The last class of my old professor's life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves. The class met on Tuesdays. It began after breakfast. The subject was The Meaning of Life. It was taught from experience.

No grades were given, but there were oral exams each week. You were expected to respond to questions, and you were expected to pose questions of your own. You were also required to perform physical tasks now and then, such as lifting the professor's head to a comfortable spot on the pillow or placing his glasses on the bridge of his nose. Kissing him good-bye earned you extra credit.

No books were required, yet many topics were covered, including love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and, finally, death. The last lecture was brief, only a few words.

A funeral was held in lieu of graduation.

Although no final exam was given, you were expected to produce one long paper on what was learned. That paper is presented here.

The last class of my old professor's life had only one student.

I was the student.

I just wanted to share with you what I have been doing with my book. Everytime I lend it out, which is a lot, I tell the person that they have to sign the inside of the book. Not only that but I encourage them to also write down thier favorite quote from the book. It's great to go back and read what people have wrote. Just an idea I thought I would share with you.

"Accept what you're able to do and what you're not able to do.
"Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it
"Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others.
"Don't assume that it is too late to get involved." -p18

"Well for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it. They're more unhappy than me - even in my current condition. O may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that?" -pg 40

"Love. Love always wins" -pg 40

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they are busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to the community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." -pg 43

"The most important thing in life is to give out love, and to let it come in." -pg 52

"Love is the only rational act" - 52

"Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." -pg 82

"There is no experience like having children. That's all. There is no substitute for it." -pg 93

"Detach yourself. Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent." - pg 103

"Take any emotion - love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions - if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them - you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.
But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then can you say, 'All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognize that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.'" -pg 103-104

"You have to find what is good and true and beautiful in your life right now" -pg 120

"You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship." -pg 125

"Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back." -pg 128

"Don't let go too soon, but don't hang on too long." -pg 162

"Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others." -pg 164

"As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there.All the memories are still there. You live on - in the hearts of everyone you touched and nurtured while you were here." -pg 174

"Love is when you are concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own." -pg 178