The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Cover of 10th Anniversary edition, 2002
Author Sogyal Rinpoche
Language English
Genre Spirituality
Tibetan Buddhism
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date
 1992
ISBN 0-06-250834-2

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by Sogyal Rinpoche in 1992, is a presentation of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead or Bardo Thodol. The author wrote, "I have written The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying as the quintessence of the heart-advice of all my masters, to be a new Tibetan Book of the Dead and a Tibetan Book of Life."[1] The book explores: the message of impermanence; evolution, karma and rebirth; the nature of mind and how to train the mind through meditation; how to follow a spiritual path in this day and age; the practice of compassion; how to care for and show love to the dying, and spiritual practices for the moment of death.

In his foreword to the book, the 14th Dalai Lama says:

In this timely book, Sogyal Rinpoche focuses on how to understand the true meaning of life, how to accept death, and how to help the dying, and the dead...Death and dying provide a meeting point between the Tibetan Buddhist and modern scientific traditions. I believe both have a great deal to contribute to each other on the level of understanding and practical benefit. Sogyal Rinpoche is particularly well placed to facilitate this meeting; having been born and brought up in the Tibetan tradition, he has received instructions from some of our greatest Lamas. Having also benefited from a modern education and lived and worked in the West, he has become well acquainted with Western ways of thought.

Conception and writing

Background

According to Daniel Goleman, Rinpoche was already planning to write a book on living and dying in the late 1970s.[2] In 1983, he met Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, Kenneth Ring and other figures in the caring professions and near-death research, and they encouraged him to develop his work in opening up the Tibetan teachings on death and helping the dying.[3] Rinpoche continued to teach throughout the world. Then, in 1989 in Nepal, Rinpoche met Andrew Harvey and invited him to help on the project.[4]

Writing process

Hundreds of hours of Sogyal Rinpoche's teachings on audio-cassettes were gathered and transcribed.[4] In 1991, Andrew Harvey and Patrick Gaffney moved into a small house in California, selected for the creative process, and close to Sogyal Rinpoche's residence. They began to draft the first chapters of the book based on Rinpoche’s oral teachings, regularly visiting Rinpoche, who would correct them and provide new ideas. More was done in London, but the most intense period of all began in Paris, at the end of 1991.[4]

Later, while Rinpoche was leading retreats in Germany and Australia, he would send through long faxes to Gaffney and Harvey full of corrections, changes and new paragraphs. He was testing the key chapters, for example on the Nature of Mind, the practice of meditation, compassion, Guru Yoga and Dzogchen, by teaching them directly, again and again, all over the world in retreats and courses. Some parts were corrected and re-written twenty five times.[4]

The final changes were composed in July 1992, during the three month retreat which Rinpoche conducted at his European retreat centre, Lerab Ling, in France. Of the process, Patrick Gaffney said,

“Probably, a book has never been written in such an unusual way. If it was difficult, it was because it presented so many challenges. One of the greatest was how to find Rinpoche's voice, that intimate, warm, clear and humorous voice that is so supremely eloquent when communicating live. Rinpoche is a master of the great oral tradition of Tibet, stretching back over centuries, the hallmark of which is the power to transmit directly, from heart to heart, mind to mind, in the medium of words, something which is beyond words. There were other important issues. We implored Rinpoche to include his own personal experiences and memories from his life, which was an act of great daring for a Tibetan. Rinpoche wove in consciously, too, different layers of meaning which could be understood by people with different degrees of spiritual experience. Again, one of Rinpoche's greatest concerns was to ensure the authenticity of the teachings, and he fused into the book answers to questions about the teachings concerning death presented to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and other great masters.”[4]

Publication history

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying was first launched in the United States in September 1992, where it received high acclaim and spent several weeks at the top of the bestseller lists.[5]

It was subsequently released in the United Kingdom, Australia and India, and first translated into German and French. To date, more than two million copies have been printed in 30 languages and 56 countries.[6]

The book’s success contributed to an expansion of the work of Rigpa, the network of Buddhist centres and groups set up by Sogyal Rinpoche in the 1970s.[7]

It also prompted Rigpa to introduce a Spiritual Care Education and Training programme, providing for the needs of caregivers.[8] A major conference held at Germering, near Munich in 1996 and involving several leading authorities on care for the dying, had a considerable influence on the emerging hospice movement in Germany.[7]

A revised edition was released in 2002 to celebrate the book's 10th anniversary. In 2012, a new and further revised edition was again, published.

Contents and themes

Divided into two main sections, the book explores:

Living (Part One)

Dying (Parts Two-Three)

Conclusion

Criticism and reception

Donald S. Lopez, Jr. characterized the book's many references to, and quotations from, prominent figures of Classical and European history as "cosmopolitan eclecticism",[9] saying that Sogyal Rinpoche places Tibetan wisdom "in a global and ahistorical spiritual lineage of thinkers that no other Tibetan author has ever cited."[9] The religious studies scholar Huston Smith said, “I have encountered no book on the interplay of life and death that is more comprehensive, practical and wise. The perspective is forthrightly and profoundly Tibetan, but it is expounded so clearly that the reader has no trouble discerning on every page its universal import.”[10]

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.[11] 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."[12] 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.[13]

Influence

Health care

Since The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying was published, it has been adopted by institutions, centres and groups of various kinds, educational, medical and spiritual.[14]

Sogyal Rinpoche said in his introduction to the revised edition:

“Nurses, doctors, and those professionally involved with care for the dying have told me how they have integrated these methods in their daily work, and I have heard many accounts of ordinary people using these practices and finding that they transformed the death of a close friend or relative. Something I find especially moving is that this book has been read by people with different spiritual beliefs, and they have said that it has strengthened and deepened their faith in their own tradition. They seem to recognize the universality of its message, and understand that it aims not to persuade or convert, but simply to offer the wisdom of the ancient Buddhist teachings in order to bring the maximum possible benefit.”[14]

In 1993, an international programme of education and training called, Spiritual Care, was established by Christine Longaker and others in response to requests from healthcare professionals for practical ways to bring the compassion and wisdom of teachings in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying into their work and lives. Over the past 17 years, they have worked with hospitals, hospices and universities, and trained more than 30,000 healthcare professionals and volunteers worldwide in all areas of healthcare and social services, and supported many people facing serious illness, death, or bereavement, and their families.[15]

Adaptations

References

  1. ↑ Rinpoche, Sogyal (2002). The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. New York: HarperCollins. p. 13. ISBN 0-06-250834-2.
  2. ↑ "Daniel Goleman @ Garrison Institute, Meditation & Science". YouTube. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  3. ↑ Rigpa Wiki | About Rigpa
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Patrick Gaffney (Summer 1994). "Finding the Voice". View Magazine.
  5. ↑ 'Best Sellers'. The New York Times Book Review. 3 January 1993
  6. ↑ Translations: English, French, German, Chinese (Mainland China and Taiwan), Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Finnish, Turkish, Greek, Thai, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Hungarian, Estonian, Russian, Lithuanian, Czech, Bulgarian, Polish.
  7. 1 2 The History of Rigpa 1992-1996
  8. ↑ History and Development of the Spiritual Care Program
  9. 1 2 Lopez Jr., Donald S. (1998). Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. University Of Chicago Press. p. 79.
  10. ↑ Harper Collins | Critical Praise
  11. ↑ "The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying". Random House Books. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  12. ↑ "The View from the Stage". Shambhala Sun. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  13. ↑ "Spain's semi final hero fascinated by Buddhism, met Dalai Lama in 2007". Phayul. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  14. 1 2 Rinpoche, Sogyal (2002). the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. HarperCollins. p. xii.
  15. ↑ The Spiritual Care Programme
  16. ↑ A Broader Canvas
  17. ↑ Composer Nigel Westlake's requiem for murdered son
Wikiversity has learning materials about Buddha oracle#58 Nothingness (The right dying)
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