The Tibetan Book of the Dead (eBook)

A Biography

Donald S. Lopez (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2011
192 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-3804-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His many books include The Story of Buddhism (HarperOne) and Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. He has also edited a number of books by the Dalai Lama.

---

How an eccentric spiritualist from Trenton, New Jersey, helped create the most famous text of Tibetan BuddhismThe Tibetan Book of the Dead is the most famous Buddhist text in the West, having sold more than a million copies since it was first published in English in 1927. Carl Jung wrote a commentary on it, Timothy Leary redesigned it as a guidebook for an acid trip, and the Beatles quoted Leary's version in their song "e;Tomorrow Never Knows."e; More recently, the book has been adopted by the hospice movement, enshrined by Penguin Classics, and made into an audiobook read by Richard Gere. Yet, as acclaimed writer and scholar of Buddhism Donald Lopez writes, "e;The Tibetan Book of the Dead is not really Tibetan, it is not really a book, and it is not really about death."e; In this compelling introduction and short history, Lopez tells the strange story of how a relatively obscure and malleable collection of Buddhist texts of uncertain origin came to be so revered-and so misunderstood-in the West.The central character in this story is Walter Evans-Wentz (1878-1965), an eccentric scholar and spiritual seeker from Trenton, New Jersey, who, despite not knowing the Tibetan language and never visiting the country, crafted and named The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In fact, Lopez argues, Evans-Wentz's book is much more American than Tibetan, owing a greater debt to Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky than to the lamas of the Land of Snows. Indeed, Lopez suggests that the book's perennial appeal stems not only from its origins in magical and mysterious Tibet, but also from the way Evans-Wentz translated the text into the language of a very American spirituality.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.2.2011
• Reihe/Serie: Lives of Great Religious Books
• Reihe/Serie: Lives of Great Religious Books
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus
• Schlagworte: Angel Moroni • Annie Besant • Apotheosis • Asceticism • automatic writing • Bardo Thodol • Bhutan • Bhutia • Bodhisattva • Book • Book of Dzyan • Buddhaghosa • Buddhahood • Buddhism • buddhist texts • Carl Jung • Christianity • Comparative Religion • Consciousness • Darwinism • deed • deity • esoteric Buddhism • Exegesis • Fascination with death • Gangtok • Geshe • Heinrich Zimmer • Henry Steel Olcott • Himalayas • historical figure • I Ching • impermanence • Incarnation • intermediate state • isis unveiled • John Myrdhin Reynolds • Kagyu • Karma Lingpa • Kazi Dawa Samdup • Koot Hoomi • Maharaja • Mahatma • Milarepa • Monastery • Mysticism • Nyingma • Occult • Otherworld • Oxford University Press • Padmasambhava • Papyrus • Parapsychology • perfection of wisdom • Philosopher • Philosophy • preface • Preface (liturgy) • Pseudonym • Publication • Ralph Metzner • Reformed Egyptian • Reincarnation • Religion • religious text • Restorationism • Robert Thurman • Sanskrit • Sarat Chandra Das • Scientist • sect • Seer stone (Latter Day Saints) • Sigmund Freud • Society for Psychical Research • Sogyal Rinpoche • SPIRIT • Spiritualism • Spirituality • Sri Lanka • Stephen Levine (author) • Tantra • Terma (religion) • theory • Theosophy • The Psychedelic Experience • Thero • the secret doctrine • The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying • Tholing • Tibetan Buddhism • Tibetan Literature • tibetan people • timothy leary • Transliteration • University of California Press • Urim and Thummim • Vajrasattva • vedas • Walter Evans-Wentz • Wrathful deities
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-3804-5 / 1400838045
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-3804-2 / 9781400838042