Manual for Living: Reality - A User's Guide to the Meaning of Life [Paperback]

Seth David Chernoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 7, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0984093095 | ISBN-13: 978-0984093090

Winner of the NM Book Awards. By facing death as a two-time cancer survivor, Seth David Chernoff learned to experience the fullness of life. In his award-winning book, A Manual for Living: Reality, A User's Guide to the Meaning of Life, he offers straightforward guidance for achieving lasting happiness, overcoming fear of death and finding fulfillment and true purpose. The Manual for Living: REALITY is here to assist you in understanding and choosing a life fulfilled over a life of mediocrity, desperation, pettiness, or even worse, no life at all. When life is amazing, fulfilling, and spectacular, this Manual may gather dust; however, when you are faced with hurdles, challenges, and pain, it may help you persevere and be of service to those who await your guidance. The Manual for Living is a guide to support all beings in truth; to help us turn toward courage, honesty, integrity, and love; and to make conscious decisions that will ultimately guide us to true happiness and fulfillment.
 
Whether our path is direct or circuitous, our destinations are constant; the eternal continuance of time combines with the temporal aspect of our physical existence.
 
The Manual is a user's guide to the meaning of life; it is a guidebook to balance and connection, intimacy and relationship, peace and love, evolution and fulfillment. What we desire cannot be "obtained," for it can only be experienced--the result of a life of commitment and service. Can we achieve lasting happiness? Can we find fulfillment or obtain true love? What exactly is a spiritual life, an inspirational life, a fulfilled life? What really is possible in life? Can we have it all?
 
The Manual will help you find clarity and assist you with connecting to your inner guidance--thus opening the gateway to an intentional life--a chosen life that is joyful and fulfilled. Few people on Earth possess the answers to life's simplest questions because in truth, answers are granted only to those with literacy in a language all their own."

Chernoff writes, "We each have a path and purpose in life, a destiny as unique as our own fingerprints, yet we often live lives of petty obscurity and quiet desperation, ignoring our truth. It is our prerogative to find our purpose and fulfill it. The loss of a life is not as devastating as the loss what could have been, of the dreams left unfulfilled and passions undiscovered."

Editorial Reviews

Review

A wonderful, thoughtful and compassionate book. It goes to the heart of what it is to be human. He speaks from deep personal experience. We highly recommend ... Drink from its wisdom!" --Ed & Deb Shapiro, authors Be The Change

Manual For Living is more than that: it is a window to a fresh, new, hopeful vision for what it means to be human. Read it slowly, and feel the world shift inside you. A unique blend of practical and spiritual wisdom --Mark Gerzon, Bestselling Author

In my heart I want to take this book everywhere I go, a book that I do not wish to end. Books like this are rare. I want to make its words a part of my life. It is spiritually remaking my life along with my Holy Bible. --Read With Tea Book Reviewer

...gives you valuable insight necessary to enhance and enrich your life bringing you closer to fulfillment and true happiness...full of wisdom. Every page is filled with human emotion about life, death, and everything in between.
--TCM Reviews

The deepest and richest questions of life and death.  Listen to his journey, his insight and begin to savor the search for peace within the spectrum of life.
--Don Campbell - Musician and Author of Sound Spirit and The Mozart Effect

A wonderful, thoughtful and compassionate book. It goes to the heart of what it is to be human. He speaks from deep personal experience. We highly recommend ... Drink from its wisdom!" --Ed & Deb Shapiro, authors Be The Change

Manual For Living is more than that: it is a window to a fresh, new, hopeful vision for what it means to be human. Read it slowly, and feel the world shift inside you. A unique blend of practical and spiritual wisdom --Mark Gerzon, Bestselling Author

In my heart I want to take this book everywhere I go, a book that I do not wish to end. Books like this are rare. I want to make its words a part of my life. It is spiritually remaking my life along with my Holy Bible. --Read With Tea Book Reviewer

...gives you valuable insight necessary to enhance and enrich your life bringing you closer to fulfillment and true happiness...full of wisdom. Every page is filled with human emotion about life, death, and everything in between.
--TCM Reviews

<span>The deepest and richest questions of life and death. Â Listen to his journey, his insight and begin to savor the search for peace within the spectrum of life.
</span> --Don Campbell - Musician and Author of Sound Spirit and The Mozart Effect

--Testimonials & Endorsements

From a listener from an interview with Seth David Chernoff on the Dr. Bunny Show, KKZZ 1400 Radio. Dear Bunny: This was one of the best shows that you have had, it really put everything into perspective in life. Intellectually, spiritually and with great humanism, wow it touched my heart and you can quote me. -Dana Hansen Thank you for sending me your book and all I can say is WOW as well! I can hardly put it down... Simplistic, thought provoking, profound and inspired are just a few of the words that come to mind. I KNOW this will be one of my manuals for living that I will wear out! Thank you and abundant blessings to you! -Melissa M. The Manual for Living is a fantastic book! It has really changed my life! I have recommended this already to countless people and I will continue to do so! Seth, thank you so much for writing such an incredible book! -Brennan Here is your reality bible. You need to get it...I think your book hits a home run. -Rob Kingsbury on Total Health Radio, 1510AM Your book is my favorite book I have read in ages. You have done a justice to us all by writing it. -Steve The Kovacs Perspective Radio Talk Show --Testimonials & Endorsements

From the Back Cover

A genuine user's guide to the meaning of life, the award-winning Manual For Living: Reality will change the way you see the world. Its straightforward guidance and practical wisdom will help you remain true to your path and purpose in life. Find True Fulfillment and Lasting Happiness, Overcome Your Fear of Death, Learn How to Fully Experience Life, Reconnect with Your Inner Truth, and Discover Your True Purpose.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Spirit Scope Publishing (June 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0984093095
• ISBN-13: 978-0984093090
• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 5.8 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #517,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Seth David Chernoff is the best-selling and award-winning author of the acclaimed Manual For Living book series with the new Exercise & Meditation Guidebook. He was given the amazing gift of life after surviving cancer on two separate occasions. Seth helps people find true happiness and fulfillment through his books, seminars, and lectures. Seth's work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Popular Mechanics, Business Week, USA Today, and on hundreds of TV and radio interviews nationally and internationally. Access a plethora of free videos at http://www.SethChernoff.com and http://www.ManualForLiving.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You won't go wrong with Manual for Living June 25, 2010

By Kristin Wilkinson

Format:Paperback

I have to admit, within the first few pages of David Chernoff's Manual for Living, I almost put the book down because I sensed it was going to be full of New Age-ish feel-good catchphrases. I stuck it out when I hit the first chapter, "Death," which stated, "I am dying. You are dying...in fact we are all dying. Yes, we are. Right now in this very moment, we are dying."
Nope, I hung in there. I remained patient and kept reading...and, moments later, I was rewarded. I got to the section on "Fear of Death," which addresses whether fearing death achieves anything, whether we can honestly experience life if we're in constant fear of death, and, finally, what it is that we actually fear. This got my attention -- and the book held onto it from that point. It discusses the importance of living in the present, perception, simplicity, change, and balance, to name a handful.
For me, the most poignant and relevant sections of the book were those that dealt with releasing the past and not stressing over the future, in order to be "fully present to the magnificence of the moment."
This is a valuable book, one that you won't read once and leave sitting on your bookshelf. It is meant as more of a reference, a book you look to for guidance and encouragement to cut through the garbage so that you can be at peace with yourself (and those around you) and live your life to the fullest each day. You won't go wrong with Manual for Living, and it would be a wonderful and appropriate gift for someone who is stuck in a rut or dealing with difficult times.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Manual for All Ages, All Stages of Life April 5, 2010

By Alejandra Vernon HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Author David Chernoff writes in his Note to the Reader, that this book should be opened at random, or by making a choice from the table of contents that applies to one's life, and using a single chapter at a time to guide us in our present need, instead of reading the book from cover to cover and trying to absorb every subject at once. Because "Manual for Living, Book One:::Reality" is unique in its scope, covering so many topics that vitally concern our life, this approach makes a lot of sense, and it's how I will use this book in the future, when needing special guidance in certain areas. Obviously for reviewing purposes, I read all of it, and it can become weighty as each chapter concerns issues that matter most as we go through life, especially if we are facing the final journey, have a loved one who is, or are going through a season of reversal or transition.

Chernoff pulls no punches as he writes about the hard subjects: Death, illness, fear, our toxic environment, our perception of what is real, our finances and need to accumulate, the benefits of keeping life simple, dealing with change, living in the "now" and being grateful, and so much more. Chernoff has twice survived cancer, so he has lived his message, and has earned the right to mete out some tough love now and then, scattered throughout the pages of this wisdom-filled book.

I particularly like Chernoff's chapters dealing with finance. It is a subject often talked about, but few have ideas with the depth and sensibility found here. And money can ruin one's life, marriage, and break families apart. As Chernoff writes: "Until we master our relationship with money, we are held captive by an energy force far beyond our control and understanding, with freedom eternally beyond our reach." A perceptive light has been shed on the ebb and flow of life, caring for our mind, body, and soul, and our relationship with everything around us, in this excellent "Manual for Living."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound, Inspired yet simplistic... December 17, 2010

By Melissa

Format:Paperback

This is the type of book you will go back to over and over again to regain a perspective that's not necessarily what we know by default or should I say, as a result of society's faulty programming. It is by far one of the best, yet simplistic books I've read in a long time... on point, section by section, easy to read and grasp and at the same time, life changing! Too, this is not a religious book, but a book so profound with spiritual insights that you'll almost wonder why you didn't think of these truths... Thank you Seth for sharing your insights and journey with us so we can too come back to where we started!