The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller: 30th Anniversary Edition

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The boy was Karma Lingpa, from then on renowned as a saint and visionary and the prophesied terton, or “treasure-revealer”, of the spiritual treasure that is The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The text was copied and distributed throughout Tibet and the lands where tantric Buddhism flourished – Bhutan, Nepal, Ladakh, Sikkim, Mongolia and China. It became one of the most treasured texts of Tibetan Buddhism.

This book will change your life. This acclaimed spiritual masterpiece is widely regarded as one of the most complete and authoritative presentations of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings ever written. A manual for life and death and a magnificent source of sacred inspiration from the heart of the Tibetan tradition, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying provides a lucid and inspiring introduction to the practice of meditation, to the nature of mind, to karma and rebirth, to compassionate love and care for the dying, and to the trials and rewards of the spiritual path. Even before I found out about these acts, the book was very dry and boring to me. The author seemed condescending in the way he would talk about subjects and some of the ideology was a bit disturbing and stupid for me. For example the fact the you have to let go of all ego and succumb to these teachers to truly learn. To trust in them and know that if something doesn’t make sense now it will later. And these teachers always have your best interests at heart, and you should fully trust them to show true devotion to them and the faith. Critical thinking is a good thing you should not blindly follow something. All these chapters, speak about the Buddhist perspective in perceiving life. It examines – how to deal with temporary grief and overwhelming depression.First, this is not a direct translation of the Bardo Thodol, commonly known in the West as the 'Tibetan Book of Living & Dying.' Rather it is a broad introduction to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs including the author's interpretation of the teachings contained in the Bardo Thodol. The validity of Sogyal's teachings are generally accepted within the Tibetan Buddhist community. Sogyal Rinpoche received teachings from an early age by highly respected teachers such as Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He liberally quotes his teachers throughout, a strong point of this book. Here the authors have sought to place the work, which is a sort of guidebook for the initiated to the hereafter, in the broader context of living and dying. The book functions alternatively as an epistemological defense of karma and rebirth; as a critique of Western systems of denial; as a systematic guide to revealed knowledge of the bardo; as a kind and very practical manual for caring for the dying and looking at the feelings that arise for the living in such situations; and as a comparison of Buddhist theory with modern physics. Overarching is the aspiration to usefully apply the insights of a distant culture to our own. Such a complicated and ambitious project is bound to encounter a number of interesting problems. Sogyal Rinpoche

the vision of life and death explained according to what are known as the bardos (7. Bardos and Other Realities);When people from the city come over they wonder why we stay here and what to do with themselves after a day or two. When there is no distraction around there’s only one friend you get to meet, yourself. We have been pushed to believe that the saints, mystics and gods are superhumans. But the truth is all of us have the potential to reach to their levels of being good humans. Its just that the path is so tough to walk, that it becomes easier to feel your job is done by going to a church or temple.

Not only is The Tibetan Book of the Dead meant to be read aloud, it is meant to be read to the dead. In other words, corpses are the intended audience for the work, which makes it unique among the world’s literary classics. Its opening lines speak directly to the deceased: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by Sogyal Rinpoche in 1992, is a presentation of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead or Bardo Thodol. The author wrote, "I have written The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying as the quintessence of the heart-advice of all my masters, to be a new Tibetan Book of the Dead and a Tibetan Book of Life." [1] The book explores: the message of impermanence; evolution, karma and rebirth; the nature of mind and how to train the mind through meditation; how to follow a spiritual path in this day and age; the practice of compassion; how to care for and show love to the dying, and spiritual practices for the moment of death. The author, Sogyal Rinpoche, is a prolific Buddhist Teacher as well as the founder of many Buddhist Centers worldwide, including Lerab Ling in the South of France, which I think is his best-known retreat center. Try to read the book without any concerns of religion. Author himself a renowned Tibetan Buddhist master who moreorless successfully able to explain the ancient traditional texts without much mystical or supernatural elements. Australian composer Nigel Westlake's son was murdered just before the age of 21. Filled with grief he said, "When we lost Eli, I found myself obsessing about where he was and what we could do to help him. ... I found great consolation in the Buddhist teachings of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying." When he could begin composing again, he started writing a requiem for his son. The text of the third movement, "The Hymn of Compassion", contains excerpts of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. [16]As far as I’m concerned, the spiritual experience is like a diamond, and the various religious approaches are its facets. They all talk essentially about the same thing, but the human urge for separation and conflict has roughened the edges of each somewhat so that they don’t fit together as harmoniously as they should, to the point where they often seem more like competing businesses than reflections of the same divine truth. The future is yet to come, the past brings only sadness, so why not being right where you are? You are not inclined to agree with us, just contemplate this proposition.

So now that we’ve covered what’s going on today, lets twist the plot a bit and focus on how we can prepare for death with artful living. Have found also, from my own experience, that it is essential not to take anything too personally. When you least expect it, dying people can make you the target of all their anger and blame. As Elisabeth Kübler-Ross says, anger and blame can “be displaced in all directions, and projected onto the environment at times almost at random.” Do not imagine that this rage is really aimed at you; realizing what fear and grief it springs from will stop you from reacting to it in ways that might damage your relationship. Sometimes” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying Exactly as prophesised, around 1341, when the bubonic plague was cutting down millions in Europe and Asia, a spiritually precocious 15-year-old boy, following instructions he had received in dreams and visions, climbed the mountain, entered the cave, and found the text.Sogyal Rinpoche was born in Tibet and raised by one of the most revered spiritual masters of this century, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. With the Chinese occupation of Tibet, he went into exile with his master, who died in 1959 in Sikkim in the Himalayas. After university studies in Delhi and Cambridge, England, he acted as translator and aide to several leading Tibetan masters, and began teaching in the West in 1974. Rinpoche sees his life's task in transplanting the wisdom of Buddha to the West by offering training in the vision set out in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. This training can enable those who follow it to understand, embody, and integrate Buddhist teachings into their everyday lives. I read this book after my 11year old son was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I needed to find some spiritual form of understanding as to what was happening. The most important thing to understand about The Tibetan Book of the Dead is that it is meant to be read aloud. This is not surprising when we consider that ancient texts from many cultures were meant to be recited. Reading silently was uncommon in the ancient world.