March 17

In preparation for ZaChoeje Rinpoche’s upcoming four-day workshop on death and dying from the Tibetan Buddhist perspective, he has encouraged us to organize and present a one-day workshop to proactively address many of the situations, issues and dilemmas we in the West face in our later years. We will look at how to clearly define and communicate as well as legally document our intentions for living with illness and for our dying. Some of our objectives for this one-day workshop include: Learning about what we need to do to ensure our wishes are carried out, ways to broach this discussion with our beloved, family and friends, steps to take to clearly organize our choices, composing an end of life map that will honor our preferences, and more.

Once we have acknowledged and addressed these concerns from a Western cultural perceptive; we can then, under the guidance of our kind and compassionate lineage master, ZaChoeje Rinpoche, devote ourselves to the study of the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual practice of death and dying. He will help us think about how we may implement the Tibetan Buddhist practices of death and dying within the framework of our western culture. 


WORKSHOP AGENDA Sunday, March 17

10:00 - 10:05 Introduction and Blessing – Geshe Lobsang 

10:05 - 11:05 Wendy Ellis, DHEd, MC, LPC, Network Director of Physician and Caregiver Wellness, Honor Health. 
Wendy’s mindful presentation will be informal and interactive.  She will address the concepts of living well and dying well. She will present an overview on how we may organize our own thoughts about this and then communicate and document these to allow our wishes and intentions to be met.

11:05 - 11:10 Introduction of Jeanette Boohene - Wendy Ellis

11:10 - 12:10 pm   Jeanette Boohene, MD, FACP, is an internist who practices Hospice, Palliative Medicine and Palliative Care in Arizona.  She is well known for her brilliant, progressive, fact-based views and compassionate practice. Dr. Boohene will talk with us about progressive planning and how to take the gentle lead in often tough family discussions about death and the preparations for death.

12:10- 12:40   Question-and-answer session

12:40 – 1:30 Simple lunch: soup, salad and bread.  Bringing a dessert to share for the lunch would be greatly appreciated.

1:30 - 2:30  Dolores (D.C) Ernst, L.M.S.W., Program Manager, Community Assistance Program, City of Phoenix Fire Department. Dolores will share with us, from the view of laws and regulations applicable in the state of Arizona, what actually happens when someone passes away. She will provide information on what happens immediately after a person dies at home or in an accident, what to expect when the EMTs arrive, what procedures are set in motion, what medical decisions have to be made on site. 

2:30-3:30   At 2:30, we will hand out a 60-page packet providing for you all the necessary paperwork to get your affairs in order. The rest of the hour we will take questions and provide answers. 

Please mark your calendar to join us for this auspicous event. Suggested donation $40.00 
Preregistration is requested to help us know how many packets we need to make.