New Book Starts an Interfaith Conversation to Reflect on Dying with Practices, Meditations, Life Review Exercises
We’ve noticed in the recent reviews for this new book on Amazon.com that people are touched by the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett Majors and Ed McMann—noting how easily and superficially we discuss the deaths of celebrities. Yet when faced with terminal illness such as cancer, unexpected deaths of our loved ones, or facing the idea our own deaths, we are unable to get past our own fears.
What if we could ponder our own wishes and worries about dying by talking with some of the wisest elders in America? Living Fully, Dying Well: Reflecting on Death to Find Your Life’s Meaning (Sounds True, June 2009)—co-authored by Edward Bastian and Tina Staley and edited by Netanel Miles-Yepez—opens the topic by inviting readers to join a conversation, as if sitting at the kitchen table with this wise group of spiritual elders and renowned medical experts. By “listening” to them talk about their personal stories and professional experiences surrounding death and dying, readers have a chance to ease into their own questions, fears, and answers.
What if we could ponder our own wishes and worries about dying by talking with some of the wisest elders in America? A new book offers readers that chance. Living Fully, Dying Well: Reflecting on Death to Find Your Life’s Meaning (Sounds True, June 2009)—co-authored by Edward Bastian and Tina Staley and edited by Netanel Miles-Yepez—opens the topic by inviting readers to join a conversation, as if sitting at the kitchen table with this wise group of spiritual elders and renowned medical experts. By “listening” to them talk about their personal stories and professional experiences surrounding death and dying, readers have a chance to ease into their own questions, fears, and answers. Read excerpts and more at the online presskit.
The book begins as co-author Edward Bastian tells the story of his first near-death experience from a bee sting after which he awakes in the hospital, glad to be alive, humbled and a bit humiliated by having “died” so unconsciously, without any spiritual prayers or meditation. A few years later, he has two more brushes with death, but this time is prepared. His personal quest to understand death resulted in this book full of stories, reflections and discussions among experts.
“That night I was prepared to die.,” writes Bastian. “I had been preparing for this night ever since my ‘death’ by bee sting and, it seems, many years before that. After five hours of writing, meditating, and praying, the sun rose in the east, and I was still alive. I had lived through the night and the many nights that followed, and I am now deeply grateful for this opportunity to rehearse the moment of my death. This predeath experience was a kind of practicum where I could try to put into service my years of training and preparation.”
Read Chapter 1: Coming to Terms with Our Mortality.
Edward W. Bastian, PhD, is a Buddhist scholar and teacher and was executive producer for a series of award-winning BBC and PBS programs about religion and three films about Tibetan Buddhism for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He taught classes about world religion and directed the biodiversity program at the Smithsonian Institution. He is president of the Spiritual Paths Foundation (www.spiritualpaths.net), which offers a two-year certificate program about InterSpiritual Wisdom, weekend retreats, and programs about spirituality and the environment.
Tina L. Staley, LCSW, MSW, is director of Pathfinders at Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center. She co-founded the Pathfinder program in Aspen, Colorado, for empowering cancer patients and their families to rediscover their inner strengths and take back their lives. Visit www.pathfindersinternational.org.
Contributors include Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a Hasidic rebbe and the founder of the Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering movements; Joan Halifax Roshi, an expert on care for the dying and Shamanism and a Zen abbess; Mother Tessa Bielecki, cofounder of the Spiritual Life Institute and a former Carmelite Christian abbess; Dr. Ira Byock, bestselling author and one of the world’s foremost authorities on palliative care; Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences; as well as author and grief counselor Mirabai Starr.
L to R: Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Mother Tessa Bielecki,
Dr. Edward Bastian, Joan Halifax Roshi, and Netanel Miles-Yepez.
Photograph by Julia Jitkoff, 2004.
Authors are available for book signings in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and North Carolina. Go to online presskit. Request a review copy of this book by sending email to publicity@soundstrue.com.
