Course Offering:
What I’ve Learned About Life from Talking About Death
Course Description:
Most of us are profoundly unprepared when death strikes our loved ones; we are similarly paralyzed by the prospect of our own deaths.
Death is a fact. Our challenge is to figure out how to deal with it, because it is never a good plan to struggle against or deny reality. The more we struggle against death, the more resentment we have and the more we suffer. We take a painful situation and through our struggles add a whole new layer of pain to it.
By means of meditation and by developing an ongoing awareness of death, we can change our relationship with death and thereby change our relationship with life. We can see that death is not just something that pops up at the end of life, but is inseparably linked with our life moment to moment, from the beginning to the end. We can see that death is not just a final teacher. It is available to teach us here and now.
This is a topic too seldom discussed. Using gentleness and humor, handouts to stimulate our thinking, and a game called HELLO, we will discuss a wide range of topics relevant to living and dying. (Please note: the class is not designed for those who may have experienced a recent loss and are looking for a grief group.)
How we think about death matters. It affects how we live our life and how we relate to one another.
Recommended reading:
How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, by Sherwin Nuland
When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
Most of us are profoundly unprepared when death strikes our loved ones; we are similarly paralyzed by the prospect of our own deaths.
Death is a fact. Our challenge is to figure out how to deal with it, because it is never a good plan to struggle against or deny reality. The more we struggle against death, the more resentment we have and the more we suffer. We take a painful situation and through our struggles add a whole new layer of pain to it.
By means of meditation and by developing an ongoing awareness of death, we can change our relationship with death and thereby change our relationship with life. We can see that death is not just something that pops up at the end of life, but is inseparably linked with our life moment to moment, from the beginning to the end. We can see that death is not just a final teacher. It is available to teach us here and now.
This is a topic too seldom discussed. Using gentleness and humor, handouts to stimulate our thinking, and a game called HELLO, we will discuss a wide range of topics relevant to living and dying. (Please note: the class is not designed for those who may have experienced a recent loss and are looking for a grief group.)
How we think about death matters. It affects how we live our life and how we relate to one another.
Recommended reading:
How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, by Sherwin Nuland
When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi