
Saturdays, October 25, Nov. 8 & 22
10:00-11:15 (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?
Topics
- Final Farewells
- Dying Rituals
- Death Rituals
- Options beyond Burial
- Your Obituary
- The Inspired Funeral
- Funeral Ceremonies and Rituals
- O-Bon
Sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. There is also the opportunity for dokusan with Vicara Roshi or daisan with Reishin. If you have any questions, please contact Reishin (reishin@hollowboneszen.org)
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 with the Hollow Bones Zen sangha since 2005, taking jukai in 2007 and ordaining as a priest 2010. She currently serves as one of six teachers at the Zen River Sangha in Appleton, Wisconsin.
In her retirement after forty-one years in education, Reishin has been blessed to serve as a chaplain for a local hospital since 2018. From her experiences there and as a hospice volunteer for over twenty years, she recognizes the importance and value of death awareness and accepting death as an integral, precious part of life.
Reishin has certificates as an End-of-Life Doula from the University of Vermont School of Medicine, a Grief Support Specialist from the University of Wisconsin, and an Advanced Care Planner from Aurora Health. She holds a Proficiency Badge from the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA) and hosts a bi-weekly Zen Death Café online.
Faced continually with old age, sickness, and death, Reishin offers perspectives and skillful means for Zen practitioners to embrace the whole of life with equanimity, grace, and gratitude.