American Book of the Dead

Rating:
Summary: Fast reading, slow comprehension.
Review: All the best of both worlds and then some.

Rating:
Summary: As you know it.
Review: DISCLAIMER: This reader, being feeble and infirm of bodymind, is woefully ignorant of both Sufism and the various New-Age paths and practices (and E.J. Gold for that matter).

But upon encountering the ABD some years ago, it seemed an imaginative, clear and well-rendered paraphrase of the Zhi-Tro teachings (Padmasambhava's Self-Liberation teachings), much revered in the Tibetan Nyingma tradition.

Note that this work is not represented as a translation or as an "alternative" to anything, and is thus not bound by language. It's not prose; it's a manual. It's in the application, more than in the casual reading, that one finds the spirit if not the letter of the teaching.

Who knows? Maybe it's terma (revealed treasure).

I've seen it used by Nyingma ngakpa yogis, side by side with chants and mantras during bardo prayers/sadhanas.

Homage to Teachers; to lineage masters and hidden yogis -- may they bless us in the Three Times and between.

om ah hum hri

Rating:
Summary: This Book Will Knock Your Socks Off
Review: Don't miss reading this book in your lifetime! Once you do, keep it, and read it some more from time to time. Someday, when you're dead, you might run across it! Think about it... When I have asked experts about what happens, or what in their opinion, happens to people when they die they tell me about an in-depth review that happens of the lifetime of the deceased. Everything gets played over before the final cross-over...

Well, if they're right, then sometime during the review the reading of the American Book of the Dead would come up, on screen, so to speak...

And believe, me, this information could make the difference between....

Life and Death? Heaven and Hell?

Uh....it's trickier than those, and definitely takes you beyond--Read to Find Out!

Rating:
Summary: A translated and modernised error is still an error....
Review: Having been familiar with the Evans-Wentz translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead for many years I decided to give this "Americanised" version a try. I was aware that much of the rigid detail and ritual of the original was probably unique to Tibetan culture and I wanted to see how the author dealt with it. Now that I've read this version I'm somewhat conflicted as to my opinion of it. The basic ritual and structure of the original is preserved, but with modern terminology and images substituted. This is an improvement- sort of. However, I'd rather cut through the accrued ritual and superficial detail and get down to the core truths- not just make the dross more modern and "hip." There is truth here, but you still have to cut away the obscuring distortions. First of all, the existance that is being described is both beyond time and beyond conventional aristotlian sequential logic. Think about it, do you really believe memorising this sequence of events- or reading them aloud to the dead on a rigid timetable- is of any real value? The afterlife doesn't run on a bus schedule folks- to use my own little modernism here.

What is truly important are the deep truths and values that you have welded to your spirit before you cross over- memorising spiritual "cheat sheets" and last minute "cramming" just isn't going to cut it.... Though, the state of mind immediately before one's passing is of importance. It isn't the overriding determinate, however.
Still, what is being described here as the "macrodimensions" do exist. I've always been sensitive to them, and you probably have too. And, yes, we do project much of what we are superficially familiar with upon them- as have those who have passed that way before us.

Worth reading, but do so with a discriminating mind- and cross check it with your "inner guide."

Rating:
Summary: A translated and modernised error is still an error....
Review: Having been familiar with the Evans-Wentz translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead for many years I decided to give this "Americanised" version a try. I was aware that much of the rigid detail and ritual of the original was probably unique to Tibetan culture and I wanted to see how the author dealt with it. Now that I've read this version I'm somewhat conflicted as to my opinion of it. The basic ritual and structure of the original is preserved, but with modern terminology and images substituted. This is an improvement- sort of. However, I'd rather cut through the accrued ritual and superficial detail and get down to the core truths- not just make the dross more modern and "hip." There is truth here, but you still have to cut away the obscuring distortions. First of all, the existance that is being described is both beyond time and beyond conventional aristotlian sequential logic. Think about it, do you really believe memorising this sequence of events- or reading them aloud to the dead on a rigid timetable- is of any real value? The afterlife doesn't run on a bus schedule folks- to use my own little modernism here.

What is truly important are the deep truths and values that you have welded to your spirit before you cross over- memorising spiritual "cheat sheets" and last minute "cramming" just isn't going to cut it.... Though, the state of mind immediately before one's passing is of importance. It isn't the overriding determinate, however.

Still, what is being described here as the "macrodimensions" do exist. I've always been sensitive to them, and you probably have too. And, yes, we do project much of what we are superficially familiar with upon them- as have those who have passed that way before us.

Worth reading, but do so with a discriminating mind- and cross check it with your "inner guide."

Rating:
Summary: Fast reading, slow comprehension.
Review: How does one prepare for the inevitable? This is possibly one of the oldest questions mankind has asked. But first we must ask, "how important is it to prepare?"

With the minimal interaction that most westerners have with dying and death it would not suprise me that if you were to stop people on the street and ask them most would think you were insane.

To a small degree Joseph Campbell increased the popularity of mythology, religion, and culture, only to have most people fall back asleep again. When will I think about my dying and death and what it all means: manana.

I found Mr. Landon's scholarly critique quite funny, much in the same way an armchair quarterback yelling at his TV during a football game!

Has he spent quality time with Mr. Naranjo, Mr. Lilly, or Mr. Gold? If you were to examine Mr. Landon I doubt that you would find any bruises or fractures.

Rating:
Summary: Serendipity
Review: The best thing about this book is that it makes you look at the nature of the reality of the living, and is not just a how to book for the dead. It shows you where you may or may not be standing with yourself, and ultimately lets you decide for yourself. One wild ride through life and death.

Rating:
Summary: Sufistic deceptions
Review: The status of the classic, fascinating Tibetan Book of the Dead, despite its reputation, remains vexed and it is finally an apocryphal and late text in the Buddhist tradition. Travel light and stick to basics.And beware of the associated abuses.
This work by the notorious Gold, a cloned wannabe in this vein, is essentially a pointless text, whose core meaning might become clear if you have read the last paragraph of Gurdjieff's All and Everything. Be forewarned! The 'work' is a false concept, and doesn't mean 'liberation', beware of what you agree to. Don't be caught in the clutches of these operators. It is one thing to groove on Sufi sayings like 'die before you die', quite another to take it as a form of spiritual practice at the hands of those with lunatic thinking in this field. I read an early version of this book years ago while interviewing a few of Mr. Gold's victims in a state of shock (he has plenty of groupies however), whose tales bespeak a singularly nutty versions of Gurdjieff-Sufism mishmashed. I was struck by the especial viciousness of the goings on in this regard, and the symbolic manipulation of the 'book of the dead' archetype. Sometimes posing as a Indian style guru, sometimes the Sufi sheik and/or 'successor' to Gurdjieff, this man with no stated credentials whatsoever, save the clear hints of being no guru at all but a Crowley style occultist, has let loose some stunning and dangerous howlers in this field, and I would recommend staying well beyond his influence. Period. The question of the Gurdjieff 'school'is hopeless at this point. There is no such thing as the 'fourth way' and the ersatz ashram in tricky combinations has drifted down history ad infinitum and this is no exception. You are under no obligation to spiritual obedience to these entrepreneurs. None whatever. Wake up and watch your step.