This delightful little book is packed with a couple thousand years of Tibetan Buddhist wisdom. While the focus is on death and dying, it is a positive guide to living life with the fullness of meaning and presence in the eternal moment.

The origin of this book actually go back to the early 1960’s when the translator, Jeffrey Hopkins Ph.D. was studying with a revered Tibetan teacher, Lama Kensur Ngawang Lekden, abbot of an ancient Tantra monastery in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. During that time, the abbot referred to a traditional book that was said to be helpful when approaching death because it described in vivd detail the various stages of death and how best to prepare for dying.

Hopkins did not have an opportunity to read the text until the early 1970’s, when he then studied it with two lamas.

Believing the material to be extremely profound, Hopkins later asked the Dalai Lama if he would be willing to provide commentary on another Tibetan text dealing with the same topic, a 17-stanza poem written by the First Panchen Lama in the 17th Century.

The resulting book is a detailed, stanza-by-stanza exploration of the poem and related Tibetan teachings, traditions, Buddhist depth psychology, and a study of the stages of dying and the period of time between death and rebirth.

Over and over, the power of mindful living is emphasized and encouraged. It turns out that a mindful embrace and involvement in daily living is key to preparing for a mindful passing from this reality to the next. While the focus is on the Tibetan Buddhist perspecitve of living and dying, non-Buddhists will discover not only valuable insight on one of the world’sgreatest spiritual cultures, but practical advice for living that transcends all cultures, religions and, it would appear, lifetimes.

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