“That Book You Bought for Me”
For the 10th anniversary of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying in 2002, Marian O’Dwyer, shared her experience of how the book helped her mother in her final years:
“I visited my mother in England on her eighty-fifth birthday, three years before her death, after attending a retreat with Sogyal Rinpoche at Lerab Ling.
“Changed My Life”
David C Mitchell writes: “Changed my life. Because of this book, which I read for the first time on a trip in India in the early 90’s, I chose to pursue work in Hospice care. Although it took time for this to “manifest”, I am now a grief counselor at a Hospice. A wonderful, sensitive, and profound book. I remember having tears reading one of the stories in the book and thinking this, for me, is what it is all about.”
—December 19, 2011
(This is the first in a series of short reviews from readers of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying found on www.amazon.com)
Finding the Voice
Patrick Gaffney
In 1994, Patrick Gaffney, one of the main editors of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, gave an account of just how the book was written:
“DEATH CAN OFTEN BE a sticky subject. One afternoon in May three years ago, I arrived at a tiny railway station on the borders of England and Wales. Waiting to meet me was the owner of the cottage where I was to spend the next month attempting to justify the enormous volume of papers and books compressed into my luggage. We drove off down narrow, winding lanes. Suddenly, my new friend asked: “My wife tells me you’re working on a book. Is that right?” “Yes”, I said. “Well, can I give you a word of warning? We’ve got a friend of ours visiting. She loves talking, and minding everybody else’s business. If she finds out that you’re writing a book, we’ll never hear the end of it, neither you nor us.” “Oh?” I ventured, sensing that he was moving towards a helpful conclusion. “Take my advice. If she asks you what you do”, he paused as he caught my eye and a conspiratorial smile slunk across his face, “tell her you do something else … anything at all. Tell her, for instance, that you’re a mortician.” We both giggled at his ingenuity; no-one would ever risk too long a conversation with an undertaker, for obvious reasons. We sped on for another mile or so, quiet and contented. “By the way, what’s your book about, anyway?” “Well, actually …. it’s about death.” Now we drove on in a chilly silence, uneasy and grim-faced. As I sat there, I was reminded, yet again, of the power in our culture of the fear of death to penetrate and cast its shadow over even the most normal of circumstances, and to rob us, quite simply, of our lives.
How the book found me
Dirk van Fürden, from Cologne, Germany tells his story:
Healing through Reading
Jan Linehan, director of the Spiritual Care Programme
Jan Linehan, who works for Rigpa’s Spiritual Care Programme writes:
Recently, thinking about the influence of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, I remembered that Viktor Frankl, whose book Man’s Search for Meaning about his experience in the Nazi concentration camps inspired so many people, wondered once whether there was such a thing as healing through reading – “autobibliotherapy” he called it.
From my own experience and from listening to the stories of so many other people who have read The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying in time of crisis, illness or loss, it is clear to me that reading can heal and that this book has been a source of deep personal healing for many. Read More
