
The Five Invitations
Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully
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Narrated by:
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Frank Ostaseski
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By:
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Frank Ostaseski
About this listen
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. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most.
Life and death are a package deal. They cannot be pulled apart, and we cannot truly live unless we are aware of death. The Five Invitations is an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present consciousness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. As a renowned teacher of compassionate caregiving and the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. In The Five Invitations, he distills the lessons gleaned over the course of his career, offering an evocative and stirring guide that points to a radical path to transformation.
The Five Invitations:
- Don't wait
- Welcome everything, push away nothing
- Bring your whole self to the experience
- Find a place of rest in the middle of things
- Cultivate "don't know mind"
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Walking Each Other Home
- Conversations on Loving and Dying
- By: Mirabai Bush, Ram Dass
- Narrated by: Ram Dass, Mirabai Bush
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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We all sit on the edge of a mystery. We have only known this life, so dying scares us - and we are all dying. But what if dying were perfectly safe? What if you could approach dying with curiosity and love? What if dying were the ultimate spiritual practice? Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying reunites lifelong friends Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush, who speak on the spiritual opportunities in the dying process. They share intimate personal experiences and timeless practices for every aspect of this journey.
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Wow - the love comes through
- By Dan Lentine on 09-13-18
By: Mirabai Bush, and others
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The Wild Edge of Sorrow
- Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
- By: Francis Weller, Michael Lerner - foreword
- Narrated by: Derek Botten
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The Wild Edge of Sorrow offers hope and healing for a profoundly fractured world—and a pathway home to the brightness, pains, and gifts of being alive. Profoundly moving, beautifully written, this book is a balm for the soul and a necessary salve for moving together through difficult times. Grounded in ritual and connection, The Wild Edge of Sorrow welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.
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Grief for Dummies
- By August on 08-14-17
By: Francis Weller, and others
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That Good Night
- Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour
- By: Sunita Puri
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani, Sunita Puri
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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As the American-born daughter of immigrants, Dr. Sunita Puri knew from a young age that the gulf between her parents' experiences and her own was impossible to bridge, save for two elements: medicine and spirituality. Interweaving evocative stories of Puri's family and the patients she cares for, That Good Night is a stunning meditation on impermanence and the role of medicine in helping us to live and die well, arming listeners with information that will transform how we communicate with our doctors about what matters most to us.
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Never needed 1.25x more... GREAT BOOK THOUGH!
- By Viejo Mzungu on 04-30-19
By: Sunita Puri
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Being with Dying
- Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death
- By: Joan Halifax, Ira Byock MD - foreword
- Narrated by: Claire Slemmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The Buddhist approach to death can be of great benefit to people of all backgrounds - as has been demonstrated time and again in Joan Halifax's decades of work with the dying and their caregivers. Inspired by traditional Buddhist teachings, her work is a source of wisdom for all those who are charged with a dying person's care, facing their own death, or wishing to explore and contemplate the transformative power of the dying process.
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Tender and honest perspective
- By D. Chin on 09-15-16
By: Joan Halifax, and others
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The Bright Hour
- A Memoir of Living and Dying
- By: Nina Riggs
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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An exquisite memoir about how to live - and love - every day with "death in the room", from poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the tradition of When Breath Becomes Air.
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Awe inspiring legacy of A Brave Young Woman.
- By Julia on 06-18-17
By: Nina Riggs
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Preparing to Die
- Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition
- By: Andrew Holecek, Tulku Thondup Rinpoche - foreword
- Narrated by: Karen White, Neil Shah
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Preparing to Die is for anyone interested in learning how to prepare for death from a Buddhist perspective, both spiritually and practically. It is also for those who want to learn how to help someone else who is dying, both during the time of illness and death as well as after death.
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Good book, badly read.
- By kahali on 11-13-15
By: Andrew Holecek, and others
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The Wheel of Life
- A Memoir of Living and Dying
- By: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
- Narrated by: Ellen Burstyn
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Abridged
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In The Wheel of Life, when Kübler-Ross was 71 years old and facing her own death, this world-renowned healer told the story of her extraordinary life. Having taught the world how to die well, she offered a lesson on how to live well. The Wheel of Life is an adventure of the heart - powerful, controversial, inspirational - a fitting legacy of a powerful life.
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This was NOT the complete book DONT BUY
- By Mari on 04-30-21
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On Death and Dying
- What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy, and Their Own Family
- By: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
- Narrated by: Carol Bilger, cast
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross created her classic seminal work, On Death and Dying, to offer us a new perspective on the terminally ill. It is not a psychoanalytic study, nor is it a "how-to" manual for managing death. Rather, it refocuses on the patient as a human being and a teacher, in the hope that we will learn from him or her about the final stages of life.
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Terrible narration
- By Nassir on 06-25-05
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The Dead Sea Scrolls
- By: Gary A. Rendsburg, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Gary A. Rendsburg
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
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Whether complete or only fragmentary, the 930 extant Dead Sea Scrolls irrevocably altered how we look at and understand the foundations of faith and religious practice. Now you can get a comprehensive introduction to this unique series of archaeological documents, and to scholars' evolving understanding of their authorship and significance, with these 24 lectures. Learn what the scrolls are, what they contain, and how the insights they offered into religious and ancient history came into focus.
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A comprehensive overview of the Qumran Scrolls
- By Jacobus on 09-25-13
By: Gary A. Rendsburg, and others
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How We Live Is How We Die
- By: Pema Chödrön
- Narrated by: Olivia Darnley
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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As much as we might try to resist, endings happen in every moment—the end of a breath, the end of a day, the end of a relationship, and ultimately the end of life. And accompanying each ending is a beginning, though it may be unclear what the beginning holds. In How We Live Is How We Die, Pema Chödrön shares her wisdom for working with this flow of life—learning to live with ease, joy, and compassion through uncertainty, embracing new beginnings, and ultimately preparing for death with curiosity and openness rather than fear.
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Dealing with disappointment!
- By Sabine Blanchard on 10-19-22
By: Pema Chödrön
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No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life
- By: Thích Nhất Hạnh
- Narrated by: Ken McLeod
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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"Our biggest fear," says poet and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, "is that we will become nothing when we die. If we think that we cease to exist when we die, we have not looked very deeply at ourselves." It is possible to live every day without being afraid of what happens when we die. Through a close examination of who we are, how we exist, and how we live, we can conquer our fear to live a freer and happier life. Through stories and lucid teachings, Thich Naht Hanh brings peace of mind to a difficult subject, and shows is how to live a happier life, free of fear.
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A true blessing
- By Eric on 03-21-19
By: Thích Nhất Hạnh
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Staring at the Sun
- Overcoming the Terror of Death
- By: Irvin D. Yalom
- Narrated by: Gregory Gorton
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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At 74, Yalom has penned a book that is the climax of his lifework, focusing on the universal human issues of mortality and death. He suggests that what he calls the "awakening experience" can help us acknowledge, accept, and utilize our fear of death in a very positive manner. Such an awakening experience can be as simple as a dream, or quick as a sudden insight. It is often a loss, a trauma, or just plain aging that can prompt an awakening experience that is a turning point for a more meaningful life.
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Positive & Life Affirming
- By Sara on 02-25-15
By: Irvin D. Yalom
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A Beginner's Guide to the End
- Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death
- By: Dr. BJ Miller, Shoshana Berger
- Narrated by: BJ Miller, Shoshana Berger
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The first-ever practical, compassionate, and comprehensive guide to dying - and living fully until you do.
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Essential reading wiithout exception
- By Daniel J. DiBona on 08-24-19
By: Dr. BJ Miller, and others
What listeners say about The Five Invitations
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- Damon
- 05-25-21
Life-changing
Ostaseski identifies the essential qualities of a fulfilling life by embracing the dark along with the light. His approach is both refreshing and insightful. This book changed how I feel about death and what is important in life. Living fully aware, sober, appreciating the little things, in the present moment, loving without restraint, forgiving both inwardly and outwardly, having the courage to experience the full brunt of our fears, and to find a place of rest in the middle of it all in quiet thankfulness.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-16-20
Incredibly moving and insightful
This is quite possibly the wisest, most beautiful book I have ever read/listened to. The author’s voice is truly peace itself. Highly recommended !
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1 person found this helpful
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- DAVID F. RYAN
- 10-06-18
powerful!
life changing. read this book! and give it to a friend too. I loved it.
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- Randell Smith
- 08-12-17
beautiful, and life changing.
I was a house orderly in a large city hospital, and his stories really moved me,and having just lost my mother,I was comforted by his loving stories.
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- William H Fiege
- 05-25-22
Insightful
Thanks for all the views on transcending. A nicely woven tapestry of recollections, quotes, final thoughts , and insights
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- werner brandt
- 10-05-22
Exploration into the Unkown
A must read for anyone exploring the journey as they approach aging, illness and death. A lesson on living fully. A caregiver’s handbook.
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- N
- 02-22-23
Such an impactful book!!!
I loved this book and would definitely recommend this book! It has been one of the most impactful books I’ve ever heard. I loved it so much I cannot wait to get a physical copy of this book! After having listened to this book I feel I’ve learned to live a more fulfilling life, to embrace change and not live in the fear of it.
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- Joy Letsinger
- 02-13-23
Wisdom filled
This is the most beautiful, wisdom filled book. I have ever read in my 76 years on this earth.
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- Brian Pidgeon
- 12-28-24
Learning from dying
Loved content and the performance - probably the most soothing voice ever. Each chapter has relevance.
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- Andrei Gavrila
- 02-09-20
I'm so glad I got this audiobook and not the book
First, I think this book got into my top 5 favorites of all time. It was a fantastic journey to listen to this. I felt I got connected with Frank and with the stories he shares, with some of the emotions they had, with my emotions.
I highly recommend it.
Also if you want to live this experience the second time differently - I recommend you listen to this book on 1.5x-1.6x. Frank's voice gets filled with even more compassion, a familiar sad-calm-optimism,
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9 people found this helpful