21-03-2005, 11:47 AM
For many years I have heard talk of the infamous Tibetan Book of the Dead. Just on Saturday I came across the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by Sogyal Rinpoche over ten years ago. It gives a clearer, more rounded treatise of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy than the original Tibetan Book of the Dead, and even though I am only a few chapters in, I have to say I am very very very impressed.
For those of you who have an interest in spirituality, regardless of the personal path that you follow, I would recommend that you get this book - it is a wonderful, rounded, addition to spiritual teachings of any religion.
This quote is one I am particularly fond of (already) and is a thought that has been echoed by so many religious teachers over the years:
"To follow the path of wisdom has never been more urgent or more difficult. Our society is dedicated almost entirely to the celebration of ego, with all its sad fantasies about success and power, and it celebrates those very forces of greed and ignorance that are destroying the planet. It has never been more difficult to hear the unflattering voice of the truth, and never more difficult, once having heard it, to follow it: because there is nothing in the world around us that supports our choice, and the entire society in which we live seems to negate every idea of sacredness or eternal meaning. So at the time of our most acute danger, when our very future is in doubt, we as human beings find ourselves at our most bewildered, and trapped in a nightmare of our own creation."
- Sogyal Rinpoche
For those of you who have an interest in spirituality, regardless of the personal path that you follow, I would recommend that you get this book - it is a wonderful, rounded, addition to spiritual teachings of any religion.
This quote is one I am particularly fond of (already) and is a thought that has been echoed by so many religious teachers over the years:
"To follow the path of wisdom has never been more urgent or more difficult. Our society is dedicated almost entirely to the celebration of ego, with all its sad fantasies about success and power, and it celebrates those very forces of greed and ignorance that are destroying the planet. It has never been more difficult to hear the unflattering voice of the truth, and never more difficult, once having heard it, to follow it: because there is nothing in the world around us that supports our choice, and the entire society in which we live seems to negate every idea of sacredness or eternal meaning. So at the time of our most acute danger, when our very future is in doubt, we as human beings find ourselves at our most bewildered, and trapped in a nightmare of our own creation."
- Sogyal Rinpoche