A matter of life and death: faith, hope and love

This weekend Thomas Moore speaks at New York Open Center's conference The Art of Dying that "brings together renowned thought leaders, innovators, researchers and practitioners in the area of death and dying, including the professional fields of palliative and hospice care." Moore offers two sessions:

Faith, Hope and Love: Alternative Ways to Know About Life and Death 
"People say that human beings don’t have the privilege of knowing what happens at and after the point of death. But the truth is, we don’t really know anything fully. We gather facts and draw our conclusions, but we know very little. In this situation, we need other responses besides knowledge. We need faith in life, hope that the whole thing makes sense and love of the world rather than merely an understanding of it. Compared to our usual trust in research and knowledge, these are alternative ways to be, and they operate under the power of love. The whole secret to dying is to love life and trust it."

A Taste for the Eternal, Preparing for Death through Experience of the Timeless
 "From the minute we are born we are drifting toward death — the entrance and the exit. In between are times of entering further into life and leaving it. If we only value and pursue the direction of life, we will only half live and not be ready for death. We get close to the timeless through profound works of art, deep meditations, strong loves, absorption in nature, and above all, losing ourselves in sublime music. We have to become acquainted with the timeless not to be entirely surprised by death. Some sort of spiritual experience and vision are necessary. Another way is loss of ego: feelings of inferiority, not understanding, not being in control. This session will work out a strategy for joyfully befriending death."

For Huffington Post Jaweed Kaleem writes "Art Of Dying Conference Explores Spiritual, Scientific Approaches To Dying" in which he states the conference "... kicked off Friday morning with two daylong seminars — one taught by psychotherapist Thomas Moore about “alternative ways to know about life and death” and another led by Henry Fersko-Weiss, president of the International End-of-Life Doula Association ..."

Register now for Thomas Moore's two new half-day workshops at the Center on Sunday 28 June 2015:
Passionate Neutrality
All is Play