Introducing Awakening
Program Directors
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Ron Valle, Ph.D. (#PSY8615) has served as a psychologist for over 25 years, specializing in clients with chronic pain and stress-related disorders, and with individuals facing a life-threatening diagnosis and their families. Professor, counselor, supervisor, and author, he currently serves as a director of Awakening: A Center for Exploring Living and Dying and is the senior editor of both Phenomenological Inquiry: Existential and Transpersonal Dimensions and Metaphors of Consciousness. Ron has worked with the dying and grieving on a volunteer basis since 1982. A long-time practitioner and teacher of meditation, Ron developed An Integrated Therapy Program for Transforming Stress and Pain while co-director of an outpatient university hospital pain clinic. Ron's academic resume. |
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Mary Mohs, L.V.N., M.A., R.Y.T. has her Master's degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology. Her life's work has included being a nurse, working with the dying and grieving for over 20 years, and serving as a drug and alcohol counselor. Her extensive study of both Eastern and Western spiritual philosophies and approaches to life has deepened her understanding of her own spirituality, and reflects her interest in the commonalities in all of the world's religions. Mary serves as a director and co-founder of Awakening: A Center for Exploring Living and Dying, and is the author of a number of papers addressing living, dying, and grieving with awareness. Mary's academic resume. |
We know in our hearts that living and dying are inseparable, each dependent on the other for its meaning and purpose. In fact, although they often appear to be opposites, they are two sides of the same coin. When we begin to live mindful of dying, grief is honored as a natural response to loss, and death becomes a mirror in which life is understood and prioritized in a new way. Life and death are everywhere, whether it be the birth of a new idea or a leaf falling from a tree.
Yet, within our culture, conventional ways of being with suffering and the dying process continue to reflect, on an institutional level, the deepest individual fear: the fear of death. Rather than being recognized as the natural companion of life, death is seen as an enemy to be conquered with our latest drugs and surgical techniques. Or, when it cannot be avoided or significantly delayed, it is hidden away in nursing homes or the back rooms of special hospital floors.
This same fear of death, left unexamined and unfelt, spills over into our lives. Our need to control others and the environment is our attempt to cope with this fear. Restrained by self-imposed limits, we keep ourselves from living in a creative, loving, and meaningful way. We are afraid to live because we don't want to die. Rather than celebrating the rich variety and beauty of human expression, our emotional and passionate responses are often greeted with disapproval and mistrust. Gentle appreciation is simply not the norm.
The Awakening Community
Awakening is a community of individuals who wish to embody and share the truths they have directly experienced in their lives. Feeling drawn to explore that which society avoids, they seek to reduce their own and others' fears by acknowledging and addressing all aspects of living and dying. Guiding this exploration is the realization of our spiritual essence as pure awareness and compassion that, as facets of our divine nature, remain unaffected in the face of the constantly changing world. Most of us live most of the time unaware of this sacredness within. It is this unrealized power that calls for awakening.
On Meditation and Prayer
The personal process of opening to our essence occurs through quieting and focusing the mind, a key practice which ultimately reveals the mind's sky-like quality and the subtlest realms of intuitive and spiritual awareness which lie within us all. Known in the world's sacred traditions as meditation, contemplation, or prayer, this practice helps to integrate our love for life with a calm acceptance of what is. In this way, our presence alone reminds others of their own inner peace and strength, especially those who have become lost in the storms of physical and emotional suffering. It is from this perspective that Awakening seeks to teach and apply this perennial wisdom in order to reduce the confusion and pain so often tied up with living and dying.