Sustainable Coffin Weaving and Mortal Reflections
In October 2025 the Zen Open Circle It’s Alive! Eco-Dharma group welcomed Maxine Ross and Helen Webb for a rich and moving conversation titled:
“Sustainable Coffin Weaving and Mortal Reflections: Facing Life is Facing Death is Facing Life…. Weaving Life into Death”.
Drawing from Buddhist reflections on impermanence, Maxine spoke about how contemplation of death can become not only sobering, but intimate, ecological and deeply alive. She shared the story of a winter solstice gathering where participants came together to weave a coffin from thick feral vine—a plant that smothers native forest—transforming ecological restoration work into an act of care, reflection and community.
Together, Maxine and Helen explored mortality not as something distant or abstract, but as something that can be gently demystified through shared practice, conversation, creativity and presence. The session touched on Buddhist teachings, ecological awareness, grief, tenderness, and the strange joy that can arise when we face impermanence together rather than alone. Maxine said: “As a Buddhist I’m accustomed to contemplation of impermanence whether it is from the Theravada contemplation of the putrid rotting corpse or Zen metaphors of dewdrops evaporating at sunrise,” says Maxine, “And of course there is Shantideva’s likening life to bubbles on a fast-moving stream. This life is ephemeral.
“On the winter Solstice this year I invited Weaver Zimmi Forest and Death Doula Emma Beattie to hold a tender weekend of reflection on mortality alongside hard work coffin weaving. The coffin is made from a thick feral vine that smothers native forest, thus coffin weaving with feral vine was an ecological activity in itself. The weekend of reflection was a joyful time to relax into demystifying death together and creating a beautiful handmade coffin from a sustainable fibre.”
For those who were unable to attend, or for anyone wishing to revisit the session, the recording is now available here: