Live well, die well - Part 3

[Sound] [Sound] And then now I have almost the million dollar question

[laughter] How can we Prepare for death And one way is to cultivate tension Being aware of our state of mind now And open ourselves Totally wholeheartedly has our life even with his Changes More useful And the time to start is precisely now When our mind Has the strength and the capacity Because later on we don't know what is going to happen and in what condition we are going to be in then the moment of Prepare for death that hour Because life goes by so fast too My elderly patients They tell me that life has passed them by Very fast It goes by very fast And from the Buddhist point of view for example also that it contemplates infinite lives

So The duration of life is like a very short period of time

The snapping of the fingers is a blink of an eye

Then it is time to get ready start preparing for death right now And I particularly like it very much and I want to share I have The Advice from is a therapist who also She has worked for many, many years since 70 with sick people at the end of life Christine Longaker has many books Very very nice very useful on accompaniment And she synthesizes as the preparation for death Task reformatting And he talks about the Christine Longaker talks to us about the 4 tasks for life and death Again The tasks For life and death Death and life and death again How inseparable Joints Interconnect Completely And it is These four tasks They are therefore to understand Understanding and accepting suffering Healing relationships letting go again letting go Prepare spiritually for death And to find meaning in life To understand and transform suffering It is I will speak Now I have Then about what is the suffering in death because when you talk about Of sickness and death then It brings inherently to speak from suffering also And the The Healing relationships Preparing spiritually for death finding meaning in life This connects us connects us With one of the subjects we will see what it is About the spiritual dimension and how it manifests itself in our spirituality at the end of life And now I'll dwell a little bit on what is the That work of Accept And understand the suffering Then this is Says Christine Longaker That to understand the suffering has to do with With this process Of healing of actually getting in touch With your Your fears Your traumas It's like an inner work a psychological work But we have the tendency to avoid suffering and to run away from suffering

That especially nowadays and in our modern society it's not like that

We want We don't want to hear anything about suffering or pain

And we avoid it And almost that What causes us the most suffering is precisely This running away from suffering But this this work It must be must also be done with a compassionate eye And with that kindness Towards ourselves and towards others The look when you do This this work of inner healing And here I want to talk a little bit about the compassion that we named come in

We named compassion What is also a very important is also a very important aspect that in Buddhism is also a very important aspect that in Buddhism It's also part of the Buddhist path and the work of inner devolution

In the The awakening Of compassion Because compassion is a very powerful force Here is the I was explaining what is the Compassion the definition of compassion From the Buddhist point of view In Buddhism The Compassion is how it is that It is the desire that The others Other beings are freed from suffering And this desire brings implicit Also as an action You move Alleviate suffering This comes first From a consciousness And as a result of that work of connecting with Your Your own suffering Of that consciousness and that realization That really suffering is like a universal human experience

And there it is something that we human beings share

Not as I suffer They suffer too All beings Humans and non-humans And then that brings you up Like that that feeling Of wanting to relieve I want you to go to alleviate the suffering of others And so be it for life As for the time of death then Have The mind or attitude Of compassion is very important especially at the moment of death in the In Buddhism the masters They advise that one of the attitudes at the moment of dying precisely is to die with a mind in Compassion with a compassionate mind His Holiness the Dalai Lama He says that to die with a mind of compassion is a death that is self-sufficient

Almost not Nothing else is needed And then it is very interesting also in the why The neuroscience Has been able to Have Well, he has demonstrated The benefits of compassion In the brain And there are many studies that show how So Compassion Improves the quality of life and even in the In a compassion training At work for example He decreases the risk of Burnout Improves relationships at work Work capacity also The It has also been demonstrated That compassion has an effect Anti-inflammatory Because of today's rhythm of life all the rhythm and conditions of life The stress Produces a lot of inflammation Produces inflammation in the organism And almost Inflammation is like the origin at the biological level

Of the diseases of many diseases Of cancer diabetes Dementias cardiovascular diseases And there are studies for example that show That a training in compassion decreases the levels of interleukin 6 This is a substance the name is very rare But it's a substance that has a lot to do with inflammatory processes

From pro inflammation It has also been demonstrated that compassion training for example decreases Cortisol levels What is stress hormone And instead it increases the levels of oxytocin which is a hormone the hormone related to happiness And one of the pioneers in these studies on the effects of compassion In the brain Well, it's Richard Davidson He is a very famous neuroscientist What the He has devoted himself a lot to study the neural circuits Of emotions such as anxiety, stress and depression

And Richard Davidson tells that in 1992 in a trip to India He met His Holiness the Dalai Lama And that his life changed And his Holiness said to him That he admired Very much his work But that it was like very based On anxiety on stress on depression And that if he had not also considered to base his researches The feelings as Like kindness tenderness compassion Richard Davidson for he promised to his holiness That he would try that kindness, love and compassion would be at the center of Of his future researches And he devoted himself To study the first one started Analyzing by studying the brain of Tibetan monks And then he has done a lot of studies In the general population And to what conclusions I arrive Richard Davidson From his research For that What Compassion Compassion training Improvement Changes neural circuits And it empowers you To be as well or with well being in any situation that comes to you That I even called his attention a lot That I even saw him in about 2 hours Only in 2 hours They changed like neuronal circuits Also that of course because of that To the brain neuroplasticity what is that capacity of the brain Of molding itself For compassion and these feelings From loving kindness Can be trained It's something that can be trained So how do you train it then You learn to play a musical instrument or you train yourself physically in a gymnasium And something also very interesting is that this can be trained at any age

That even as a child When teenage children Are trained In compassion they are taught Technique to develop compassion So it improves their school performance Also And he improves his health And now coming back to the subject of suffering to understand a little bit It's what happens in this end of life situation

There is a suffering that is part of the dying process

It is what we call inherent suffering Or inevitable suffering Sometimes I have therefore Or quite often is quite often I can say it That the Professionals you know we receive the request of the relatives not for their for their pain please I don't want him to suffer anything I don't want him to feel Nothing And that is something unreal because there is always pain in death

And there is suffering Which of course can be addressed can be alleviated But there is also a suffering that is part of this process And this part of this inevitable suffering that we can alleviate also But you have is It's progressive Dependence is progressive Weakness that we are having when the process is in command and it makes us Being more and more dependent on others This very often that is what also produces much A lot of suffering to the patient himself because In many they feel they have like an anesthesia a sense of Of what of being a burden to the family And also this suffering inherent in death You have to see also with the losses that we are having A at all levels Our loss of our role Social Family It's like a succession of losses Y Which generates Well, some great adaptation efforts as well And almost when we adapt To a change to a loss then it comes upon us Another change and another loss It's not that we are losing one Just one thing or someone that we want is that We are losing it Everything and everyone at the same time And then there is this experience of loss The Affects Affects our deepest vulnerability It also generates a lot of emotions because of that It is yes If you think about how much it costs Just one loss in our life So You can imagine The situation a person who is Experiencing this process Of losses Simultaneous And so any reaction or emotion that the person may experience Dying as it is Completely understandable Given Vulnerability And fragility Which is presented in this in the process of death And then there is suffering in addition to this suffering that is part of the process So there is a suffering that we call over added And this one comes From our attitudes Of one's own person Or those of the environment And many times it is this difficulty in allowing the person to be able to express their needs Or their emotions in that the person does not have the freedom Of power Choose Also Choose And decide Of not having someone Nearby Who is really A for Understand What happens to him [Sound]