The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Tibetan Religion and the Western Imagination Tibetan Religion and the Western Imagination: Translations and Interpretations of the Books of the Dead Death in the twentieth century is at once imminent and invisible. Lulled by the false comforts of medical and technological advancement, western culture dreams that progress will domesticate once and for all death's senseless malignancy. Science has offered many solutions to life's questions, but has yet to explain, for example, the spark of new life, the mysterious workings of consciousness, or a person's fate after death. As this exhibit has hopefully demonstrated, the Tibetans possess a vibrant wealth of literature dealing with the nature of consciousness and the dying experience. For centuries Tibet has engaged in the systematic study and analysis of the human death process as a cautious and practical preparation for this inevitable event. In the past several decades, many spiritually inquisitive westerners from both Europe and the United States have turned to the wisdom of Tibet's mature religious understanding for answers to those questions that science and medicine have failed to address. In the end, there is not a single human being who is not going to die, sooner or later.

It is therefore impractical, according to some opinions, not to examine the issue with the greatest concern and not to benefit from the trials and errors of ancient tradition. It is this view that has motivated many of the western studies on the Tibetan Books of the Dead, and it is in these studies that Tibet's sophisticated methods of dealing with death and dying are appropriately recognized as a skillful, compassionate, and humane response to life's certain end. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Edited by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz and translated by Kazi Dawa Samdup. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927. First Edition. (On loan from Bryan J. Cuevas) The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Edited by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz and translated by Kazi Dawa Samdup. Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 1936. Second Impression. (On loan from Bryan J. Cuevas) The first English language translation and commentary of the most famous Tibetan death text, 'The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State' (Bardo Tö-dröl, bar do thos grol chen mo), appeared in 1927. Its editor, Dr.

Walter Y. Evans-Wentz (1878-1965), christened the text with the title The Tibetan Book of the Dead in order to convey to the western reader the true character of the text as a whole. The actual translation into English was provided by Kazi Dawa Samdup (Kazi zla ba bsam ï¿½grub, 1868-1922), who had previously served as interpreter to both the British Government in Sikkim and the Tibetan Plenipotentiary in India, and had also been the teacher and translator for the first great female pioneer of Tibet, Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969) during her stay in Sikkim.

After Dawa Samdup's death, over the course of several years, Evans-Wentz reworked, edited, and composed lengthy notes to the surviving translations, basing his interpretive conclusions upon material drawn less from the Tibetan Buddhist traditions (with which he was only vaguely familiar) and more from the Spiritualism of Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), founder of the Theosophical Society, and from the neo-Vedantic Hindu views of his Indian guru Swami Satyananda. Consequently, Evans-Wentz's reworking of Dawa Samdup's earlier translations and his copious commentarial footnotes are truly idiosyncratic and impressionistic interpretations of the Tibetan Buddhist doctrines contained in the text. The commentaries of Evans-Wentz certainly bear the imprint of his romantic Theosophical leanings and nineteenth century intellectual prejudices. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Edited by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz and translated by Kazi Dawa Samdup. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960. Paperback Edition.

Further contributions to Evans-Wentzï¿½s creative interpretations of the Book of the Dead were not offered again until the renowned psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) psychologized the text's message in his commentary of 1938, which was published for the first time in English in the third Oxford Press edition of 1957 and subsequently prefaced to all future editions of Evans-Wentz's Tibetan Book of the Dead. Jung's insightful essay demonstrated to the wider academic population that this Tibetan text could be relevant beyond the specialized arena of Tibetology and that its content could speak to the concerns of anthropologists, philosophers, and psychologists alike. Moreover, Jung's psychological perspective generated considerable interest in non-academic circles and directly influenced the interpretations of several translations and commentaries that would follow. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo. Chogyam Trungpa and Francesca Fremantle. Berkeley, California: Shambhala Publications, 1975. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo. By Guru Rinpoche according to Karma-Lingpa.

Translated with commentary by Francesca Fremantle and Chogyam Trungpa. Boston and London: Shambhala Pocket Classics, 1992. Based on lectures presented at his own Buddhist institute in Vermont, the charismatic Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa (1939-1987) published his own edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead in 1975. This edition exhibits the distinctive quality of Trungpa's peculiar blend of American counter-culture individualism and Tibetan Buddhist orthodox conservatism. His highly individualized commentary to the translation certainly owes a debt to Carl Jung. In Chögyam Trungpa's view the bardo experience is an active part of every human beingï¿½s basic psychological make-up, and thus it is best described using the concepts of modern psychoanalysis, such as ego, the unconscious mind, neurosis, paranoia, and so on. Indeed, the greatest virtue of Trungpa's text is its ability to convey the messages of the Book of the Dead in a free-flowing and comfortable style unburdened by the specialized and obscure language so often encountered in more academic works. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation Through Understanding in the Between.

Robert A.F. Thurman. New York: Bantam Books, 1994. This most recent translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead is inspired by the contemporary hospice movement in America. In this new translation, Robert Thurman, Columbia University professor and president of Tibet House in New York City, sets out to produce an even more accessible version of the popular Tibetan text for those individuals who might wish to read it at the bedside of their dying friend or relative. In this way, Thurman's Tibetan Book of the Dead is presented clearly as an "easy- to-read" guidebook for contemporary Americans. His edition is among the first to give simple practical instructions on how to make use of the Tibetan text, and includes a well-informed and extensive commentarial introduction to the essential Buddhist topics that serve as background to the ideas and practices encountered in the original work. Il libro tibetano dei morti (Bardo Tödöl). Giuseppe Tucci. Milano: Bocca, 1949; reprint, Torino, 1972. A Köztes Lét Könyvei: Tibeti Tanácsok Halandoknak és Születendöknek.

György Kara. Budapest: Europa Konyvkiado, 1986. (On loan from Bryan J. Cuevas) The popularity of Evans-Wentz's edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead was so tremendous that it went through numerous reprints and was translated from the English version into most major European languages. The text's high level of appeal also inspired several new international translations from the original Tibetan manuscripts. Among these works are included the important translation studies of Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984) and György Kara. Perhaps as tribute to the pioneering efforts of Evans-Wentz, but certainly in keeping with long established convention, both translations carry the same title as the Evans-Wentz version, in spite of the fact that neither work translates any part of his groundbreaking English edition. Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books of the Dead. Detlef Ingo Lauf. Germany: Aurum Verlag, 1975; English translation by Graham Parkes. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1977; reprint, 1989.

In his Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books of the Dead, the German Tibetologist and scholar of comparative religion Detlef Lauf helps to clarify many of the symbolic and historical complexities that had continued to elude a great number of commentators on the Tibetan Book of the Dead since the early work of Evans-Wentz. He is also the first western scholar to acknowledge explicitly the literary diversity of this popular text, demonstrating that this so-called 'Tibetan book' is in actuality a rather large collection of books, each with its own separate symbolic content and expressed religious purpose. Moreover, in addition to his insightful contributions to the literary history of the Tibetan books, Lauf offers an intriguing and thought-provoking comparison with the religious perspectives on death and dying found in other ancient cultures, such as those of Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Tibet Bon Religion: A Death Ritual of the Tibetan Bonpos. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985. Recent developments in Tibetan Bon-po studies have profitted immensely from the pioneering work of Per Kvaerne, Professor of the History of Religions and Tibetology at the University of Oslo.

In his Tibet Bon Religion: A Death Ritual of the Tibetan Bonpos, Kvaerne provides a detailed description of a Bon-po death ritual as it was performed in India in 1981, focusing specifically on the structure and purpose of the ritual of the illustration cards or jangbu (see Section 3 above). Kvaerne's analysis of the jangbu ritual, in which a drawing of the deceased is used by the officiating lama to guide him or her toward an auspicious destiny, reveals the close relationship between ancient and modern Tibetan perspectives on death, dying, and the dead. This study also introduces the main features and doctrines of Bon as background to the rituals described and includes numerous illustrations and photographs published here for the first time. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Sogyal Rinpoche. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992. (On loan from Bryan J. Cuevas) In this best-selling work, the internationally renowned meditation master Sogyal Rinpoche combines the wisdom of the most revered spiritual traditions of Tibet with the modern insights of medical science regarding death and the nature of consciousness to create an inspiring and practical self-help guide for all who wish to enhance their spiritual growth.

In the words of Sogyal Rinpoche himself, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying was written in the hope that it might "inspire a quiet revolution in the whole way we look at death and care for the dying, and the whole way we look at life and care for the living." With this compassionate goal in mind, Rinpoche offers his own practical perspectives on such traditional Tibetan religious topics as the workings of karma and rebirth, the practices for dying, and the transitional bardos between lives. In addition, he discusses the universal similarities between near-death experiences, especially those reported by Tibetans, Europeans, and Americans, and gives advice on how to care spiritually for the dying. The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1964; second paperback printing, 1983. (On loan from Bryan J.

Cuevas) Beginning with the private experiments of a small group of intellectuals and spreading quickly to America's disenchanted youth, the 1960's psychedelic revolution unleashed for a brief second in history the flash and fury of the unconscious mind upon a repressed and unsuspecting society. More often than not the dazzling and multi-colored archetypes that sprang forth came in the exotic guise of the gods and demons of India and Tibet. Mystical experience and the spiritual quest became synomous with drug-induced altered states of consciousness and the search for the ultimate 'high.' The message of the day: "tune in, turn on, drop out." Following a commonly held belief that many of Asia's revered scriptures could be utilized most effectively in the west by replacing their sacred images with western ones, former Harvard psychology professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass), enthusiasts of the new counter-culture, took the Tibetan Book of the Dead and presented it as a guidebook for the LSD experience, complete with descriptions of the psychedelic psychodrama of ego-death, involving a 'trip' through a kaleidoscopic limbo (bardo) and a sobering return (rebirth) to the everyday world.

Instructions were laid out to mirror the instructions of the lama, whose job it was to gently guide the deceased through his or her own psychic world--a flash of memories and visionary impressions of a life once lived. The Psychedelic Experience did little to clarify traditional Tibetan interpretations of the Book of the Dead, but did succeed in generating a perennial fascination for this and other related Tibetan texts among the rising generation of young American truth-seekers and future scholars. The Original American Book of the Dead. E.J. Gold. Nevada City, California: Gateways/IDHHB Publishers, 1974; Revised edition, 1990. On loan from Gregory A. Hillis. This volume is another illustration of the hybrid genre of 'Death Manual' inspired by the counter-culture's encounter with Tibetan lamas in Berkeley and environs during the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Here we find a light- hearted but ultimately serious guidebook for those who seek to navigate the labyrinth of existence, whether or not, as Gold puts it, they are "attached to a biological machine." The book closely follows the Tibetan model for such manuals, and represents the author's attempt to translate the Tibetan lamas' knowledge of death technologies into an American cultural idiom. This he achieves through employing quotations from Groucho Marx, and distinctly American versions of universal archetypes such as game-show hosts, military drill-instructors, television, funhouses, and strip-poker. In addition, Gold includes order forms for books, tapes, and other curiosities from his "Bardo Shopping Network" mail-order service. Despite its irreverent tone, The American Book of the Dead served as a precursor to the "Post-Death-Experience" (PDE) literature currently popular in New Age bookstores. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. New York: Buddhist Ray, Inc. Vol. VI, number 1, Fall, 1996. On loan from Gregory A. Hillis.

Many of the hippies and spiritual seekers from the 1960s and 1970s whose introduction to Tibetan Buddhism had been connected with drugs and other psychedelic experiences went on to formally convert to the Buddhist religion, sometimes establishing spiritual communities, etc. Initially, the majority of rites and daily practices in such communities were little more than elaborate pantomimes of Tibetan rituals. As time went on, however, many felt an increasing need to translate these practices into a contemporary Western context, as well as develop a forum for discussion of specifically Western responses to classical Buddhist issues. Magazines such as Tricycle and others arose in the 1980s to fill this growing need. This recent issue of Tricycle is devoted to the topic of the relationship of psychedelic drugs to the development of American Buddhism. The cover is a hallucinatory rendering of a traditional Tibetan thangka, depicting the vivid and intense, but paradoxical and sometimes ambiguous nature of an American Buddhist's experience. You are currently on the Tibetan Religion and the Western Imagination page of the Texts section in The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

To continue through the exhibit, select a category from the menu below: University of Virginia Library Online Exhibits | The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Literature on Prayer, Ritual, and Meditation from the Religious Traditions of Tibet, India, and Nepal Il libro tibetano dei morti (Bardo Tödöl). Giuseppe Tucci. Milano: Bocca, 1949; reprint, Torino, 1972. The popularity of Evans-Wentz's edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead was so tremendous that it went through numerous reprints and was translated from the English version into most major European languages. The text's high level of appeal also inspired several new international translations from the original Tibetan manuscripts. Among these works are included the important translation studies of Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984) and György Kara. Perhaps as tribute to the pioneering efforts of Evans-Wentz, but certainly in keeping with long established convention, both translations carry the same title as the Evans-Wentz version, in spite of the fact that neither work translates any part of his groundbreaking English edition.

A Köztes Lét Könyvei: Tibeti Tanácsok Halandoknak és Születendöknek. György Kara. Budapest: Europa Konyvkiado, 1986. (On loan from Bryan J. Cuevas) Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books of the Dead. Detlef Ingo Lauf. Germany: Aurum Verlag, 1975; English translation by Graham Parkes. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1977; reprint, 1989. In his Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books of the Dead, the German Tibetologist and scholar of comparative religion Detlef Lauf helps to clarify many of the symbolic and historical complexities that had continued to elude a great number of commentators on the Tibetan Book of the Dead since the early work of Evans-Wentz. He is also the first western scholar to acknowledge explicitly the literary diversity of this popular text, demonstrating that this so-called 'Tibetan book' is in actuality a rather large collection of books, each with its own separate symbolic content and expressed religious purpose.

Moreover, in addition to his insightful contributions to the literary history of the Tibetan books, Lauf offers an intriguing and thought-provoking comparison with the religious perspectives on death and dying found in other ancient cultures, such as those of Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Tibet Bon Religion: A Death Ritual of the Tibetan Bonpos. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985. Recent developments in Tibetan Bon-po studies have profitted immensely from the pioneering work of Per Kvaerne, Professor of the History of Religions and Tibetology at the University of Oslo. In his Tibet Bon Religion: A Death Ritual of the Tibetan Bonpos, Kvaerne provides a detailed description of a Bon-po death ritual as it was performed in India in 1981, focusing specifically on the structure and purpose of the ritual of the illustration cards or jangbu (see Section 3 above). Kvaerne's analysis of the jangbu ritual, in which a drawing of the deceased is used by the officiating lama to guide him or her toward an auspicious destiny, reveals the close relationship between ancient and modern Tibetan perspectives on death, dying, and the dead.

This study also introduces the main features and doctrines of Bon as background to the rituals described and includes numerous illustrations and photographs published here for the first time. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Sogyal Rinpoche. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992. (On loan from Bryan J. Cuevas) In this best-selling work, the internationally renowned meditation master Sogyal Rinpoche combines the wisdom of the most revered spiritual traditions of Tibet with the modern insights of medical science regarding death and the nature of consciousness to create an inspiring and practical self-help guide for all who wish to enhance their spiritual growth. In the words of Sogyal Rinpoche himself, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying was written in the hope that it might "inspire a quiet revolution in the whole way we look at death and care for the dying, and the whole way we look at life and care for the living." With this compassionate goal in mind, Rinpoche offers his own practical perspectives on such traditional Tibetan religious topics as the workings of karma and rebirth, the practices for dying, and the transitional bardos between lives.

In addition, he discusses the universal similarities between near-death experiences, especially those reported by Tibetans, Europeans, and Americans, and gives advice on how to care spiritually for the dying. The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1964; second paperback printing, 1983. (On loan from Bryan J. Cuevas) Beginning with the private experiments of a small group of intellectuals and spreading quickly to America's disenchanted youth, the 1960's psychedelic revolution unleashed for a brief second in history the flash and fury of the unconscious mind upon a repressed and unsuspecting society. More often than not the dazzling and multi-colored archetypes that sprang forth came in the exotic guise of the gods and demons of India and Tibet.

Mystical experience and the spiritual quest became synomous with drug-induced altered states of consciousness and the search for the ultimate 'high.' The message of the day: "tune in, turn on, drop out." Following a commonly held belief that many of Asia's revered scriptures could be utilized most effectively in the west by replacing their sacred images with western ones, former Harvard psychology professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass), enthusiasts of the new counter-culture, took the Tibetan Book of the Dead and presented it as a guidebook for the LSD experience, complete with descriptions of the psychedelic psychodrama of ego-death, involving a 'trip' through a kaleidoscopic limbo (bardo) and a sobering return (rebirth) to the everyday world. Instructions were laid out to mirror the instructions of the lama, whose job it was to gently guide the deceased through his or her own psychic world--a flash of memories and visionary impressions of a life once lived. The Psychedelic Experience did little to clarify traditional Tibetan interpretations of the Book of the Dead, but did succeed in generating a perennial fascination for this and other related Tibetan texts among the rising generation of young American truth-seekers and future scholars.

The Original American Book of the Dead. E.J. Gold. Nevada City, California: Gateways/IDHHB Publishers, 1974; Revised edition, 1990. On loan from Gregory A. Hillis. This volume is another illustration of the hybrid genre of 'Death Manual' inspired by the counter-culture's encounter with Tibetan lamas in Berkeley and environs during the late 1960's and early 1970's. Here we find a light- hearted but ultimately serious guidebook for those who seek to navigate the labyrinth of existence, whether or not, as Gold puts it, they are "attached to a biological machine." The book closely follows the Tibetan model for such manuals, and represents the author's attempt to translate the Tibetan lamas' knowledge of death technologies into an American cultural idiom. This he achieves through employing quotations from Groucho Marx, and distinctly American versions of universal archetypes such as game-show hosts, military drill-instructors, television, funhouses, and strip-poker. In addition, Gold includes order forms for books, tapes, and other curiosities from his "Bardo Shopping Network" mail-order service.

Despite its irreverent tone, The American Book of the Dead served as a precursor to the "Post-Death-Experience" (PDE) literature currently popular in New Age bookstores. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. New York: Buddhist Ray, Inc. Vol. VI, number 1, Fall, 1996. On loan from Gregory A. Hillis. Many of the hippies and spiritual seekers from the 1960s and 1970s whose introduction to Tibetan Buddhism had been connected with drugs and other psychedelic experiences went on to formally convert to the Buddhist religion, sometimes establishing spiritual communities, etc. Initially, the majority of rites and daily practices in such communities were little more than elaborate pantomimes of Tibetan rituals. As time went on, however, many felt an increasing need to translate these practices into a contemporary Western context, as well as develop a forum for discussion of specifically Western responses to classical Buddhist issues. Magazines such as Tricycle and others arose in the 1980s to fill this growing need. This recent issue of Tricycle is devoted to the topic of the relationship of psychedelic drugs to the development of American Buddhism.

The cover is a hallucinatory rendering of a traditional Tibetan thangka, depicting the vivid and intense, but paradoxical and sometimes ambiguous nature of an American Buddhist's experience. Project MUSE - "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" A Biography Donald S. Lopez Jr. Publication Year: 2011 The Tibetan Book of the Dead is the most famous Buddhist text in the West, having sold more than a million copies since it was first published in English in 1927. Carl Jung wrote a commentary on it, Timothy Leary redesigned it as a guidebook for an acid trip, and the Beatles quoted Leary's version in their song "Tomorrow Never Knows." More recently, the book has been adopted by the hospice movement, enshrined by Penguin Classics, and made into an audiobook read by Richard Gere.

Yet, as acclaimed writer and scholar of Buddhism Donald Lopez writes, "The Tibetan Book of the Dead is not really Tibetan, it is not really a book, and it is not really about death." In this compelling introduction and short history, Lopez tells the strange story of how a relatively obscure and malleable collection of Buddhist texts of uncertain origin came to be so revered--and so misunderstood--in the West. The central character in this story is Walter Evans-Wentz (1878-1965), an eccentric scholar and spiritual seeker from Trenton, New Jersey, who, despite not knowing the Tibetan language and never visiting the country, crafted and named The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In fact, Lopez argues, Evans-Wentz's book is much more American than Tibetan, owing a greater debt to Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky than to the lamas of the Land of Snows. Indeed, Lopez suggests that the book's perennial appeal stems not only from its origins in magical and mysterious Tibet, but also from the way Evans-Wentz translated the text into the language of a very American spirituality. Download PDF pp. 10-13 This book is my third encounter with The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The first occurred in 1998, when I devoted a chapter to it in Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West (University of Chicago Press, 1998). The second occurred... INTRODUCTION Download PDF pp. 1-12 In 2005, I received a telephone call from a newspaper in N ew Jersey. The journalist had seen a press release about a new translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and thought he might write a story about it. I referred him to a recently... CHAPTER 1: America Download PDF pp. 13-29 1816 was known in N ew England as the Y ear With No Summer. T emperatures plunged below freezing on June 5, July 6, August 13, 20, and 28. Eighteen inches of snow fell in Cabot, Vermont on CHAPTER 2: India Download PDF pp. 30-48 In ancient India, we cannot provide a standard chronology of an author’s life and works. We encounter a different kind of evidence. The Buddha lived two and a half millennia ago, he wrote nothing during his life, his teachings were not...

CHAPTER 3: Tibet Download PDF pp. 49-70 According to a well-known myth, the first Tibetan kings descended from heaven by means of a rope. When the king’s firstborn son had reached maturity (measured by the ability to master... CHAPTER 4: The World Download PDF pp. 71-127 From Egypt, Walter Evans-Wentz traveled to Sri Lanka and then on to India, where he visited the Theosophical Society headquarters at Adyar in Madras. He met Annie Besant, who had become... CONCLUSION Download PDF pp. 128-152 When Evans-Wentz chose to name his work The Tibetan Book of the Dead, he had in mind The Egyptian Book of the Dead, convinced that both derived from a single source of ancient... CODA Download PDF pp. 153-156 Sometime between 1817 and 1821, Antonio Lebolo, a former soldier in N apoleon’s army, excavated mummies from the necropolis of Thebes. Eleven of those mummies (and their accompanying... NOTES The Tibetan Book of the Dead : Donald S.

Lopez : 9780691134352 The Tibetan Book of the Dead Tibetan Buddhism Review quote "A scholarly and informative short read, very useful as a reminder that religious books are not necessarily fixed entities."--James F. DeRoche, Library Journal "The focus of Donald Lopez's ingenious, informative, and engagingly written 'biography' is not so much the original Tibetan text but the pioneering edition and translation first issued in 1927 by the American traveler, scholar, and Theosophist W.Y. Evans-Wentz."--Roger Jackson, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly "The focus of Donald Lopez's ingenious, informative, and engagingly written 'biography' is not so much the original Tibetan text but the pioneering edition and translation first issued in 1927 by the American traveler, scholar, and Theosophist W.Y. Evans-Wentz."--Roger R.

Jackson, Buddhadharma "[T]his biography springs to life when Lopez places its subject within the weird tradition of American spiritualism, complete with Madame Blavatsky's acolytes, Ouija boards and memories of exotic past lives."--Miriam Cosic, The Australian "What makes Lopez's biography of Evans-Wentz's book not only amusing (as it unfailingly is) but enlightening is that one suspects he too could have 'chosen any Asian text' that had been ripped from its context and composed a similar story of how meanings, willy-nilly, had attached themselves to it.

Having read Lopez's book, we will look afresh at the volumes of unmoored wisdom so many in the West have taken to heart."--David Cozy, Japan Times "The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography is an excellent short introduction to Buddhism, and an intriguing analysis of how ancient texts are used (or invented) to give authority to ideologies."--Heather Shaw, Portland Book Review "Concise and written with Lopez's usual clarity, this short book at times reads like an exciting spiritual detective story as the author methodically takes the reader through the improbable developments that led to the creation of what, in some sense, is a Western creation brought forth from Eastern concepts... Although written for a popular audience, this book should be of interest to all scholars interested in the metamorphosis of Buddhism as the dharma has become transplanted in the West."--George Adams, NovaReligio "Lopez is a good scholar with an engaging style ...

and a reader new to the Tibetan Book of the Dead will find this book a reliable and often entertaining introduction to the work and to its Tibetan and Western histories."--Geoffrey Samuel, European Legacy "Although the book addresses a broad and general audience, it is still an excellent scholarly study on the translation and transformation of Tibetan texts into a single English book that eventually became a 'timeless world spiritual classic.' The study is firmly set in the complex trajectories of transcultural encounters and should benefit religious studies scholars from different fields of research. For scholars of American religious history, Buddhism in the West, and contemporary religion in the Euro-American context, the book provides an accessible account of the Buddhist and Tibetan background of the text in question; for scholars from Buddhist and Tibetan studies, the book offers a window to modernist adaptations and interpretations of Buddhist texts in 20th-century America. This slim volume will function well in the undergraduate classroom to demonstrate that religious texts are not timeless and fixed entities...

Lopez's narrative biography of The Tibetan Book of the Dead will provide a useful and accessible reading assignment for more specialized classes."--Katja Rakow, Religion "This [is a] magnificent little piece of literary iconoclasm."--Michel Clasquin-Johnson, Relegre-Studies in Religion and Reception show more Back cover copy "On the history of Buddhism and its transmission to the West, Donald Lopez is the unsurpassable master. The story he tells here about a book that is 'not really Tibetan' and 'not really about death' glistens with delicious ironies and arresting historical parallels. Who else but Lopez would begin a history of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" with the story of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith--and then, like a mystery writer, reveal the connections at the end? This is a sly and wildly entertaining book."--Kenneth L.

Woodward, contributing editor, "Newsweek" ""The Tibetan Book of the Dead" has a wonderful story, and in this fascinating and charming little book, Donald Lopez reveals himself to be a wonderful storyteller."--Jack Miles, author of "God: A Biography" "This smart, entertaining introduction to "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" is a real delight. Despite its title, Donald Lopez argues, "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" is a uniquely American book and can be properly read and understood only from that perspective. He demonstrates this by exposing its direct links to American Theosophy and spiritualism at the dawn of the New Age in the early twentieth century, while also drawing interesting parallels to the visionary beginnings of Mormonism."--Bryan J. Cuevas, author of "The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead" "This book offers a fascinating and fresh discussion of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" and its life as a text in the United States.

Donald Lopez argues that persistent threads in American religious life--the tradition of the 'found' text as a repository for ancient wisdom, and a philosophical interest in life after death--help explain the overwhelming success of the book and its endurance as a cultural artifact."--Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill show more About Donald S. Lopez Donald S. Lopez, Jr., is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His many books include "The Story of Buddhism" (HarperOne) and "Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West". He has also edited a number of books by the Dalai Lama.

show more Table of contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: America 13 Chapter 2: India 30 Chapter 3: T ibet 49 Chapter 4: The World 71 Conclusion 128 Coda 153 Notes 157 Index 171 show more Follow us Bardo Thodol | Tibetan Buddhist text | Britannica.com Tibetan Buddhist text Alternative Title: “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” Related Topics Buddhism Bardo Thödol, ( Tibetan: “Liberation in the Intermediate State Through Hearing”) also called Tibetan Book of the Dead, in Tibetan Buddhism , a funerary text that is recited to ease the consciousness of a recently deceased person through death and assist it into a favourable rebirth. A central tenet of all schools of Buddhism is that attachment to and craving for worldly things spurs suffering and unease ( dukkha ), which influence actions whose accumulated effects, or karma , bind individuals to the process of death and rebirth ( samsara ). Those who have attained enlightenment ( bodhi ) are thereby released from this process, attaining liberation ( moksha ).

Those who remain unenlightened are drawn by karma, whether good or bad, into a new life in one of six modes of existence: as a sufferer in hell (enduring horrible torture), as a wandering ghost (driven by insatiable craving), as an animal (ruled by instinct), as a demigod (lustful for power), as a human being (balanced in instinct and reason), or as a god (deluded by their long lives into believing they are immortal). The Vajrayana ( Tantric ) Buddhism that emerged in Central Asia and particularly in Tibet developed the concept of the bardos, the intermediate or transitional states that mark an individual’s life from birth to death and rebirth. The period between death and rebirth lasts 49 days and involves three bardos. The first is the moment of death itself. The consciousness of the newly deceased becomes aware of and accepts the fact that it has recently died, and it reflects upon its past life. In the second bardo, it encounters frightening apparitions. Without an understanding that these apparitions are unreal, the consciousness becomes confused and, depending upon its karma, may be drawn into a rebirth that impedes its liberation.

The third bardo is the transition into a new body. Similar Topics Jefferson Bible While in the bardo between life and death, the consciousness of the deceased can still apprehend words and prayers spoken on its behalf, which can help it to navigate through its confusion and be reborn into a new existence that offers a greater chance of attaining enlightenment. Reciting of the Bardo Thödol, usually performed by a lama (religious teacher), begins shortly before death (if possible) and continues throughout the 49-day period leading to rebirth. Although tradition attributes the Bardo Thödol to Padmasambhava , the Indian Tantric guru (spiritual guide) who is credited with introducing Buddhism to Tibet in the 7th century, the book was likely composed in the 14th century. Since the early 20th century it has been translated into English and other Western languages many times. The first English-language translation was made by Walter Evans-Wentz (1927), who titled the work “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” because of certain similarities he claimed to detect between it and the Egyptian Book of the Dead —for example, the existence of stages through which the deceased must travel before rebirth.

For Serious Seekers, an Expert Guide to Revered Buddhist Text - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections Religion | BOOK REVIEW For Serious Seekers, an Expert Guide to Revered Buddhist Text LUMINOUS EMPTINESS: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead; By Francesca Fremantle; Shambhala: 408 pp., $26.95 March 09, 2002 |RUTH ANDREW ELLENSON Would the Tibetan Book of the Dead by any other name be as popular? That's one question that Francesca Fremantle's thoughtful and intricate "Luminous Emptiness" brings to mind. The real title for what we call the Tibetan Book of the Dead is the less melodic "The Great Liberation Through Hearing During the Bardo." Fremantle's book attempts to be no less than a guide for maintaining one's perceptions and awareness during the bardo (or transitional state between life and death) in which she shows readers the complicated process of understanding one of Buddhism's most sacred texts.

One surprising aspect of Fremantle's revelations about the Tibetan Book of the Dead, written by "the precious guru" Padmakara in the 8th century, is that the book is not so much a guide to the afterlife as a guide for the stages of life in preparation for death. Death, she asserts, is not the end of existence but a passage into a more evolved state of consciousness, similar to what is achieved in transcendent meditative states: "After death, without the grounding influence of the physical body, events will overtake us with such speed and intensity that there will be no chance to stop and meditate. To be of use, meditation must become part of our innermost nature. That is why this is a book of the living as well as a book of the dead." "Luminous emptiness" is the space between life and death before rebirth. "Space is emptiness and luminosity: luminous emptiness," Fremantle says.

"Because it is empty, nothing exists, yet because it is luminous, everything arises from it." Though this description might seem elusive--and, indeed, it is this language that makes Eastern religions hard for many Western critics to grasp--it describes a state of spiritual bliss with abstract language that forces the reader to let go of a rational, linear thought process. A British scholar of Sanskrit and Tibetan, Fremantle helped translate the Tibetan Book of the Dead in the 1970s with her teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, to whom this book is dedicated. Fremantle is a student of Indian Buddhism--the purest form of which, according to her, is practiced in Tibet. The struggle to arrive at a state of enlightenment is palpable in the meticulous and detailed manner in which Fremantle lays out its spiritual path. She begins with a concise explanation of the fundamentals of Buddhism and then moves on to the more complex ideas of karma, self-deceit, the immaterial, the ego and consciousness. Fremantle acts as our intellectual guide, unraveling the book's complicated and powerful imagery and abstract messages.

For example, she presents this daunting passage dealing with the moment of death: * Review: The Tibetan Book of the Dead | Books | The Guardian The Tibetan Book of the Dead translated by Gyurme Dorje, edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa 496pp, Penguin Classics , £25 The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a kind of Baedeker for the afterlife, and like the best guidebooks its reassuring refrain is "Don't panic!" After death, it says, you will be assailed by thunderous sounds and bewildering apparitions as first the peaceful deities rise before you, then the wrathful ones, who drink blood and eat the entrails of bloated corpses. If you are very unlucky, Yama (representing the forces of impermanence and the laws of cause and effect) will chop off your head, lick out your brains and drink your blood, then eat you. The trick is not to be afraid and to remember that you don't have a body any more, so he can't hurt you.

These deities are enormous, blotting out the sky, and some have the heads of tigers, vultures, crocodiles, scorpions or bats, but they are also all in our minds. This idea fascinated Jung, who revered The Tibetan Book of the Dead as a great psychological work. According to Highest Yoga Tantra (from which The Tibetan Book of the Dead derives), only during the process of dying can we achieve liberation from the cycle of existence. Advanced yogis can make trial runs by inducing a deathlike state, but after death the rest of us must try to remember what we've read in The Tibetan Book of the Dead and put it into practice. Even the totally unprepared needn't despair, however, provided a qualified guru is on hand to read out the relevant bits to our corpse. Ideally, he should have a soothing, melodious voice, to calm us down. The stakes are high: either we become enlightened and attain buddhahood or we are reborn to experience all over again the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death, stranded in "the swamp of cyclic existence".

If we fail, we should at least try to be reborn in an area where Buddhism is practised, so we can have another go. But it gets worse. If we choose the wrong womb entrance we might be reincarnated as an animal, an anguished spirit or a hell-being. Even the Dalai Lama isn't confident of success. "Sometimes I do wonder," he admits in his introduction, "whether or not I will really be able to fully utilise my own preparatory practices when the actual moment of death comes!" When WY Evans-Wentz's English translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead first appeared in 1927 it became an instant classic. Later it was a firm favourite of the postwar counterculture. Timothy Leary recast it as The Psychedelic Experience, a manual for psychedelic voyagers - the idea being to "shortcut" many years of spiritual training and discipline by dropping some acid - and William Burroughs claimed to be in telepathic contact with Tibetan adepts, subtitling his novel The Wild Boys "A Book of the Dead".

Allen Ginsberg read The Tibetan Book of the Dead while off his head on yajé in New York, while in Brion Gysin's novel The Last Museum the Beat Hotel in Paris becomes the Bardo Hotel, each room representing another stage in the after-death state. Gysin's beatnik friends, Ginsberg and Burroughs included, are depicted chanting in the street, their "heads shaven like Tibetan monks" and wearing orange robes: "Kerouac looks kinda cute, and so do some of the anonymous acolytes and hangers-on who are earnestly passing around a community copy of the Bardo Thödol, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, handwritten on dried banana leaves." In fact, Evans-Wentz's book has been so influential it is surprising to learn that he translated only three chapters of the original work which, it turns out, is not even called The Tibetan Book of the Dead - that was his idea. Its real title is The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States, and this is the first complete English translation. It's a magnificent achievement.

The extra material includes an examination of the nature of mind ("One's own mind is insubstantial, like an empty sky") and some beautiful verse meditations usually sung by monks performing their early morning duties. There are aspirational prayers to be read at the moment of death, as well as a translation of the sacred mantras that can be attached to a corpse in order to bring "Liberation by Wearing". An unexpected bonus is a light-hearted allegorical masque about travelling through the after-death state. Chapter 10 reveals how to transfer our consciousness at the exact moment of death. This involves blocking up in our imagination the rectum (the entrance to hell), the genitals (entrance to the realm of the anguished spirits) and other orifices, so that our consciousness escapes through the crown fontanelle, which we should visualise opening up. If it leaks blood, it is a sure sign the deceased has attained buddhahood. It is said that if these ancient rituals are followed, even the unrefined and uncultured ("however unseemly and inelegant their conduct") can attain enlightenment. In fact, they have a head start on those devout monks and learned philosophers who pooh-pooh such practices.

Combining Tibetan folklore with traditional medicine, another chapter tells us how to recognise the signs of our impending death. These include loss of appetite and disturbed sleep, but also "if one's urine falls in two forks" and "if one urinates, defecates and sneezes simultaneously". Another sure sign is dreaming of riding a tiger or a corpse, or of eating faeces, or of "being disembowelled by a fierce black woman". Untimely or sudden death may be averted, it tells us, by following the "Natural Liberation of Fear through the Ritual Deception of Death", which involves making dough effigies, kneaded with our own urine, and hurling them into a river. Gyurme Dorje's translation avoids the archaic thees and thous of the Evans-Wentz version and emphasises instead the quasi-scientific quality of the text - a point made in the Dalai Lama's introduction, where he draws parallels between Buddhist ideas and the discoveries of modern physics. The result is a very clear-cut, practical rendering of this classic of Nyingma literature (the Nyingmapa being followers of the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism stretching back to the eighth century).

The familiar, evocative vocabulary has been rationalised - "bardo" becomes "the intermediate state", "samsara" is "cyclic existence", "wisdom" is "pristine cognition", "the Knower" becomes "the consciousness [of the deceased]" and "good and bad karma" are now "positive and negative past actions" - but there are more gains than losses. "O, Child of Buddha Nature" is preferable to Evans-Wentz's "O nobly born"; "skull-cup" is much gorier than "red shell"; and the "Three Precious Jewels" (meaning the Buddha, the sacred teachings and the monastic community) is less open to misinterpretation than Evans-Wentz's "Precious Trinity". Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama's senior translator, has advised on the text, as has Zenkar Rinpoche, a revered lineage-holder of The Tibetan Book of the Dead (its correct interpretation transmitted through an unbroken line of masters). There are useful introductions to each chapter, extensive notes and a glossary, and really everything one could possibly want to prepare for what Timothy Leary called "the ultimate trip".

As Burroughs once said to Ginsberg: "Tibetan Buddhism is extremely interesting. Dig it if you have not done so." · Ian Pindar's Joyce is published by Haus. To order The Tibetan Book of the Dead for £23 with free UK p&p go to Guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0870 836 0875. The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Donald S. Lopez Jr. · OverDrive: eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries Religion & Spirituality Nonfiction The Tibetan Book of the Dead is the most famous Buddhist text in the West, having sold more than a million copies since it was first published in English in 1927. Carl Jung wrote a commentary on it, Timothy Leary redesigned it as a guidebook for an acid trip, and the Beatles quoted Leary's version in their song "Tomorrow Never Knows." More recently, the book has been adopted by the hospice movement, enshrined by Penguin Classics, and made into an audiobook read by Richard Gere.

Yet, as acclaimed writer and scholar of Buddhism Donald Lopez writes, "The Tibetan Book of the Dead is not really Tibetan, it is not really a book, and it is not really about death." In this compelling introduction and short history, Lopez tells the strange story of how a relatively obscure and malleable collection of Buddhist texts of uncertain origin came to be so revered—and so misunderstood—in the West. The central character in this story is Walter Evans-Wentz (1878-1965), an eccentric scholar and spiritual seeker from Trenton, New Jersey, who, despite not knowing the Tibetan language and never visiting the country, crafted and named The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In fact, Lopez argues, Evans-Wentz's book is much more American than Tibetan, owing a greater debt to Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky than to the lamas of the Land of Snows. Indeed, Lopez suggests that the book's perennial appeal stems not only from its origins in magical and mysterious Tibet, but also from the way Evans-Wentz translated the text into the language of a very American spirituality. Adobe PDF eBook 0.9 MB Adobe EPUB eBook 1.2 MB Donald S. Lopez Jr.

(Author) Donald S. Lopez, Jr., is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His many books include "The Story of Buddhism" (HarperOne) and "Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism... Lopez, D.S., Jr.: <i>The Tibetan Book of the Dead</i>: A Biography. (eBook and Hardcover) Google full text of this book: The Tibetan Book of the Dead is the most famous Buddhist text in the West, having sold more than a million copies since it was first published in English in 1927. Carl Jung wrote a commentary on it, Timothy Leary redesigned it as a guidebook for an acid trip, and the Beatles quoted Leary's version in their song "Tomorrow Never Knows." More recently, the book has been adopted by the hospice movement, enshrined by Penguin Classics, and made into an audiobook read by Richard Gere.

Yet, as acclaimed writer and scholar of Buddhism Donald Lopez writes, "The Tibetan Book of the Dead is not really Tibetan, it is not really a book, and it is not really about death." In this compelling introduction and short history, Lopez tells the strange story of how a relatively obscure and malleable collection of Buddhist texts of uncertain origin came to be so revered--and so misunderstood--in the West. The central character in this story is Walter Evans-Wentz (1878-1965), an eccentric scholar and spiritual seeker from Trenton, New Jersey, who, despite not knowing the Tibetan language and never visiting the country, crafted and named The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In fact, Lopez argues, Evans-Wentz's book is much more American than Tibetan, owing a greater debt to Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky than to the lamas of the Land of Snows. Indeed, Lopez suggests that the book's perennial appeal stems not only from its origins in magical and mysterious Tibet, but also from the way Evans-Wentz translated the text into the language of a very American spirituality.

Reviews: "A scholarly and informative short read, very useful as a reminder that religious books are not necessarily fixed entities."--James F. DeRoche, Library Journal "The focus of Donald Lopez's ingenious, informative, and engagingly written 'biography' is not so much the original Tibetan text but the pioneering edition and translation first issued in 1927 by the American traveler, scholar, and Theosophist W.Y. Evans-Wentz."--Roger Jackson, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly "The focus of Donald Lopez's ingenious, informative, and engagingly written 'biography' is not so much the original Tibetan text but the pioneering edition and translation first issued in 1927 by the American traveler, scholar, and Theosophist W.Y. Evans-Wentz."--Roger R.

Jackson, Buddhadharma "[T]his biography springs to life when Lopez places its subject within the weird tradition of American spiritualism, complete with Madame Blavatsky's acolytes, Ouija boards and memories of exotic past lives."--Miriam Cosic, The Australian "What makes Lopez's biography of Evans-Wentz's book not only amusing (as it unfailingly is) but enlightening is that one suspects he too could have 'chosen any Asian text' that had been ripped from its context and composed a similar story of how meanings, willy-nilly, had attached themselves to it.

Having read Lopez's book, we will look afresh at the volumes of unmoored wisdom so many in the West have taken to heart."--David Cozy, Japan Times "The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography is an excellent short introduction to Buddhism, and an intriguing analysis of how ancient texts are used (or invented) to give authority to ideologies."--Heather Shaw, Portland Book Review Tibetan Book of the Dead - ReligionFacts ReligionFacts Bowker, John (ed.) Tibetan Book of the Dead Written by a Tibetan monk, the Book of the Dead describes in detail the stages of death from the Tibetan point of view. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is the Tibetan Buddhist text that is most well known to the West. Written by a Tibetan monk, the Book of the Dead describes in detail the stages of death from the Tibetan point of view. It chronicles the experiences and religious opportunities a person encounters at various stages: while dying, at the moment of death, during the 49-day interval between death and rebirth, and at rebirth. The title "Tibetan Book of the Dead" was coined by the American editor W.Y. Evans-Wentz in imitation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

The actual name in Tibetan is Bardo Todrol Chenmo, which means the Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Between. The Tibetan word bardo means "between," "gap," or "transition," and refers to the time between death and rebirth. In Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia, a lama will often recite the Book of the Dead to a recently deceased person in order to help him understand his experiences and gain enlightenment, or at least a positive rebirth. The Book of the Dead is a product of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. According to Nyingma tradition, the book was composed in the eighth century CE by Padmasambhava, who then concealed the book because he knew the world was not yet ready for its teachings. Concealing, rather than revealing, books immediately upon writing them is a distinctive practice of the Nyingma school. Concealed works are called terma ("treasure"), and it is believed that they will not be discovered until the world is ready for them. The Tibetan Book of the Dead was rediscovered in the 14th century CE by Karma Lingpa, a monk of the Nyingma school. Bibliography

Question: In which religion is the Tibetan Book of the Dead a revered text?
Answer: Buddhism