Amazon.com
In 1927, Walter Evans-Wentz published his translation of an obscure Tibetan Nyingma text and called it the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Popular Tibetan teacher Sogyal Rinpoche has transformed that ancient text, conveying a perennial philosophy that is at once religious, scientific, and practical. Through extraordinary anecdotes and stories from religious traditions East and West, Rinpoche introduces the reader to the fundamentals of Tibetan Buddhism, moving gradually to the topics of death and dying. Death turns out to be less of a crisis and more of an opportunity. Concepts such as reincarnation, karma, and bardo and practices such as meditation, tonglen, and phowa teach us how to face death constructively. As a result, life becomes much richer. Like Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Sogyal Rinpoche opens the door to a full experience of death. It is up to the reader to walk through. --Brian Bruya
From Publishers Weekly
A clear pool of practical wisdom, this rewarding modern reinterpretation of the classic Tibetan Book of the Dead is a manual on learning to accept death, on caring for the dying, and on spiritual growth. Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who has lived in the West since 1971, maintains that innermost consciousness, rather than an unchanging soul or ego, survives the death of the body. He draws parallels between contemporary Western near-death experiences and the afterlife journey through the bardos, or intermediate planes between death and rebirth, described in sacred Tibetan texts. Bardos, he further argues, are junctures that also occur continually throughout life, opportunities for liberation present in ordinary daily experiences, in sleep and dreams. Rinpoche outlines a path of spiritual transformation that involves meditation, strengthening of positive karma, compassion, generosity and mental exercises. 25,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
