How do we think about death? How do we think about the dying? What's the current state of palliative and end-of-life health care, and how can we improve it? And how do we give care without becoming emotionally and spiritually depleted? In Awake at the Bedside, pioneers of palliative and end-of-life care -- as well as doctors, Dharma teachers, chaplains, poets, and caregivers of all kinds -- offer insights on incredibly challenging questions like these.

This book isn't about dying. It's about life and what life has to teach us. It's about caring and what giving care really means. Equal parts instruction manual and spiritual testimony, it includes specific instructions and personal accounts to inspire, counsel, and teach. An indispensable resource for anyone involved in hospice work or caregiving of any kind.

Foreword by His Holiness the Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje

Contributors include Anyen Rinpoche, Coleman Barks, Craig D. Blinderman, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Joshua Bright, Ira Byock, Robert Chodo Campbell, Rafael Campo, Ajahn Chah, Ram Dass, Kirsten DeLeo, Issan Dorsey, Mark Doty, Norman Fischer, Nick Flynn, Gil Fronsdal, Joseph Goldstein, Shodo Harada Roshi, Tony Hoagland, Marie Howe, Fernando Kawai, Michael Kearney, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Stanley Kunitz, Stephen and Ondrea Levine, Judy Lief, Betsy MacGregor, Diane E. Meier, W. S. Merwin, Naomi Shihab Nye, Frank Ostaseski, Rachel Naome Remen, Larry Rosenberg, Rumi, Cicely Saunders, Senryu, Jason Shinder, Derek Walcott, Radhule B. Weininger.

Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care, Koshin Paley Ellison, Matt Weingast, Wisdom Publications, 376 Pages, $21.95

Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Buddhist organization to offer fully accredited chaplaincy training in America. The organization delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. Koshin teaches in the Integrative Medicine Fellowship program at the University of Arizona Medical School�s Center for Integrative Medicine and is the academic advisor for the Buddhist students in the master in pastoral care and counseling at New York Theological Seminary. He is the co-director of Contemplative Care Services for the Department of Integrative Medicine and the chaplaincy supervisor for the Pain and Palliative Care Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, where he also serves on the Medical Ethics Committee. He is the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care (Wisdom Publications, 2016). He�s also the co-author of �Rituals and Resilience� in Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience (Routledge, 2009) and the author of �The Jeweled Net: What Dogen and the Avatamsaka Sutra Can Offer Us as Spiritual Caregivers� in The Arts of Contemplative Care: Pioneering Voices in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Pastoral Work (Wisdom Publications, 2012). He is a senior Zen Buddhist monk, Dharma teacher and student, ACPE supervisor, and Jungian psychotherapist.

Matt Weingast, MFA began his first experiences with meditation when he was twenty. After serving in the Peace Corps in Ghana, Matt traveled for a few years in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Thailand, and India. He studied and taught at UMass-Amherst, where he received his MFA in Creative Writing. He currently lives at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, where he continues to work, study, and practice. After taking care of a dear friend at the end of his life, Matt experienced the depth of connection between meditation practice and caregiving.