Hi All,
Have been reading this book for a long time, savoring it & letting the concepts, hopefully, settle into my consciousness. Written by a Tibetan monk, it discusses the meaning of life as well as death & how one can become "prepared" for death & assist the dying in passing into the next realm of existence. The Buddhist perspective is that our state of mind at death has a great influence on our rebirth. (Interestingly, I am reminded of the work of those psychologists who work with regression and document how physical symptoms in this life are sometimes related to past death experiences...example:a man whose family, in a former life, was tortured & killed while he was away from home & who died blaming himself for their deaths...in his current life he is obsessed with keeping his family safe although there has been no incident in this lifetime to warrant his obsession).
For those of you, like me,who have never explored Tibetan Buddhism before, this book can be a "mind blower" & it has answered questions that I have seen posted here at the Cafe. I do not want to be foolish enough to present these concepts in my own words as that will surely do an injustice to them.
However, I can not imagine reading this book & not being changed in some manner. For me, that is the mark of a good reading experience.
peace & joy,
holobon
