A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

#254
Title: A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last
Author: Stephen Levine
Publisher: Bell Tower
Year: 1997
192 pages

Audiobook: here.
I usually like Levine's work so I was disappointed with this rather weak offering. Composed more of exhortations and pronouncements about the qualities and meaning he ascribes to dying (but states as reality) than of activities and practices for a "one year to live" exploration, it lacked the intellectual rigor and logic that the Buddhist texts demonstrate. It was disorganized, and though at times I found it interesting, I primarily found it annoying. I do not believe in the continued existence of consciousness or a soul after death, so many of Levine's comments were jarring, especially as he referenced atheism fairly positively. What I take from Levine is that I am incorrect or somehow not ready for death (though Levine's version of getting ready seems to be less about learning to be in the here and now rather than living in fear, and more about being ready for a post-death journey of transformation). It is certainly his prerogative to hold whatever view he holds, but sermonizing about the character of the afterlife is not convincing when supported by neither logic nor evidence. Many Buddhist writers manage this elegantly.
In the audiobook version, Levine pauses ponderously (even when playback is sped up) in a manner that took me out of contemplation rather than into it.