We are acting as if we were the last generation on the planet. Without a radical change in heart, in mind, in vision, the earth will end up like Venus, charred and dead.

Wentz not only took credit for the translation; he altered it in such fundamental ways that it was no longer a translation at all, but a kind of literary fabrication that distorted the book’s Buddhist messages to conform to his own cooked-up spiritualist ideas. As a result, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, in that first edition produced by Wentz, was a kind of psychedelic travelogue of an afterlife that Buddhists do not believe in. This book represents an apex in human wisdom; it is a radiant gem transmitting the accumulated insights of centuries of Tibetan Buddhism. With great gentleness and penetrating clarity, it boldly asks us to see death not as an ‘if’ or a ‘when’ but as a ‘how’. urn:lcp:tibetanbookofliv0000sogy_p5x8:epub:4636d7f3-796a-49ab-ba33-21b2f6d58e67 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier tibetanbookofliv0000sogy_p5x8 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t05z4zt0v Invoice 1652 Isbn 0712615695Extracts from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying were also published as Glimpse After Glimpse: Daily Reflections for Living and Dying, ISBN 0-06-251126-2 A magnificent achievement. In its power to touch the heart, to awaken consciousness, [ The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying] is an inestimable gift.” When we are at last freed from the body that has defined and dominated our understanding of ourselves for so long, the karmic vision of one life is completely exhausted, but any karma that might be created in the future has not yet begun to crystallize. So what happens in death is that there is a “gap” or space that is fertile with vast possibility; it is a moment of tremendous, pregnant power where the only thing that matters, or could matter, is how exactly our mind is. Stripped of a physical body, mind stands naked, revealed startlingly for what it has always been: the architect of our reality.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying Chapter Five of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, which gives a detailed presentation of meditation, was published separately by Harper Collins under the title Meditation, ISBN 0-06-251114-9 No one is asking of you to fly in the faces of these emotions , just to cast doubt upon your shallow thinking-patterns and unquestioned beliefs.

What is born will die, What has been gathered will be dispersed, What has been accumulated will be exhausted, What has been built up will collapse, And what has been high will be brought low.” If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.”

Translation and reception in the West

As a Buddhist, I view death as a normal process, a reality that I accept will occur as long as I remain in this earthly existence. Knowing that I cannot escape it, I see no point in worrying about it. I tend to think of death as being like changing your clothes when they are old and worn out, rather than as some final end. Yet death is unpredictable: We do not know when or how it will take place. So it is only sensible to take certain precautions before it actually happens.” 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. I don't mean to suggest that Rinpoche totally sold out (as some refugees have suggested, for whatever reason), wrote about a topic of Tibetan Buddhism, and articulated it in such a way that Western audiences groveled for more insight. Rather, he's a very thoughtful writer who has done a very good job in conveying Buddhism to a particular group of people.

A masterful distillation for the West of the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism which gives us practical instructions and spiritual guidance on how to live in the light of the greatest teacher of them all—death. We’ve been waiting for this book for some years, and Sogyal Rinpoche has more than fulfilled our hopes; he has authored the definitive book for our times on these indispensable teachings.” It would be a mistake to postpone our confrontation with Tibetan wisdom because it is ancient. The truth is, it is timeless, and we need it desperately.” 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 When one past thought has ceased and a future thought has not yet risen, in that gap, in between, isn’t there a consciousness of the present moment; fresh, virgin, unaltered by even a hair’s breadth of a concept, a luminous, naked awareness?

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Destined to become a spiritual classic, this manual…brings the deft, deep intelligence, the companionable humour, and the authority, the challenge of the Tibetan path.”