (Buddhist), chevra kadisha / shiva (Jewish), Day of the Dead (cross-tradition Catholic), Bardo (Tibetan). The 2010s-2020s produced a small wave of mortality-aware apps and conversation tools. Sister practices: end-of-life-planning (advance directives), grief support, and the contemplative-practice end of "remember you must die."

Sister sections: Stoicism, Buddhist Traditions & Apps, Christian Apps, Jewish Apps & Sefaria, Mental Health Journaling, Mental Health Therapy Platforms, Sacred Reading, Sangha & Community, Gratitude Practice.

Memento mori apps

• ★ WeCroak — paid (~$2.99 one-time); "You are going to die" notifications 5 times a day at random; Bhutanese-folk-saying inspired; minimalist; one of the cleanest contemplative apps made.
  • https://www.wecroak.com/
• Memento Mori (various) — free + paid; week-grid life-visualizers ("you have ~4,000 weeks if you live to 80"); inspired by Tim Urban's Wait But Why and Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks.
• Mortality (apps) — free / paid; daily death reminders Stoic-flavored.
• Daily Stoic — paid + free; includes memento mori prompts; see Stoicism.

Death-conversation tools

• ★ Death Over Dinner — free; conversation-prompt framework for hosting end-of-life conversations with friends / family; Michael Hebb's project.
  • https://deathoverdinner.org/
• Hello (a game about loss) — paid (~$30); card game; structured family conversation about what you want at end of life; Common Practice / Hebb-adjacent.
• The Conversation Project — free; advance-care-planning conversation guides; IHI initiative.
• End Well / Reimagine — free + paid events; cross-tradition end-of-life community / conferences.

Advance directives / planning

• ★ Five Wishes — paid (~$5 print or PDF); legally valid in most US states; the most-used consumer advance-directive document; non-religious-friendly framing.
  • https://www.fivewishes.org/
• MyDirectives — free + paid; digital advance-directive storage; emergency-record-accessible.
• POLST / MOLST — state forms; medical orders for end-of-life care.
• State-specific advance directives — free; available from each state's bar association or department of health.
• Will / estate planning: not strictly contemplative but adjacent; Trust & Will / FreeWill (free for nonprofit-supported); see local attorney for complex estates.

Buddhist (maranasati / corpse contemplations)

• Maranasati: traditional 9-stage corpse contemplation in Theravada; described in the Visuddhimagga; not for every meditator (intense imagery).
• Tibetan Bardo Thödol (Tibetan Book of the Dead) — public domain (older translations); paid (modern translations); Robert Thurman's translation widely used.
• Frank Ostaseski — The Five Invitations — paid; Zen Hospice Project founder; lay teaching for end-of-life.
• Joan Halifax — Being with Dying — paid; Upaya Zen Center; chaplaincy training.

Christian / Catholic

• ★ Memento mori (Catholic tradition) — long contemplative tradition; Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble's Memento Mori journals (paid) brought the practice to a wider audience 2018+.
• Ars moriendi (medieval) — public-domain texts on the "good death."
• Hospice chaplaincy resources — local diocese; free.
• Pray as You Go sometimes addresses mortality; see Sacred Reading.

Jewish

• Chevra Kadisha — sacred burial society; community-tradition.
• Yahrzeit (annual death-anniversary observance) — built into Hebcal and Chabad.org calendar apps; see Jewish Apps & Sefaria.
• Shiva — 7-day mourning practice; community-supported.
• Mourning resources: My Jewish Learning, Sefaria's mourning section.

Islamic

• Janazah (funeral) prayer — community ritual.
• Visitation of graves (ziyarat al-qubur) — recommended Sunni practice; also discussed across traditions.
• Qur'anic verses on death — recited at funerals; Surah Yasin commonly recited near death.

Grief support

• Modern Loss — free + paid; community / writing about loss.
• What's Your Grief — free; resources.
• The Dinner Party — free; dinner-conversation peer support for 20-40-somethings who've lost a parent / partner.
• Refuge in Grief (Megan Devine) — paid + free; It's OK That You're Not OK.
• Therapist-led grief: see Mental Health Therapy Platforms.
• Grief.com (David Kessler) — paid + free.
• HopeAgain (Cruse, UK) — free; UK grief support.

Hospice / palliative

• Hospice Foundation of America — free resources.
• Center to Advance Palliative Care — free.
• Death Doula training: INELDA, End-of-Life Doula Association — paid.
• Nicholas Nicholas's On Death and Dying (Kübler-Ross) — paid book; classic.
• Atul Gawande's Being Mortal — paid book; recommended.
• B.J. Miller's A Beginner's Guide to the End — paid book.

Books / texts (cross-tradition)

• Stephen Levine — Who Dies? — paid; cross-tradition.
• Ram Dass — Still Here — paid; aging + dying.
• Ernest Becker — The Denial of Death — paid; classic philosophy.
• Atul Gawande — Being Mortal — paid.
• Kathryn Mannix — With the End in Mind — paid; UK palliative-care doctor.
• Caitlin Doughty — Smoke Gets in Your Eyes — paid; mortician's view.

Cost / license honesty

• Death Over Dinner / The Conversation Project / What's Your Grief / The Dinner Party — free.
• WeCroak — ~$3 one-time.
• Five Wishes — ~$5 PDF.
• Hello game — ~$30 (one-time).
• Books — paid (~$15-25 each).
• Doula training programs — paid ($600-2000).

Practical guidance

• Have an advance directive. Five Wishes is the easy entry. Communicate with whoever would be your surrogate.
• Have the conversation now. Death Over Dinner gives you a structure.
• Don't binge mortality content. Memento mori is a daily small practice, not a marathon.
• WeCroak's "5 times a day" cadence works. A glance, a breath, then back to the day.
• Grief is not a problem to fix. Most resources emphasize accompaniment over solution.

Honest limits

• App-based mortality contemplation is at most 10% of the practice. Sitting with someone dying is the rest.
• Cultural avoidance of death in much of modern Western culture means most apps lean novelty-shape; treat with discernment.
• Some contemplations are intense (Buddhist 9-stage corpse contemplation; Tibetan Bardo). Approach with a teacher and / or a stable foundation, not as light reading.
• Grief therapy is real therapy. If grief is debilitating, see a clinician.

Pick this if…

• Daily mortality reminder: WeCroak.
• Want a family conversation tool: Death Over Dinner or Hello.
• Need an advance directive: Five Wishes.
• Stoic memento mori practice: Daily Stoic + Marcus Aurelius daily passage.
• Catholic memento mori: Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble's journals.
• Buddhist maranasati: Frank Ostaseski's The Five Invitations.
• Active grief: local grief group + therapist + Modern Loss community.
• Want one good book: Atul Gawande's Being Mortal.