Joan Halifax

After reading this story by Joan Halifax to a group of children at the Middle Way School in New York, messages from teachers and parents started coming back…it was creating a profound ripple effect. The story unfolds in a beautiful way that creates the perfect setting for a gem of a mantra to shine: Breathe in, I am safe. Breathe out, I am free. Halifax wrote the book—based on a childhood memory of getting lost in the rain and meeting a dog—during the pandemic when she felt children were suffering the collective fear of the adult world. Halifax says the storm in the story is also about the storms we encounter in our life, the losses that we experience, and the courage and love to show up for what really matters. From a parent: “It has been a challenging year for me. Yesterday in the car ride home from the tea party, my son told me the story he learned at school of the blind girl who regained her sight. And then taught me the meditation from the book. It was a really beautiful moment and spot on in terms of how I am currently approaching a major health obstacle. I just wanted to share how the dharma teachings are offering life skills to these young ones.”… (mehr)

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Grof-La-rencontre-de-lhomme-avec-la-mort/522420
> 3e millenaire.com : Mort et renaissance, entretien avec Stanislas Grof
> Psycha Analyse : Bibliographie sélective sur la mort

> Saint-Arnaud Jocelyne. Bibliographie indicative sur la « bonne mort »
In: Frontières, Volume 20, numéro 1, automne 2007, p. 119–120. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/017966ar

> Depuis le milieu des années 80, des centaines de livres, pratiques et théoriques, sont parus sur l’accompagnement des personnes très malades ou en fin de vie. Nous ne pouvons en citer que quelques-uns (les “scènes” 1, 2, 4 et 5 de ce dossier sont tirées de "Réapprivoiser la mort", de Patrice van Eersel, Livre de Poche).

Signalons aussi : L’art d’accompagner notre grand départ [Mots-clés (35)]

*Source: Nouvelles Clés… (mehr)

Listening to this book was profoundly meaningful. I've admired Roshi Joan Halifax for her balance of earthy sensibility and intentional spirit-ness (which I use distinctively from spirituality). The book examines five "edge-states": altruism, empathy, integrity, respect, and engagement. In recognition of Thich Nhat Hanh's wise caution: "no mud, no lotus", Halifax unpacks each of these edge-states to dig into when altruism goes awry, when we can suffer empathic distress, recognizing empathy as a precursor to compassion (but not compassion itself), when mouthing off is just sanctimony and not principled moral outrage (integrity), and so much more. It would be enough for her just to speak to her own experiences--as a social justice advocate, a volunteer at maximum security penitentiaries, a hospice caregiver, a medical anthropologist and psychologist, founder of the Upaya Zen Center, and probably half a dozen other things I don't even know about. She brings in amazing stories, but also grounds a lot of what she shares in neuroscience and psychology. Roshi Joan is quick to credit all the various figures from whom she has learned (formally, and informally), and it is worth listening to the acknowledgements at the end of the book, because she says each name with intentionality and it is a very impressive list. She integrates introductions to concepts like Stephen Karpman's Drama Triangle, pathological altruism, the Hungry Ghost (in Buddhism), Darwin's original concept of natural selection unmodified by Spencer, David Halberstam's account of the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức in 1963, horizontal hostility/peer-aggression, Clark Strand's concept of meditating inside the life you have -- the list goes on. And even with all of this in there, her gentle but firm narration keeps it all digestible and meaningful.

Far from a feel-good self-help book, this is truly an honest investigation of what it is to be human. She offers some suggestions for practice, but ultimately she uses powerful metaphors (ending with a astounding story about her experiences at a charnel ground), storytelling, historical documentation, and scientific investigation, to help us grapple with our own condition(s). She holds up others: Fannie Lou Hamer, Florynce Kennedy, Laurance Rockefeller, and so many others. She shares their stories as well as her own. Roshi Joan offers a contemplative practice model to help guide us through these moments that challenge us at the edge, but one that is centered in active presence and acknowledgment of systemic injustice and our individual biases. This is not a stick-your-head-in-the-sand approach, but instead one of intentional centeredness to create spaces of mutuality and trust. I'll be returning to this often.… (mehr)