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| The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) | 
 enlarge | Creators: Graham Coleman, Thupten Jinpa, Gyurme Dorje
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $21.00 (49.44 RON)
Buy New: $13.00 (30.60 RON)
You Save: $8.00 (18.83 RON) (38%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 22308
Media: Paperback
Edition: Deluxe
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.7
ISBN: 0143104942
Dewey Decimal Number: 294.3423
EAN: 9780143104940
ASIN: 0143104942
Publication Date: January 30, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-9 of 9 | | « PREV | | |
A Perfectionists' Translation of Not Really Accessible Death-Transition Rites September 7, 2007
20 out of 33 found this review helpful
To begin with: Whatever you do, do not touch the upper and lower ends of the spine of the 2007 Deluxe Edition, or it will look like a shabby edition ugly quickly. The cogwheelish cutting of the page edges are nice and unusual to look at, but it is a nightmare to quickly leaf through the book that way in order to find a specific page. Which you are supposed to do, as the book is very footnote ridden (32 pages of small print). That in itself wouldn't be the problem. But from there, you may get directed further into the glossary of key terms (85 pages). One glossary entry may include, say, 16 more terms to be looked up in the same glossary... and so on so forth. From there, you might get directed to Appendix One or Two (together 22 pages). You get the drift: Major obstacle reading. My advice: Read the glossary before you read anything else, attempt to remember it all and check the footnotes only while reading the book. And remember: While you are paging forward and backward - don't touch the edges of the spine or the fancy color will come off!
So much for what is more easily rated. Originally published in 2005, the many centuries old "The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States" - as the literal translation of the Tibetan title really reads - had been translated into English in part and faulty at that in 1927. The Dalai Lama and other dignitaries thought it would be about time to introduce a complete and better translation. That work is comprised of 14 chapters (379 pages), including even three chapters which aren't really part of the book but fit in neatly for further overstanding. The XIVth Dalai Lama provided part of the introduction (14 pages). Altogether, there are 51 introductory pages. Together with the bibliography, index and 16 full color picture pages (which are actually two related subjects only, but each enlarged in sections on the respective following pages), this book is 607 pages heavy.
The theme of the book is the myths and rites approaching, during and after the transition from one body to the next as in the context of reincarnation. The book is best for those who would like to really delve into Buddhism, as the translation is done for perfectionists, students of religion and of course Buddhists in the English speaking world. The more generally interested may be put off by the concentration on utterly unexplained rites. As in: How do they know all those things from the intermediate states? By remembering? By a prophesy? By divine telling? The rites (of reading texts) are extremely repetitive. Which has the function of conditioning in a positive sense: The neophyte is supposed to automatically recall certain passages as only then the right behavior has a chance in the dream-like states of "death". Even more difficult to read are the many Tibetan words still included. There is no chance of even guessing how to pronounce them correctly. Many are unavoidable names, but many are also regular words. Even if difficult to translate, neologisms overstandable in English would have been my choice, such as this one Iyaric term in this sentence. And let's put it this way: Tibetan words do not easily roll off the tongue such as "Mandala". There are others such as "Sarvadurgatiparisodhanatantra", not even including the many potential accents unproducable on my current keyboard. In other words, this book may be appreciated most by those who already have some prior knowledge.
The rites are a lot about veneration of and prostrating to a caleidoscope of deities. Who are one, but splintered at the same time. I was hoping to find a bit more mysticism in this book. Well, at least the chapter on the confession of sins in the beliefs of dualisms are rewarding. If you are a mystic (no matter of what branch of religion), that is. There were more traces of mysticism in the introduction than the book itself, though.
Many words of advice from Buddhism I can take, no matter wether everything corresponds to my door which leads to the same room or wether the same door shines in my light. I find the book Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living Well and Dying Consciously by the XIVth Dalai Lama on the same subject much more accessible, if I am correct on the English title of a book I read in another language. If I would follow "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", I would think of myself to be occupied with "death" way too much. As a mystic I don't believe in death anyway, therefore I am less obsessed with checking myself for potential advance signs of death all the Imes as suggested here. The book works under the premise that life is a very bad thing anyway which should be avoided by all means. That is not my approach. Maybe there's suffering in the everlasting cycle of life, but that's fine with me, for there are some nice moments in between all the suffering. Besides: What if God/the universe/Jah/etc., which we are all part of in the mystic overstanding LIKES to experience life in the forms of various bodies, accepting the suffering along the way? Wouldn't it be egoistical to refuse life? What if "everybody" would refuse "rebirth"? I had a lot of questions like that popping up while reading this book. Other Imes, the book put a smile on my face. For example, when I imagined another religious leader, such as the Pope, giving the advice, in a certain context, to inhale one's semen through the nose, while the former is still warm. I am not that sure, wether I will ever follow THAT advice either. But it's refreshing that we can talk about any possible body function and unorthodox use. I forgot: In Tibet, that IS orthodox...
 It would take you a lifetime to understand this book. May 15, 2007
6 out of 30 found this review helpful
I just got this book, and it is so deep and exciting I want to just study it forever to find out all about what it has to say.
Expanded version with authoritative interpretations. Important! February 6, 2006
186 out of 192 found this review helpful
The Tibetan Book of the Dead edited by Graham Coleman, Thupten Jinpa, translated by Gyurme Dorje (Viking) is by far the most popular example of indigenous Tibetan Buddhist treasure literature. An edition was issued in 1927 by Oxford University Press under the general editorship of W. Y. Evans-Wentz. The block-print copy, he used was an abridgment obtained in Nepal and translated by a Tibetan lama. Evans-Wentz was a scholarly Theosophist who imported certain Theosophical preconceptions into his commentary on the work. Carl Jung the prominent analytical psychologist even wrote a psychological commentary on the work prompted by Evans-Wentz. Since the 1970s, beginning with Francesca Fremantle and Chogyam Trungpa's edition of the text and more recently Robert Thurman's translation, corrected versions of the Tibetan Book of the Dead are well represented in English and other European languages. The mistakes and egregious errors of the pioneering edition have been corrected and Tibetan Buddhism now in America and Europe has been flourishing with many translations and commentaries on basic Buddhist practices as well as the indigenous literatures of Tibet.
This new edition by Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa uses a fuller edition of the work for translating, adding new chapters and reflecting the interpretation of contemporary masters and lineage holders of this tradition. In many ways this is the first complete The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In many ways this book is both a guide for living as well as a how to consciously move on after death. The book has been extremely popular in Central Asia among Buddhists. The Tibetan Book of the Dead contains especially written guidance and practices related to transforming our experience of daily life, on how to address the process of dying in the after-death states, and on how to help those who are dying. Some of these teachings include: methods for investigating and cultivating our experience of the ultimate nature of mind in our daily practice, guidance on the recognition of the science of impending death and a detailed description of the mental and physical processes of dying, rituals for the avoidance of premature death, the now famous great liberation by hearing that is read to the dying and the dead, special prayers are read at the time of death, and allegorical masque play that lightheartedly dramatizes the journey through the intermediate state, and a translation of the sacred mantras that are attached to the body after death and are said to bring liberation by wearing. The editors have also included two additional texts are not usually included in the first chapter there is a preliminary meditation and practices related to the cycle of teachings, and in chapter 10, instructions on methods of transforming consciousness at the point of death into a enlightened state and are an essential aspect of the practices related to dying.
The editors have gone out of their way to be sure to relate what the actual masters of these traditions mean by these practices. For that reason alone, makes this new edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead authoritative in ways that previous editions have not been. Needless to say, this book should capture the imagination not only of students of Buddhism, but psychologists, philosophers, spiritual directors, and chaplains as well as anyone who wishes to entertain profound teachings about the survival of consciousness after death as well as ways to encourage the meaning of our own life in the everyday world.
Immense. November 10, 2005
20 out of 104 found this review helpful
Having just recieved this book, I wonder if I will ever have time to read it. It is a stunning piece of work that has been hidden away for centuries. A must have for any buddhist library.
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