What do you think?
Rate this book
Living and Dying with Confidence: A Day-by-Day Guide
A daily companion for embracing life, preparing for death, and awakening to reality.
Anyen Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist master and teacher, and his longtime student and translator Allison Choying Zangmo present ancient and rich teachings on death in a contemporary, accessible manner. Learn how to release your attachments, embrace impermanence, cultivate virtue, and see the world as it really is—one day at a time.
Their practical, disciplined timeline encourages step-by-step development of qualities such as lovingkindness, compassion, generosity, and patience. Each day offers a short teaching followed by a specific, concrete exercise to help you reflect on and fully integrate the message.
Through vivid and evocative contemplative scenarios and action items, Living and Dying with Confidence brings practice off the cushion and into ordinary life.
Anyen Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist master and teacher, and his longtime student and translator Allison Choying Zangmo present ancient and rich teachings on death in a contemporary, accessible manner. Learn how to release your attachments, embrace impermanence, cultivate virtue, and see the world as it really is—one day at a time.
Their practical, disciplined timeline encourages step-by-step development of qualities such as lovingkindness, compassion, generosity, and patience. Each day offers a short teaching followed by a specific, concrete exercise to help you reflect on and fully integrate the message.
Through vivid and evocative contemplative scenarios and action items, Living and Dying with Confidence brings practice off the cushion and into ordinary life.
- GenresBuddhism
216 pages, Paperback
Published July 12, 2016
About the author
Anyen Rinpoche
9 books10 followersKhenpo Anyen Tulku Rinpoche is a Tibetan master of Dzogchen meditation as well as a seasoned scholar of the Nyingma and Gelugpa schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He is one of five "heart sons" of his root lama, Khenchen Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche, from whom he received an uncommonly short and unbroken lineage of the Longchen Nyingthig cycle of Jigme Lingpa in the lineage of Patrul Rinpoche.
Anyen Rinpoche founded the Orgyen Khamdroling Dharma Center in Denver, Colorado, which remains his principle seat in the West, and the Phowa Foundation, intended to help Buddhist practitioners prepare for the moment of death.
Anyen Rinpoche founded the Orgyen Khamdroling Dharma Center in Denver, Colorado, which remains his principle seat in the West, and the Phowa Foundation, intended to help Buddhist practitioners prepare for the moment of death.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 30, 2016
I don't believe this book was for me. This book focusses on taking the fear from our views of death, and even though, I don't exactly look forward to death, I do accept it- it's a way of life. That's a lesson we learn from experience. And, as much as I'd like to credit this book for bringing my acceptance, I'm afraid I can't.
You see, this book delves into spirituality to raise one's awareness of how death is visible all around, and pushes readers to silently contemplate their experiences with death, or their views on death. These are things I do on a daily basis anyway, I'm one of those over-thinkers, that combined with my mild insomnia, means these tasks weren't anything new. In fact, I didn't like how this book made it seem as if it were a chore, rather than the acquisition of a habit.
Additionally, I felt that the constant questions were very impersonal when dealing with a sensitive topic- for me, they just became an incessant drawl, but I imagine for others, they would introduce new thoughts, which may prove to only reinforce their current fears regarding death.
Similarly, there were selections I disagreed with. For example, in one of the chapters they write:
'We live in a deeply logical society. We are trained to look for patterns and connections. Yet for some reason, we struggle to apply what we see happening in the rest of the world to ourselves. We grasp onto the idea that we are somehow unique and different . We fail to understand our own mortality.' To which I could only respond, "Speak for yourselves, I, for one, completely understand that I am a mere mortal."
But, I did, indeed, appreciate the theology and the theoretical aims of this book. I recognise this work as a valuable resource in the self-help genre. It was just that the chapters were introduced mostly with baseless ideas and so, I felt this book was not for me. I suppose it is one of those books targeted at the more vulnerable among us, those who wish to venture on a journey of self discovery and self improvement. And not me, I fit into the other category of 'I am what I am', I look to improve myself but not to the extent that I can be fooled into believing anything.
I harbour no personal interest in this book, and so I cannot recommend it.
You see, this book delves into spirituality to raise one's awareness of how death is visible all around, and pushes readers to silently contemplate their experiences with death, or their views on death. These are things I do on a daily basis anyway, I'm one of those over-thinkers, that combined with my mild insomnia, means these tasks weren't anything new. In fact, I didn't like how this book made it seem as if it were a chore, rather than the acquisition of a habit.
Additionally, I felt that the constant questions were very impersonal when dealing with a sensitive topic- for me, they just became an incessant drawl, but I imagine for others, they would introduce new thoughts, which may prove to only reinforce their current fears regarding death.
Similarly, there were selections I disagreed with. For example, in one of the chapters they write:
'We live in a deeply logical society. We are trained to look for patterns and connections. Yet for some reason, we struggle to apply what we see happening in the rest of the world to ourselves. We grasp onto the idea that we are somehow unique and different . We fail to understand our own mortality.' To which I could only respond, "Speak for yourselves, I, for one, completely understand that I am a mere mortal."
But, I did, indeed, appreciate the theology and the theoretical aims of this book. I recognise this work as a valuable resource in the self-help genre. It was just that the chapters were introduced mostly with baseless ideas and so, I felt this book was not for me. I suppose it is one of those books targeted at the more vulnerable among us, those who wish to venture on a journey of self discovery and self improvement. And not me, I fit into the other category of 'I am what I am', I look to improve myself but not to the extent that I can be fooled into believing anything.
I harbour no personal interest in this book, and so I cannot recommend it.
November 26, 2020
Sadly this book was archived before I could download to read it. It has been added to my TBR and I’ll keep an eye out for it again in the future or at my local library.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews