Life challenges: Joan Tollifson, Cancer as an awakening journey, Parts 1 and 2
Part 2: Cancer as an awakening journey revisited |
Part 1 to be found below.
|
|
|
Please consider making a donation to support the offering of these conversations.
|
Joan was diagnosed with cancer in late 2017. In this conversation she shares her 'roller coaster' experience of the past few weeks and what has helped her move through this relatively easily. The ongoing cancer journey has taken her to a more balanced understanding of the theme of transcendence and immanence. This is what she wrote to introduce our second conversation:
I’ll be talking about being in recovery from cancer, recently finding out it might be back and then finding out that it probably isn’t, living with uncertainty, embracing groundlessness, coming ever closer to death (simply by turning 70), loving life more than ever, and continuing the journey of coming down from the transcendent into the bowels of the human experience.
Below you find the video of our first conversation in early 2018, as well as her bio.
I’ll be talking about being in recovery from cancer, recently finding out it might be back and then finding out that it probably isn’t, living with uncertainty, embracing groundlessness, coming ever closer to death (simply by turning 70), loving life more than ever, and continuing the journey of coming down from the transcendent into the bowels of the human experience.
Below you find the video of our first conversation in early 2018, as well as her bio.
Part 1: Cancer as an awakening journey
|
|
Please consider making a donation to support the offering of these conversations.
|
Joan was diagnosed with cancer in late 2017 and has been sharing some of her journey on facebook. From one of her posts:
Knowing that the light and the dark go together doesn’t mean we rush out to invite pain into our lives. Would I have wanted an ostomy? No way! Would I have wanted to go through chemotherapy and radiation? No way! And yet, I can see that this whole journey of having cancer is an awakening journey, for my benefit, and I’m grateful for all of it. As someone once replied (in a piece of writing by John Tarrant), when asked how it was being sick, “It was marvelous!” I concur!
I was surprised after my diagnosis to discover how much I want to be alive. I was re-turned, more vividly than ever, to the present moment. I am continuing to discover something about love and community and the interconnection of all being and how important it is to show up for each other.
About Joan
Joan has roots in both Zen and Advaita, but she belongs to no formal tradition. Her bare-bones approach is simple, direct and down-to-earth. She points beyond concepts and beliefs to the immediacy of direct knowing and being and the simplicity of what is. Joan is the author of Nothing to Grasp; Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs about Nonduality; Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is; and Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life. Joan has been offering meetings about non-duality since 1996. She is currently working on a book about aging and dying. www.joantollifson.com.