Parvati Magazine May 2014 - Feeling Alive | Page 19

BOOKS

P

erhaps the greatest
certainty of our human
existence is that one day
it will come to an end.
Whether young or old, we
all eventually come to the
border of death and cross
over to the other side
to whatever awaits beyond. Yet, we mostly do
not want to think about
this eventuality. Why think
of such a distressing subject when we could focus on money to earn,
food to enjoy, lovers to
desire, families to cherish?
And why review a book
named “The Tibetan Book
of Living and Dying” for
the “Feeling Alive” issue of
Parvati Magazine?
Especially
given
the
meaning of my spiritual
name Pranada (giver of
life energy), I am the last
person to recommend
morbid or morose brooding about death at the
expense of fully engaging
with life in rooted, vital expansiveness. Our human
life is a gift to celebrate,
not to disengage from in
obsession with darkness
and absence of vitality.

Sogyal Rinpoche’s “The
Tibetan Book of Living
and Dying”, however, is
no morose screed hanging out at the cremation
ground. It uses the inevitability of death as a summons to consider what is
important and real in our
human existence. It operates from a perspective
that much of what we
cling to is illusory, and that
what is real and crucial
for our ultimate well-being
is something we may only
dimly sense beyond our
day-to-day existence.
The great mystery is that
when we truly find a
peaceful understanding
of death and what lies
beyond this lifetime, we
understand this human
life to be a great gift. We
find joy and lightness in living our life to the fullest,
engaged and fearless.
We often wonder: “How
will I be when I die?” The
answer to that is that
whatever state of mind
we are in now, that’s what
we will be like at the moment of death, if we do
not change. This is why it

is so absolutely important
to use this lifetime to purify
our mindstream, and so
our basic being and character, while we can.
“The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” takes the
concepts of the classic
“The Tibetan Book of the
Dead” and anchors them
in a broad, accessible
context for the layperson
to understand the importance of awakening in this
lifetime. Sogyal Rinpoche
gives simple instructions
for beginning a meditation practice and developing loving kindness,
so that we can embody
that compassion through
our life and, as the time
comes, to support others
or ourselves through the
dying process and beyond. For those who feel
ready to take in more information, he discusses
some of the more esoteric
aspects of the dying process and how, by grace,
to move safely through it
to liberation.

Pranada Devi is a communications professional living in Toronto, Canada.
She is the Managing Editor of Parvati Magazine, and serves as an advisor
on marketing communications for Parvati’s various projects. Recently, she
edited Parvati’s new book “Confessions of a Former Yoga Junkie”, which is
has gone on to sell out its first two printing runs.