A hospice for a meditative transition

Maneesha

Beloved Friends of Osho,

Many of you will know that for some years now I have been facilitating meditation groups around the world related to death and dying, as well as working individually with people who are dying, with carers, and with those in bereavement.

Pre-sannyas I graduated in general nursing, midwifery and psychiatric nursing. I’ve trained in hypnotherapy, and more recently I have just completed a post-graduate degree in Psychotherapy and Counselling, in Sydney, Australia. Clearer than ever that I want to focus all my energy and time into bringing meditation into the dying process (and to augment my existing experience and skills), I am now working as a volunteer in a palliative care unit at Greenwich hospital, Sydney. At the volunteer supervisor’s behest I recently ran a day workshop on meditation, and am now in discussion with the head of nursing to do something similar with the nurses. I’m also facilitating meditation workshops for student therapists at my old college (the Jansen Newman Institute, Sydney).

Osho has spoken extensively on the need for hospitals to provide a special place in which people can die meditatively…

Every hospital should have a special place for people, with a special staff, where people can come, get relaxed and be helped to die beautifully, without any disease, supported by the medical profession. (From Unconsciousness to Consciousness)

Death can be made a celebration; you just have to learn how to welcome it, relaxed, peaceful. And in one month’s time, people, friends, can come to see them and meet together. Let them live for one month at least like emperors, so they can leave life with no grudge, with no complaint but only with deep gratitude, thankfulness. (Sermons in Stones)

…And [a person] should be taught meditation in this one month, so that he can do meditation while death comes….slowly slowly, side by side with meditation, sleep going deeper. We can change thousands of people’s deaths into enlightenment. (Socrates Poisoned Again…)

Not only are many of us sannyasins moving into old age, as is true of the general population some of us dying at a relatively young age, typically, of cancer.

Given that death is inevitable, and that most everyone has issues around dying/ nonbeing/ annihilation, it seems to me only intelligent to identify and work with our own individual concerns while we are still able to. For one it might be fear of feeling abandoned, for another, a sense of an unfufilled life, for another, a fear of dying in pain/ alone and so on. Then, when one’s death is imminent, it does not need to be fraught with anguish and fear but can be an event that one passes through with grace, and even gratitude.

I look at preparation for dying from my experience as a midwife, when I witnessed and performed many deliveries. When we are pregnant we consciously prepare for birth – attending ante-natal classes in order to understand what our bodymind will be going through in the months of pregnancy; to know what activity is helpful, what would not be advisable; to eat the most beneficial foods; and to be educated in how, at the time of labor, we can facilitate the process and minimize pain through knowing when and how to breathe, to push, and not to push. Why would we not, in a similar fashion, prepare for the other major transition in life? – that of dying. After all, at birth every single one of us is already pregnant with our own death.

Yes, there is a part of dying/death that is mysterious and unknown and will probably always remain so. Yet there are certain knowns about dying/death too, areas that we can consciously explore beforehand. For example, the fact that, however many friends might be around our deathbed, the journey we are embarking on we must do alone; the fact that we must leave behind life as we have known it; must leave behind our identity as a certain personality with a particular body and a unique mind. Those ‘knowns’ can be identified and worked with so that not only are they diminished, but that also, in the process, we actually grow – in understanding, wisdom and maturity. And for the unknown/unknowable dimension, meditation provides us with the very best preparation, for it is, in many aspects, similar to death. In meditation, we are alone; in meditation we move beyond our identity as a bodymind to relax into the witnessing consciousness; through meditation we can gain an experiential understanding of the natural ebb and flow of existence, and know the grace and let-go that comes with that insight.

While once I would have liked to think I could die within the buddhafield of the Osho Meditation Resort, that looks less and less a likely scenario, for a variety of reasons. (Added to which, I would guess that the Resort does not want to be known as a place for us to go to be supported through dying). Yet, I wonder if there isn’t a way in which I and others who feel the same, could be cared for in our last days by fellow sannyasins – supported in our conscious preparation and journey and knowing that, at our body-leaving, we will be farewelled with love and joy, with music and dance?

It is said that (this is true of Australia and, I presume elsewhere) the medical profession and the church – both known for their conservative approach – zealously guard their grip on the hospice and palliative-care area. Until that changes and we can indeed introduce ‘Death Centres’ into hospitals, why not create our own, independent hospice, which would be the prototype of Osho’s vision of dying in a meditative space?

‘The Last Resort’ would be open to anyone who is a sannyasin/ a meditator, and/or who would like to die with the support of meditators, in tune with Osho’s vision of dying consciously and celebratively. This could include our family and friends of course.
Where would The Last Resort be best situated? I see Europe as the most central continent, and thus accessible for the majority of us. England may be a possibility. The Netherlands is the most liberal of the European countries and is English-speaking. I envisage a place in the countryside or by the sea, but within reach of public transport. Perhaps we’d start off with just a 5-10-bed capacity.

Friends have come up with suggestions of including an aged-care facility, a guest house, and a crematorium – all great ideas, but I think I’d prefer to go just with the hospice initially.

Ideally, we would buy an existing building/former hospice and adapt it to our needs. Clients would have their own, private, en suite rooms. The hospice could employ local people to take care of areas such as cleaning, cooking, laundry, and gardening, which would help to ensure that the hospice is accepted by the local community, if this were an issue. Sannyasins would fill the positions of administrator, accountant, doctors, palliative care nurses, therapists, musicians and volunteers. One consideration would be whether accommodation would be available for staff or if they would live nearby.

Not only would we be providing a transformative experience for those dying; we as meditators would also have the opportunity for deepening our own practice. As those of us who have been with someone who is dying may know, it is a really a deeply moving and potential experience. As Osho says:

“When somebody is dying and his death is very, very imminent he should be moved to [a] Death Center….a small temple where people who can go deep in meditation should sit around him, should help him to die, and should participate in his being when he disappears into nothing. When somebody disappears into nothing great energy is released. The energy that was there, surrounding him, is released.

“Death is the point at which knowledge fails, and when knowledge fails, mind fails. And when mind fails, there is a possibility of truth penetrating you”.
   (The Heart Sutra)

With our meditation, music, love and joyfulness we can create a beautiful, vibrant, Osho-saturated energyfield!

Clearly, this idea is in its first draft, and, equally clearly, I can’t manifest it alone! It can only take off if many people are ready to put their energy into it. From among us we will need people willing to coordinate the project; to provide or help source the funds; to locate/donate a suitable building, or to help in any necessary building and the equipping of it; to take responsibility for the business and administrative aspects, and, of course, the appropriately qualified people wanting to be employed. I see my own role as helping to get the project off the ground, but chiefly training others in the role of ‘Transition Midwife” – that is, learning counselling skills and guiding the dying through the process of leaving the body.

Please give this your consideration, and then we can take things from there.

I look forward to your response!

love, Maneesha

Live each day as if it’s your last. One day you’re goin’ to be right!
(Ray Charles)

Contact: maneeshajames@gmail.com

Update: The first meeting to be held to discuss Maneesha’s idea will be on the afternoon of Saturday April 9th, in the Ashburton/Totnes area of Devon, UK.

On the following day, Sunday April 10th, Maneesha will run a one-day workshop at Space Upstairs, Ashburton, Devon entitled ‘Supporting the Other through A Meditative Dying’. One-to-one sessions will be available during the following two days. To know more and for updates please check out the Devon Local Page of Oshonews.com

Text and Photo: copyright © 2010 Maneesha
First published in Osho News Online Magazine Sept 2010