Saturdays, October 25 & November 8
10:00-11:30 (CT)

Bye, Bye, Love: Let’s Plan Our Funerals!

“A party! Let’s have a party.”
– Last words of Margaret Sanger

Welcome to another in the series of classes for Zen and Facing Sickness, Old Age, and Death. Here is your chance to relieve the suffering your grieving loved ones may face if they have to arrange your funeral. Plan it for them now! 

This class will discuss some Buddhist rituals and ceremonies for the time before and after your death. We will plan our own obituaries and finally have the last word! We will also explore earth-friendly ways for your body’s farewell and options for funerals and memorial services that honor the life you led. How shall we bow out of this life?

Teachers

Vicara Mary Connelly Roshi

Vicara Roshi has been involved in meditative practice since the early 1970s. After receiving her MSW followed by 2 years of postgraduate training in psychotherapy, she practiced as a psychotherapist until entering medical school in 1984. 

While in medical school, she began her Zen training in the Soto tradition and received Jukai from Zenkai Taiun Michael Elliston.  She was one of the founding members of the Charleston Soto Zen Center in South Carolina. After moving to Appleton, WI, Vicara began practicing yoga with Ma Dhyana in 1993 and began studying with Jun Po Roshi in 1994.  She received Jukai with Jun Po Roshi in 1998. Vicara Roshi is one of the founding members of what became Zen River Sangha in Appleton, WI. In 2002, she was designated to teach as Sensei and received Hollow Bones Priest Ordination in 2003. On December 4, 2015, she received Inka, Dharma Transmission, from Jun Po Roshi.

Vicara Roshi retired after 32 years of medical practice in 2020. Her last 12 years of practice focused on providing Integrative Medicine services to oncology patients at 2 cancer centers in NE Wisconsin. Previously, she directed the Center for Health & Healing, an Integrative Medical Center in Green Bay, WI. 

Working in partnership with those facing critical illness embodies the truth of our life as practice.  None of us can escape sickness, old age, and death. Opening and allowing this deep truth can help us face what truly needs to be seen and experience life as it is.

Reishin Denise Leong

Reishin Denise Leong has been in the Hollow Bones Zen sangha since 2005, taking jukai vows in 2007, and ordaining as a priest 2010. She currently serves as one of five teachers at the Zen River Sangha in Wisconsin. Reishin spent forty-one years in education as a teacher in middle school, high school, college, and finally as the IT director for a public school system. In her retirement, Reishin has been serving as a hospital chaplain since 2018.

After twenty years of doing volunteer work in hospice, Reishin recognized the importance and value of death awareness. She has embarked on a new journey of sharing death awareness through the HBZ course “Zen and Facing Sickness, Old Age, and Death,” as well as hosting Death Cafes online for the last three years. 

Reishin holds a certificate as an End-of-Life Doula through the University of Vermont School of Medicine and a Proficiency Badge from the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA).  She earned a certificate as a Grief Support Specialist through the University of Wisconsin. She also has recently been certified as an Advanced Care Planner through Advocate Health and as a Thanatologist by the Association of Death Education and Counseling (ADEC).