Final Fling’s Founder, Barbara Chalmers, is exploring Spirituality and Belief as part of a Masters in Design Innovation at the esteemed Glasgow School of Art:
I imagine that spirituality and belief comes into sharp focus for many of us when we are facing mortality… in our daily reflections, at times of heightened awareness, when we’re coping with death, dying and loss. Spirituality might feel like a need or gap. It might feel like a support or crutch. Belief might help make sense at a confusing or troubling time.
In the Mirror of Death: An Introduction to the Tibetan Buddhist Understanding of Death and Dying. Inspired by The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche. This 3-day course – led by Margaret Tatham and Vicky Palethorpe – guides participants through the essential teachings on dying and death from the Buddhist tradition of Tibet.
This week, we’re shining a light on experiences of death, as witnessed by Kathleen Dowling Singh, a PhD who has walked beside hundreds of people in their dying stages. Kathleen shares her experiences of death – other people’s – in her book: The Grace in Dying. She concludes that however differently we have lived our lives, our experiences of death are remarkably similar whatever our culture or faith, wherever we live, when we have time and space to die.
Around the world, there’s a rich tapestry of traditions and practices connected with death.
If you want a religious service, ministers, priests, imams, rabbis and other faith leaders will talk to you to get to know the person and conduct a ceremony that is in keeping with their faith system.