Customer Reviews

Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a book about death and dying. And from a Tibetan viewpoint. Before buying the book, you will have to ask yourself if the Tibetan viewpoint of death is valid. Or
does it have any validity. Or could it have any validity.
If not, then don't buy the book. If you feel that it may
or you don't know, then this book could help determine how
you will experience the next million years. Not just after death,
mind you. But from the day that you read the first page.

The forward is by His Holiness the Dali Lama. I have the book with me right now. I have read it from cover to cover. So
allow me to describe it in a little more detail. In order
for you to make a decision about buying it.

The introduction is by the noted Tibetan scholar, Robert Thurman.
So along with the Dali Lama's contribution, we know that this
book may be a breakthrough in regards to what happens after
death. In the same lines as Sogyal Rinpoche's "The Tibetan
Book of Living and Dying," Paramahansa Yogananda's "The Autobiography of
a Yogi," and Betty J. Eadie's "Embraced By The Light."
If you have not read those books, I suggest that you do so in able to make a judgement call about where we go. Back to our book at hand.

In chapter two, we really get the full works. I would like to quote just one sentence from that chapter for you. "There are
eighteen volumes of return-from-death stories that give detailed
accounts of the bardo and of rebirth." So the author, a qualified lama, is telling us that the Tibetans have done numerous studies of what happens after death. And as he relates in this chapter, what can happen can be absolutely horrible.
Nightmarish. Worse than what we can imagine. The author
goes on to state that we move into a completely different "apartment" after we die. But the nature of that
"apartment" will be determined by our thoughts, words, and actions
in this life. The new "apartment" (body and environment) can be
a paradise or an absolute hell. Depending on what we do now.
Therefore, the remaining chapters, until the last one, tell us how we can be good in the Tibetan sense. Right now. I zoned
in on his emphasis of compassion, love, and patience. It seems,
from his writing, that we will have a heavenly experience if
we have these three characteristics! This would explain the heavenly near-death experiences by so many people. Murderers,
child molestors, rapists; these individuals will experience horrible hells for thousands of years. If not millions.
Nevertheless, they to can change.

This book is a must read for anybody concerned about death in any capacity. Which is about all of us, I would imagine. I
can't think of a logical person who would not read this book.
For you see, even if one is loving, what does one tell someone
who is not? If they want to know.

Please buy the book. Despite the content, it is a very easy read. The last chapter contains suggestions on how to die. If
you are dying. This could be a real Godsend for some of you out
there.

I wish you all the very best in every way possible.

This is a distinctive, accessible and very worthwhile book by an exquistely well-qualified (as emphasized by H.H. the Dalai Lama in the Foreward) Tibetan tulku. Rinpoche is a tremendously gifted individual, with insight into the Western perspective as well as an unsurpassed, encyclopedic understanding of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This book will inform readers new to Tibetan ways of viewing life and death, as well as reward long-time students of the topic. I am fortunate to be a student of this reincarnated lama, and recommend this book to anyone who has questions regarding death.

This is a life-changing book written by one of the finest living teachers of Tibetan Buddhism - written in a humorous and easy to read fashion it is an excellent introduction for anyone with or without an interest in Buddhism

Although the book is about Reincarnation, it is just as much about how to live a good life in the first place - so that you have a fortunate rebirth or go on to that better place. I have a feeling that I'm going to be referring back to it as much as I do The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva or the Book of Proverbs in the Bible.

Gelek Rinpoche is a wonderful teacher, with a joyful humor. Rinpoche has a great understanding of the american mind. This book is on the Tibetan Buddhism ideas of reincarnation and karma. Reads like a introduction but even the most practiced student would benifit. Anyone interested in Tibetan Buddhism would benifit from the teachings of Gelek Rinpoche.

For those who are familiar with the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, this book may read like a primer. Indeed, the topics are accessible to beginners, but, as with any relevant truth (pun intended), there is much to contemplate in each chapter. Approached with an open mind and even a meager understanding of analytical meditation, there is nothing 'lite' about the subjects in this book. One of Gelek Rimpoche's qualities lies in his ability to present these topics with the kind of levity that does not exclude the (yes - life and death!)seriousness of our situation. Use this book as you would use a book of recipes. It is not meant to be consumed as a collection of dry words to add to the library in your head. It is meant to be mixed with the blood of the living. If used in this way, much benefit can be gained - its is up to you. Wisdom is forever renewed and revealed through experience, especially when we allow a 'simple' idea to take root in the soil of our lives.

This book proposes a framework within which we can live a richer and more fulfilling life by understanding our motivation behind our actions and how we can improve our interaction with people around us.

The author also gives a very detailed description of the disassociation of our consciousness from our physical body at the point of death from a Tibetan point of view.

What impresses me most about the book, is the promise that by leading the good life as set out in his book, we can look forward to an easier dying process and a better rebirth.

Death then becomes a celebration of a new life...

Bought this book and was very pleased. I felt I learned alot, but still wanted to know more.

When I received this book I began to read it avidly until, little by little, I realized that it wasn't the book I'd hoped it would be. The author is chatty and sincere but, basically what you have here is Tibetan Buddhism Lite! I, for one, was very disappointed.