By Maria Popova — 2014
“The greatest dignity to be found in death is the dignity of the life that preceded it.”
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They’re changing how we approach end-of-life care.
Facing our own mortality can be uncomfortable and, for some, distressing. But when we befriend death—when we approach death mindfully—its force doesn’t necessarily derail us in the same way.
An octogenarian expert on near-death experiences tells jokes as he waits to die.
We cannot hide from death. Its embrace will consume our social existence entirely. Job titles, social position, material possessions, sexual roles and images—all must yield to death.
Sean Illing and Frank Ostaseski discuss what Ostaseski has learned from the conversations he’s had with the dying.
Frank Ostaseski is a tall, slim man with blue eyes that radiate calm. As director of the San Francisco Zen Center’s Hospice Program, he counsels the dying and their families, and teaches others to care for people with terminal illness.
I’ve given radio shows about my afterlife research from Sydney to Toronto, and from London to LA. Here are some of the more interesting questions that interviewers ask me.
In low seasons, while you sit in the waiting room of life, patience is a superpower. But by adopting these seven mindsets, you can run circles around life’s challenges.
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To find out what is death there must be no distance between death and you who are living with your troubles and all the rest of it; you must understand the significance of death and live with it while you are fairly alert, not completely dead, not quite dead yet.
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I considered those rich periods of life lost to anxiety and compulsive coping behavior. At the end of our life would we be inclined to say, “if I knew it was going to end, I could have enjoyed it?”