The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully

By Frank Ostaseski

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, a secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most in life.

So begins Frank Ostaseski's stirring book, The Five Invitations, an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present awareness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. In his thirty-plus years as a companion to the dying, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. A renowned teacher of compassionate care-giving, Ostaseski has distilled the lessons gleaned over the course of his career into a powerful and inspiring exploration of the essential wisdom dying has to impart to all of us about how to forge rich and meaningful lives. The 'Five Invitations' - Welcome Everything, Push Away Nothing; Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience; Don't Wait; Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things; and Cultivate a Don't Know Mind - show how death can be the guide we need to wake up fully to our lives.

This stunning, unforgettable book offers a radical path to transformation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Mar 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781447292869

Frank Ostaseski

Frank Ostaseski, co-founder of the Zen Hospice Project and the Metta Institute, is a Buddhist teacher, international lecturer and a leading voice in contemplative end-of-life care. He has been honoured by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and named one of America’s 50 Most Innovative People. He teaches at healthcare and spiritual institutions, like the Mayo Clinic and Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and his work has been featured on programmes such as the Bill Moyers PBS series On Our Own Terms and The Oprah Winfrey Show, among others.

Reviews for The Five Invitations

[danhammang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book, written by the co-founder and longtime director of the San Francisco Zen Center Hospice is a finely written guide, a soft warm bed with many blankets. The core Invitations and many helpful suggestions are practical, useful tools for people dying, for people meeting pain, for people close to those dying, for anyone suffering. There are many stories along the way from his years of changing bed linen, holding hands of seeking to assist people in their journey.

[snash_44 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A inspiring invitation to embrace life at the moment, its beauty and ugliness without judgement. A book that will come back off the shelf to help guide me and give me courage when I feel too fearful, too disconnected, or too lonely.

[natalieriley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frank Ostaseski is a cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project and offers his wisdom about how we can live more fully knowing we will die. He thoroughly processes each of the five invitations and shares many examples of clients he has worked with at the zen center. So many stories pulled my heart strings and taught me so much about caring for the dying and how I can live better. I already want to read this book again. There’s so much to absorb and process. I love how this book encourages me to inwardly reflect and face a topic I have struggled with. Frank narrates the audiobook; his voice and inflections are so calming and soothing.