“I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke

Frank Ostaseski is a Buddhist teacher and one of the leading voices in the End-of-Life Care movement worldwide. He co-founded the first Buddhist hospice in America, and went on to create the Metta Institute whose mission is to provide innovative education on spirituality and dying.

On July 19, 2008 Frank suffered a series of heart attacks while teaching a retreat for healthcare professionals in Northern California. He underwent triple bypass surgery in San Francisco, returning to his home by the Bay to begin his journey of healing.

During this time his family created a website at www.CaringBridge.org - a remarkable non-profit web service that connects family and friends during critical illness. Frank was deeply moved by the community of family, friends and students from around the world who logged in daily, sending hundreds of loving messages and encouragement to his online Guestbook. When he returned home he began writing Journal entries on the site, exploring his process of healing. Soon people were passing his writings to friends of theirs, and people he had never met wrote of how he had touched them in profound and intimate ways.

This book is a record of those unedited writings. May they continue widening the circles of healing, and may they serve as tribute to the wise and caring man who wrote them, for the love and learning he has shared with us all.

Sausalito
September 2008