By Frank Ostaseski — 2017
The Mystery we encounter in being with dying is unlike those Agatha Christie novels you might enjoy on a summer’s beach. It is not about finding a solution.
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This month’s conversation in our series exploring religion and death is with Karen Teel, who has been a member of the department of theology and religious studies at the University of San Diego since 2007.
No matter how great your life may be, you will eventually deal with disappointments, setbacks, failures, and even loss and trauma.
It’s always useful to learn about death in different cultures. And Taoist beliefs about death—both religious and philosophical—are interesting and complex. By learning about Taoist beliefs about death and life after death, you can better understand many philosophies around the world.
“Zen practice … requires great faith, great courage, and great questioning.”
I learned about a lot of things in medical school, but mortality wasn’t one of them. Although I was given a dry, leathery corpse to dissect in anatomy class in my first term, our textbooks contained almost nothing about aging or frailty or dying.
"But now we’re asked — and sometimes forced — to carry grief as a solitary burden. And the psyche knows we are not capable of handling grief in isolation." - Francis Weller
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The mismatch between the knowledge and the longing is perhaps the most anguishing of all human experiences.
The truth is that many of us just don’t know the right words to comfort someone who is dying.
…and they want to bring back “The Good Death.”
Death comes out of the shadows.