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Embracing Life and Death breaks the silence surrounding death, offering a comprehensive exploration into ethical living, terminal illness, and death education. Featuring contributions from 20 distinguished authors, this volume weaves personal narratives and academic research to understand life's final journey. Through authentic inquiry and participatory research, the authors underscore the importance of acknowledging mortality to enhance life's choices, fostering compassion and mindful living. The book integrates diverse cultural and religious perspectives, highlighting spiritual practices, palliative care, and the transformative potential of large language models like ChatGPT.
This resource is ideal for universities, K-12 schools, hospitals, palliative care and hospice centers, nursing homes, multi-faith churches, libraries, age-restricted communities, and home care providers. Embracing Life and Death is a call to action for ongoing dialogue and exploration, encouraging readers to reflect on their beliefs and engage in a compassionate, global conversation on mortality. This essential read promotes a nuanced appreciation of life and death, advocating for a more intentional and enriched human experience.
Contributors are: Dimitris Alexakos, Konstantinos Alexakos, Wladina Antoine Alexakos, Mitch Bleier, Chia-ju Chang, Piyanate Chuychai, Gene Fellner, Ranjit Gopi, Leonard Herczeg, Badri K. C., Vickie Karkazis, Peter Kaufman, Anna Malyukova, Xicoténcatl Martínez Ruiz, Eleanor A. Miele, Kashi Raj Pandey, Orest Pelechaty, Kenneth Tobin, Taya Wanasen, and Jo-I Wu.
List of contents
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
1 Perspectives on Mortality and Education
Kenneth Tobin and Konstantinos Alexakos
2 Understanding Life's End: A Journey of Awareness and Research
Kenneth Tobin and Konstantinos Alexakos
3 A Sociology of My Death
Peter Kaufman
4 Rediscovering the Deathbed
Eleanor Miele
5 Reimagining the Boundaries of Life and Death
Dimitris Antoine Alexakos
6 Put That Knife Down: A Journey on How Buddhist Practices Saved My Life from Depression
Taya Wanasen
7 Living Life after Depression: Through a Lens of a Mindfulness Practitioner
Piyanate Chuychai
8 Living and Dying a Good Life
Ranjit Gopi
9 Right Action Is Its Own Reward
Gene Fellner
10 Conceiving the Inconceivable... and Then What? A Response to Ranjit Gopi
Mitch Bleier
11 Honoring Impermanence
Vickie Karkazis
12 Buddhist Perspectives of Animal Hospice and Transition to the Spiritual Home
Jo-I Wu
13 When Eudemonia Meets Impermanence: A Zen Perspective on Liberation
Chia-ju Chang
14 A Source of Peace: Death and Joy in Sanskrit Texts
Xicoténcatl Martínez Ruiz
15 Insights from Death Park: Dialogues on Life and Death
Kashi Raj Pandey, Badri K. C. and Kenneth Tobin
16 In Preparation of Emotional Well-being through Narrative Reflection: Reflecting Death and Dying from a Compassionate Proximity
Kashi Raj Pandey
17 Ruminations on Life, Aging, and Death
Leonard Herczeg
18 Running Marathons: A Letter to my Mother
Anna Malyukova
19 Changing Views on the Process of Dying
Wladina Antoine Alexakos
20 Navigating Life's Final Passage: The Practice of P'howa
Orest Pelechaty
21 Reflections on the End of Life: A Multicultural Examination through Death Education
Kenneth Tobin
22 Faith & Farewell: A Family Navigates Life's Final Decisions
Kenneth Tobin
23 Utilizing LLM s in Research on Dying, Mortality, and the Afterlife
Kenneth Tobin
Index 301
