Maraṇasati

Later Buddhist schools have expanded the meaning of 'maranasati' to include various visualization and contemplation techniques to meditate on the nature of death.

The cultivation of Maranasati is said to be conducive to right effort, and also helpful in developing a sense of spiritual urgency (Saṃvega) and renunciation (Nekkhamma).

[1] Buddhist monasteries such as Wat Pah Nanachat will often have human skeletons on display in the meditation hall.

According to the Maranassati Sutta, a monk should reflect on the many possibilities which could bring him to death, and then turn his thoughts to the unskillful mental qualities he has yet to abandon.

This is the theme of the popular Great Liberation through hearing during the intermediate state (Tibetan Book of the Dead).

Prince Siddhattha sees the three signs, an old man, a sick man and a corpse, that lead to his renunciation of secular life. From a Konbaung Burmese illustration
Asubha Contemplation Illustration
Illustration of mindfulness of death using corpses in a charnel ground , a subset of mindfulness of the body, the first satipatthana . From an early-20th-century manuscript found in Chaiya District , Surat Thani Province , Thailand . [ 4 ]
Illustration of a Tibetan Cham dance of skeleton spirits , who serve as a reminder of the presence of death