Summary: Episode Description: Frank demonstrates his unfailing instinct to touch a nerve (gently) -- to speak from and to the most vital movement in us, in our lives. He invites us with word and feeling to this life of vitality, rather than the stale realms of faux-transcendence, of spiritual bypassing. A deep freedom must touch core wounds, the places where we feel quite unlovable. We are by nature supremely vulnerable, impressionable; real transcendence appreciates how things are "always falling apart against a background of perfect harmony" (Shunryu Suzuki Roshi). After Frank's talk came impromptu birthday speeches by Joshin Byrnes and Roshi Joan Halifax -- included here for your enjoyment. Bio: In 1987, Frank Ostaseski helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others. Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary workshop leader. His public programs throughout the United States and Europe have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying.
