Great readNovember 10, 2006 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am working my way through this book slowely but only because I am enjoying every page and do not want to race this enjoyment.
Life's Instruction ManualAugust 18, 2006 6 out of 6 found this review helpful
People say life doen't come with an instruction manual, well this is it. Why you are here; what is important; how to deal with departure (death), your own and others; what happens if you spend your life sidetracked by the 'immediate but not important' issues. Written in a way that compels you to move to action, beyond simple intellectual curiousity. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!
WAKE UP AND LIVE.July 16, 2006 7 out of 8 found this review helpful
WOW..it has been so long since a book has moved this hardened soul,so for this masterpice i am very grateful.
I really appreciated the fact that Mr Rimpoche did not tone down the book too much to appeal to the new age peacnik liberals who want to find a watered down version of buddhism. The most important lessson for me was Hell is just as real in Buddhist mythology as The semitic traditions,in fact more so as it is presented in a matter of fact way,not as some abstract reality. Just a cursory glance at what is happening in our lifes and the world around us will show you that hell exist already and just as we are able to easily concieve of a happines that transcends any experince we can have in his world,we should acknowledge that a a magnified hell is also an equally valid reality.
Another revealing aspect of this book was that the tibetan account of dying and what happens to the soul after death,the realtionshipo between the living and dying is exactly the same as in the islamic tradition.The karmic recollection after death is no different than the weighing of scales ,the scrolls of right and wrong deeds found in the moniotheistic traditions.As the quran says "whosoever has done an iota of good ,he will see it that day, and whosoever has done an iota of evil he will see it that day" The bardo is called the barzakh in islam the meeting point between two realities,the transitory phase between this life and the next,and the whole experince of what happens in the barzakh and how the dead and living afffect each other is the same exactly..
The book will give an insight on how to live and how to die for a person of any religion and will give clarity to the rituals for the dying in other traditions that perhaps people have lost the significance of, a long time ago.
Most importantly the book will hopefully wake us up to the fact that actions not dogma will determine what happens in the next life.Our actions ,even the smallest ones are recorded by the universe.you cannot escape from your actions behind some religous formula, for that reason it is as significant to a christian or a muslim as a buddhist.
Quiet Revolution Is Pure Good FortuneJune 6, 2006 13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Reading the currently posted 75 reviews of Sogyal Rinpoche's "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" is an education in itself. Devotion, gratitude, and open-minded reading in the majority of the reviews are juxtaposed with ignorance, mis-information, and a desire to make points in other reviews. Thus is our human condition. There is a Tibetan saying, "When luck comes to the mouth, the tongue pushes it out." Let us see "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" for what it is: pure good fortune.
Sogyal Rinpoche wrote this book desiring to benefit beings and to do nothing less than to revolutionize "the whole way we look at death and care for the dying, and the whole way we look at life and care for the living." He is succeeding.
His book launched that revolution and through his organization, Rigpa, he founded a Spiritual Care Program to put a human face to his revolution. Each of us who reads "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" has the opportunity to participate as spiritual warriors and practice our own revolution in the deaths that come into our lives.
I re-read his book after the death of my sister in a car accident in 2004. I re-read his book again this spring after the death of my 90-year old mother. As I keep re-reading it, I come closer to being ready for my own death, whenever it may come.
--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary
Vibrant and healingMarch 13, 2006 8 out of 9 found this review helpful
A text that will change the way you look at the passing of the physical body. Not only does it provide another culture's way of honoring the soul's process, but it enlightens the reader in living more fully. Sogyal Rinpoche is as vibrant in person as an author - combining eastern thought with western mentalities.
