Scan barcode
A review by cancermoononhigh
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
challenging
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Really enjoyed this book. Will be holding onto it, have a feeling I will need its advice in years to come.
"And yet what else but karma could really begin to explain the satisfying the extreme and extraordinary differences between each of us? Even though we may be born in the same family or country, or in similar circumstances, we all have different characters, totally different things happen to us, we have different talents, inclinations and destines."
"If you wan to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions."
Our human existence is not the only kind of karmic vision. Six reals are gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hells. If you are reborn in a god or human realm your gaze will directed upward. If you are reborn in the animal realm you will look straight ahead. Of you face downward you will be in the hungry ghost realm.
Through advanced practices of Dzogchen practitioners can have a triumphant end. As they die they can be reabsorbed back into the light essence of the elements that created it and their body will disappear completely. Only the hair and nails will be left over.
Given the right care 98% of people can have a peaceful death. The hospice movement has developed a variety of ways of managing pain by using various combinations of drugs, not simply narcotics. Most people die in a state of unconsciousness. There is a need to allow the dying person to die in silence and serenity.
At the moment of death there are two things that count: whatever we have done in our lies and what state of mind we are in at that moment. Our state of mind at death is all important. If we die in a positive frame of mind we can improve our next birth, despite our negative karma.
Some who have experienced the near death experience reported the "life review." The "life review" seems to suggest that after death, we experience all the suffering for which we were both directly and indirectly responsible for.
"And yet what else but karma could really begin to explain the satisfying the extreme and extraordinary differences between each of us? Even though we may be born in the same family or country, or in similar circumstances, we all have different characters, totally different things happen to us, we have different talents, inclinations and destines."
"If you wan to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions."
Our human existence is not the only kind of karmic vision. Six reals are gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hells. If you are reborn in a god or human realm your gaze will directed upward. If you are reborn in the animal realm you will look straight ahead. Of you face downward you will be in the hungry ghost realm.
Through advanced practices of Dzogchen practitioners can have a triumphant end. As they die they can be reabsorbed back into the light essence of the elements that created it and their body will disappear completely. Only the hair and nails will be left over.
Given the right care 98% of people can have a peaceful death. The hospice movement has developed a variety of ways of managing pain by using various combinations of drugs, not simply narcotics. Most people die in a state of unconsciousness. There is a need to allow the dying person to die in silence and serenity.
At the moment of death there are two things that count: whatever we have done in our lies and what state of mind we are in at that moment. Our state of mind at death is all important. If we die in a positive frame of mind we can improve our next birth, despite our negative karma.
Some who have experienced the near death experience reported the "life review." The "life review" seems to suggest that after death, we experience all the suffering for which we were both directly and indirectly responsible for.