Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Living and Dying

TIBETAN BUDDHIST APPROACH TO LIVING AND DYING

In these sessions, you will be listening to unedited audio recordings of teachings given by Gelek Rimpoche in Colorado on April 2, 1995.

As one of the speakers at this conference, Rimpoche agreed to step in and teach this session following a request from Sogyal Rinpoche, author of Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, when Sogyal Rinpoche took ill and was unable to attend.

In the first session, Rimpoche pronounces right at the beginning that impermanence is a beautiful thing, a powerful opportunity that allows us to change, to heal, to purify, and ultimately completely transform our life and our death.

With stories, quotations, personal examples and of course humor, Rimpoche shares numerous ways to take advantage of these opportunities by addressing topics such as, understanding buddhanature, recognizing habitual negative patterns, relying on purification and rejoicing, considering the possibilities of reincarnation, karma and conditions, and interdependence.

Rimpoche presents the Tibetan Buddhist approach for facing death, both for the sake of ourselves and to be able to console and serve others as they bid farewell. Walking us through the internal and external processes of dying, Rimpoche takes us through death’s gross and subtle stages within the context of a guided visualization set in the presence enlightened beings. In this way, he sets the stage for us to repeat these practices of purification and rejoicing with the goal to ultimately be able to recognize and encounter the true nature of our mind, and in order to live and die with understanding, responsibility and choice.