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The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying  By  cover art

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

By: Sogyal Rinpoche
Narrated by: John Cleese, Susan Skipper, Peri Eagleton, Sogyal Rinpoche
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Publisher's summary

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is a contemporary spiritual masterpiece and source of sacred inspiration that interprets Tibetan Buddhism for the West.

Sogyal Rinpoche presents a radically new vision of living and dying. He shows how to go beyond our fear and denial of death to discover what it is in us that survives death and is changeless. Rinpoche explains simple yet powerful practices that listeners can use to transform their lives, prepare for death, and help the dying.

©1992 Rigpa Fellowship (P)1995 Random House Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A gentle, humane, and eloquent guide." ( Guardian)
"As a guide to the Tibetan tradition and its insights into life and death, Sogyal Rinpoche is without peer. . . .Sogyal Rinpoche. . .has delivered the Tibetan equivalent of The Divine Comedy." ( New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    90
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  • 3 Stars
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Performance
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, life changing brakin gpoint.

This is a book that I consider a life changing braking point, it guided me trough the death process of my son and is now guiding me through many aspects of my life. At the time I bought a hard copy, and I'm enjoying listening to it. This is a must read in this life. I thank Sagoyal for his great compassionate efforts to teach this knowledge.

The audio of this recording y s very good.This is a book that I consider a life changing braking point, it guided me trough the death process of my son and is now guiding me through many aspects of my life. At the time I bought a hard copy, and I'm enjoying listening to it. This is a must read in this life. I thank Sagoyal for his great compassionate efforts to teach this knowledge.

The audio of this recording y s very good.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Bad narration, different narrator for the sample

Heard a lot of great things about the book, and was highly disappointed to hear the narration.
The really annoying thing was that the sample narrator (which is great) didn't read the rest of the book..

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

This is not the whole book

Although the narrators have done an excellent job, this is just some excerpts of the book. It’s not a whole book.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

very buddhist

This is a "preaching to the choir" kind of book. I'm sure it's good if you're really into buddhist teachings. I however who are only casually interrested found this boring. Kind of like litsening to christians talking about the grace of god. Just a heads up.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enlighten yourself

A book full of inspirations and insights. Gives you a all new perspective on death and life.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Poor performance but great story

I didn't like this very aggressive narration. It could be more gentle but the performance was not really good. Anyway the book contains the right content.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Deep dive

If you like to discover more about life & death this is a great starting book w profound tibetian buddist teachings. I appreciated the different narrators.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good reading if you are open and non judgmental.

If you are not a Bhudist like me, some parts of the book make no sense at all, but if you are open, non judgmental and respectful of different spirituals teachings some other parts are enlightened and helpful.
One of the narrators speaks English with a strong accent, almost difficult to understand, so it’s very distracting and I needed to go back and listen for a second or even third time.

Good read in general… at the end, death is the one thing all human berms are going to experience no matter our personal beliefs.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not very helpfull for everyday life

What disappointed you about The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying?

It seems to be mostly about helping people who are dying, and does not offer a lot of insight in to how to deal with everyday life and the difficulties of dealing with ego, which is the main source of suffering.

Would you ever listen to anything by Sogyal Rinpoche again?

Maybe, what makes me hesitant is that I found out he rapes his female students, or at least uses his position as a master to have sex with him. Several times he was summoned to court for this. This shows that he is apparently not capable of being a good master and that makes his teachings less pure I would think.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I liked the performance.

What character would you cut from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying?

none, it's not applicable.

Any additional comments?

If you look for enlightenment, any book from Deepak Chopra, Byron Katie, Eckhart tolle or the Dalay Lama will do better.

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