Since it was published twenty years ago, Sogyal Rinpoche’s The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying has earned its status as a modern classic of Tibetan Buddhism. Filled with personal narratives and the rich wisdom of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as a whole, this beautifully written book is one I have recommended widely to Dharma students the world over.” ( see more) He finds inspiration in every breath and summons up the courage to oppose these harmful tendencies that are destroying the sanity of the present moment.

I first read this book in the mid 2000s when I was married to a wife who passed in 2011 after we divorced. This weekend is the anniversary of her death by overdose - the insights around the bardos in this book has impacted greatly my view of her spirit and has explained some things I've seen this past year that I thought were obvious synchronicities which I could not explain. This month is the 10 year anniversary of my public shahadah in a mosque in Pennsylvania. This year is the 10 year anniversary of my leaving the States - 7 of those spent in Jordan and the UAE and 3 now in the Caribbean. I read this book and took from it what I needed and left the weird stuff for others. What I took was significant and very helpful, and I keep this book around to re-read those passages. I believe anyone can find something in this book useful to them personally, but probably not all of it. Prepare to be frightened when you come across the writing that speaks to you, most likely at the start. If you are broken and as spiritually wounded as I was when I began this book, also prepare to be overwhelmed. But it is very possible you will find peace, solace, and maybe even change some of your life and thinking habits for the better. It holds very healing advice. The eastern hemisphere has always been more on the mysterious and the spiritual side of things, unlike the westerners who were more of materialistic nature.

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. The author spares no one and goes through the death process step-by-step by examining the different stages of inner acceptance. If you are fearful about what awaits you then, be prepared to face death before passing away. We advise that you should snatch this book because it most definitely deserves a place on your bookshelf. About Sogyal Rinpoche Besides illuminating insights into some of the most persistent questions of what it means to be a human being, it's written in extremely conversational and accessible language. Read it now!! Most of us wish to rail against our gods when someone so young is dying, especially if that young person is our child but Sogyal Rinpoche's words helped me to accept my son's approaching death calmy and in the final days encourage him to go on his way with my blessings and love.

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. Stand up, and resist these notions, because this life has a lot more to offer. Live in the present momentFirst, 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. The teachings of Tibetan Buddhism have been called one of the last ancient wisdom traditions on earth. They are extraordinarily profound and relevant because they transmit a special understanding of the mind or, to be more precise, the knowledge of our true nature—the innermost, essential nature of the mind. In practice, they empower us to thrive in the world with kindness, compassion, resilience, and equanimity. These crucial instructions have been handed down meticulously over centuries from masters to their students in an unbroken line to the present day. Whatever you do, don't shut off your pain. Accept your pain and remain vulnerable. However desperate you become, don't shut off your pain because it is in fact trying to hand you a precious gift -- the chance of discovery through spiritual practice, what lies behind sorrow. And don't we know and only far too well, that protection from pain doesn't work. And when we try and defend ourselves from suffering, we only suffer more and don't learn what we can from experience.” While in this reality it is imperative to take care of both the physical and the mental, death according to Buddhist philosophy frees you from the burden of material existence. So while we get caught up in our routine, how many of us actually take a moment to dress up our mind? How about some mental make up today?

The English title was thought up by Walter Evans-Wentz (1878–1965) as a nod to The Egyptian Book of the Dead, a popular book among spiritualists at the time. Wentz, a theosophist determined to link the Tibetan text to his own fanciful spiritualist philosophy, was credited as the translator of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, but he did not actually do the translating. The translation was done by Kazi Dawa Samdup (1868–1922), the headmaster of a boarding school in the Sikkimese capital of Gangtok and a one-time interpreter for the British Raj.learn not to overstretch ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more. The key to finding a happy balance in modern lives is simplicity.” There is only one law in the universe that never changes-- that all things change, and that all things are impermanent.” Also there was a lot of mysticism in these stories and just over dramatics like I was watching a Hollywood film with these spiritual teachers who are all knowing who spread their teachings, like Yoda.

Sogyal Rinpoche’s book on Living and Dying is one of the first teachings on Vajrayana Buddhism from the Tibetan tradition that became accessible for people in the mainstream, those who were interested in the teachings on wisdom and compassion. I think the publication of this book was something historic and we must celebrate it as a moment in time when Buddhism really began to take root in the western in countries.” ( See more) the message of impermanence (1. In the Mirror of Death, 2. Impermanence, 3. Reflection and Change);As a Westerner, I find Eastern philosophy at once simple and complex: the basic tenets of Buddhism and Eastern religion appear to be very simple (consideration for all living things, consciousness of all our actions and the knowledge that every action affects others, and a "forsaking" of the permanence of material things), but for those of us who've built our lives and measured our success by the acquisition of these very things, it's a hard sell. Sogyal Rinpoche is Tibetan Dzogchen lama born in 1947. He has been teaching the secrets of Buddhism all across Europe for more than 3 decades. The first chapter, brings to light the concept of death, as something that should be embraced. It explains the universal truth and instigates a new behavior, which supposedly is an integral part of the whole existence.