Meditating on loss

Frank Ostaseski’s teachings have profoundly shaped my end-of-life care practice. He directed the year-long Metta Institute (San Francisco) program I completed in 2006. Here he offers a short guided meditation on remembering someone who has died or otherwise left our life. He invites us to reflect on what may have been left unfinished and to express the words still waiting to be spoken.

Elsewhere Frank writes, “The habit of escape does not serve. Pain + Resistance = Suffering. It’s counter intuitive but healing is always found by turning toward the suffering. Intentionally becoming more permeable, present, and mindfully curious engages our resources, resilience, reduces the sting of the unpleasant and makes us ready to meet whatever shows up.”