“All the time I work with dying people, and only a few of them know they are dying.” On this episode of Being Well, Soto Zen teacher Koshin Paley Ellison joins Forrest and Rick to explore living, dying, and personal practice in the midst of our beautiful, challenging, messy lives.
About our Guest: Sensei Koshin is an author, Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, and co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. He began his formal Zen training in 1987 and completed six years of training at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association. His most recent book is Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion.
New Course From Rick! Learn the lessons of a lifetime in the new and improved Foundations of Wellbeing 2.0 program. This yearlong, online program teaches you how to grow the 12 key inner strengths that lead to lasting wellbeing during difficult times. It’s currently 50% off, and you can use the code BeingWell25 to get an additional 25% off the purchase price.
Key Topics:
- 0:00: Introduction
- 1:40: Koshin’s got game
- 3:20: The privilege of witnessing the dying process
- 11:25: Difficult emotions that come up when considering death
- 16:00: Entanglement vs. spaciousness
- 28:30: Windows of acceptance and the things we don’t want to accept
- 33:15: The capacity for compassionate presence
- 37:55: How Jungian training has influenced Koshin’s contemplative practice
- 42:35: What Koshin is still untangling, and the ground of being
- 48:30: Appreciating being alive
- 51:45: Recap
