Friday, April 28, 7:00 – 8:30 pm, Saturday, April 29, 9:30am – 5:00pm (with lunch break)

Olmo Ling Tibetan Bon Center & Institute, 1101 Greenfield Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15217

Co-sponsored by the C.G. Jung Institute Pittsburgh. 7 continuing education credits for social workers, psychologists, and licensed professional counselors.

Online registration will close ca 1 day prior to the workshop. We still have open seats and will take registrations at the door on Friday evening.

About the Workshop

For thousands of years, the Tibetan spiritual traditions have cultivated practices to offer spiritual support to the dying and to prepare for a peaceful and conscious death. Olmo Ling Tibetan Bon Center and Institute offers a series of workshops on contemplative practices to support the dying.

This first workshop will explore the meaning of death in our lives and how to prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally so that we can offer compassionate care to the dying and to ourselves. We will use meditation, exercises and dialogue to look deeply into the process of dying and explore teachings from the Tibetan Bon tradition as well as cross-cultural perspectives on compassionate care for the dying. We will learn how to utilize this understanding together with contemplative practices to guide the dying as a compassionate and spiritual friend. Participants will explore ways to help the dying connect deeply with their own faith and draw strength and inner peace from their spiritual practice and their spiritual teachers.

This workshop is for all who would like to learn more about the dying process, conscious dying, and how to offer psychological and spiritual support to the dying, including family members. It is for those who are ill and anyone wanting to explore the meaning of death within the framework of a spiritual path. It is suited for medical professionals, psychologists, counselors, and social workers.

Educational Objectives

By the conclusion of the Workshop, participants should be able to integrate the following skills into their professional practice:

• Articulate a program offering psychological and spiritual care for the dying.
• Describe specific mindfulness based techniques to develop skillfulness and inner stability as a caregiver guided by compassionate feeling and understanding.
• Describe techniques to direct this compassionate understanding toward the dying person and oneself.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the usefulness of spiritual/psychological practices to help the dying person let go of fear and attachments
• Describe techniques to help the dying person through the process of death in a peaceful way, relying on their own faith and spiritual practice.

Workshop faculty

Tempa Dukte Lama is an ordained lama of the Tibetan Bon tradition. He is the founder and spiritual director of Olmo Ling Bon Center and Institute, co-founder of Humla Fund, and author of four books. Tempa Lama studied at Menri Monastery, India, under the close guidance of H.H. 33rd Menri Trizin, the world-wide spiritual leader of Bon. He has lived in the US since 2000 and teaches internationally, helping people bring a practice of healing and compassion into their lives.

Daniel Leger, RN is a registered nurse and clinical chaplain and the Spiritual Care Coordinator for the Palliative and Supportive Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He previously served at the Department of Nursing at The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh for nearly 30 years. Dan was named Volunteer of the Year, 2015, by the Jewish Association on Aging and is the 2016 recipient of the Shore-Whitehill Award.

Stanley Perelman, Ph.D. is a psychologist and Jungian Analyst with a private practice in Pittsburgh. He also consults with the Chatham University Counseling Center. He is a member of the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association in New York and affiliate member of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute. He has a long time meditation practice and has been a student of Bon Buddhism for twenty years.

Jon Spiegel, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice and Clinical Director of Spiegel-Freedman Psychological Associates. He has been teaching psychotherapists for the past 30 years. He studied in Asia with Jain, Sikh, Hindu, Taoist, and Buddhist teachers and in the US with the late Joseph Campbell and with Reb. Zalman Schacter-Shalomi. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and co-founder of the Program in Spirituality and Psychology at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Continuing Education Credits

This program is offered for 7 continuing education credits for social workers, psychologists, and licensed professional counselors. Continuing educations credits are provided through co-sponsorship by the C.G. Institute of Pittsburgh. The C.G. Jung Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education (CE) credits.

Olmo Ling Being with Dying Workshop Series

This workshop is the first in a series of workshops on being with death and dying that are offered by Olmo Ling Bon Center and Institute.

• Workshop 1: Contemplative Workshop on Being with Dying.
• Workshop 2: Being with Dying: The Bardo (spring 2018). This workshop will focus on the Tibetan teachings on the process of dying and the psychological, mental, emotional and physical shifts that take place during the dying process.
• Workshop 3: Being with Dying: Phowa Practice (fall 2018). This workshop will focus on Phowa, a contemplative practice to help the dying at the moment of death and during the time after death.

About Olmo Ling Bon Center and Institute

Olmo Ling is a religious non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the ancient Tibetan Bon teachings on liberation through the practice of wisdom and compassion, and making these teachings available and accessible in the West. We offer a comprehensive program of Bon studies, including weekly teachings and meditation, meditation instruction and regular retreats and workshops to study specific topics more intensively. The Olmo Ling Project on Death and Dying offers training and practice in healing, compassionate care and spiritual support for the dying.

Registration and costs

Program cost:
Olmo Ling members: $99 without CE credits, $120 with CE credits.
Non-members: $110 without CE credits, $130 with CE credits.
We offer a reduced rate for students enrolled at an academic institution. Students non-members: $60, students Olmo Ling members: $55.

To become a member and benefit from the Olmo Ling members’ rate right away, click here. Memberships start at $10/month ($120/year).

Register online at the bottom of this page or contact the Olmo Ling office with any questions or to register on the phone: 412-904-1112 or bon@olmoling.org.

Online registration will close ca 1 day prior to the workshop. We still have open seats and will take registrations at the door on Friday evening.

Cancellations and refunds

For cancellations prior to 24 hours before the workshop begins, a $20 proces-sing fee will be charged. No refunds for cancel-lations within 24 hours before the workshop.

Venue and directions

Olmo Ling Tibetan Bon Center & Institute. 1101 Greenfield Ave (corner of Greenfield & Loretta), Pittsburgh, PA 15217.

Some parking lots are available adjacent to our building (on Loretta Street). Free street parking is available in the surrounding area.

If you are visiting from out-of-town, please consult our Local accommodations page.