death

Drawing on years of experience as a hospice volunteer and chaplain, Alistair Shanks shares various practices that help us to be fully present to the experience of dying and how the use of both speech and touch can be beneficial at the end of life. This session ran on November 16, 2022.

Listen to Zen Caregiving Project executive director Roy Remer speak with Liz Gleeson, a grief therapist and host of the podcast Shapes of Grief. In this episode Roy talks about death and dying in the Zen tradition. 

Through the recounting of our grief stories, integration can begin to happen, both for the teller and the listener. Everyone has a story of loss and everyone’s story offers hope and inspiration to other grievers. Sharing these stories with each other can go a long way in normalising this human experience.

Liz Gleeson

RoundGlass: The End of Life Collective

The End of Life Collective is a community of caregivers and care seekers gathered in one place to help you and your family through life’s most important time.

End Well

A non-profit media platform and annual conference with the aim of normalizing conversations about our mortality throughout life. The website shares videos from leaders in all sectors who approach the topic of death and loss from many diverse angles.

ReImagine

ReImagine is a citywide exploration of death and the celebration of life through creativity and conversation. ReImagine will operate in San Francisco and New York over the coming year.

The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living

A book by Frank Ostaseski, the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project and Metta Institute, who has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. He has trained countless clinicians and caregivers in the art of mindful and compassionate care. In The Five Invitations, he distills the lessons gleaned over decades of selfless service offering an evocative and stirring guide that points to a radical path to transformation.

End Game

A short documentary following the stories of three visionary medical providers, one of which is Zen Hospice Project, caring for and supporting those approaching the end of their lives.

What does it feel like to die

A book by long-time hospice volunteer, Jennie Dear, who uses the latest medical findings and sensitive human insights to offer answers to questions that affect us all like Does dying hurt? and Is there a better way to cope with dying?

Death Cafes

At a Death Cafe, people drink tea, eat cake, and discuss death. You can search for the next cafe anywhere in the world. They also offer numerous resources on death and dying.

Death Over Dinner

An interactive toolkit to help you set up and host a dinner to discuss death with friends and family. The website provides videos, articles, and thought-provoking questions. Even if you don’t end up hosting a dinner party, it will get you thinking.

End of Life Doula Directory

A directory of certified end-of-life doulas thoroughly trained in all three phases of end-of-life care. 

Heartfelt Memorials

A company offering interactive and collaborative remote memorial services enabling five to 500 family and friends to memorialize, eulogize, and celebrate a deceased loved one. From afar, family, friends, and community will virtually attend your loved one’s end-of-life celebration.

The Five Invitations

A website and book authored by Frank Ostaseski, the co-founder of the Zen Hospice Project. Based on Frank’s own experience of working in hospice care, he offers a unique, comforting, and practical wisdom on how to work and live alongside grief in your life.

Grief.com

A website created by David Kessler, one of the world’s foremost expert on grief and loss. It provides free resources on loss and grief, connections to grief groups and an overview of the Five stages of Grief.

Grieving Mindfully

In this book, the psychologist and Buddhist Sameet M. Kumar offers an alternative approach to grief: accepting and feeling it, and then using it as opportunity for growth and finding meaning. 

Help Guide: Grief and Loss

A page with advice on grief and loss and how to navigate it. This guide also offers links to other useful information in the “resources” section.

Wild Edge of Sorrow

In this book The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in a lyrical yet practical handbook.

Kara

A non-profit that offers a wealth of resources and services to support children, teens, families, and adults in the grieving process.

The Dinner Party

A collective of men and women in their 20’s – 30’s who’ve been touched by a significant loss who host dinner parties to share a meal and discuss loss, grief, death & dying.

Breathing Wind Podcast

Breathing Wind is a podcast about grief, parent loss, change, and healing. Founded by Sarah Davis, this podcast began as a collection of stories highlighting the shared experience of losing parents at a young(er) age. Season Two’s focus is on healing.

Advanced Planning

Coalition for Compassionate Care of California

This resource shares conversation tools for advance care planning, advance directives, and answers to your frequently asked questions.

Compassion and Choices

This interactive site provides templates, resources, and toolkits to help you with planning for your future care. Spanish versions of all site documents are also available.

Prepare for Your Care

The Prepare for Your Care website caters to people with minimal to no computer experience. They walk visitors through basic advance care planning steps with prompts and videos to help people get started. The website is also available in Spanish.

Five Wishes

A program of Aging with Dignity, Five Wishes is a booklet ( paper or online) that guides you through planning for end of life. It also facilitates conversations with family and friends about your future medical, spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. It is America’s most popular living will, with more than 35 million copies in circulation.

The Conversation Project

The Conversation Project® is a public engagement initiative with a goal that is both simple and transformative: to have every person’s wishes for end-of-life care expressed and respected. The Conversation Project believes that the place for this to begin is at the kitchen table—not in the intensive care unit—with the people we love before it’s too late. The Conversation Project offers tools, guidance, and resources to begin talking with loved ones about yours and their wishes.