Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation Hardcover - 2001

From the publisher

It's what everyone wants to know -- do I survive death? Where do I go? What do I become? Now, Rinpoche Gaelek, expert in the ancient teachings of reincarnation, helps us examine the four questions most of us ask ourselves: Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do we get there?

Good Life, Good Death is organized around these four questions and their surprising answers. Rinpoche Gaelek lays out his own personal experience and techniques, tested over the course of twenty-five hundred years, that teach us how to take control over our lives and our fears, now and for the future. He writes about the physical reality of dying; the mental reality; when death actually occurs (it's not when the heart and brain stop); where we go after death; and how we can know ahead of time where we're going. He demonstrates how Einstein's theories can help us understand Buddhist mechanics of living and dying. For the first time in English, he also shares stories from great masters who have returned from death -- not after a few minutes as in near-death experiences, but after days and even weeks. In fact, like other Buddhist teachers he believes that near-death experiences are just that -- near death, but not actually crossing over.