Ruth at a holy cave of Guru Rinpoche in Nepal

Ruth Gawler, from Australia, writes: “Ian (my boyfriend at the time) gave me a copy of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying in 1999. I was living in Alice Springs, Australia and working as a doctor in a general practice in the centre of town. One day I decided that I should start reading this book. I had had no exposure that I could remember to Tibetan Buddhism, in fact very little to Buddhism at all. I opened the cover and after turning a page or two saw the line drawing in black and white of “looks like me” and for no reason that I could understand the tears welled in my eyes and started to stream down, it continued for 5 minutes or so. I had no idea what the emotion was….all I knew was “looks like me” had a very profound and extraordinary meaning to me, which was infinitely tender and beautiful, even blissful. That was the start of a whole new life…. Now this feeling often comes when I look at pictures of the great masters…. or when I remember how lucky I am to have found the teachings of truth from Tibet….how shallow and unsatisfied I was for so long…….I feel compassion for the person I was before …how relieved and grateful I am to all who made this book possible.

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