is changing and that to study The Way is to study the self, to loosen up and open your hand from self-clinging— to allow the 10,000 things to flow through you. That’ s just the way it is.
We suffer because of our conditioning. Period. And the practice is about how to uproot our conditioning and self-clinging so that we can actually be free. If we call it life or call it death; or whatever it is; that’ s what I am most interested in. Dying people are the most amazing teachers because they have no time for bullshit. The smack in their face of the reality that this form is finite is so shocking for most people. Even your body cannot save you at the time of your death. Regardless of what you have, nothing is going to save you. We all come in empty handed and go out barefoot.
One of my favorite joys is to look at the night sky and to recognize the hubris of thinking that we know anything. To insist,‘ Oh I know something.’ Look up and tell the night sky that you know what you know and see what comes back. We have no idea. The grasping to know something is the greatest deprivation.
Is it life or is it death? I don’ t know. Those are just ideas anyway. Even the terms,‘ life’ and‘ death;’‘ this is life’ and‘ this is death’… maybe. No one has an answer but there’ s company. The connectedness of company and companionship in the not knowing is essential. The nourishment of feeling many voices saying,‘ Wow, we’ re all in the unknown here.’ The only thing that makes sense is to completely pay attention and care. I can’ t think of what’ s more valuable.
SENSEI KOSHIN
Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, cofounded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Zen-based organization to offer fully accredited ACPE clinical chaplaincy training in America, which delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. Paley Ellison is the academic advisor for the Buddhist students in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling program at NYZCCC’ s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. He is currently on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School’ s Center for Integrative Medicine’ s Integrative Medicine Fellowship, and he is a visiting professor at the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, of the University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston Medical School. Paley Ellison’ s public programs have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the living and dying. More than 30,000 people listen to his podcasts each year. Koshin is a popular keynote speaker for national conferences, including the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, Integrative Healthcare Symposium, and the Palliative Care Symposium. His groundbreaking work has been widely featured in the media, including the PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, and in numerous print publications such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Koshin is the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care( Wisdom Publications, 2016). He began his formal Zen training in 1987, and he delightfully continues to study with Dorothy Dai En Friedman, Zen teacher in the White Plum Soto Zen Lineage. He is a senior Zen monk, Soto Zen teacher, ACPE supervisor, and Jungian psychotherapist. KOSHIN PALEY
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