The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying


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." 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:

Conception and writing

Background

According to Daniel Goleman, Rinpoche was already planning to write a book on living and dying in the late 1970s. 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. Rinpoche continued to teach throughout the world. Then, in 1989 in Nepal, Rinpoche met Andrew Harvey and invited him to help on the project.

Writing process

Hundreds of hours of Sogyal Rinpoche's teachings on audio-cassettes were gathered and transcribed. 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.
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.
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,

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.
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.
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.
It also prompted Rigpa to introduce a Spiritual Care Education and Training programme, providing for the needs of caregivers. 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.
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)

characterized the book's many references to, and quotations from, prominent figures of Classical and European history as "cosmopolitan eclecticism", saying that Sogyal Rinpoche places Tibetan wisdom "in a global and ahistorical spiritual lineage of thinkers that no other Tibetan author has ever cited." 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.”
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. 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." 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.

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.
Sogyal Rinpoche said in his introduction to the revised edition:
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.

Adaptations