The book has also received praise from a number of celebrities and public figures, who have cited it as influential in their lives. Comedian John Cleese said the book was one of the most helpful he had ever read. [10] Musician Thom Yorke said, "It's the most extraordinary thing I've ever read" and "It felt like common sense from start to finish. I guess that's what wisdom is, really." [11] The Spanish footballer Carles “Tarzan” Puyol is said to have taken a keen interest in Tibetan culture and Buddhism after reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying which helped him deal with the death of a family member. [12] Influence [ edit ] Health care [ edit ] Sogyal makes it so easy, meditation is what you make our of it. It’s not about sitting in the lotus position under a Peepal tree, doing anything that brings you into the moment and has a positive effect on you can be meditation. We have written about the ways of meditating without meditating, you could also choose to chant, do what opens your heart and mind.

Consequently, the contents of this book are borne out of his experience in the field of hospice care and the dying. I have learnt that even if I still believe in a lot of the beliefs in Buddhism and practises, in any religion we should not be worshiping these spiritual teachers as Gods and all knowing and wise. They are human like us, don’t put these people on pedestals, it always makes me uncomfortable. I believe the same thing as pop stars and actors they are not above us, and we should not think they are. Yes in every religion there are good teachings to be learnt, but at the end of the day there are positives and negatives to all religions. It seems like a lot more negatives on some days. This was actually my primary text of sorts at the beginning of 2000. I spent about 3 months studying this text and it greatly helped to transform the way I viewed death and convinced me of the absolute need to not only accept death, but to--in a sense--embrace it by making it your friend, your constant companion, your ultimate destination. the message of impermanence (1. In the Mirror of Death, 2. Impermanence, 3. Reflection and Change);

The final message of the lines quoted above is that physical death is not an ultimate end or oblivion. Indeed, it may be an opportunity. Even in the disembodied, post-mortem state of the bardo, there is still a chance for what Buddhists call Nirvana or liberation, which is freedom from the tyranny of cyclic existence.

Rinpoche spends a whole chapter on descriptions of near death experiences to support his descriptions of various states we will experience after death. I've had a near-death experience of my own in a car accident in 2009 and the descriptions in that chapter of the all encompassing light, the feelings of peace, the certainy, etc... very much matched up with my own memories. 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. He expands on the fear of death and explains that it’s profoundly senseless to love life and feel an aversion to its counterpart.There are so many ways of making the approach to meditation as joyful as possible. You can find the music that most exalts you and use it to open your heart and mind. You can collect pieces of poetry, or quotations of lines of teachings that over the years have moved you, and keep them always at hand to elevate your spirit.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying An excellent book which doesn't have anything to do with religion Buddhism but everything with compassion and humanity with which it shows how can we transform ourselves and this world while living our life and even after that. Padmasambhava told his exceptional disciple that the book’s message was not for that time, but for some future time, so Yeshe Tsogyal hid the text in a cave high on a mountain in central Tibet. Padmasambhava then prophesised that the text would be rediscovered more than 500 years later, when it would be needed by the people of Tibet and the world.