“Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most. “ Frank Ostaseski
And so we continue our exploration of the Five Invitations that death offers us. according to Ostaseski. Just to review;
1. Don’t wait. Be who you want to be, do what you want to do, NOW. It’s not about death and dying, its about the unlived life.
2. Welcome everything, push away nothing. Resist the temptation to avoid thinking about unpleasant things. Instead turn towards them to see what they have to offer.
3. Bring your whole self to every experience. Be open minded, open hearted. Stay in every moment instead of running away. Become curious.
4. Find rest in the middle of things. Look for moments of ease in every day, situation.
and finally, invitation number five – Cultivate a “don’t know” mind. Clearly there are mysteries that unfold slowly to us. Things we will never understand. Instead of trying to “under stand”, be content to just “stand under” what can’t be known. This is a much harder tasks than having answers to every question. It is why we are UUs. We pride ourselves in cultivating the courage to not know… to allow openness.
Ostaseski says that one definition of “Samara” (suffering) is “the endless urge to improve”! At some point, we need to rest in the knowledge that life is difficult and that we are doing the best we can with the circumstances we are in. Bow down to the fact of suffering, and difficulty. And find in the bowing a release of having to have everything be a certain way. We don’t have to like the circumstances of our life… but we have to meet them.
Death is ordinary. We are all here and we are all disappearing. Let us all find the courage to ask our death how we should live our life. And let that inquiry bring some measure of peace and joy as we go on learning our way down this path of life.
I just want to name that these posts i have made about the Five Invitations came from my notes taken at a workshop with Frank Ostaseski. I felt the information was so important I want to share it with you. I do not want this very small whittling down of his very powerful book to dissuade you from reading the whole book. In fact, I hope the opposite is true. You will find MUCH information there and I surely hope you will buy or borrow the book from your library to see the depth of all he has to teach us. I know that many people have taken the book to read together slowly and study with a group. I hope you will consider that too. Here is a link to his website and the book. The Five Invitations.
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