The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

by Sogyal Rinpoche (425 pp., HarperSanFrancisco)

White Sail: Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to the Serene Continent of the Triple Gems

by Thinley Norbu (205 pp., Shambhala Publications)

Two Tibetan lamas of the Nyingma lineage have recently made major contributions to the literature of Buddhism in the West. Sogyal Rinpoche is one of the most accessible of the Tibetan teachers. He was trained by some of the greatest masters of this century, including Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lödro, Dudjom Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He also studied Comparative Religion at Cambridge University and has the ability to reach a wide range of students. Sogyal Rinpoche’s intention to help Westerners understand and utilize the Tibetan Book of the Dead led him to write The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. In the chapter on “The Innermost Essence” Sogyal Rinpoche says:

No one can die fearlessly and in complete security until they have truly realized the nature of mind. For only this realization, deepened over years of sustained practice, can keep the mind stable during the molten chaos of the process of death.

In addition to his own commentary, the author skillfully includes stories, teachings, and writings by Tibetan Lamas, Western scientists, dharma students and hospice workers. There is also a fairly extensive recounting of various people’s near-death experiences. The book’s generous offerings include everything from Dzogchen teachings through introductory meditation instructions and exercises in forgiveness and detachment. There is practical advice on caring for the dying and even some tips on how to negotiate with the Western health care system to allow some peace for the dying and the recently deceased. The Tibetan Buddhists view the inevitability of death as a great opportunity for Liberation. Their acceptance and investigation of the whole range of experience challenges and can help to heal Western materialism and denial.

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche’s White Sail: Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to the Serene Continent of the Triple Gems is an extraordinary illumination of the Vajrayana path. His poetic language may put some readers off, but for those who will receive it, the book is a direct transmission from Wisdom Mind. Here is the opening to a chapter called “The Senses”:

This Meeting, as in a Dream

As in a dream, when cuckoos start to sing, it is spring. When I awoke on the first spring day, I remembered my dream that when the sense object meets the sense, that is the echo.

It is so magical, it is so wondrous that I dreamed the dream that echoed the substanceless essence of the substanceless dream.

Untouchable dream. Uncatchable echo.

O Lord Buddha, through your blessing did you dream for me to show that all phenomena are illusory like a dream and cannot be caught?

In summertime, when peacocks’ tails make parasols, I met a celestial dakini without invitation in my dream.

It is so magical. It is so wondrous, this meeting, as in a dream.

In autumn time, when the meadow dew, like tears, meets the moonbeams’ wistful love, I watched the falling leaves and remembered my dream that when the sense object meets the sense, that is the echo.

It is so magical, it is so wondrous, this meeting, as in a dream.

In wintertime, when the wind thief’s whispered lament meets the snow-faced earth holder of wealth, my mind grew weary.

It is so magical, it is so wondrous, this meeting, as in a dream.

 

All sentient beings, including myself, take all that is perceived to be real and do not recognize that when the sense object meets the sense, that is the echo.

As I read White Sail the expression “ruthless compassion” came to mind several times. There is no mistaking the author’s intention to guide the reader toward Enlightenment. In the most lyrical language, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche demands a fierce renunciation of ordinary mind’s illusory creations. While the author warns us against becoming so attached to tradition that we lose the View, the path he illuminates has a long history and requires a deep commitment to practice. He explains visualization and deity practices and the Yogas of Inner Heat, Dreaming, and Dying. Love, faith, karma and teacher/student relations are explored. The book is traditional, radical, disturbing, and sublime.

∞

From the Spring 1993 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 9, No. 2)

Text © 1993–2021 by Suzie Rashkis