Jun 10th, 2010, 16:54 | #1 |
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Book Report
——The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche |
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Jun 10th, 2010, 16:54 | #2 |
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I cannot stop think of this world after reading the book. So many people passed away in one moment. However, how many of them died in peace? Some of them died with great pain of cancer. Some of them died under the wheels of vehicles which rush to sideway by accident. Even, some jumped from the skyscraper and left everything behind. Normally, we are afraid of death. For we don’t know where are we going. It seems that we will go to an unknown world without language, money and friends. There are only vast and hazy. Yes, we can imagine. In the book it says, “If people believe in a life after this one, their whole outlook on life will be different, and they will have a distinct sense of personal responsibility and morality. What the masters must suspect is that there is a danger that people who have no strong belief in a life after this one will create a society fixated on short-term results, without much thought for the consequences of their actions.” For example, people think that committing suicide jumping down the rise can solve all the troubles. They are so naïve and muddleheaded that considering there is a reason to let death settle all their problems. So they don’t need to worry about anything after death. Unfortunately, they not only bring more troubles to other people, but also create the karma for their future lives. Therefore, it is so urgent for us to know the meaning of death. But, nowadays, most people don’t really understand the full meaning of these revelations about death and dying. They went to the extreme of glamorizing death, and I have heard of tragic cases of young people who committed suicide because they believed death was beautiful and an escape from the depression of their lives. But whether we fear death and refuse to face it, or whether we romanticize it, death is trivialized. Both despair and euphoria about death are and evasion. Death is neither depressing nor exciting. It is simply a fact of life. Since it is a fact, nobody is able to avoid it. So another very important conception in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is “impermanence”. Life is impermanent, so is destiny. Impermanence means no one can control or predict. Just think about there are how many people died from accident or calamity. Switch on the television or glance at a newspaper: You will see death everywhere. Yet did the victims of those plane crashes and car accidents expect to die? They took life for granted, as we do. How often do we hear stories of people whom we know, or even friends, who died unexpectedly? We don’t even have to be ill to die: our bodies can suddenly break down and go out of order, just like our cars. We can be quite well one day, then fall sick and die the next. As a Tibetan saying goes, “Tomorrow or the next life----which comes first, we never know.” So many spiritual Gurus never think about tomorrow. They consider themselves might pass away anytime. Because of the impermanence, the life is so fragile. Only people who understand this will cherish their lives. Once a Tibet Master said, “I am now seventy-eight years old, and have seen so many things during my lifetime. So many young people have died, so many people of my own age have died, so many old people have died. So many people that were high up have become low. So many people that were low have risen to be high up. So many countries have changed. There has been so much turmoil and tragedy, so many wars, and plagues, so much terrible destruction all over the world. And yet all these changes are no more real than a dream. When you look deeply, you realize there is nothing that is permanent and constant, nothing, not even the tiniest hair on your body. And this is not a theory, but something you can actually come to know and realize and see, even, with your very own eyes.” Yes! The only eternal thing of the universe is changing. Why everything is changing? The only answer is that all the lives are impermanent. |
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感谢 beauty_cat 此篇文章之用户: |
宋祖德 (Jun 10th, 2010) |
Jun 10th, 2010, 16:55 | #3 |
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Another important theme of this book is Karma. In simple terms, what does karma mean? It means that whatever we do, with our body, speech, or mind, will have a corresponding result. Each action, even the smallest, is pregnant with its consequences. It is said by the masters that even a little poison can cause death and even a tiny seed can become a huge tree. And as Buddha said, “Do not overlook negative actions merely because they are small; however small a spark may be, it can burn down a haystack as big as a mountain.” Similarly he said, “Do not overlook tiny good actions, thinking they are of no benefit; even tiny drops of water in the end will fill a huge vessel.” Don’t do nothing due to the benefit is little. Don’t do it due to the evil is little. Karma does not decay like external things, or ever become inoperative. It cannot be destroyed “by time, fire, or water.” Its power will never disappear, until it is ripened. Whatever is happening to us now mirrors our past karma. If we know that, and know it really, whenever suffering and difficulties befall us, we do not view them particularly as a failure or a catastrophe, or see suffering as a punishment in any way. Nor do we blame ourselves or indulge in self-hatred. We see the pain we are going through as the completion of the effects, the fruition, of a past karma. Tibetans say that suffering is “a broom that sweeps away all our negative karma.” We can even be grateful that one karma is coming to an end. We know that “good fortune,” a fruit of good karma, may soon pass if we do not use it well, and “misfortune,” the result of negative karma, may in fact be giving us a marvellous opportunity to evolve. |
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Jun 10th, 2010, 16:56 | #4 |
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This book provides us many practical ways, including heart advice on helping the dying. It is worth to learn that how to look on person who comes to a close. Look at the dying person in front of you and think of that person as just like you, with the same needs, the same fundamental desire to be happy and avoid suffering, the same loneliness, the same fear of the unknown, the same secret areas of sadness, the same half-acknowledged feelings of helplessness. To my opinion, this method not only use for dying people, but can be used to the social life. Do not do to others what you don't want to be done to you. There will be less conflict between people if we understand this. It is so necessary to help people in the last moment correct their mistakes and cure their suffering. Even at the very end of a life, the mistakes of a life can be undone. Everything in the book about caring for the dying could be summed up in two words: love and compassion. What is compassion? It is not simply a sense of sympathy or caring for the person suffering, or a sharp clarity of recognition of their needs and pain, it is also a sustained and practical determination to do whatever is possible and necessary to help alleviate their suffering. So our first response on seeing someone suffer becomes not mere pity, but deep compassion. We feel for that person respect and even gratitude, because we now know that whoever prompts us to develop compassion by their suffering is in fact giving us one of the greatest gifts of all, because they are helping us to develop that very quality we need most in our progress toward enlightenment. That is why we say in Tibet that the beggar who is asking you for money, or the sick old woman wringing your heart, may be the buddhas in disguise, manifesting on your path to help you grow in compassion and so move towards buddhahood. |
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Jun 10th, 2010, 16:57 | #5 |
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People always think that all troubles end when the life ends. However, the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying tells me that death will not end all troubles. People not only lose their right to liberate, but hardly get a good result for their next life. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying provides us a spiritual comfort. This book firmly tells us that death is the beginning of another life. We cannot ignore every single life because we already know the theory of reincarnation. I am not a Buddhist. But I really appreciate this book. For me this book shows the care and love for all human beings. It also includes many suggestions about medicine, science and humanism. We should not turn a blind eye to death. So many people have left this world. What can we grasp now? We can only hold “now” in this life. We are living in the present. How can we understand death if we don’t know life? Also, we will gain new lives if we understand death.
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Jun 10th, 2010, 17:02 | #6 |
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Jun 10th, 2010, 17:06 | #8 |
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Jun 10th, 2010, 17:07 | #9 |
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Jun 10th, 2010, 17:15 | #10 |
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共 2 位会员 感谢 beauty_cat 发表的文章: |
piaoliang2005 (Jun 10th, 2010), 宋祖德 (Jun 10th, 2010) |
Jun 10th, 2010, 17:44 | #12 |
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Jun 11th, 2010, 00:06 | #13 |
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piaoliang2005 (Jun 11th, 2010) |
Jun 11th, 2010, 00:12 | #14 |
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Jun 11th, 2010, 09:53 | #15 |
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Jun 11th, 2010, 11:14 | #16 |
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Jun 11th, 2010, 20:53 | #17 |
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Jul 24th, 2010, 06:45 | #18 |
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Jul 27th, 2010, 16:36 | #19 |
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Jul 27th, 2010, 16:40 | #20 |
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