Encountering Life's Endings

If you wish to live well, practice dying. Death and dying are universal human experiences. All that lives is transitory and will depart this life including our loved ones as well as ourselves. Encountering Life s Endings, encompasses practical, psychological, philosophical, cultural and spiritual aspects of death and dying viewed through the prism of the passing of my mother (94), father (89), brothers Al (69), Joe (46), Eddie (44), numerous friends and colleagues, as well as the highly acclaimed course on the subject of life s endings that I teach. (In the Columbia College student grapevine, the rap on my course is: You must take it, for it will change your life. ) Interspersed throughout the book are the thoughts and insights of leading figures in the field of thanatology as well as diverse and illuminating teachings by eastern and western thinkers and spiritual teachers, ranging from Stanley Keleman to Thich Nhat Hanh. Readers are also provi