Living in the Face of Death

Until recently, contemporary Western society viewed death the way the Victorians viewed sex--as taboo, a forbidden subject. Yet Tibetan tradition incorporates death into everyday life. Over the centuries Tibetans have developed a wide-ranging literature on death, of which The Tibetan Book of the Dead--whose revealer, Karma Lingpa, has a selection included here--is perhaps the best-known. Eight other short texts include works by the Second, Seventh, and Thirteenth Dalai Lamas, and cover meditation techniques to prepare for death, rituals for preparing the dead, and accounts of what transpires during the bardo (the state of consciousness between death and rebirth).