Living and Dying with Confidence: A Day-by-Day Guide

by Anyen Rinpoche, Allison Choying Zangmo, Kathleen Dowling Singh (Foreword by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614292289
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	07/12/2016
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Anyen Rinpoche was born in Amdo, Tibet. His lineage can be traced back directly to the renowned Dzogchen master Patrul Rinpoche, author of Words of My Perfect Teacher. Anyen Rinpoche is a heart-son of Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche, a renowned master of the Longchen Nyingthig tradition as well as a rime (nonsectarian) master of Tibetan Buddhism. After remaining with his root lama for eighteen years, Anyen Rinpoche came to America, where he established the Orgyen Khamdroling Dharma Center in Denver, Colorado. Rinpoche's Dharma activity focuses on helping Buddhist practitioners prepare for the moment of death through the Dying with Confidence Program and the Phowa Foundation. He also teachings a traditional shedra, or intensive Vajrayana study, for westerners at Orgyen Khamdroling.

Allison Choying Zangmo is a student of Anyen Rinpoche and his root master, Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche. She has been studying the Tibetan language and Buddhism under Anyen Rinpoche’s personal guidance for the past sixteen years, and acts as his personal translator. She lives in Denver, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Foreword Kathleen Dowling Singh ix

Introduction 1

Month 1 Waking Up to the Reality of Death 5

Month 2 Contemplating Life's Insubstantial Nature 21

Month 3 Internalizing Impermanence 39

Month 4 Making the Most of What We Have 53

Month 5 Accepting Pain and Difficult Circumstances 67

Month 6 & 7 Training in Virtuous Conduct of Body, Speech, and Mind 81

Month 8 Going Beyond Our Limits 107

Month 9 Giving of Ourselves 121

Month 10 Developing a Daily Practice 141

Month 11 Cultivating Patience 153

Month 12 Dedicating Ourselves for Others 165

Benediction 179

Index 181

About the Authors 201

Editorial Reviews

05/09/2016
Tibetan Buddhist master Anyen Rinpoche and his student and translator, Zangmo, offer readers a year-long course in achieving detachment from overwhelming concerns. Organized around a theme for each month, such as impermanence, coping with loss, patience, or daily practice, this guide provides exercises to contemplate. Though brief, they raise serious introspective questions and nicely build upon one another. This seemingly simple and sparse approach allows the daily tasks to be clear while, at times, strenuously demanding. The work suggests undertaking the year along with a community, but it is unclear how the personal reflections and actions are to be shared or discussed with others. The authors’ gentle, deductive approach returns death from the periphery of Western experience to the central question of existence every day. Rather than encouraging a passive consumption of Buddhist thought, the work seeks to cultivate an attitude in readers that will pay large dividends for those who follow the course. (July)

Publishers Weekly

The authors of Living and Dying with Confidence tell it like it is. In this beautifully crafted book, they gently help the reader accept life’s realities with courage and compassion. Guided by a contemporary and timely interpretation of ancient Tibetan Buddhist teachings, readers will be set on the path toward freeing themselves from the suffering that accompanies aversion to death so they can embrace, with kindness and compassion, this precious human birth.

Toni Bernhard

Anyen Rinpoche has skillfully woven the dharma teachings into these everyday contemplations on death, which will be very beneficial, especially for those dealing with loss.

Tenzin Palmo

”What a beautiful companion! This book’s day by dayencouragement is of great value for anyone exploring what it meansto truly live.

Koshin Paley Ellison

A remarkable, wise and uncannily personal book that guidesus, day by day, to deepen our spiritual practice—enriching life and preparingus for death. Through skillful and subtle commentary, Rinpoche motivates,affirms and challenges us to grown. With an effective and accessible format,this straight-talking literary companion is a must-read, many times over!

Deborah Schoeberlein David

”There is Buddhist saying: ‘If you die before you die, then when you die you will not die.’ In other words, if we go beyond selfishness and the limitations of our ego, and open to compassion and connectedness toward others and all of sentient life, then what is there to die? Living and Dying with Confidence is a wonderful guidebook in this process. It reverses our culture's habit of denying death, and teaches us that in consciously and purposefully confronting death, life becomes enriched.

Larry Dossey