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
