The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Of all my preparations for India, this book was one of the most enjoyable.  Not necessarily because it is full of the easiest concepts to grasp, but because my particular addition is full of gorgeous pictures and illustrations.

You could see how this could be more enjoyable, but also insightful.  This was the first time I realized just how different Tantric, or Tibetan Buddhism, was going to be compared to all the other forms that I had learned about and experienced.  The images are very bright, and many times they are not the happiest sorts of pictures.  There are many demons, blood thirsty villains, bodies half devoured, pictures of a hell kind of depiction, and the list goes on.  In many ways it reminds me of some of the Hindu art I have seen.  The book explains that the reason they are so terrifying is so that people remember that they have to be on their guard and protect themselves from falling off the path by negative influence.

Other things I learned from the book were that the Tibetan Book of the Dead is very similar to the Egyptian Book of the Dead.  There is an almost undeniable relationship between the two, which I think is very interesting to consider.  In many ways, it looks as though Tibetans are obsessed with death, but I think a better way to look at it is to see that they are actually really obsessed with life and getting out of the cycle of reincarnation. 

It is not a thin book, but it is these doctrines that I would like to do more exploration on.  I wonder how these original Tibetan religious influences impacted their present day Buddhism and what that process looked like. 

Hillis, Gregory.  The Tibetan Book of the Dead.  New York: Metro Books, 2008.  Print.