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Keith asked this question about The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully:
I'm 80% into it and am both jealous and skeptical. I come from one of those "dysfunctional families" and having a hard time wrapping my head around all these experiences he writes about. It's hard to imagine that he's had so many of these experiences - everything from intimate encounters with strangers to scuba diving on the bottom of an ocean - that it's seems fictitious. I trust some of it. Anyone else have this?
Ann I love that you posted this question and admitted feeling jealous and skeptical. I say, keep reading. I had similar feelings but they kept me going. I…moreI love that you posted this question and admitted feeling jealous and skeptical. I say, keep reading. I had similar feelings but they kept me going. I don't doubt that he scuba-dives. Plenty of people do, but that scene does jump out in a book that's mostly about sitting with the dying. (I loved that anecdote so much.) I have read plenty of self-help books and this one comes across as more honest than most because the author is able to talk about his own failings and vulnerabilities. He also talks, toward the end, about how spirituality can be used as an escape and admits to doing that himself. He warns against thinking that mindfulness will solve all our problems. In the end, it's just an expansion of a speech he gave about what being around so much death has taught him. Thanks for being vulnerable and admitting to jealousy. I love moments of jealousy because they usually point to whatever I'm really after.(less)
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The Five Invitations
by Frank Ostaseski
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