This Sunday, Jan. 10th, at 10am PST, I’ll be joined by activist, author and founder of The Orphan Wisdom School, Stephen Jenkinson, for a dialogue entitled:
Death Phobia and Grief Illiteracy: How They Distance Us from One Another, Our Planet, and Our World Crisis
Stephen has devoted his life and career to working with dying people and their families, and he is bringing a revolutionary perspective to the process of facing death, grieving and dying in North American culture. He brings a fierce heart and clarity of vision to this work, good medicine that can help people make healthy, embodied end-of-life choices, and attend to the care of the soul.
On Sunday, we’ll be examining “death phobia” and “grief illiteracy,” two wide-spread conditions Stephen has diagnosed, the fundamental dynamics by which we disconnect culturally from one another and our planet, contributing to our global crises.
It is painful to face death, destruction or loss. But we flinch, and try to avoid that pain. Thus, for most of us grief is a vast unexplored territory. Because we don’t dare to go there, we dwell in only a small portion of our existential estate.
Stephen will share his thoughts on why that is, and how we can go beyond our own death phobia and be deepened and strengthened by an honest, wholesome engagement with appropriate grief.
Stephen has also deeply contemplated the human relationship to climate change and the degradation of nature. It is easy for many of us to look at the deep existential insanity in the psychology of those who deny climate change. But Stephen goes further and illuminates the paradoxical death phobia underlying most ecological care and climate activism; and how this mis-orientation renders environmentalism so profoundly ungrounded and ineffective.
You’ll also hear Stephen explain why grief and discernment are profoundly intertwined, and how grief is a form of moral intelligence. We can confront our own death, and that of our loved ones, in healthy, honest, and empowering ways. It is how we as individuals can do our part to prepare our species for a great, honest collective confrontation with our current loss—a destabilized atmosphere and biosphere.
I hope you’ll join us on Sunday.
About Stephen Jenkinson
Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is revolutionizing grief and dying in North America.
He has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former program director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school, consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations and educator and advocate in the helping professions.
He is the author of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions – a live recorded teaching (2013), How it All Could Be: A work book for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life – a live recorded teaching (2009), and Money and The Soul’s Desires: A Meditation (2002), and contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007).
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
*Sunday, Jan. 10th at 10:00am Pacific; 11:00am Mountain; 12:00pm Central; 1:00pm Eastern
*Find Your Local Time
Please Note: There will be a limited number of lines available on the live conference call, so we encourage you to listen online if possible. To make sure you can get through by phone, we encourage you to dial in early.
ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS
- To listen live by phone, dial: (425) 440-5100 (alternate #: (415) 633-4267 )
- Then, enter Access Code: 991220#
- To listen live online go to: http://iteleseminar.com/79207347
- To download the audio after the teleseminar is complete go to the Beyond Awakening Audio Page
Join the Dialogue: About one hour into the dialogue, we’ll open up the lines and you’ll have the opportunity to interact with us directly over the phone or via instant message. Here’s what to do:
To interact live by voice, dial into the conference line number and wait until we ask for a question from someone in your region, or
Send us your question via instant message in the teleseminar window on your computer, or
Send us your questions and comments before or during the live dialogue by posting them on our Beyond Awakening Community Facebook page
We look forward to your attendance!
Sincerely,
The Beyond Awakening Team
I just listened to Terry and Stephen dialogue on death and grief. I found myself saying ‘yes’ and ‘wow’ many times. Many pearls of wisdom.
I wrote this poem on death several days ago as a response to grief within me. Thank you Terry and Stephen.
Death
I am going to die;
I just don’t know
when, how or where.
There is that fear
of opening this door
called death. So I
spend my entire
life afraid to Live.
This death fear is
Synched with fear
of a death of change.
Change is going to
occur. We just don’t
know when, how or
where will show up.
Change of systems
dying and new ones
being born. Whether
politics, religion, culture,
or how we relate to each
other. These changes
often must break old
patterns structured in
our brains. Known
as beliefs……………..
Beliefs are programs; the
hard drive in our minds.
Thoughts and emotions
become the software driving
the beliefs. We can’t just change
the software; We must change
our hard drives. We must Die
to these old systems. Not easy!
If We face our own fear
of death. If We can open
this long, locked door and
face the unknown maybe
it can open all the locked
doors of fear around any
unknown. We become Free
from our minds prison of
century’s of old wired hardware;
these old beliefs, often never
questioned because to question
is part of the system of fear too.
Fear holds us prisoners; keeps
us locked into beliefs of being
separate from each other and
our Divine Source, the very
means of direct experience of
Unity and wholeness that frees.
What is the key to open, activate
these old structures. Where, how
and when do We, as a collective
Humanity, switch the old out-
dated information to receive the
higher, more loving Grace found,
ready to download into our hearts
and minds from a greater, more
God like presence, already within
each of us, wired right into our
very own DNA.
That key is called our very own
Soul. We begin to listen closely
to its higher messages from within
our heart. Every heart wired the
same. Love must replace fear.
Our Souls call each of us now to
switch over from the hard drive of
fear to the hard drive of Love.
We must return home. Within
each of us is that same greater,
love of Grace. Our only requirement
is to make the switch. The question
of how, when and where always gets
answered and revealed through
Grace. Always through Love.
I surrender my will, fear, to that
higher Will, Love. I ask Grace,
my own Soul, who I Am, to shine
through that I may now Serve
only Love and its virtues of Truth,
Goodness and Beauty in the world.
Grace is always, already within;
waiting for each of us to key into
its open door where higher action
gets activated through Grief.
I finally let go…..
Dear Marylinda, many thanks for for the gift of this touching, intimate beautiful poem. And your words of appreciation.You are an ever dearer friend. Warm blessings, Terry
Two of my favorite teachers in conversation! What an awesome dialogue Terry. Congrats on your decision to bring Stephen’s work to the attention of your community and how beautifully you received it. It really takes work to take it in but the blessing of Stephen’s deep experience and matching eloquence just make it possible. For those wanting more resources, a good intro to his work is a gorgeous documentary made by the National Film Board a few years ago called Griefwalker. Available at http://orphanwisdom.com/shop/griefwalker/. He is doing a number of events around the world, but the Orphan Wisdom School scholars in Ottawa are sponsoring a workshop in Ottawa Oct. 21-22 this year that will be gorgeous. Will soon be announced on his website. Would be grand to see people from this community there! There are also a number of integral scholars in Ottawa who usually join us.
Dear Jean, I remember you vividly, and I’m so glad that you were able to tune in. And thank you for the links to Stephen’s other work. I invite you, if it feels right, to post them, and your comments, on the Beyond Awakening community facebook page under the announcements for Stephen’s show here: https://www.facebook.com/beyondawakening/ I hope and trust that our paths will cross again before long. In the meantime, I send my warmest blessings.
Be well, Terry
Terry, Thanks for continuing to serve the greater good through your work. Looking forward to listening to Stephen on Sunday.
What a fascinating take on the issue of climate change. This webinar is compelling. I plan to be present for it. Thank you. I love the terms ‘death phobia’ and ‘grief illertacy.’
I’m really looking forward to this one, Terry. Hoping I can read some of his work before the call. Is there anything you would recommend?
Glad you’ll be joining us Liz! Stephen’s latest book is called Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015) You can find out more about his work here: http://orphanwisdom.com/ Enjoy!
I am looking forward to this wisdom. It has been my experience of the deaths of my parents that has led me to my deepest wisdom and most sacred art….. I look forward to hearing your teachings.
Thank you for this powerful work you are doing,
Sharon Rose Dozar