Zen Hospice Audio Teachings

Preparing: In Part I, we examine our own responses to the impermanent nature of things and the precarious nature of life.  We also come to appreciate its preciousness. Frank Ostaseski shares Zen Hospice Project’s Five Precepts of Hospice Care to develop practical presence at the bedside. This section ends with a guided meditation using the Five Precepts.

Serving: Part II examines the mutuality of service and the crucial difference between helping and serving. We see how the true definition of compassion — “suffering with others” — allows us to serve from our whole self and leaves us with a feeling of profound gratitude. Frank discusses ways to provide spiritual support that can provide a return to wholeness and healing even though there may be no cure. This section includes a powerful Forgiveness Meditation.

Grieving: In Part III, we see how grief is the common ground of our humanity and are encouraged to accept each stage of grief.  Frank navigates an intimate walk across the landscape of grieving, giving us the confidence to develop a relationship with it rather than “getting over it’’ or resisting it. In a guided meditation on the loss of a loved one, we explore how healing is possible by moving toward suffering and surrendering to grief with openness.

Listen to a clip from 'Preparing'

BEING A COMPASSIONATE COMPANION
Teachings, stories and practical wisdom for those accompanying someone who is dying – An intimate conversation with Frank Ostaseski.
Audio CD, 3 hours

Product Description
Being in the presence of dying is an intimate and intense experience challenging our most basic beliefs and causing us to face our own relationships with death.  It is a journey of continuous discovery requiring courage, flexibility, risk, and forgiveness.  Taken as a practice of awareness, it can reveal both our deep clinging and our capacity to embrace another person’s suffering as our own.

There are no techniques or formulas that apply to every situation, for each person is unlike any other. From over 20 years of experience, Zen Hospice Project has gathered practices, reminders, and stories that have proven to be very useful in the journey of a Compassionate Companion.

The 3-part audio series is structured on the themes of preparing, serving, and grieving. In an intimate conversational style, Frank shares deeply moving stories from 20 years of caring for the dying. He draws on Buddhist teachings that have informed this work and gives the listener practical tools.

These teachings are profoundly useful to those accompanying someone facing death, those coming to terms with loss, and to anyone wishing to open fully to life.

Price: $39.95 (plus shipping & handling)

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Preparing: In Part I, we examine our own responses to the impermanent nature of things and the precarious nature of life.  We also come to appreciate its preciousness. Frank Ostaseski shares Zen Hospice Project’s Five Precepts of Hospice Care to develop practical presence at the bedside. This section ends with a guided meditation using the Five Precepts.

Serving: Part II examines the mutuality of service and the crucial difference between helping and serving. We see how the true definition of compassion — “suffering with others” — allows us to serve from our whole self and leaves us with a feeling of profound gratitude. Frank discusses ways to provide spiritual support that can provide a return to wholeness and healing even though there may be no cure. This section includes a powerful Forgiveness Meditation.

Grieving: In Part III, we see how grief is the common ground of our humanity and are encouraged to accept each stage of grief.  Frank navigates an intimate walk across the landscape of grieving, giving us the confidence to develop a relationship with it rather than “getting over it’’ or resisting it. In a guided meditation on the loss of a loved one, we explore how healing is possible by moving toward suffering and surrendering to grief with openness.

Listen to a clip from 'Preparing'

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