Created by Megory Anderson, PhD, and The Sacred Dying Foundation

Working as an emergency room nurse, Margaret Coberly came in contact with death on a daily basis. However, it wasn't until her own brother was diagnosed with terminal cancer that she realized she understood very little about the emotional and spiritual aspects of caring for the terminally ill. To fill this gap she turned to the unique wisdom on death and dying found in Tibetan Buddhism. In this book Coberly offers sound, practical advice on meeting the essential needs of the dying, integrating stories from her long career in nursing with useful insights from the Tibetan Buddhist teachings. In the West, death is viewed as a tragic and horrible event. Coberly shows us how this view generates fear and denial, which harm the dying by adding unnecessary loneliness, confusion, and mental anguish to the dying process. Tibetan Buddhism focuses on the nature of death and how to face it with honesty, openness, and courage. In this view, death is not a failure, but a natural part of life that, if properly understood and appreciated, can offer the dying and their loved ones an opportunity to gain valuable insight and wisdom. Coberly argues that the Tibetan Buddhist outlook can be a useful antidote to the culture of fear and denial that surrounds death in the West and can help caregivers become more fully present, fearless, honest, and compassionate. Sacred Passage highlights two very practical teachings on death and dying from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and presents them in clear, nontechnical language. Readers learn about the "eight stages of dissolution leading to death," a detailed roadmap of the dying process that describes the sequence of physical, psychological, and spiritual changes that occur as we die. Coberly also presents the "death meditation," a contemplative exercise for developing a new relationship to death—and life. The book also includes a lengthy, annotated list of recommended readings for added guidance and inspiration. Topics include: • How the terminally ill can experience emotional and spiritual healing even when they can't be cured • Why Western medicine's relentless focus on curing disease has led to inadequate care for the dying • What to expect during the dying process • How our fear and denial of death harm the dying • Techniques to help caregivers promote a peaceful environment for the dying and their loved ones • How to meet the changing physical and emotional needs of the dying • Helpful advice on what to say and how to behave around the terminally ill

Examines how each of the major religions looks at death by including stories, teachings, and rituals that present a comparative religious meaning of death and afterlife. Written in textbook style with journal exercises at the end of each chapter. +

The author instructs readers in the art of dying, providing useful advice on how to create rituals around death that encourage sacredness and spirituality, while exploring difficult questions surrounding the act of dying and attendant care and offering thoughtful rituals and prayers to support the needs of the dying while comforting the living. Reprint.

A SACRED WALK helps dispel the fear of death and draws uniquely on the experience of the dying to show how best to meet the practical, emotional, and spiritual needs of a loved one who is facing death. Writer Donna Authers lived in fear of death from childhood well into her adult life, the result of an unusual number of tragic losses in her family. The miraculous story of how that fear was broken marked the start of her calling as a caregiver to others as they, or their loved ones, prepared to leave this world. Walking alongside someone with a chronic or terminal illness is a sacred time, but we usually want to be told exactly how to help. Read how family, friends, hospice and other resources came together for Anna during her final days. Heeding the end-of-life lessons shared in this book will show readers how best to care for their loved ones and also help them die with no regrets when their own time comes. In response to reader demand, the eBook version includes a Discussion Guide with questions for each chapter to help open a dialog on important related topics we tend to avoid but shouldn't.

The Death of Sacred Texts draws attention to a much neglected topic in the study of sacred texts: the religious and ritual attitudes towards texts which have become old and damaged and can no longer be used for reading practices or in religious worship. This book approaches religious texts and scriptures by focusing on their physical properties and the dynamic interactions of devices and habits that lie beneath and within a given text. In the last decades a growing body of research studies has directed attention to the multiple uses and ways people encounter written texts and how they make them alive, even as social actors, in different times and cultures. Considering religious people seem to have all the motives for giving their sacred texts a respectful symbolic treatment, scholars have paid surprisingly little attention to the ritual procedures of disposing and renovating old texts. This book fills this gap, providing empirical data and theoretical analyses of historical and contemporary religious attitudes towards, and practices of text disposals within, seven world religions: Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Exploring the cultural and historical variations of rituals for religious scriptures and texts (such as burials, cremations and immersion into rivers) and the underlying beliefs within the religious traditions, this book investigates how these religious practices and stances respond to modernization and globalization processes when new technologies have made it possible to mass-produce and publish religious texts on the Internet.

25th Anniversary Edition Over 3 Million Copies Sold 'I couldn't give this book a higher recommendation' BILLY CONNOLLY Written by the Buddhist meditation master and popular international speaker Sogyal Rinpoche, this highly acclaimed book clarifies the majestic vision of life and death that underlies the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It includes not only a lucid, inspiring and complete introduction to the practice of meditation, but also advice on how to care for the dying with love and compassion, and how to bring them help of a spiritual kind. But there is much more besides in this classic work, which was written to inspire all who read it to begin the journey to enlightenment and so become 'servants of peace'.