Stories of Transformation through Contemplative Practice:
Frank Ostaseski of the Zen Hospice Project

We had two doctors who were taking care of a patient who was a Buddhist and for whom there wasn't anything more they could do medically. Frustrated, they came downstairs to the kitchen and they asked me if I could teach them some Buddhist practice that might help. So, I asked them what they did when their children were sick. They said, well, that they sat next to them.

"Ok, then what do you do?"

He said, "Well, then I just put my hand on them, and I...I want to tell them that they're okay, that they're safe."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, I want to tell them that they're loved."

"Wonderful. And what do you wish for them?"

"I wish that they'd be free from suffering. I wish that their pain would go away."

"Wonderful." So I said, "Why don't you go upstairs and do that with Robert?"

So they went upstairs and in their own language, in their own way, silently and out loud, they spoke to Robert. "Be happy, be safe, be free from all danger. Know that you're loved and free from suffering now." After a while, they came downstairs and I asked them how it was going. He said, "Well, we don't know about Robert, but we're much calmer now."