Living Fully, Dying Well: Reflecting on Death to Find Your Life's Meaning [Hardcover]

Edward W. Bastian (Author), Tina L. Staley (Author), Netanel Miles-Yepez (Editor), Ira Byock (Contributor), Tessa Bielecki (Contributor), Joan Halifax (Contributor), Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Contributor), Marilyn M. Schlitz (Contributor), Mirabai Starr (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

Most of us try to avoid thinking about death until the moment it stares us in the face. But as Tina L. Staley and Edward W. Bastian have discovered, when we engage with our inevitable mortality at this moment, we open the door to fearlessness, joy, and the complete experience of being alive. In Living Fully, Dying Fully, these two healers present a guide for bringing an open mind and heart to the final challenge we all must face. Integrating scientific and spiritual perspectives from around the world, this collection of teachings includes: Life review exercises to access the liberating deathbed revelation at any stage of your life; Practices for easing the suffering of a terminal illness; Essential teachings about gratitude, the key practice for living life fully at any age. Featuring the wisdom of Joan Halifax, Dr. Ira Byock, Tessa Bielecki, Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, and more, Living Fully, Dying Fully is an illuminating, informative and even exciting guide to consciously embracing our mortality. Readers will discover that when we prepare to cross the final threshold with honesty and courage, we enrich every day we live in this world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Edward W. Bastian, Ph.D., was executive producer for six award-winning BBC and PBS programs about religion and three films about Tibetan Buddhism for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a teacher and program director at the Smithsonian Institution. He is president of the Spiritual Paths Foundation, which presents interspiritual programming and educational materials.

Tina L. Staley, LCSW, MSW, is director of Pathfinders at Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center. She co-founded the Pathfinder program in Aspen, Colorado, for empowering cancer patients and their families to rediscover their inner strengths and take back their lives.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Sounds True, Incorporated; 1 edition (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591797012
• ISBN-13: 978-1591797012
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #524,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important, Enlightening, Comforting and Insightful, August 24, 2009

By 

Elisa 20 - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Living Fully, Dying Well: Reflecting on Death to Find Your Life's Meaning (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Many people spend their entire lives ignoring or denying the reality of death. What makes this book valuable is that it has the courage to look at death full-on, from many different perpectives (some very practical, others very spiritual, and others impossible to categorize simply.)

Part I brings together three people who could be considered experts on death--Tina Staley who educates cancer patients and their families, Edward Bastien an American expert on Buddhist philosophy, and Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi. Their conversations offer the insights you might expect to overhear in personal conversations among three very intelligent, kind, and well-intentioned people.

The concern in part I is a balance between acknowledging the reality of death, coping with it when it touches us personally, and also remembering to embrace life fully. This later point is a running theme through the book--as the title suggests--and the authors do a good job (from the very beginning with Bastian's "bee story") of reminding us not only how to accept death, but how to embrace life.

Part II has interesting, thought-provoking exercises, meditations, and suggestions for living life fully regardless of what stage of it we find ourselves, or in what kind of health.

I found this book moving, thought-provoking, and helpful. More than that, every time I read through it, it reminded me to value life--in the moment--and not to take this amazing daily experience, this journey, for granted.

Highly Recommended. 5 Stars.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's A Matter Of Life And Death, December 7, 2009

By 

Alan Gettis "Author of The Happiness Solution... (River Edge, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living Fully, Dying Well: Reflecting on Death to Find Your Life's Meaning (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Our predicament is that we are supposed to live our lives well and enjoy ourselves knowing that our birthright is death. This book points the way to not just resign ourselves to that fate, but to live fully and passionately in such a way that we thrive in the midst of our dilemma. It weaves the Eastern and Western perspectives on life and death to produce a rich tapestry of wisdom and practical tools to utilize in "Living Fully, Dying Well."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Practical and Wise Spiritual Handbook, October 19, 2009

By 

Robert L. Rose (Blooming Glen, PA, 18911-0064, Bucks County,United States)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Living Fully, Dying Well: Reflecting on Death to Find Your Life's Meaning (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I selected this book from the Amazon Vine program as a way to continue my reflection on the death of my youngest brother earlier this year. Several wise voices were brought together here in dialogue, integrating medical and spiritual insight on the meaning and process of death, and providing the reader with very practical exercises for working alone or with others. A rich and skillful resource for personal transformation.