A year to live

I'm thinking seriously of following this program for the next few months - A Year to Live, by Stephen Levine. I learned about this book from the Albany Shambhala Center a couple of years ago. My thoughts have kept returning to it ever since.

In an interview, author Stephen Levine related the following:

When the Dalai Lama was fifty-eight-years-old, a reporter asked him what he was going to do next with his life. He answered that he was going to prepare for death. The interviewer inquired about his health, and the Dalai Lama replied that he wasn’t sick, but that his body was impermanent.

I'm interested in this program for several reasons. One is that I have been in a crisis of considerable dimensions for the past couple of weeks. And on and off for a number of years. When I'm in crisis mode, I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about dying, wanting to press my own Eject button. But I can't, I often feel, because I'm leaving too much undone. Because it wouldn't be fair to other people to leave my belongings, my affairs, my everything in so much disorder. So one reason is just to make myself free to leave this life if the need to do so becomes sufficiently pressing.

Another reason is to make myself more free, thereby potentially to enjoy my life more. I feel quite dragged down by my possessions, by all my half-finished projects. I enjoy moving to new locations every few years. If I follow the program I have in mind, guided partly by this book, I will presumably end up a good deal lighter and more free than I am now.

Comments

[Karen]

a crisis of considerable dimension...wanting to end up a good deal lighter...oh how i relate to these.

i just stumbled on you here, rob. this IS something beautiful. thank you.

with love and appreciation,
~kj

[Keara]

Karen, thank you for your kind words. I'm glad to see you here and hope you will come back again.

[Eri]

Hello,
I just came across your blog, wanting to see something beautiful and typing that phrase in Google.
I have a struggle too, maybe similar.
This is beautiful and it brings tears to my eyes.

[Keara]

Eri, welcome to my little home on the Web. There truly is comfort in beautiful things and I hope you will find that, here and everywhere.