Here, you’ll find a wealth of insights rooted in the teachings of Integral Yoga, drawing on timeless spiritual principles and practical applications. At the heart of this offering is a 6-part workshop series, thoughtfully designed to help individuals and caregivers alike prepare for and embrace the end-of-life transition. These workshop recordings are now available for you to explore, offering inspiration, tools, and practices to support you in meeting this sacred passage with peace and clarity.
Whether you are seeking guidance for yourself or supporting a loved one, we invite you to delve into the workshop recordings and other resources you’ll find here with an open heart. May this website serve as a light on your path, bringing you comfort and wisdom as you navigate this essential part of life’s journey.
“Death can come at any minute, in any way. We do not know what is in store tomorrow, or, whether there is a tomorrow, or even a tonight! But still, we have the golden present. Now we are alive and kicking. What should we do now? Love all, serve all.” ~Sri Swami Satchidananda
6 Tracks of the Integral Yoga End-of-Life Project
Spiritual
The meaning of life, death, karma, and rebirth; relinquishing attachments to the body and possessions; releasing resentments and grudges, and appreciating relationships
Physical
Senior Yoga/aging well; understanding what happens to the body at end of life, disposal of the body / green burial/cremation service
Practical Planning
Preparing papers and documents for Power of Attorney, Advanced Directives and Wills, funerals/memorials/legacy gifting, cremation recommendation. Leaving your wisdom for others.
Memorials & Interment
Interfaith memorials online and/or hosted at IYI NY or Yogaville.
Grief counseling.
For close sangha: the interment of ashes at Yogaville.
Community Service
Providing services to the aged such as offering companionship; food shopping and preparation; helping people get walkers, crutches, wheelchairs; driving people to doctor’s offices, etc.
Legacy Giving
How do you want your life story to be remembered? What will be your legacy? Explore the many ways you can leave behind gifts to benefit those who come after you are gone.
Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) spoke directly and at length on the topic of death and dying. When the end comes, he said, just accept it. All that lives ends. It is God’s will. The best way to prepare for the end of life, he said, is to live your life well. All his teachings show us how to let go of attachments and accept whatever comes. He recommended that we each spend life in spiritual practice. It is best not to wait to begin at the very end of life, but it is still better late than never.
The United States is a country that’s rapidly aging. According to Census Bureau estimates, the number of people over 65 in the U.S. will nearly double over the next 40 years. We are also working longer, living alone more frequently, and facing financial hardship. And of course, there’s now this pandemic. 80% of COVID-related deaths in the United States have been among people over 65.
The Last Ecstatic Days
The June issue of Integral Yoga eMagazine featured a new film, “The Last Ecstatic Days” and the Integral Yoga program. The film is about Ethan Sisser, a young man with terminal brain cancer, who sits alone in his hospital room. When he starts livestreaming his death journey on social media, thousands of people around the world join to celebrate his courage. Still, Ethan envisions more – to teach the world how to die without fear. To do that, he needs to film his death.
Recently, concern about the serious issue of suicide—especially in the case of very famous people who took their own lives—has been highlighted in the news. This booklet came to be because a Yoga teacher asked if Swami Satchidananda (the founder of Integral Yoga) addressed this issue and if so, what he had to say. Over the years he was asked many questions about suicide, what really happens to someone after death, and who we are beyond the body and mind. So, this booklet is a compilation of everything we could find that Swami Satchidananda has said on these subjects. We hope it will offer hope to those in need of this advice—whether they, or a loved one, is contemplating suicide.
About Integral Yoga
Explore Integral Yoga® – Informational eBook
In honor of Integral Yoga’s 50th anniversary, a special publication titled Explore Integral Yoga offers a comprehensive overview of this organization founded by Sri Swami Satchidananda in 1966. This elegant, full color magazine showcases Integral Yoga teachings, programs, and services. It also includes a timeline of Integral Yoga milestones over the past 50 years.
Please Comment on this Track
The Integral Yoga End-of-Life Project is evolving. Comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged. Please let us know what should be added, or if anything should be changed. Please note a little about who you are, and what experience inspires your contribution.
5 Comments
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This is so needed!
Thank you.
I really liked the way the branches (spiritual, Practical etc. were presented. I have spent a lot of the low-activity time during the pandemic getting my various documents, personal instructions, legal papers and Five Wishes together in one place. I am a single
person with only a brother who is not interested in discussing any of the issues of death, so it is absolutely necessary that I become well-organized. Actually, we ALL (even the younger sangha) need to become well-organized as an act of karma yoga, if nothing else!!
Yoga has allowed me to surrender more that any other practice in my life. Hospice nursing gifted me with many folks who had accepted their death and left peacefully.
I completed ITT thru the SFIYI in the fall of 2020. I currently teach chair yoga at my church. I would like to teach a course on Death and Dying incorporating our integral yoga teachings that adapt well to the theology of our church.
Are their presently teaching aids from Integral Yoga that could help me prepare this course?
Thank you for beginning this project! It would be so wonderful to help all of us aging folk to accept the inevitability of death, and improve our life now by doing so.
Om shanti, sue parks
I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic. These workshops will be a great service.
Grateful for this opportunity to be in this sharing of end of life sharing. You give us the chance to discuss a subject that is often overlooked and for some who have grief and need help. 🙏