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Table of Contents: The first invitation: Don't wait.
The doorway to possibility ;
At once here and disappearing ;
The maturation of hope ;
The heart of the matter
The second invitation: Welcome everything, push away nothing. As is ;
Turn toward your suffering ; Love heals
The third invitation: Bring your whole self to the experience.
Don't be a role, be a soul ;
Taming the inner critic ;
The raging river ;
Hearing the cries of the world
The fourth invitation: Find a place of rest in the middle of things ;
The calm in the storm ; Mind the gap ;
Courageous presence
The fifth invitation: Cultivate don't know mind.
The story of forgetfulness ;
Not knowing is most intimate ;
Surrender to the sacred
FY2022 /
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Family & Relationships. Philosophy. Self-Improvement. Nonfiction. HTML: The cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project and pioneer behind the compassionate care movement shares an inspiring exploration of the lessons dying has to offer about living a fulfilling life. Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most. Life and death are a package deal. They cannot be pulled apart and we cannot truly live unless we are aware of death. The Five Invitations is an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present consciousness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. As a renowned teacher of compassionate caregiving and the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. In The Five Invitations, he distills the lessons gleaned over the course of his career, offering an evocative and stirring guide that points to a radical path to transformation. The Five Invitations: -Don't Wait -Welcome Everything, Push Away Nothing -Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience -Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things -Cultivate Don't Know Mind These Five Invitations show us how to wake up fully to our lives. They can be understood as best practices for anyone coping with loss or navigating any sort of transition or crisis; they guide us toward appreciating life's preciousness. Awareness of death can be a valuable companion on the road to living well, forging a rich and meaningful life, and letting go of regret. The Five Invitations is a powerful and inspiring exploration of the essential wisdom dying has to impart to all of us. This program is read by the author..… (more)
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A deeply inspiring wisdom teaching on death and life as inseparable aspects of one process, through which we can learn to be present for our own experience and know its meaning. The five invitations that give the book its
• Don't wait.
• Welcome everything, push away nothing.
• Bring your whole self to the experience.
• Find a place of rest in the middle of things.
• Cultivate don't know mind.
The breadth and profundity of this labor of love are belied by its simple, straightforward language and down-to-earth stories. The author's understanding is rooted in Zen Buddhism, and revealed by it, not befogged by it, and also in painful and beauty-finding personal history. Ostaseski is one of those remarkable individuals who have managed to transform personal suffering into healing wisdom. I took copious notes in my journal as a way of internalizing the insights. I might have transcribed the whole book by hand without superfluity. This is one to come back to, again and again, in order to learn how to learn more.
Frank Ostaseski has dedicated his life to the work of supporting those who have come to their own close encounter with death. He was co-founder of the Zen Hospice Project, which began in San Francisco in 1987, at the height of the AIDs crisis. After thirty years of caring and devoted assisting of terminal patients with the work of dying, the project closed down in 2018 because of lack of sufficient funding. Frank brought his experience with thousands of patients to this book, a sharing of life's great truths.