Grace in Dying: Spiritual Practices in Accompanying the Dying

Within the suffering that arises with loss or dying there are also the seeds of grace. These transitions are often uncomfortable, challenging old patterns and leaving us feeling uncertain, with a heightened sense of vulnerability. At the same time these experiences provide an extraordinary opportunity for growth, true freedom, and the exchange of love and compassion. This workshop will explore ways of utilizing the encounter with loss and death to encourage the movement from tragedy to transformation.

One need not be a spiritual master to attain peace at the End-of-Life. Ordinary people regularly experience transformed consciousness, profound understanding, and deep calm at the time of their death. Each of us is capable of experiencing this sense of fulfillment.

Weaving together moving stories, Buddhist practices, and good common sense developed over 20 years at the bedside, Frank helps us to see that accompanying the dying is much more than providing appropriate medical care. It is a spiritual practice.

He will introduce meditations, contemplative practices, and pragmatic tools that help us to reclaim the spiritual dimensions of dying and foster a peaceful death. These include concentration practices to stabilize the mind & body, ways of cultivating a calm and accepting presence, guided meditations on pain, methods for facilitating life review as an aid to discovering meaning, forgiveness practice, and rituals near and after death.

This workshop is open to all and may be of particular interest to professionals or those who anticipate caring for family members or friends facing life threatening illness.

see less