Positive Health Online

Abstract

EDWARDS, University Support Centre, University of Western Australia, Australia. medwards@cyllene.usa.edu.au. writes that the Zen Buddhist tradition involves a number of meditation and instructional techniques with strong phenomenological and theoretical connections with the experience of loss and the grief process.

Background

Methodology

Results

The author utilised experiences which occurred during personal encounters with individuals 3 of whom were disabled in a grief counselling setting. There were several points of connections identified, including: 1) a heightened awareness of the embodied nature of experience 2) the importance and dialogue and relationship for healing and transformation 3) the focus on process as opposed to outcome 4) the importance of the process of life review 5) a confrontation with the nature of absence and emptiness and 6) being present to what is experienced rather than focusing on the need for change. The authors discusses these findings in terms of Ken Wilbers full-spectrum model of human development and enlarges upon their implications for professional and non-professional support persons for people experiencing grief.

Conclusion

References

Edwards M. Being present: experiential connections between Zen Buddhist practices and the grieving process. Disabil Rehabil. 19 (10): 442-51. Oct 1997.

Comment

Positive Health will be publishing an article by Mr Edwards, expanding upon the connection between meditation and grieving, in Issue 35, Dec 1998.