May I finally understand

Nadine Aernouts, originally from Belgium, writes: “My sister died two years ago of cancer when she was sixty years old. I lost my brother years ago when he was just 47 years old. When he died I was totally confused because people always tell you that you have to be strong and go on living. […]

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Hoping to Heal, Accepting Death

When do you hope to be healed, and when do you accept to die? This is a critical question for many faced with terminal or life-threatening diseases. From the moment of diagnosis, people are very raw and vulnerable. With some illnesses (such as cancer) people feel at times that they might live, and at times […]

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Letter from Death Row

In the early 90s, not long after The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying was published, a young man called Greg from the United States, wrote to Rinpoche from his prison cell, where he was preparing to be executed. He wrote: “I am not writing this for any benefit to myself, other than the possibility […]

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To Dignify and Empower the Ailing and Needy

When Deepa Muthaiya was given  The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by a friend in India in 1994, she was struck by its philosophy of compassion, love and care for the dying. It brought home to her, she said, the extent to which we are neither prepared for, nor taught anything positive about, something […]

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“I Learned to Be Simply Present…”

Caroline De Glanville from the UK shares her story: “In the summer of 2001 my mother was diagnosed with cancer. The medicine made her feel sick, and she decided that she did not want chemo-therapy or any pills, as it would make her hair fall out.

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