February

NEKKHAMA – RENUNCIATION
Workshop date: 02/03-04/2023

“As a bee gathers nectar
And moves on without harming
The flower, its color, or its fragrance,
Just so should a sage walk through a village. “

CLASS RECORDINGS

TO DO BEFORE MARCH CLASS:
– Practice regularly with paramita of the month: Panna / Wisdom
– Continue with service work
– Meet with your buddy
– Meet with your small group
– Have a Mentor Interview if you are scheduled here
– Writing assignments for this month are:
1)Dharma Story Reflection: Angulimala
2)Action Reflection #3
– Read the February workshop follow-up articles posted below
– There is no book of the month this time! Use the break for any catch up reading.

READ

NEKKHAMA/RENUNCIATION
The Perfection of Renunciation
Friend Beside the Pool

GRIEF
A Grief Primer for Caregivers
A Buddhist Perspective on Grieving
Grief and the Mindfulness Approach
“Going Crazy Syndrome”

DEATH
Death – A Zen Buddhist Perspective
Marana-Sati: Death Awareness and Contemplations
Spiritual Care Near Life’s End
The Nature of Suffering and Opportunity at the End of Life
A Theravada Approach to Spiritual Care to the Dying and the Dead 
The Original Hospice – The Art of Dying Well

WORKSHEETS
Death Questionnaire
Preparing for One’s Own Death

OPTIONAL FURTHER READING

Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death

By Joan Halifax

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

By Frank Ostaseski

Website: The Conversation Project

LISTEN

Making Sense With Sam Harris: #297 Preparing For the End

A Conversation With BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger

LISTEN

WATCH (OPTIONAL)

POEM: WHEN DEATH COMES BY MARY OLIVER

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.