Podcasts about zen hospice

How can we use our body to reconnect with the present moment?John Martin gently guides us into the practice of returning to the body as a doorway to presence. He shares how disconnection from the body often means disconnection from our hearts, leading to mind-wandering or emotional reactivity. He reminds us of the Buddha's wisdom—that the body is a precious opportunity for awakening—and emphasizes the importance of repeatedly coming back with kindness, not judgment.John shares a powerful insight into his personal journey with chronic physical pain. Rather than resisting, he learned to meet pain with care and curiosity, discovering layers of tension, fear, and anger— ultimately achieving peace through non-reactivity.His technique of holding 10-20% of attention on the breath during activities like watching ballet shows how even partial presence can deepen joy.______________John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an ongoing weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer, including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis and seven years with the Zen Hospice project.Find his upcoming events at: https://calendar.spiritrock.org/event-speaker/john-martin/ ______________ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Can death be portrayed as beautiful? In this episode, we share the joy of talking with Wendy MacNaughton (artist, author, graphic journalist) and Frank Ostaseski (Buddhist teacher, author, founder of the Metta Institute and Zen Hospice Project) about using drawings and images as tools for creating human connections and processing death and dying. You may know Wendy as the talented artist behind Meanwhile in San Francisco or Salt Fat Acid Heat. Our focus today, however, was on her most recently published book titled How to Say Goodbye. This beautiful book began as a very personal project for Wendy while she was the artist-in-residence at Zen Hospice. As BJ MIller writes in the foreword, “May this book be a portal -- a way for us to move beyond the unwise territory of trying to ‘do it right' and into the transcendent terrain of noticing what we can notice, loving who we love, and letting death -- like life --surprise us with its ineffable beauty.” Some highlights from our conversation:   The role of art in humanizing the dying process.  How the act of drawing can help us sloooow down, pay attention to the people and world around us, and ultimately let go…  The possibility of incorporating drawings in research and even clinical care.  The wisdom and experiences of hospice caregivers (who are often underpaid and undervalued). How to use the “Five Things” as a framework for a “conversation of love, respect, and closure” with someone who is dying. And finally, Wendy offers a drawing lesson and ONE-MINUTE drawing assignment to help us (and our listeners) be more present and connect with one another. You can read more about this blind contour exercise from Wendy's DrawTogether Strangers project. The rules are really quite simple:  Find another person. Sit down and draw each other for only one minute. NEVER lift up your pen/pencil (draw with a continuous line)  NEVER look down at your paper That's it! While the creative process is what truly matters, we think that the outcome is guaranteed to be awesome and definitely worth sharing. We invite you to post your drawings on twitter and tag us @GeriPalBlog! Happy listening and drawing, Lingsheng @lingshengli  Additional info:  For weekly lessons on drawing and the art of paying attention from Wendy, you can subscribe to her Substack DrawTogether with WendyMac and join the Grown-Ups Table (GUT)!  To learn more about Frank's teaching and philosophy on end-of-life care, read his book The Five Invitations   

Send us a Text Message.Welcome everyone to this very special episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast. As most of you listening to my show are cops, first responders, or someone who writes stories about first responders, I thought this episode would be extremely useful to you all. We all have dealt with, or are still dealing with, a high volume of death. Sometimes we don't deal with it at all. But I guarantee, it will come back to haunt us. So today on the show I have a very special guest, Dr. BJ Miller.Dr. Miller was the executive director of San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project from 2011 to 2016. He's the co-author, with Shoshana Berger, of the book "A Beginner's Guide To The End: Practical Advice For Living Life And Facing Death." Dr. Miller is also known for his 2015 TED Talk, "What Really Matters at the End of Life". Miller has been on the teaching faculty at UCSF School of Medicine since 2007. Dr. Miller is no stranger to death, coming very close to himself by being electrocuted with 11,000 volts that resulted in several months in a burn unit, and eventually losing both legs and his left arm. Dr. Miller is also the co-founder of Mettle Health, an organization that provides personalized, holistic consultations for any patient or caregiver who needs help navigating the practical, emotional, and existential issues that come with serious illness and disability.Dr. Miller is one of the most inspirational and knowledgeable persons I have ever spoken to regarding death, and life.In today's episode, we discuss:·      Clinton Eastwood quote from the movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales. “Death is easy for us; it's living that's tough.”·      My first time hearing Dr. Miller on the Tim Ferriss show back in 2016.·      Experiences with ghosts or the presence of a person after their death.·      The beauty of the mundane of death.·      Dr. Miller's unexplainable synchronicity with his patients.·      The difference between palliative care, end-of-life care, and hospice.·      When is it time to stop treatment and what do you do when a loved one pushes back against that?·      Visions or conversations with dead relatives? Sebastian Younger's new book, In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife on the James Altucher podcast.·      Assisted suicide or assisted dying.·      The role of child life specialists when helping children with death.·      Regrets at the end of life.                 The Netflix documentary featuring Dr. Miller, End Game.Visit BJ at Mettle Health.Watch BJ's TedTalk.Check out the new Cops and Writers YouTube channel!Check out Field Training (Brew City Blues Book 1)!!Enjoy the Cops and Writers book series.Please visit the Cops and Writers website. The Breakfast Jury by Ken Humphrey. Pick it up today at http://kenhumphrey.comSupport the Show.

How can we cultivate an undefended heart that is open and caring? John Martin shares that the true nature of our heart is inherently pure and loving. However, we need to practice to cultivate this purity. Some of the practices he shares include:Being aware of our intentions.Using metta phrases.Radiating metta.______________ John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an ongoing weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice project.Find his upcoming events at: https://calendar.spiritrock.org/event-speaker/john-martin/ Support the Show.______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

This episode is a two-for-one, and that's because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I've curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #298 "Dr. Gabor Maté — New Paradigms, Ayahuasca, and Redefining Addiction" and episode #153 "The Man Who Studied 1,000 Deaths to Learn How to Live."Please enjoy!Sponsors:Vuori Clothing high-quality performance apparel: https://vuoriclothing.com/tim (20% off your first purchase)Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business: https://shopify.com/tim (one-dollar-per-month trial period)LinkedIn Ads marketing platform with 1B+ users: https://linkedin.com/TFS (free $100 LinkedIn ad credit for your first campaign)Timestamps:[05:37] Notes about this supercombo format.[06:57] Enter Gabor Maté.[07:22] Compassionate inquiry and trauma vs. traumatic.[11:06] Self-reconnection resources.[14:40] How Gabor benefits from yoga.[16:27] Gabor's thoughts on the therapeutic value of psychedelics.[18:14] What's been revealed by Gabor's experiences with ayahuasca?[25:32] Essential intention.[26:30] We don't respond to what happens, but to our perception of what happens.[32:48] Enter BJ Miller.[33:07] What does BJ do?[35:32] What does the first meeting look like for a new patient at the Zen Hospice Project?[37:18] Defining palliative care.[40:54] What happens when a patient dies in Zen Hospice compared to a regular hospital?[45:03] How many deaths has BJ experienced?[45:42] What has observing hundreds of deaths taught BJ about living?[50:39] On keeping a mindfulness or meditation practice.[55:05] About the Dinky (a terrifying story of electrocution).[1:04:29] The miracle of a snowball in the burn ward.[1:07:48] BJ's experience as an undergraduate student at Princeton.[1:08:46] On the idea of art.[1:14:46] How BJ would support someone who suffered injuries similar to his own.[1:16:57] What helps people most in hospice care?[1:21:22] Why cookies matter.[1:23:12] Thoughts on the use of psychoactive compounds in end-of-life care and treating existential suffering.[1:33:46] BJ's secret habit that might surprise most people.[1:38:32] Suggested material for an introverted hospice patient.[1:45:04] What comes to mind when BJ hears the word “successful?”[1:48:13] Daily practices for seeing good in people.[1:51:00] How to ride a motorcycle when missing three limbs.[1:55:01] What purchase of $100 or less has most positively affected BJ's life?[1:56:53] BJ's billboard.[1:58:24] BJ's advice to his 30-year-old-self.[1:59:58] What has BJ changed his mind about in the last few years?[2:01:26] BJ's requests/asks/suggestions of the audience.*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim's email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim's books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's time to confront one of life's most certain yet most avoided topics: the end of life. While death eventually greets us all, most of us skirt around the topic and what it means for us and our loved ones. In this illuminating conversation, we aim to demystify this phase of life and empower you to approach it with a sense of preparedness and dignity. Our guest, Shoshana Berger, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/shoshanaberger/) serves as the Global Editorial Director at Ideo (https://www.ideo.com/) and brings a unique expertise to the table. She's worked on transformative projects with Zen Hospice (https://zencaregiving.org/) to improve end-of-life experiences and is also the co-author of the pivotal book 'A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death (https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-beginner-s-guide-to-the-end-practical-advice-for-living-life-and-facing-death-shoshana-berger/6690808?ean=9781501157219)' with Dr. BJ Miller (https://www.ted.com/talks/bj_miller_what_really_matters_at_the_end_of_life?language=en). Together, we'll explore why people are so hesitant to talk about facing death, arm caregivers with essential knowledge for this stage, and discuss how to articulate your own wishes for this profound chapter of life. Show notes and transcript: https://reconsidering.org/episodes/36

In this talk, John Martin shares that our practice can lead us to a peace that is not dependent on the conditions of the outside world. It is cultivated by our internal practice and inner peace means freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts and emotions. Peace arises in those times when we are not fixated on the past or the future but on the current moment. Accepting the present moment allows us to make peace with this moment and thereby with the entire world, just as it is. "World peace develops from inner peace." ~ The Dalai LamaThrough practice, we begin to see that the cause of our mental suffering is wanting things to be different than they are. Yes, we have preferences and we work for change, but in each moment we must accept it as it is just now.  A great mystery and openness arises within us when we let go of our preferences. By doing this, we can meet each moment with compassion, which leads to peace. He speaks of the pali term Nibudi - a peaceful and relaxed mind. The Buddha taught that we can find peace in the midst of suffering by recognizing that resistance of the mind to dukkha creates its own suffering which is unnecessary. John shares how his relationship to physical pain changed once he accepted it as just another form of sensation, without judging it. This led him to a direct knowing of the First Noble Truth, that there IS suffering in our life and the world. When we accept this fact, we realize that it's not us -- it is life itself, and there is nothing wrong with us just because we experience dissatisfaction.______________ John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an ongoing weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice project.Find his upcoming events at: https://calendar.spiritrock.org/event-speaker/john-martin/ Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

In this episode, we're with William Peters. He talks about the idea of a shared death experience and why we should reevaluate our views on death and the afterlife.Here's what we talk about:●      How COVID has changed people's views about death and dying●      Recognizing death as both a natural process and a human experience●      What is the shared death experience?●      The difficulty of receiving near-death experiences in medical science●      Acceptance of death and the afterlife●      Do we need a near-death experience to have a shared death experience?●      The transformative power of seeing your loved one in another dimension.About William Peters:William is a licensed psychotherapist and is the Founder of the Shared Crossing, and the Director of the Shared Crossing Research Initiative (SCRI), Project. William has been studying the end of life for nearly two decades and after nearly one thousand case studies, thousands of hours of interviews, and collecting and quantifying data, one theme emerged: repeated examples of a connection felt by the living person to the deceased at or around the moment of death, which fundamentally changes their understanding of death and dying. These moments are identified as "shared death experiences", and what they tell us is that none of us is leaving this earth aloneHe is recognized by many as the world's leading authority on the shared death experience (SDE).  William and his team have created a user-friendly guide to assist the dying, caregivers, and healthcare professionals in navigating and understanding phenomena that can manifest at end of life.  William conducts workshops and presents internationally. He recently presented at the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Annual Conference. His innovative work has been featured on CNN Online among other media outlets. William's book entitled At Heaven's Door:  What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better were published worldwide by Simon & Schuster in January 2022.William continues his practice as a licensed psychotherapist at the Family Therapy Institute in Santa Barbara.  He has served as a Zen Hospice volunteer and his work is informed by his two near-death experiences and a variety of shared death experiences. At Heaven's Door can be purchased by listeners here:https://www.amazon.com/At-Heavens-Door-Journeys-Afterlife/dp/1982150424/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1674325422&sr=8-1People Interested in learning more can register for the upcoming course here: https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/sdeWP/a21949/Here are the social media links:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharedcrossingprojectInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharedcrossingproject/The Shared Crossing Project: www.sharedcrossing.com Connect with me!Website: https://www.understandinggrief.comLinkedIn: https://www.understandinggrief.com You don't have to grieve alone, as a coach I can help support you.Connect with me: Website: https://www.understandinggrief.com LinkedIn: https://www.understandinggrief.com

John explores worldly happiness vs. a deeper inner contentment the Buddha referred to as sukha - an unconditional happiness that is independent of the world. He discusses how we can cultivate this in our lives by detaching from our preferences and accepting the unreliability of the material world. Specific practices to generate unconditional happiness include:  GratitudeGenerosity Non-harming______________ John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving-Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an ongoing weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice project. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

We're honored to feature hospice physician and innovator BJ Miller in an amazing discussion about strengths, trends, and the future of end-of-life care.  Dr. Miller is an advocate, thought-leader, and leader on the front lines of end-of-life care.  He has been a physician for 19 years and has counseled over 1,000 patients and family members. This vast experience has led him to understand what people really need when dealing with difficult health situations.   His TED Talk, What Really Matters at the End of Life has had over 11 million views. He's the co-author of A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, which was published in 2019.  BJ also served as medical director for Zen Hospice in San Francisco.  As a co-founder of Mettle Health, he and his team are on a mission to help people reframe the way we think about the road ahead, for ourselves, or someone we're caring for by dealing with issues “ranging from the practical to the emotional, to the existential.”  What an incredible discussion on the future of hospice care, attitudes towards death, and how end-of-life care is changing for the better! Connect with The Love Always Project by clicking here. Watch Dr. Miller's TEDtalk here.  Find out more about Mettle Health at mettleheatlh.com.  Find more podcast episodes from The Heart of Hospice here: https://theheartofhospice.libsyn.com/ Connect with podcast host Jerry Fenter at jerry@theheartofhospice.com. Connect with podcast host Helen Bauer at helen@theheartofhospice.com.  

John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. John is also currently serving as Interim Executive Director for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice projects. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. John is also currently serving as Interim Executive Director for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice projects. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. John is also currently serving as Interim Executive Director for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice projects. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Josh Kornbluth is an American comedic autobiographical monologist based in the San Francisco Bay Area who has toured internationally, written and starred in several feature films, and hosted a television interview show. Born in New York City, the son of Communist parents, Josh describes himself as a “Red Diaper Baby.” One of his monologues is so titled.  In addition to his solo performance work, Josh, in the last few years, has worked as a volunteer at the Zen Hospice in San Francisco and as an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Heath at the Global Brain Health Institute, as well as Hellman Visiting Artist at UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center. In this episode, Josh discusses his work at the hospice dealing with death and dying as well as his interest and focus on aging, dementia and empathy.  We can expect all of his work to show up in monologues that will be performed nationally. Links: Website: www.joshkornbluth.com Citizen Brain: "The Empathy Circuit": https://youtu.be/a_732-H1CUY "Citizen Brain: "Age Without Ageism": https://youtu.be/_7cIgjwZtPo Global Brain Health Institute: https://www.gbhi.org/

John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. John is also currently serving as Interim Executive Director for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice projects. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. John is also currently serving as Interim Executive Director for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice projects. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

In this episode of Life/Death/Law, join me for a conversation with Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, a physician, speaker, writer, activist, and the force behind two amazing movies about end of life: Extremis and End Game, both available on Netflix (so watch them!). Dr. Ungerleider also (when not producing movies and making social change) works as an internist practicing hospital medicine at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She received her medical degree from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR and completed residency at California Pacific Medical Center where she is now on the teaching faculty and serves on the Executive Board of the Foundation Board of Trustees. Extremis, which is about end of life decision making in the ICU at Oakland's Highland Hospital, won best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017, and was nominated for an Academy Award and two Emmies. End Game recently premiered at Sundance, and is about palliative care and end of life planning in the face of terminal illness, and was filmed at UCSF and Zen Hospice, in San Francisco. Both movies are heartfelt, engaging, honest and important. They show, without preaching, how important it is for your loved ones to know what you do and don't want at end of life and how palliative care and hospice can add quality to that time. Dr. Ungerleider is also the founder of the End Well conference, which will take place on December 6, 2018 in San Francisco. The conference is a dynamic convening of design, tech, health care, policy, media, the arts and activist communities committed to generating human-centered, interdisciplinary innovation for the end of life experience. I can't wait to attend. If you would like to know more about how to prepare yourself or your loved ones for an empowered end of life, and how to talk to your family about what you do and don't want at the end of life, please listen to today's show.   Here are links to the resources that Dr. Ungerleider mentions on the show: 1. Go Wish-card game conversation starter. 2. Five Wishes Advance Directive. 3. Getpalliative.org - resources on palliative care Please follow me at: Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifedeathlaw Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LizaHanksAuthor LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizahanks

Dr. Martha Jo Atkins researches and teaches about the language, movement, and visions most people experience at the end of life. She is the executive director of Abode Contemplative Care for the Dying in San Antonio, Texas. We talk a lot on this podcast about what happens after you die, what’s going on on the other side of the veil. Martha Jo has dedicated her career to standing just on this side of the veil, making the transition better for others, observing the phenomena, and teaching us all how to better navigate the sign posts of dying for our loved ones. WE TALK ABOUT: the mystical sign posts along the process of dying pre-death visions — do they happen for everyone how the conversations we have in the room where someone is dying can help or hinder their transition MENTIONED ON THE SHOW: Signposts of Dying by Marth Jo Atkins, PhD The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi & Abraham Verghese Paula by Isabel Allende The Nine Elements of Near-Death Experience by Dr. Raymond Moody GUEST LINKS - Martha Jo Atkins MarthaAtkins.com Abode Contemplative Care for the Dying HOST LINKS - SLADE ROBERSON Slade's Books & Courses Get an intuitive reading with Slade Automatic Intuition BECOME A PATRON https://www.patreon.com/shiftyourspirits Edit your pledge on Patreon TRANSCRIPT Martha Jo: My name is Martha Jo Atkins. I am a death and dying educator, counselor, and presently, I am the executive director of Abode Contemplative Care for the Dying in San Antonio. We take care of people who are in the last three months of life, and help them transition from here to there, and it's a really pretty magical place. So I do private practice and that stuff and teach about preparing for end of life questions to ask yourself, things to talk to your family about, that kind of stuff. Big fun. Slade: Well we'll get to how you manage the fun of all of that in a minute. But I am curious to hear more about Abode Contemplative Care for the Dying. Would you talk a little bit more about that and maybe explain how is it different than other forms of hospice care? Martha Jo: Yeah, so Abode was started by a guy named Edwin Sasek, who studied at the Kubler-Ross Centre back in the 80s, which was in New Mexico, and Edwin learned about the monasteries in the 14th and 15th centuries, where dying people, travelling people who were dying, would go to the monasteries and the men in the monasteries would give them the best of what they had. So the best food, the best mat, the best whatever they had to help them travel on their next journey. And Edwin had this dream of starting a place where there was a chair, and a mat, and a light bulb, and somebody could sit with somebody who was dying and help them go. He didn't have a model for that and some 20 years later, he met a classmate of his who had been at the Kubler-Ross Institute too, who was running a non-profit home in Michigan I believe, where he was caring for dying people. And Edwin put together a group. He had a model, he has that kind of energy that has, invites people to follow, and a group of people put Abode together and it's built on contemplative practices. So mostly about presence. So how do you bring your spiritual practices to bear in every day life, and he invites people to do that in context, in this place, in this community. Helping people with their dying process. So we got three people who come at a time. They're in the last three months. We go and visit them and make sure that this is the right place for them. All the people who are coming to us recognize that they're dying. They don't necessarily like it, but they understand that that's what's happening. And then we accompany them. Walk alongside them as they're on their journey. Right now, we're not charging a fee for that. I think that's going to be changing in the springtime, just because economics are the way they are and we need to be able to support ourselves. So we'll charge something, and also have financial aid for people. Edwin's dream was for this to be for people who couldn't pay and for us to be able to care for those people and we still will do that and we will care for other people who can pay and that will allow us to keep the cycle going of helping people who need it. Slade: Mmm... that sounds wonderful. Martha Jo: Yeah, it's a pretty magical place. And the question you ask was how it's different. It is not a hospice. Hospices in our country, it's a benefit of insurance, it's a benefit of medicare and medicaid, and there's a number of days that you can be on hospice, you get a doctor and a nurse and a social worker, a chaplain and an aid that will come to your home for short amounts of time, 30 minutes to a couple of hours and care for you, and the rest of the time, your family or friends are the ones who care for you. And so we take care of those people who are in the gap. We don't get money from hospices or from medicare or from insurance. That money all goes to the hospices. The hospices refer someone to us and we are simply a home. We serve as extended family. Slade: So you guys fill in the gaps for someoneo who maybe doesn't have those family members present. Martha Jo: Right. Somebody who's 90 and their spouse is 90 and they've been married for 70 years and he can't turn her. And he doesn't understand what's happening. Or recently, we had a 26 year old who didn't want to die at home. Who had a 4-year old and an 8-month old, and was worried about her mother. So we had, at one point in the room, there were four generations in this room helping this woman say goodbye to this life, and we got to be a part of all that and facilitate some opportunities for the goodbye saying there. Slade: So I'm sure tons of people must ask you about, you know, the sadness or the depression that goes along with this environment. Martha Jo: Yeah! Slade: I'm sure you have to see that differently in order to manage all that. So talk to me about the emotional part of doing this work. Martha Jo: So I, along with the people I work with, my colleagues and I feel called to this. And it is very much a soul calling and it very much is, it's a place we want to be and it's a place where we find the energy and yes, there are moments of sadness, and as we do the work, we learn how to carry the sadness differently, and carry the work differently. So when I first started doing death and dying work, I was in my 20s and I took everything home and was sad about everything. And the way I saw death and dying in my 20s is very different than I see it now. It now it is a transition. Somebody is going to their next place. There is a sweetness to it. There is a... Oh, there's an ineffability to it. There's... Words fail me sometimes to talk about how beautiful it is. And it's, there's not a lot of bullshit. I think that's the other thing I really, really love. People who are dying don't have time to pretend, and so the conversations are real. And for those of us who love those kinds of conversations, this is just... It's a beautiful, beautiful place to be and the sadness is, it's almost secondary. In fact, it is secondary. It's the opportunity to be with somebody in a very real presence and the veil is thin and we get to experience magic sometimes, and sometimes it's just life is hard, but we get to do it together, and it's good. Slade: How did this specific calling find you? Was there a turning point that led you down this path? Was there a loved one that passed, that brought you into this experience? Martha Jo: Yeah, yeah. My brother Jim died when I was 23. He was 37 and it was one of those phone calls in the middle of the night and I heard my mother make a sound that I had not ever heard her make before and I knew something was terribly wrong. And we as a family began navigating and negotiating grief and what it looked like and what it felt like and what it sounded like and, it was hard. It was really hard. He was the oldest and much loved and we had to find our way. And one of the things I did was go back to school. I wrote a paper about starting a children's... The task was to write a paper about starting a children's service in San Antonio that didn't exist. So I wrote about starting a children's bereavement centre, and my professor encouraged me to follow up on that. So I did. I started this non-profit and ran it for about seven years called the Children's Bereavement Centre of South Texas. And in that process, I brought my family in and we were able to continue to have conversations about Jim and about our own grief and what we needed. And then we got to hear stories from other people and how they were managing and it became this back and forth of healing and helping, which is the best way to live life, I think. We give and we get and it's not all altruism. And I think for people who think that that is it, I think they're missing the goodness there. Because we get to receive too. So we as a family did that. And became closer as families can in those situations sometimes and ours did. And then my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and she had death bed visions. She saw my brother, she saw her parents and her grandparents as she was dying, and I had talked to her about, that that could happen and we had some really meaningful conversations around that. That parlayed into more conversations and as my dad got sick more and more, and I ended up doing my dissertation work for my PhD on deathbed phenomenon, and it's been pretty great. Slade: Well you know the reason why I wanted to have you on the show is because there is a magical component to all this. And that's how you and I know each other and that's the thing that we connected around. And so, I mean, of course the most important thing I want to get to kind of some of the magical stories and the mysticisicm around all this. So, I mean, what happens when we die? Martha Jo: There is a, from my vantage point, there is a trajectory of experiences, and the way I envision it now is like a cylinder, and we get on the outside of the cylinder and then we're pulled in and in and in until you get to the centre of it, and you go up and out. Somebody saw my drawing and said, Oh, it's kind of like birth. And I think it is. I think it's very much like birth. As, when people come to us, they know they're dying. We know they're dying. And so, what I watch for, what I see are patterns and what I, the way I work is, when people come into our place, they're doing the work of dying. So sleep changes. One of the first thing we see, people's nights and days will get mixed up. I heard a beautiful story this week about a little girl who, probably 6, 5 or 6 years old, got sent home, immediately didn't go to sleep. And they were talking about giving her more pain medicine and they were going to give her sleep medicine and finally somebody said, Why don't we just ask her why she's not sleeping? And she said, she was afraid she was going to die when she went to sleep and she wasn't sure how she was going to get to heaven. So some really smart person said, Get her some angel wings. So they got her angel wings, put them on her, and said, If you happen to die in your sleep, you'll just fly to heaven. You'll know exactly what to do. She slept from that night on. Slade: Oh, wow. Martha Jo: I know. Isn't that a great story? Slade: Oh gosh, that's wonderful. Martha Jo: Adults do that too. And we get so caught up in, you know, they're not sleeping, they need to be sleeping. It's very much a part of the process. And yes, sometimes you can give people medicine and get them resorted, sometimes not. That's just part of what they need to do. We see people not want to be in their bed. They want to be in another place. They need to be on the couch or they need to sleep in the chair. And it's these little shifts that we watch for. And then there is the visions that begin to happen. And you'll see people look outside, like out the window, out into the yard, and I'm often asked if it's medication related or disease related and I will tell you, the visions happen with all kinds of diseases, medicated or not, and they're different for people but they happen. And I let people make, encourage people to make whatever meaning they need to make out of those. But as part of this trajectory of dying, the person will see people who I call "Friendlies" outside, so they're not people they know. They may see a baseball game. They may hear people on the porch. They may see somebody walking by. Sometimes they're people that are darker skinned than them, which I always find fascinating. White people see black people all the time, which I love. And it's not a, there's not a fear there. It's just, Oh, there's somebody out there. And then the dying person kind of comes back a little bit and they'll go, Okay, but reality is, there isn't really anybody out there, am I going crazy? So part of what we do at Abode is normalize all of this. That these are things that happen and you may see people and you may dream about people and they're here to help you and this is part of the process. The visions eventually come inside, and eventually the Friendlies become people they know. And eventually, the... If you're in a bed and looking at the end of it and you see somebody standing down there, that's one kind of vision people have. And as they get farther into the process, and as they move into the cylinder, or closer into the cylinder, they'll begin to see people up midway around the room and then at the top of the room. And you'll see people reaching. There's a back in time experience, where people are in, oh, the guy who did... Moody. Raymond Moody. Talks about your life review. And dying people have that. You'll see them go back, try to lasso a horse or, in my dad's case, he would put his stole on. He was a minister and he would open his Bible. And I knew exactly what he was doing. And other people would look at him and thought, What is Noble doing? He's back in Sunday school. And further and further and further back people go. And then there's this reaching up as those are reaching towards something. The other thing that happens is this use of metaphors. And the metaphors change as people are further into the trajectory of dying. And it's real subtle. You may be with someone for 12 hours and you may hear three of them. Or you may hear one of them. But they're indicators. And they're indicators that people are a little bit further along in their journey. It's... I tell people they're not predictive. They are signposts. They just show you a little bit where people are and help you know that they're in process and doing what they need to do and I think that helps the people who are family members and friends to prepare their hearts maybe a little bit more too. Slade: Mmm... You wrote a book, by the way, I want to mention, called Signposts of Dying, and I'm sure this is the type of thing that you describe and explain in that book, correct? Martha Jo: Yeah, these are those kinds of things. Sure. Slade: The pre-death visions, as you call them, we have these stories ingrained in our culture, and they're kind of part of our lore. Books and TV always portray them. The seeing of the loved one at the foot of the bed, talking to people that we can't see, the relatives that come to get you to take you on... How many of those kind of pre-death visions are real patterns in the experience of the dying? Martha Jo: Oh, I think everybody has them. I think we just see probably 70% of them. 70% of the people we see, and the other people are so far in their process that they're doing their own thing behind closed eyes. And I watch people, like they're dreaming but they're not dreaming. It's a very different away-ness that happens, as people are in the bed and they go away to another place and then they come back and then they go farther away and they come back for a little less time and it's not as deep here as it was before. You... The quality of the experience with the people in the room changes. Because they need to be in that other place and it's... it is trackable and it does happen with just about everybody I see. Slade: Wow. Martha Jo: Yeah! Slade: So this may put you on the spot, I don't know you can tell me if it does, but based on your observations, do you personally see compelling evidence that the soul is moving on beyond the physical body to another location? Martha Jo: I do think that now. And I have hedged my bets on that for a long time, but I do. We cared for a woman not long ago who was just, if you can imagine, heels dug in and hands out, she did not want to go. It was all she could do to keep from dying and she was going to do it, and.... wasn't eating... I bet she weighed 70 pounds when she finally died. And she was angry. And she spent most of her time angry. And then she was getting up from a commode in the bathroom, somebody was helping her get up, and her heart stopped. And one of the navigators, our people who do the bedside work, we call them In the black navigators, and one of the navigators caught her and thought, Ohmygosh, she's died. And then she came back! Her name was Anna. And she was a little softer, and a little sweeter, and then she went away again, 4, 5, times she died and came back. One time, we were just talking about this last night, we gathered everyone around the bed and we were breathing with her because we thought this was it. And her eyes kind of opened and she looked around the room at all of us and she said, It's so beautiful! Can you hear the flowers? Can you see the colors and just this... all of this landscape that she was seeing. And she... It wasn't crazy talk. It wasn't... I don't know... It was a continued preparation for whatever it was she needed to do and she got to the end of all that and she looked around and said, Can we have coffee? Like, Ohmygod yes, we can have coffee. So we made coffee and we all had coffee together. And she ended up dying a couple of days later. She wanted selfies that night. Part of her process was shifting this anger into an opening for her. And not everybody does that. Lots of people do. There's a feeling to it, there's a texture to it. There's an energy and the energy in the room shifts and I do think there's something else. I do. Slade: You said that your attitude had shifted from the time you were, say, in your 20s doing this work to who you are now doing this work. Martha Jo: Yeah. Slade: And so, is that the direction that you've shifted in? Has it allowed you to maybe relax or feel more peaceful in some way? Martha Jo: Yeah. I think that's a beautiful way to say it. Yes. I helped care for my first human who died was an infant, and being in a hospital setting in the medicalness of all of that, and the fast moving people and the medical language and there wasn't much pause for honoring the spirit of that child. The mentor I had in that moment, happily, called me over, had me put my hand on the baby. She put her hand on the baby. And she looked at me and she said, Sometimes they forget. They had done a code on this kid, and when they finished, everybody just ran out of the room. And so this woman paused for a minute, and wanted me to pause for a minute, and I've never forgotten that. And as I have continued to care for people from my 20s to now, that piece of the dying process has gotten stronger and more rooted in me. And that's primarily how we work with people at Abode. It's not the medical. We don't have IVs, we don't take blood pressure. It's not about any of that. It's about accompanying people. And I like that much better. And it feels, as you say, it's more relaxed and more peaceful and just... it just works better for me. Slade: A little over a year ago, my mother found her companion of 20 years on the floor of his bathroom and he had collapsed, probably had had a heart attack, and after she called 911, as she was waiting for the ambulance, she sort of held his head in her lap and she talked to him as he died. And she says that she feels like he knew that she was there and could hear him. And before speaking to you today, I was talking to her and you know sometimes I'll tell her about people that I'm interviewing or whatever, and I told her a little bit about you and why I was excited to have you on the show, and that I was preparing questions and everything, and she said, Ask her if they can hear us! She really wants to know if they can hear us as they're going. Martha Jo: Yeah, I 1000% believe they can. And I 1000% believe the conversations we have in the room in front of them can help or hinder. So if we, we had a guy with us a couple weeks ago who wanted to make sure his wife was cared for. They'd been married for 55 or 57 years, and so I purposely started a conversation with the children about how they were going to care for their mother, and then purposely started a conversation with the mother about how she was going to be cared for by the children, so he could hear all that. And he died later that night. Did the same thing with another couple who had been married for a long, long time, and she was 87 and hadn't decided where she was going to live. And I started asking her questions in front of him and every once in awhile, I'd holler, Did you hear that? Did you hear that? He hadn't been talking for a couple of days. And somebody probably would walk in and think I was nuts. That he couldn't hear all that. And we've surely had doctors come in and say, They're not in their bodies, they can't hear. I don't believe that at all. I believe that the people who are dying, by and large, make a decision when they're going to go. They pick the moment, if they can. They decide who's going to be in the room or not. And I have seen it again and again and again, waiting 'til that very last person pulls up in the parking lot and they walk in the door and they're gone a minute later. Or they wait until somebody goes to the bathroom or goes to the kitchen, which is 500 yards away, and they go and come back and the person's gone by the time they get back. It's energy. It's energy. And what kind of energy they want or need in the room, and who they want or need in the room, and who they want to protect or not. Who can hold the space for them? The 26 year old, died of colon cancer. The day her mother got a colonoscopy was the day the woman chose to die. And she, we called her mother that morning and her mother was all dopey and couldn't drive over and there was another woman at our place who had connected really, really well with Tai and very much a mother figure and Tai was restless and we, you medicate as much as you can medicate and sometimes there's still a restlessness. And as soon as that woman walked in and started stroking her brow, that child calmed. It was amazing. And very soon after that, she died. She didn't want her mama there. Her mama was taking care of her babies, and her mama was taking care of herself. Very headstrong, neat, neat, neat woman. But I'm, yes, tell your mother, Yes they can hear, and how kind of her to offer that reassurance to her person as he was leaving. Slade: Yeah. Martha Jo: It's a good thing. Slade: I think that's one of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is the idea of, we hear that so much. That they're hanging on, and that they don't want to let go because they're anxious about things that they're leaving unsettled. And to actually, to settle that in their presence so that they can overhear it, or that they can just feel on some level that some of those things that they're anxious about are being taken care of, I will remember that. I will remember that and that will change how I handle that kind of situation, for sure. One thing I really love to ask people on the show is, what do you think is missing from the conversation about dying? Martha Jo: What a great question. We're at a really tenuous point in our American history, about how we are going to care for our dying in the coming years. There are 10,000 baby boomers a day turning 65, and in the next 15 years, we're going to have a plethora of people who are sick and need help and the way we operate now, we're mostly medical and a little bit holistic. And I think what's missing is how we were 50 years ago, but we need to innovate and re-engineer that, not 50 years, probably 75 years ago, when people died at home and we knew what to do. And we knew when somebody was dying, that it was okay to let them go. And we knew how to sit and be present and hold space. That doesn't happen so much anymore because people get sick, they go to the hospital. We send them to rehab and then they get sent to hospice. There's a missing link of how to be present with somebody, and I think that's a vital conversation we need to start having again. Slade: What, if you could change something, what would you change about end of life care? Martha Jo: I would enhance palliative care in our country. Palliative care and hospice care often get lumped together and they're different. Palliative care is about alleviating suffering. And if we can get more people who have chronic illnesses with palliative care people earlier, I believe that would help the way people die and help them die better. Because we would be talking sooner rather than later, and waiting 'til that crisis happens in the hospital, or you know, however it happens. Somebody falls down and hits their head. Do we put them on a ventilator for the rest of their life, or do we let them go? And what have they said? And having those conversations with the family, or having them with your chosen family, having them with your friends, about what you really want, and bringing in the people who are wiling to stand toe-to-toe with the so-called experts, many of them are, I say so-called because they're not experts on you. You are an expert on you and you need to let the people around you know what you want so you can express those, or they can express those wishes when you need them expressed. Slade: Mmm... In addition to your book, Signposts of Dying, is there any other resources that you would recommend for someone to go check out? Martha Jo: Yeah, there's a really beautiful book by Frank Ostaseski, who was Buddhist, who started Zen Hospice in San Francisco. His book is called The Five Invitations, and I think there's words after that, but you'll be able to find it with that. Really beautiful book about dying and dying well. Beautiful stories. What else would I recommend? There's a beautiful book called, When Breath Becomes Air, which is about a surgeon who finishes medical school and then finds out he's got cancer and how he grapples with that and how his family grapples with that. It's a really beautiful book as well. I'll think about some others. Slade: Yeah! I was going to say, I kind of put you on the spot with that question, but absolutely you can send me some things after the fact. I'm sure as soon as we hang up you're going to be like, Oh, I should have said this! Martha Jo: Oh yeah, Here's five more things... Slade: So everyone can check the show notes and we'll have recommended resource links from you. I wanted to throw in one. It just kind of came to me. But, the novelist, Isabel Allende who wrote House of the Spirits and a lot of fiction. She's, I think, Columbian. She wrote a memoir called Paula that is about the death of her daughter from cancer at a really young age. Like in her early 20s. And she talks about, I know it sounds, all this stuff sounds depressing, yet when you read it, it's such a beautiful reverent articulation of the experience and I remember, you know, her talking about what it means, the honor of being present when someone comes into the world and when they leave it. Martha Jo: Yeah. Slade: It gives me chills thinking about it. So if there's anybody, especially who has lost someone recently, and they're looking for something to kind of talk them through the beauty of that, I definitely recommend that book and I'm going to stick that in the show notes too. Martha Jo: Yeah, that's a good one. Slade: What's next for you? What's on your horizon? Martha Jo: The next thing for me, I'm going to start teaching people who want to engage more in death and dying work. I really, the way we're set up right now in this country to care for our dying is not going to be sustainable in 15 years. So part of what I want to do is to start to teach people. There's a number of folks who are doing doula training, which is from the birth doula movement. And they've transferred that to dying. And there are many, many similarities. So I'm going to start doing that and doing some apprenticeship work at Abode. Bringing people to Abode so they can be with our people and see that they're people first and dying second, and think about their own life and ways to live meaningfully. Because I think, at the end of the day, we are all going to die. And how are we living now and how do we want to live? So helping people investigate that and move into more of that. And I want to do the same. Slade: That's a big job and I'm glad you're doing it. You know what? Somebody may hear this and that may speak to them and they may be called to do that because of your conversation . Martha Jo, it's been really wonderful capturing your perspective on something, you know, we talk so much about the veil on this show, we're often on the other side of it. So to get to capture your impressions from the side where you're at, the sort of threshold, is really cool. Tell everyone where they can go to find you, if they want to read more about you. Martha Jo: So my personal website is marthaatkins.com and then Abode's webiste is Abodehome.org and you can find out all kinds of stuff about those places. Slade: Wonderful. That was fantastic, Martha Jo. Thank you for coming on to the show. Martha Jo: Thank you. You have got such a radio voice. It's awesome. Slade: Mine is?? Martha Jo: It is! It's brilliant! Slade: Oh, that's sweet. Thank you. That'll be cute. That's a good way to end it.

It’s a lot more than “Seize the day.” We learn from the dying to push away nothing; to lose the habit of postponing things; to show up entirely; to find rest amid whatever; to go ahead and be surprised. You can look death right in the eye, tough as it is, and life lights up. Frank Ostaseki, one of the world’s great end-of-life counselors, has attended over a thousand dyings. He was a cofounder of the renowned Zen Hospice in San Francisco and is the author of a new book, The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully.

John Martin teaches Vipassana (Insight), Metta (Loving Kindness) and LGBTQIA+ meditation retreats. He leads an on-going weekly Monday evening meditation group in San Francisco. He serves as Co-chair of the Guiding Teachers Council for Spirit Rock. John is also currently serving as Interim Executive Director for Spirit Rock. His practice has been supported by twelve years as a hospice volunteer: including five years at Shanti Project during the AIDS crisis, and seven years with the Zen Hospice projects. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Poetry is an important part of Brad Byrum’s life. He remembers his grandmother reading poetry to him, but the real connection came about twenty years ago as part of his adult spiritual journey when he realized that language is inadequate to capture the depth of what we experience in our lives. His realization that poetry moves from expression to silence...

Frank Ostaseski is the co-founder of Zen Hospice and has been serving people for over 35 years. He is the absolute definition of a modern Zen Master and Saint. In this podcast he shares powerful stories, wisdom and lessons. Here are some things we discuss; - Cultivating a listening heart - The Spaghetti Story: Lessons from a man who wanted to take his own life - the Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Fully Living - The labour of birth and death - A Zen Parable - The story of the tough Russian woman - Frank's advice for dealing with losing a loved one and grief - Why you should move toward what hurts - Understanding Zen without ever meditating https://fiveinvitations.com/ www.mattbelair.com & www.patreon.com/mattbelair Donate: bit.ly/mattbelair Support by Doing an Act of Kindness for Someone Today! Subscribe: Podcast: goo.gl/1euQe7 YouTube: goo.gl/Mz7Ngg   Download a Free Guide to Lucid Dreaming E-Book and Guided Hypnotic Experience: www.mattbelair.com/luciddreaming   About Me: ======== Master your mind, body, and spirit with Matt Belair and world-renowned leaders today! This unique show features candid conversations with experts in personal development, spirituality, and human optimization. Each episode is another key to help you unlock your infinite potential and assist you on your path to self-mastery! You will discover the best tips, tools, and technologies to master your mind; plus the science, principles, and practices to master your body. Finally, you will dive into the deepest depths of yourself, life, the universe and the pursuit of discovering who you really are, and consciously creating the life of your dreams! Explore timeless spiritual lessons and ancient teachings. Let go of any limitations and discover all of the tools to dramatically improve your health, well-being, and mindset! mattbelair.com/bio/ May Love, Joy, Passion, Peace, and Prosperity fill your life! Namaste

Enso House: The Story of a Zen Hospice Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Ann Cutcher, MD, director of Enso House—a hospice on Whidbey Island in Washington State affiliated with the nearby Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery (founded by Zen Master Shodo Harada Roshi). Enso House began in 2001 as a result of his vision of a home for the dying where the qualities of humility, service, compassion, forgiveness deepen in those both giving and receiving care. Ann Cutcher, MD Dr. Cutcher is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and has 15 years experience caring for patients in hospices, nursing homes, and hospitals. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

2013-04-10 - Heavenly Messengers - Tara interviews Frank Ostaseski, founder of Zen Hospice, on a contemplative approach to death and dying. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Anthony Rodgers is finishing up the DPP program at Spirit Rock this spring, and he volunteers weekly with Zen Hospice. Anthony did the caregiver training last spring, and Zen Hospice feels like his sangha these days. He is also doing the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training at the Sati Center in Redwood City and he just started a masters program towards a degree in Buddhist Studies at the Graduate Theological Union/Institute of Buddhist Studies. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter