Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living

We have had a number of family and friends passing away lately and I was looking for some philosophical book on the meaning of life and death. We are not religious so didn't want the god line since it doesn't apply. This has too much of god in it and I come away understanding that only when you are terminally ill do you "get" it. So not what I was looking for but lots of interesting anecdotes and if you are a believer might be a good book for you. I did pick up a Buddist book on life and death so that may have more in it for me. Will review that one too.

I have had the priveledge and honor of working in hospice nursing for several years now. Sometimes it seems that there just aren't ways to put into words that valuable lessons that those that are so close to leaving this world have to teach us. I listened to the tape version, which I have to say was wonderful.

I feel like Kessler and Ross put into words so much of what is experienced when faced with the ending of this chapter we call life. Death is not ugly, scary, horrible, if you are touched by it, you really can learn from it.

Ross and Kessler in their work with the dying remind us that this time we have here on this planet is not forever. What we say and do everyday to the one's we love, this lovely book reminds us that they may be the last words we say and hear from our dear ones. It is not meant to scare us. life is limited. No one, not one person is immune from death. I see it everyday. It is not scary, but it is a journey in itself and a teacher, to teach us that we want to look back and say I didn't fill my life with anger, I remembered to love because this day can be my last. I remembered to live, and I will tell you that is one of the greatest lessons I have learned from the "dying". Boy do they live. laughter surrounds, hugs are free, words are shared. I don't usually hear stories about how many hours a person worked, or how much money they made, or what clothes they had. They tell me about who they knew, who they loved and love, they show me albums, letters. They talk about their spiritual beliefs. They laugh, they cry. It may sound like I am getting off they subject of the book, but I am not. This IS what the book is about. LIVING now. Remember to Live.

Heard the taped version of LIFE LESSONS by Elisabeth
Kubler-Ross and David Kessler . . . the authors, experts
on death and dying, use this book to help answer the
question: Is this really how I want to live my life?
It got me to think about what was important to me
and, also, how to go about obtaining it . . . as is the
case with some books on tape, this is one that I wish
I had also read because there were so many
quotable parts that I would have wanted to go back
to . . . for example:
Being there and caring is everything in love, in life and
in dying.
Whether you're married or not, if you want more romance
in your life, fall more in love with the life you have.
In any relationship, one person makes pancakes, the other
one eats them.
Everybody falls. Hopefully, they get up. That is life.
You have made being a mother a wonderful experience.
It was worth living just to be with you.
Remember that play is more than a light hearted moment
here and there. It's actual time devoted to play. You have
to get away from work, get away from life's seriousness.
There are a million ways to introduce play back into your life.
Instead of checking the stock market first thing in the morning,
read the comics, see a silly movie, buy a fun outfit, wear a
colorful tie. If you like, where work is conservative, wear fun
underwear. Practice saying yes to invitations, be more
spontaneous, do something silly. Anything can be play,
but beware, any form of play can also be turned
into productivity.

Life is wonderful; sometimes it’s tough and rough. If we think positive and try to be optimistic in all situations, then everything will go smooth at some point. I was introduced to read this book in my first year at college and assumed that this book can be a helpful guide and a great book to read. All the lessons that Ross and Kessler maintained are thoughtful, well organized, inspirational (to me at least); plus, it is touching on many of the emotions that you might feel as you read. There are three things that I believe this book is an awesome book to read:

First, let’s talk about the contents. They are well-organized and superb, covering with stories that the authors spent years researching and working with people who were dying or suffering from illness. From what they have experienced, Ross and Kessler show the readers certain life lessons and reveal the truth about fear, hope, anger, loss, love, and above all is the grandness of who we really are, which I believe to help incorporate our living, inspire a day, transform a relationship, mend a rift and change your life for some reason. Personally I think these lessons are understandable and deep rewarding.

Plus, as I read, I notice the writing style is anecdotal, and the tone is reassuring as it addresses some topics that I’m sure anyone of us c have at some stage in our lives. Ross’s and Kessler’s writing styles somehow guide us through the practical and spiritual lessons which we need to learn in order to live life to the fullest in every moment.

Not to mention the meaning of each accessible lesson is thoughtful and inspirational; I really liked the book and enjoyed reading it as the stories were based on true events and experiences of some individuals. In addition, I found that some stories really touched my emotion, such as those in lesson of relationships, lesson of time, lesson of forgiveness and lesson of happiness; they helped me recognize some important things in my life that were almost forgotten, as well as helped me set up the plan and alter a new path to build a brighter future. Generally, the book helped me see that things happen for a reason.

No matter how long our lives seem to be, they are always short. We all want to make our lives easier and better, so we should live at our fullest and concentrate on what matters. "Life Lessons" is an enjoyable and well-written book that I highly recommend you to read if you are interested in learning how to live a joyful and fulfilling life.

This book contributes to the dangerous and harmful notion of "shoulds" that someone suffering from traumatic grief "should" apply to reach the laudable state of "closure."
The most eyerolling comparation is that between divorce and losing a loved one to death. The authors point to how clients of divorce often remark that it would be easier if their ex-partners would just die. Of course they do, it's divorce. The authors then basically compare that state of mind to a mother who buries her child. I find that comparasion revolting and childish.
If you are seeking a book of extraordinary wisdom and grace relating to traumatic grief, I suggest Joanne Cacciatore's - Bearing The Unbearable.

If you're looking for an inspirational book about how to live well, with practical, actionable advice, this is NOT the book for you. I found the writing to be stale and uninspiring, and the "advice" simplistic, trite, and not really useful. The authors make vague reference to some sort of cosmic purpose to all things, trying to answer the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people by suggesting that on the one hand, it's good for you, and on the other hand (as in the section on relationships) it's because you "needed" it (ie you have a fault that needs correcting). Some of the advice is contradictory. Again in the section on relationships, they say on one hand, that you should be happy with whatever relationship you're in because it's about "you" not the other person (a weird interpretation of the truism that you can't change other people). Yet they also argue that you should not mourn the end of a relationship because every relationship has a natural beginning and an ending when it has served its "purpose".

Look elsewhere for wisdom and inspiration, perhaps to author Anne Lamott

This book will open your eyes, your mind and your heart.

It will provide you with the truth and do so lovingly.

It is well worth the read and it's benefits are lasting ones.

I highly recommend Elisabeth Kubler-Ross to any and everyone.

I found her after I had lost my sister unexpectedly and all

of her books helped me to heal and to open myself in ways that

continue today. You will be blessed, so read her books.

When I started reading this book, I found out that it wasn't that hard to understand. I liked how the author explained each lesson; he explained it with good examples and words that you would say, "That's what I had in mind but I just couldn't say it in words." The author used words that were understandable and explained each lesson very clearly. The stories in the book were really good and very touching. Though most of the stories were very sad, I still had those smile in my face after I read each story, because I knew that the person in the story learned his or her lesson in life and found the true meaning of life. In this book, there are different kinds of lessons: the lesson of love, lesson of guilt, lesson of fear, lesson of patience, and many more. In all of these lessons, there are some lessons that really interest me. For example the lesson of fear, I never thought that fear could help us to succeed in our life. Fear is like the trigger; it warns us if something new is happening, which would make us alert and think ahead in the situation. Another lesson that I liked was the lesson of patience. I learned that with patience, we don't always get what we want at that very moment. But if we just let our patience do the job, the result can be more than what we expect.
I think this book, Life Lessons, is a really good book; a book that has inspiring stories and great lessons in life that is why I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Life Lessons wrote by Elisabeth Kubler - Ross and David Kessler. In this book, the authors guide readers through the practical and spiritual lessons of everyday existence. It teaches us about the mysteries of life and living. Each chapter easily read and is presented as a lesson with a theme such as living authentically, dealing with anger, releasing guilt, facing fear and learning to surrender. The chapters are as powerful on their own as they are if we read them cover-to-cover. It is very useful for our live lives to its fullest.
First of all, this book is very easy to understand. The author used a lot of true examples of our lives to explain the definition of the live. For example, meet the car accident, gets the disease, and face the challenge, this situations usually happen and relate to us. The author gives us the advice how to reduce the mental obstructs. They shared their experiences how to deal with the death and dying. Second, in the book, it told us what the most important thing in our lives is. It's live life without regret, without fear, with inner peace. It helps us to set up the plan step by step to build our beautiful future. It helps us see that things happen for a reason. It really touches my emotional source. The author told us learning giving and receiving the love. From this viewpoint, we can realize love is the source of the happiness. Finally, learning forgiveness also is the important part of the book. That is the best way to heal wound.
In conclusion, this book is the best book I have read in a very long time. It is a gentle and inspiring book bent on helping the reader move to a more authentic life. I think this is a great book for the reader. Hopefully, you can enjoy this book and learn more life's experiences from it as me.

"Life Lesson" which was written by Elisabeth Kubler and David Kessler is a great book with many valuable lessons of life such as the lesson of love, the lesson of loss, the lesson of relationships and so on. Even though this book has many sad stories, they are the authors' experience about death and dying. This book is the right key to open the pains in our heart and helps us have a meaningful life. Many lessons about life and living should be learned, so I highly recommend this book to people who one to get a richer life.
The reason why I would recommend this book is because there are a lot of lessons that are very useful to each and every one of us. Moreover, there are many great stories that you would love them. For example, there is a very sad story that really tough my heart and figure out the meaning of love that I had never thought about.The story was about a mother of a little girl who died in an accident. Despite being grief stricken, she appreaciated the fact that the policeman held her daughter close out of caring, giving his warmth of human love in her last moments. This story teaches us a valuable lesson of love that people always need to be loved until the moment they die. The book also teaches us how to enjoy our life and how to love ourselves. For instant, in the lesson of relationships the author reminds us to open our heart to love people around us. The more love we give, the closer we have with all the people we love. In this country, everybody has to work and work. We are too busy so that we seem to forget ourselves. The author recommends us to enjoy the life to make our own life much better.

While both these people are know for their work with death and dying, THIS BOOK IS ABOUT LIFE, LIVING AND LIVING WELL..... I used Mr. Kessler's book "THE NEEDS OF THE DYING" as my bible (if you will) while my father was transitioning and I dont think I would have done as well without it. This book has and will continue to aid me with my life, as well as those around me and I believe it will help me to live it more fully and with more appreciation...also to be more aware and conscious. I think if there is anyone whose life you wish to improve, this is the book to do it!

Thank-you for such an important book. The sick and the dying have a unique and privileged understanding of what is important in life. They have a clarity about living when they are at the edge of death. The authors have kindly shared this helpful information with us in this book.
If you do not want to be on your death bed with regrets about your life, then this book will tell you how to live your life fully, achieve happiness and have peace of mind.
The whole book is full of valuable lessons by the best teachers of all - the dying and the people who have listened to them.

I was very impressed (and saddened) by the ordeal Elizabeth Kubler-Ross went through after her stroke 5 years ago after reading the 'Wheel of Life', and was eager to read this new book of hers that I found at the library. Having experienced the loss of 2 good friends in the past year, it truly had a great message for me that I want to share with all of my friends. Its rare that you find a book that says so much, so well, on a topic that is hard to capture - living a good, meaningful life. As I was reading it, I wished I owned a paperback copy of it so that I could mark it up with my thoughts throughout the different topics/chapters. Kind of like a 'workbook', but also similar to a diary where I could keep track of 'stuff' that the book brought up. Thumbs up to the authors of this great little book.

The book 'Life Lesson' which were written by Ross and David is one of my favorite books. It teaches us about the mysteries of life and living, thus it is a very valuable book. The content of this book is very broad, it includes fourteen life lessons such as the lesson of love, the lesson of anger, the lesson of forgive and so on. Because the author describes each lesson with vivid example and clear language, this book is easy to read and understand. I already read this book twice, but I still want to read it again in order to understand each life lesson that is important to me. I think this book is worth everybody to read. I recommend it to other people for three reasons: the events in the book are interesting and realistic, the author's point of view is brief and easy to understand, and the lessons in the book can instruct us how to handle the issues that we are experiencing in life.

I would recommend this novel to people because,it
teaches us about fourteen different lessons and
different characters who have gone through different
difficulties in life. The problems they have gone
through can be related to each and everyone in
different situations in our day to day lives. These
lessons also teaches us on how to live life,and
prepare us on dealing with different situations in
life. It shows us how to love, to be strong,to get
intouch with ourselves spiritually and physically,
belive in ourselves, and live a happy life.

My sister was given this book after her husband, of 25 years, died of lung cancer. She works afternoons and I work days so I spent the last 6 months sitting with him. October 16th will be 1 year since my honey of 14 years died. December 5th will be 2 years since I lost my mother. This book made me want to shout. I sent it to my mother's brother, who I admire for his knowledge and wisdom. He said he had heard Ms. Ross speak many years ago, and will read the book so we can discuss it. This book has done so much to ease my hurt. There are so many truthful statements. I know I will read it again.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler write an amazing journey through death! What lessons this can bring to each of us! Each providing insight through their experiences, assists the reader in working through their own beliefs. This book will impact you emotionally. It is very well written!

What a gift these two special people have given us. People facing their death face truth. To share these truths with the living is priceless. We can learn from the masters of life, those who have been down the road of living and of dying and have learned what is truly important in life. I wish everybody would read this book so that they can celebrate the lives that they have and make the most of every single day, because we don't really know how many we get. Today is here, let's celebrate! Thank you, Elisabeth and David!

I would recommend this novel to people because,it
teaches us about fourteen different lessons and
different characters who have gone through different
difficulties in life. The problems they have gone
through can be related to each and everyone in
different situations in our day to day lives. These
lessons also teaches us on how to live life,and
prepare us on dealing with different situations in
life. It shows us how to love, to be strong,to get
intouch with ourselves spiritually and physically,
belive in ourselves, and live a happy life.

After reading this book we bought 4 copies,one for each of our adult children.Our oldest had picked it up one day and said "I've never seen it (life lessons) presented like this,all in one package before. Can I borrow this?" Our family has had its trials,sometimes figuring out what and why you're feeling is difficult.I found this very helpful.I reccomend it to anyone needing some understanding of life and death.

Just finished reading Life Lessons and couldn't agree more with all the previous reviews. Excellant book that everyone should read to help keep a balanced perspective on living everyday life. We will be giving several copies as Christmas gifts this year.

Through out my life I have always believed we are children of god and life on earth is our classroom. When I stumbled upon this book on the store I was quite surprised. It was as if I was guided to something that would help me with figuring out my purpose in life and the lessons that go with it. I would love to have the answer to "why?" I believe this book is a tool to help me become the person I am suppose to be (authentic self).
Bonnie

This book can offer some relief for someone going through a difficult phase. The book can help looking at a difficult situation in the bigger picture of life. However, in my view, this book's biggest problem is that the authors set out a number presumptions and then use these presumptions to arrive at the conclusions they want. That doesn't work in real life. Let me show some examples: Page 22: "Deep inside all of us, we know there is someone we were meant to be." How can the authors invent such a general rule for 6 billion people? Page 25: "We're put here on earth to learn our own lessons." How can the author be so sure about the purpose of life? "On these journeys we may be given a lot ... of the things we must grapple with, but never more than we can handle." So concentration camp prisoners, tsunami victims, starving Africans, massacred population were never given more than they could handle. That will comfort millions of victims. "... we have all the power of the universe within ourselves." Let's hope someone doesn't decide to create a black hole then. Page 175: "The key to patience is knowing that everything is going to be fine, developing the faith that there is a plan." Well, everything was not going to be fine for a few million Jews during WWII. So the authors truly mean that they were massacred as part of a big master plan for the whole universe? If one does not believe in univeral master plans, then what is one supposed to do with this book? "Many people try to control situations that would work out as they were meant to in their own perfect time". Here is the big master plan again. So according to the authors, everything is determined in advance and we cannot change it. So why even bother getting up in the morning going to work? Anyway, it's a brilliant excuse for being late to work. Just tell the boss that you were late as part of The Plan and that you were meant to be late. "You will not be given any life experience before you are ready". Page 176: "we need to reassure outselves that things are happening exactly as they're supposed to." More of the same stuff that doesn't make sense. "deep patience will bring deep peace and healing". Does anyone know if that happened at the WWII camps? "We think the alarm clock wakes us up every morning, but it is God who decides to wake us up. ... We forget there is a bigger picture." Some deeply religious people will take pleasure reading this while others will regret more and more why they bought the book. Page 177: "There is a reason for every experience, even if we don't see it; there is a point to it all." Would the authors please provide the evidence for this claim. Page 179: "Trust that all things are moving toward the good...". 9/11, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, WWII, WWI, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Yugoslavia, ...

The authors are moving at the highest level of the Maslow pyramid of human needs, somehow presuming that we are all sufficiently fed and housed and that we can all concentrate our minds on the universe regardless if we should be a starving African about to die of hunger. The book offers no consolation for people with such real, common and practical problems. It was written for people in rich countries like America where such issues are not a problem, although with the rising number of Americans losing their homes, these real problems are touching them more and more.

To conclude, people believing in master plans and God are likely to be delighted, while others may only benefit from a part of the advice in this book.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has been a tireless exponent and proponent of "tame " death (Phillip Aries) and this book remains true to her efforts to "humanize" death by providing numeorus accounts of how the dying and the bereaved have learned a lesson from dying and death and found comfort and relief. The vignettes are well organized and telling. Unfortunately death and grief are not so easily made tame by learning lessons. Nurses in hospice who receive eduction about death and dying often report more difficulties then learning lessons about living. Spouses of bereaved not infrequently die within a year or two of their mates death. Survivors of violent death often suffer complicated grief reactions that last for years. When death stings people it may be comforting to believe a "lesson" provides closure but these lessons can be cold comfort to those who have suffered an loss of a loved one. Do readers and the author believe Tsunami victims can be made whole by a book that would suggest the fact that they can learn a lesson from their tragedy undoes what happened. So from my point of view this book has a somewhat glib view of the horror and nightmare that death can be.
I can understand how readers can like this book - Ms. Kubler- Ross is like the Grandmother who gives you a hug and offers you tea or hot cocoa-and tells you everything is going to be ok-but this denies the fact that losses are not so easily comforted and often the lesson one learns is that death has a mind of its own-that it can leave open scars that last indefinately and that it is not so easily contained by humanistic notions that we can master the pain of loss and learn from it.
I say it is better for readers to realize death can be more difficult, painful, and disturbing then this book suggests. But as many observers know we remain a nation of death deniers because books like this pander to our need to make it seem death is easier then it often actually is.