Lessons from the Dying - Softcover

Smith, Rodney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1614291942 ISBN 13: 9781614291947

Publisher: Wisdom Publications, 2015

Synopsis

Rediscover the mystery and wonder of life through gentle reflections on death and dying.

What can death teach the living? Former monk and hospice worker Rodney Smith teaches us that through intimately considering our own inevitable end we can reawaken to the sublime miracle of life we so often take for granted. A well of stories, personal anecdotes, and direct advice gleaned from years of working with the dying in their final moments, Lessons from the Dying helps us redefine our conception of what it means to truly live. Each chapter contains guided reflections and exercises that allow the reader to integrate the wisdom in its pages more fully into their lives. With a sense of compassion, Lessons from the Dying provides all the tools of mind one needs to rediscover, in this very moment, the mystery and wonder of a lifetime.

From the foreword by Joseph Goldstein: “Lessons from the Dying could also be called “lessons for the living” because of the courageous honesty revealed in so many of the stories told here. These accounts reflect back to us our own attitudes toward death and love, and they prompt us to examine the way we are living our lives right now. In the busyness of our lives we rarely take time to consider our mortality and the implications that it might have for the choices we make. Yet when we do cultivate this awareness it becomes a powerful force for wise discrimination.”

About this title

Review:

A patient is told she has only six months to live, and the priorities in her life suddenly shift. Death can be one of our greatest teachers, if we are willing to open ourselves to the shadows of the unknown. Rodney Smith has been confronting death on a daily basis as a hospice social worker. To this experience he brings his time as a Buddhist monk, delving into the workings of the mind. This alchemical combination has produced a book that, page for page, word for word, is one of the best "meaning of life" books around, rivaling Victor Frankl's classic Man's Search for Meaning in power and insight and surpassing it in depth. Complementing his many anecdotes of personal confrontations with death, Smith analyzes why and how we often short-change ourselves emotionally, and at the end of each chapter, he offers exercises for cultivating human wholeness. There are books about death and grieving. This is a book about transforming life. --Brian Bruya

About the Author:

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts, where he continues as one of the resident guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students, he established the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and, later, The Forest Refuge. A seminal figure in the emergence of Buddhism in the West, Joseph is the author of numerous books including One Dharma. He lives in Barre, Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1614291942
• ISBN 13: 9781614291947
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 232