Good Life, Good Death

Slightly misleadingly entitled 'Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation', this is in fact a book setting out in clear terms the essentials of Tibetan teaching on the mind and its training, the ego, anger and patience, attachment and pure love. It has a foreword by the Dalai Lama and an introduction by Bob Thurman, thus giving it the finest imprimatur. And indeed the text is exemplary, culminating in a chapter on the 'good death'. Here there is an instructive story about two Tibetan officials who, in failing health, wanted to die while still lucid. The first one died on schedule but the second was admitted to hospital after the signs of death had been reversed. It turned out that the reason he had not been able to die was his attachment to a new shirt given to him by a friend. Once the teacher had ripped it up in front of him, the disciple was able to die very easily!