Who Dies? An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying

I read this book again and again when I want to remember that death is not something to be terrified of. In fact, when I read this book, death feels more like a natural process that can be welcomed. I feel a kind of calmness towards the whole human race as we all seek to live, knowing that we will eventually die. To truly understand death, you also have to understand life.

Of all the writers on death and dying, Stephen Levine and his good friend Ram Dass do more than any others to help readers confront mortality and learn from it. I pick up this book when I need Levine’s kind guidance to quiet the universal terror when we think about dying, and remind me to extract all the love, sweetness, and beauty I can from each day on earth. Levine brings practical and spiritual tools to people approaching the end of their lives, and to all of us who consider it. His books are a real-world path to the ancient… show more.

Technically this is not really a “grief” book in that it doesn’t provide information on how to manage a loss. What it does provide, as the subtitle says, An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying. In other words, how to live life fully knowing that someday we will no longer be here.