Comments on: John O’Donohue (1956-2008)

By: Kandace

Kandace — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 03:55:44 +0000

How did John die? I am a follower of his and would like an explanation. 53 death in sleep is very abnormal. I suppose I am surprised because I’m in nursing school and I have never heard of anyone ” dying in their sleep.” I think it’s weird that no one is asking. If he was anyone else famous everyone would be jumping all over it. He deserves a death explanation.

By: Terry Starks

Terry Starks — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:59:56 +0000

So much he left us with, so much he gave…I recall reading Beauty out in my hoop-house, I had not yet learned of John’s death. I recall weeping while reading, not crying- there is a difference…all of a sudden I was taken with a thought-”I am not alone.”
I live in DownEast Maine, at the very edge of where-wilderness-and-blacktop-do-not-mix. I assure you, I was very much alone…and yet I sensed the soul of another, one that lifted the light and heat in that little humble place to a few more comforting degrees. As if when writing Beauty, that same soul had looked over my life- found words and poetry of comfort, published navigation for me, personally. And that day, that very same soul was peering over my shoulder, embracing me…while I wept for unanswerable questions, unmistakable answers and life/death now changing in form.

John, my friend- invisible soul, I see you, feel you, hear you and thank you…May you continue to inspire.

By: And what do YOU like to read? | Anamchara • The Website of Unknowing

And what do YOU like to read? | Anamchara • The Website of Unknowing — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:54:13 +0000

[...] same as the URL of my blog; and ever since his untimely death, my interview of him (and my brief tribute) have been among the most heavily visited pages on this [...]

By: Rita Dhahan

Rita Dhahan — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:26:58 +0000

Whenever I think of John O’Donohue’s writings and how deeply affected I was when I first listened to him speaking on the tape of Anam Cara, I feel this great sadness in my heart. My friend and I had heard him speak in our home town of Vancouver in the Fall of 2007. We were transported, illuminated, and inspired. I was so fortunate to have heard him speak in public.
Having thought of his death many times over, I have often felt that he maxed out–he fulfilled his life’s mission and it was over. His book, To Bless the Space Between Us, was the ultimate blessing–to help all of us, especially his closest loved ones, grieve his passing from the visible to the invisible.
For some reason, his loss always makes me feel a very deep sadness and emptyness even though I didn’t know him personally. His writing touched the heart so deeply and personally and he brought a strong, sacred sense of comfort and security, meaning and belonging to those he touched. Through his works this will carry on. …. and through his spirit that lives on….

By: Carl McColman

Carl McColman — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:56:09 +0000

Thanks, Sandra. It is my understanding that John O’Donohue died in his sleep from natural causes. It is not unheard of for even a healthy man in his fifties to suffer a heart attack or an aneurysm that can quickly take his life. I have no idea whether he drank or smoke or not, and I suppose it’s not really any of my business anyway!

By: Sandra

Sandra — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:08:04 +0000

I have just been introduced to John O’Donohue through the Celtic Journey video shown on HBO. It is wonderful. I then was shocked to hear that this strong, healthy man is dead. What did he die of? Did he drink alcohol? I have not been able to read what the cause of death was. Since it has been two years since he has passed away, has anyone said why he died? I will look forward to reading some of his books now. Thank you, Sandra

By: Robyn Bridges

Robyn Bridges — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:54:48 +0000

John O’Donahue was an effervescent presence in the world who surely remains so today for those of us who knew him directly or indirectly through his articulate Celtic philosophy. His spiritual eloquence and ruddy reverence for life continually remind me to seize the richness of my own. Even when I struggle with depression, I hear the warmth in his fierce declaration to “put the feckin’ devil behind you”. His soul was a fertile combination of heaven and earth, and my own is the better for having known his. Thank you, Carl, for creating space between us through these postings.

By: Ellen O'Donohue

Ellen O'Donohue — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:18:20 +0000

John was my ex husband’s cousin, but he became my cousin. He reveled in the children, made them laugh and his gifts were many. It is terrible to think that his energy, his humor, his love of life, his presence is gone.
Though he would debate anyone, he loved everyone and you could not be long frustrated by his otherworldliness that did not allow him to wait on himself or make his own tea or wash his own clothes when he visited. I let him sleep late and followed along picking up after him in my home in China, and then as soon as I showed him how to use the modern washing machine he had left for another location. He was a regular man, eldest son in a family that valued having a priest, and so this is why he seemed to walk on air to some people. If you knew him personally you could see his struggles and his exuberance to do many things in this lifetime. He was like a child. Wondering and speaking aloud and writing it down in a notepad of gigantic letters, pages used back side too. Over the years I had not seen him often but his presence at my wedding and the great affection we hold for him even now are memories to cherish.

By: lincoln stoller

lincoln stoller — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:44:06 +0000

I’m not entirely sure why I’m telling you this, but I trust in serendipity. I am just now finishing Eternal Echos, recommended to me for the purpose of extending the notion of addiction as rooted in historical trauma to apply to addicts in Western culture. I was not previously familiar with John’s work and I do not come from a Catholic tradition, though I do have a background in philosophy and metaphyics, among other things.

I am somewhat shocked at how disappointed I am with John’s insight into the heart of human experience. I feel he does not touch the secret heart that drives the indigenous and Anglo people that I know. Perhaps part of this is my own lack of indoctrination with the Celtic culture or the Catholic discursive manner, but try as I might to find a bridge between the enlightened soul and the underworld, any underworld, I cannot find it in Eternal Echos.

I am not writing to complain, I’m writing to make a specific statement that might be of some use to someone regarding John’s discussion of forgiveness on page 134 (Harper Perennial edition, 2000) There he describes forgiveness as a reinterpretation of the relationship between the person injured and the person who they perceive injured them. He uses forgiveness in the traditional sense of ceasing to affix blame, as ceasing to view their acts as crimes against one’s person.

This is not forgiveness. This is SO NOT forgiveness that I feel “you can’t get there from here,” as the old Down East joke goes. Forgiveness is all about forgiving YOURSELF and it has virtually nothing to do with The Other. Forgiveness is releasing yourself from an obsession of anger for the purpose of allowing yourself to heal, and to move to a higher calling in your life and the lives of those who have come before you and who will come after you.

Forgiveness is getting off the ground, bandaging your wounds — which are real and were likely cruelly committed for selfish and sadistic purposes — and learning the lesson of transcendence. One does not “forgive” the person or forces that injured you in a kind of absolution, as those people generally need to be stopped and not condoned.

Forgiveness is an appreciation of the pain one has experienced for the power that it has given to you. The power to be undefeated as well as the power to empathize with others. Forgiveness is fully coming in to the power to help others, and grow beyond the cycle of hurt within which one had been bound. The Other is not absolved, they are irrelevant.

What I am saying is sort of echoed by Carolyn Myss, though I have not read her enough to say that it’s identical to her thoughts on the subject. Still, if you’re interested in another description of this sort you should explore her writings. I also have a book on learning and transformation that’s free on my web site, though its focus is on the general process of transcendent learning.

And just to repeat, I don’t mean to ‘diss John or those who found power from John’s work, but I do want to say that I feel there to be real obstacles in taking his words as vehicles of transformation in this case.

By: Jan H Stafl

Jan H Stafl — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:18:20 +0000

On this day of Epiphany, two years after John O’Donohue’s passing from this realm, I am heartened by his new web site. There are new gems of heretofore unpublished works by John, with promises of more. He indeed lives on in the hearts of so many who have known him.
Thanks be to Pat, his younger brother, for an insightful, touching memorial on the second anniversary of John’s passing. Here in Eugene Oregon, nearby John’s beloved Oregon House retreat, we still hold remembrances in his memory. Thank you John for your continued inspiration. As you say, nothing is ever lost or forgotten. You have indeed blessed the space between us all. Your fellow Celt, Jan