The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead: A New Translation With Commentary [Hardcover]

Stephen Hodge (Author), Martin Boord (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1999

Uniquely blending poetry and prose, this magnificently illustrated modern adaptation of the Buddhist “reference manual to the soul” offers spiritual teachings that are practical for today’s world. Adapted from a version written by one of Tibet’s great spiritual leaders in the 8th century. “A new translation and commentary...features lively poetry and prose accompanied by lavish full-color illustrations.”—Publishers Weekly.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Sterling Pub Co Inc (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806970774
• ISBN-13: 978-0806970776
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Book of the Dead (Tibetan)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead, April 1, 2000

By 

James Grob - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead: A New Translation With Commentary (Hardcover)

Many people engaged in serious spiritual practice have suceeded in indefinitely putting off a "confrontation" with the Tibetan Book of the Dead. After all it is very complex, loaded with esoteric Tibetan Buddhist teachings, and the subject is so -- well, shall we say not a light entertainment accompanied by an immediate warm glow of satisfaction.

Now there is no reason to put it off any longer! The beautifully produced new Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead(a new translation with commentary) by Stephen Hodge with Martin Boord fills a void with great success.

First the book is physically beautiful with absolutely splendid color photographs of the Tibetan people, colorful religious celebrations and ceremonies and the awesome scenery of this spectacular country.

Reading, absorbing and responding to this book is very much like participating in a several day retreat. The retreat is conducted by someone who really understands his topic. The text of the book is reduced in size from the original, eliminating much of the more obscure material and examples, but the central, essential elements are all here.

Those central elements, very well introduced, are presented in a fine new translation and accompanied by very helpful explanatory material by Stephen Hodge. The first time visitor to this esoteric spiritual classic can therefore come away from a several day "retreat" of reading feeling well satisfied that the book has been opened for him/her and explicated by a master.

As our life is truly for the sake of dying into an eternity of awareness and bliss, and since we can in fact become familiar with the process of dying through meditative reading and understanding of this book -- and since a major point of the book is to show how easy it is to be so unfamilar with the open doors to eternal bliss that we can move right past them out of ignorance, why not stop now and take the time to study and learn the lesson of lessons.

Whether a reader of this book will wish to follow it up by going to a complete text of the Tibetan Book of the Dead is of course an individual decision based on how satisfied one is with the book discussed here. Certainly, this superlatively planned, written and produced book is l00% more helpful and satisfying than never bothering with the Book Of The Dead at all. And it is probably equal to the task of satisfying most readers completely.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Illustrated, May 8, 2000

By 

Elizabeth Green - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead: A New Reference Manual for the Soul (Paperback)

A more accessible version for Westerners of the ancient Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, 'The Great Liberation Through Hearing'. The teaching takes you through each day of the bardo of death with a comprehensive commentary. For anyone with prior Buddhist understanding, the transition between life & death detailed in this book will not come as a shock. However, for those with no prior knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism it would probably be wise to start somewhere else like the 'Tibetan Book of Living & Dying' by Sogyal Rinpoche.

Do not be put off by thinking that this is a book just about dying. Although it is essentially a guide for the dead, it is also a guide for the living.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible first step for Westerners, July 26, 2008

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tibetan Book of the Dead (Paperback)

I found this right after I'd finished another translator-commentator, Francesca Fremantle's, own advanced study of the so-called "TBoD," titled "Luminous Emptiness." (It's also reviewed by me.) I understood much more of Hodge & Boord's briefer, simpler, and more ecumenically accessible short text packaged with down-to-earth explanations. Well, as earthy as a guide to the afterlife's visions of self-projected terrors and wonders can be. While I did the reverse, I'd recommend beginning here, and then perhaps going on to Fremantle & Chogyam Trunpa Rinpoche's version (get the full edition, not the pocket-sized one), or Robert Thurman's scholarly version.

The authors, as Westerners trained in the East, can pinpoint such difficult notions as the illusory self or the patterns of literal enlightenment that form in the bardo realms clearly. Our ego's "our so-called self," only "a parasitical illusion without any substantial existence, something that has been constructed as a defense mechanism to deal with the experience of impermanence. It is this illusory self that suffers the full onslaught of our emotional turmoil. As it strives to create itself out of empty space and become solid, the ego-self always feels paranoid that it will be discovered for what it is-- a hollow illusion." (47) Hodge & Boord manage to make this philosophy no less rarified, yet they do so in a manner that's compact, terse, yet directly relevant to our understanding.

The authors also caution that this text may not be all accessible to those who in this life have not attained the proper levels of meditative preparation to perceive its impacts, but they also suggest that we can learn from its teachings to apply on a less daunting, everyday level in becoming kinder, more patient, and more calm. Hodge & Boord also urge us to withdraw more from the hubbub, and focus on what's truly meaningful. They show how we can adopt the more familiar panoply of what religious figures or symbols from our own tradition, and how the Tibetan renderings stand ultimately as any do-- for nothing at all.

The illustrations do often seem, as others here remarked, taken from a gallery of images, but they are credited at the back from a variety of photographers. They may be subtle, but a close reading of the text and comments, matched with the pictures, often shows a more careful pairing than a quick skimmer might expect. And, this is not a text to race through. It's not lengthy, in the concise, handsomely produced layout here, but it does reward reflection. Frequently during my reading of it, I'd pause and look out the windows of the train or bus, lost in thought without realizing it. This is the state that the blend of illustrations, text, and explanations invite you to share.

Hodge and Boord provide a less forbidding introduction, and stress that the complex mandalas and intricately arranged references to hosts of deities ultimately rest in our own encounter with our primordial truth, our grounding in that which is not ground but emptiness. The rainbow mandalas are only "embodiments of the deceased's spiritual energies,, and array themselves in mandala-like patterns that reveal the structure of the universe and form the great mandala of primordial enlightenment. They are like facets of a diamond, each unique in itself yet all belonging to the whole." (49) Profound when you think about it, or not think but meditate, and that's what this book can move you towards. A short list of readings, and contacts, follows, and an introductory set of one-page sections takes you through the context and sets up the essential background information.

It's an appealing first step towards this often overwhelming text. Unfamiliar to most Westerners, misleadingly named, and formidably dense, the TBoD deserves our concentration. But, it's from a centuries-old tradition totally outside of our heritage. It will disappoint those looking for easy mantras or pop-psychological inspiration. Full of polysyllabic titles, compressed into repetitive warnings, packed with esoteric lore that it expects its Tibetan adepts to already know, it's not a beginner's scripture. Yet, in a form of Pascal's wager, what if some exposure to its message will help us now and in the future? Therefore, before progressing if you're interested to Fremantle & Trungpa or Thurman, why not consider Hodge & Boord as your initiation?