For episode seventeen of the Real Love Podcast Series, Sharon shares a conversation with Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell and Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison from the New York Zen Center For Contemplative Care.
Senseis Chodo and Koshin speak with Sharon about the way we relate to death and how Buddhist practice can prepare us for leaving this incarnation.
The Real Love Podcast Series is a special series on the Metta Hour. Featuring a variety of conversations with some of the world’s finest thinkers and teachers exploring Sharon’s new book “Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection“. Real Love a field guide for anyone seeking awakened living in the 21st century – regardless of age, race, gender, ethnicity or status. The book explores love is three different areas in life: love of oneself, love of an other, and love for all of life. Real Love is now available to order in hardcover, ebook and audiobook format.
Keep up with Chod and Koshin and learn more about the New York Zen Center For Contemplative Care at zencare.org
Coming to Sit Together (Opening)
Chodo and Koshin each share how they came to be practitioners of the Soto Zen tradition. They talk about how they first met and the way in which their relationship blossomed.
Following the Call (11:45)
This year marks the tenth anniversary since Chodo and Koshin co-founded the New York Zen Center For Contemplative Care. They talk about the inspiration behind opening the center and what the center has to offer its community.
“I think there is something extraordinary about the whole experience of being with someone who is dying. It is a very ordinary occurrence, but there is something extraordinary about bearing witness to it.” – Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell
Burning Bright (25:45)
Working with death. And the spectrum of emotions that come with it, on a daily basis. Can be more challenging than most people are prepared to handle properly. Chodo and Koshin talk about the kind of training they give students. Specifically, in order to develop the capacity to process these difficult emotions which allows them to flourish in their work. Koshin shares a meditation centered around cultivating compassion which fosters our emotional resiliency.
“Empathy can be a bridge to compassion, but I think many healthcare workers get burnt out because they are functioning empathically. A big part of our training program is how to really give and receive compassion.” – Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison
The Jewel of Sangha (38:40)
The two talk about the essential role that the refuge of the community provides those working in end of life care.
Learn more about the Three Jewels of Refuge on Ep. 7 of the Be Here Now Guest Podcast with Roshi Joan Halifax.
