Frank Ostaseski: What Death Can Teach Us About Living

Frank Ostaseski is a Buddhist teacher and a pioneer and leader in the field of end of life care. 

“I don't know exactly how we prepare for dying. I know that we can use the spectre of death as a way to show us how to live our life really fully. And that may be the best preparation for dying, a life fully lived.”

Frank founded the first Zen hospice project in 1987, and guided that for almost 20 years, and subsequently then founded The Metta Institute, where he's trained hundreds of people in end of life care. 

“Knowing that the people we love will die reminds us how we want to care for them. Now, how do we want to attend to this relationship? It's not to scare us. It's to encourage us to recognize what it is that matters most.”

In today’s episode, Frank shares his journey from the beginning of his spiritual practice, to founding the San Francisco based Zen center, why you need to focus rather than seek, the beauty of a wonder walk, the value of listening, being comfortable in our vulnerability, our immense capacity for love, and why we shouldn't wait until we die to learn the lessons that death has to teach us. 

“The very process of dying is actually conducive to our waking up… People often discover something about themselves that they didn't know before. And this isn't because of some religious or even spiritual practice. It's because they came in contact with something true about themselves.”

On today’s podcast:

What is it that brings us to spiritual practice?
The beauty of a wonder walk
When dealing with death, lead with humanity
The value of listening
Love people until they can love themselves again
Have the courage to be vulnerable

Links:

The Five invitations
@fostaseski
Book - The Five Invitations