About Weilin

I grew up in the 1980s mainland China, a time where most families were poor and lived in cramped quarters. So when people died, their bodies were often displayed in neighborhood alleyways on modest beds, along with simple offerings. Family members would sit with their deceased loved ones for three days and two nights, allowing friends, neighbors and family far away to pay respect and say goodbye. Even a random passerby would occasionally stop, bow, offer their condolences to the families, pay their respect to lives well lived, and congratulate the departed for having transitioned to a better existence.

To my kid self, death was normalized and honored. Of course it was a sad event, but the belief that after physical death our soul would live on in a much better existence brought tremendous amounts of comfort.

My parents took me to many neighborhood funerals, and while they sat and chatted with other grownups, I, along with other kids, would get up close to the bodies and take candies.

For a long time, I assumed that everyone felt the same way, until I became a grownup myself. With the mixed feelings of surprise and empathy, I observed the intense fear people exhibited around death, particularly in the US. Death and dying was such a taboo subject that I found myself at a loss of words when I ran into people experiencing such loss. I offered platitudes that felt so hollow, and it was so frustrating. Why couldn’t they see death the way I saw it? If they could, there would be far less suffering. For a long time, I let it be. I kept offering empty platitudes, and kept my true feelings and frustration to myself.

Through a series of events, I embarked on my spiritual journey, learning, experiencing and living our true nature. I started to realize what a precious gift it was to see death the way I did. I was inspired, no, compelled to learn about conscious death and dying, so I could gain the tools and skills needed to do the “death” work – support both the dying and their grieving family members through this difficult process, and help them emerge the other side intact, whole and grown even. Also, there was the side benefit of surrounding myself with other “like-minded souls” who enjoyed talking about death openly, and learning from one other on how best to push this movement forward.

I have since taken the Thanatology program from The Art of Dying Institute – The Open Center, and the Death Doula program from INELDA. So many times I was moved to tears, sobbing really, when I immersed myself in the teachings of those pioneering instructors in the field of conscious death and dying; their teachings touched my soul at an incredible depth. They were hospice workers, death cafe organizers, end-of-life care program directors, green funeral advocates, death doulas, grief counselors, chaplains, medical doctors, professors and researchers, lawyers, authors, pediatric palliative program managers. They were everything that I wanted to be. I had benefited so much from their wisdom, derived from decades of dedication to this mission critical work, that I wanted to share everything I had learned with everyone who wanted to tap into this knowledge base. I hoped that it would fill your heart and heal your soul as it did mine.