The Zen Approach to Death
The Zen Approach to Death
By Tara Giddings
The concept of death has long been a dark, disturbing, unknowable part of life for many people. Often death is thought of as only an ending and the emotional side of death is avoided, even within the healthcare system.
Zen Hospice Project is a care center that is working to change this idea of death, instead focusing on the joy and beauty in living and the emphasis on life that death provides. Through focusing on “human-centered care” they create an environment where patients and families do not fear death, but appreciate life.
The organization began 30 years ago, in 1987, to help provide comfort for the victims of AIDS. Today it is an independent nonprofit group that trains volunteers for the small residential operation in Hayes Valley which opened in 1990. Zen Hospice Project also works with volunteers for San Francisco’s Laguna Honda public Hospital.
The inspiration for Zen Hospice Project is explained by BJ Miller, who previously worked as executive director, in his Ted Talk about what really matters at the end of life. “Our role as caregivers, as people who care, is to relieve suffering, not add to the pile” says Miller. One of the volunteers, Kit, describes her role working at Zen Hospice Project saying she chose to spend her time helping those at the end of their lives after “an experience early on in my life with my grandmother that really moved me.” Kit signed up to be a volunteer after retiring and became one of the many people to learn from the training of Mindful Caregiver Education offered by the group.
Zen Hospice group describes their facility as one where they “create space for living that offers the opportunity for individuals, their loved ones and caregivers to find comfort, connections and healing in this shared human experience.” By viewing death as not only an essential part of life, but as a part not to be feared or avoided, the group creates a view of death differing from traditional hospice facilities. Kit describes her volunteer work with families as “the biggest thing is just to try to be comfortable with whatever comes up for people.” When working with people going through such an intimate experience the volunteers do not give advice. Instead they work on being there to listen as people feel “a whole range of emotions when they are here with a family member whose dying, guilt, anger and fear and disbelief and denial, and we just try to support them”.
Most volunteers are not around for the entire grieving process, but many such as Kit give their free time to help families “experience whatever it is they’re with in that moment.” The philosophy of Zen Hospice Project is to strive for “mindful and wholehearted engagement with the present moment” as part of their outlook towards living and dying. In his Ted Talk Miller explains the Zen Project methods in working with those approaching death is focusing on “impulses that make us stay in the present, no need for a past or future.”
After interacting and connecting with many patients Kit’s approach to death has changed, as she says “I think I am more open to it.” She says “I don’t know that I was afraid before but if I had any reservations based on the unknown I’ve moved past that.” Her words relate to the beliefs of Zen Hospice Group; “interdependence and shared importance through which we can most intimately serve and support each other in living and dying.”
One of the lessons Kit received in her volunteer work is based in the Zen methods, saying “there are five precepts and we studied this when we first got here so I think these 5 precepts have definitely informed me.” The five precepts, created by co-founder Frank Ostaseki are 1. Don’t Wait, 2. Welcome everything, push away nothing, 3. Bring your whole self to the experience, 4. Find a place of rest in the middle of things, 5. Cultivate don’t know mind. Kit, while not a practicing Buddhist says for her “welcome everything is probably the biggest thing.”
Zen Hospice Projects helps people accept not only their death, but also their lives with the philosophy of “the lived experience that dying is both sacred and unknowable, which allows us to be fully present to whatever we meet without preconceptions.” The group aims to lead towards the understanding that death can help people better appreciate and live their lives. After volunteering Kit says “I don’t think you can be with death regularly and not have it impact how you feel about life, that’s the biggest gift that hospice offers.”
The outlook of Zen Hospice Project allows death to be a peaceful aspect of life, not a tragic ending as Miller says one of the most important things is “to realize you can always find a shock of beauty or meaning in what life you have left.”
By Tara Giddings
The concept of death has long been a dark, disturbing, unknowable part of life for many people. Often death is thought of as only an ending and the emotional side of death is avoided, even within the healthcare system.
Zen Hospice Project is a care center that is working to change this idea of death, instead focusing on the joy and beauty in living and the emphasis on life that death provides. Through focusing on “human-centered care” they create an environment where patients and families do not fear death, but appreciate life.
The organization began 30 years ago, in 1987, to help provide comfort for the victims of AIDS. Today it is an independent nonprofit group that trains volunteers for the small residential operation in Hayes Valley which opened in 1990. Zen Hospice Project also works with volunteers for San Francisco’s Laguna Honda public Hospital.
The inspiration for Zen Hospice Project is explained by BJ Miller, who previously worked as executive director, in his Ted Talk about what really matters at the end of life. “Our role as caregivers, as people who care, is to relieve suffering, not add to the pile” says Miller. One of the volunteers, Kit, describes her role working at Zen Hospice Project saying she chose to spend her time helping those at the end of their lives after “an experience early on in my life with my grandmother that really moved me.” Kit signed up to be a volunteer after retiring and became one of the many people to learn from the training of Mindful Caregiver Education offered by the group.
Zen Hospice group describes their facility as one where they “create space for living that offers the opportunity for individuals, their loved ones and caregivers to find comfort, connections and healing in this shared human experience.” By viewing death as not only an essential part of life, but as a part not to be feared or avoided, the group creates a view of death differing from traditional hospice facilities. Kit describes her volunteer work with families as “the biggest thing is just to try to be comfortable with whatever comes up for people.” When working with people going through such an intimate experience the volunteers do not give advice. Instead they work on being there to listen as people feel “a whole range of emotions when they are here with a family member whose dying, guilt, anger and fear and disbelief and denial, and we just try to support them”.
Most volunteers are not around for the entire grieving process, but many such as Kit give their free time to help families “experience whatever it is they’re with in that moment.” The philosophy of Zen Hospice Project is to strive for “mindful and wholehearted engagement with the present moment” as part of their outlook towards living and dying. In his Ted Talk Miller explains the Zen Project methods in working with those approaching death is focusing on “impulses that make us stay in the present, no need for a past or future.”
After interacting and connecting with many patients Kit’s approach to death has changed, as she says “I think I am more open to it.” She says “I don’t know that I was afraid before but if I had any reservations based on the unknown I’ve moved past that.” Her words relate to the beliefs of Zen Hospice Group; “interdependence and shared importance through which we can most intimately serve and support each other in living and dying.”
One of the lessons Kit received in her volunteer work is based in the Zen methods, saying “there are five precepts and we studied this when we first got here so I think these 5 precepts have definitely informed me.” The five precepts, created by co-founder Frank Ostaseki are 1. Don’t Wait, 2. Welcome everything, push away nothing, 3. Bring your whole self to the experience, 4. Find a place of rest in the middle of things, 5. Cultivate don’t know mind. Kit, while not a practicing Buddhist says for her “welcome everything is probably the biggest thing.”
Zen Hospice Projects helps people accept not only their death, but also their lives with the philosophy of “the lived experience that dying is both sacred and unknowable, which allows us to be fully present to whatever we meet without preconceptions.” The group aims to lead towards the understanding that death can help people better appreciate and live their lives. After volunteering Kit says “I don’t think you can be with death regularly and not have it impact how you feel about life, that’s the biggest gift that hospice offers.”
The outlook of Zen Hospice Project allows death to be a peaceful aspect of life, not a tragic ending as Miller says one of the most important things is “to realize you can always find a shock of beauty or meaning in what life you have left.”
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