The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation
edited by Thupten Jinpa and Graham Coleman, with translator Gyurme Dorje
Penguin, HK$160
Carl Jung considered The Tibetan Book of the Dead a great psychological work, with its central message that there is nothing to fear from the afterlife because the dead have no body and cannot be harmed after death. The trick, as Douglas Adams said in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is 'don't panic'. Surprisingly, this is the first translation of the entire book - the 1927 classic by Walter Evans-Wentz covered just three chapters - and it is being hailed as 'a magnificent achievement'. Included are verse meditations, inspirational prayers and sacred mantras relating to the dying and dead. There are warning signs of impending death, such as if 'one urinates, defecates and sneezes at the same time'. The translation by Gyurme Dorje, a Scotsman, took 16 years. It was refined and edited by English scholar Graham Coleman, under the supervision of Thupten Jinpa, senior translator to the Dalai Lama. The ultimate goal remains the attainment of inner radiance, but first comes awareness of temporal humanity. This belongs on the shelf with the King James Bible and the Koran.