Good Life, Good Death: One of the Last Reincarnated Lamas to Be Educated in Tibet Shares Hard-Won Wisdom on Life, Death, and What Comes After - Softcover

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Rimpoche N. Gehlek was trained by the same teachers who taught the Dalai Lama, and was fully educated in Tibet. He is a favorite speaker at the Omega Institute, the Open Center, and countless spiritual centers around the world. His students cover the full range: Buddhists, Hollywood actors, esteemed composers and musicians.
Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. His tireless efforts on behalf of human rights and world peace have brought him international recognition. He is the recipient of the Wallenberg Award (conferred by the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Foundation), the Albert Schweitzer Award, and the Nobel Peace Prize.

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“Gehlek’s book is lighthearted and down-to-earth.”

—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“His teachings are helpful to all.”

—The Denver Post

“Insightful . . . Gehlek is a felicitous writer, especially gifted with analogy. Readers will cheer about this fresh voice.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Gehlek Rimpoche’s wisdom on life, death and reincarnation will focus your energies on the importance of coming to terms with your negative emotions. It will also help you travel well through life by practicing patience.”

—Spirituality & Health

“Gehlek Rimpoche’s mix of astute psychological insight, extraordinary intellect, and great compassion—plus his delightful wit—make him a wonderful, wise spiritual friend and guide.”

—Tara Bennett-Goleman, author of Emotional Alchemy, and Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

“Gehlek Rimpoche is a heartfelt, tender teacher with a vast analytic mind.”

—Allen Ginsberg

“Gehlek Rimpoche . . . is a great teacher.”

—Robert A. F. Thurman, professor of religion, Columbia University

“No clichés here. Just straight talk infused with humor, humility and a well-seasoned wisdom born of a broad classical training and worldly experience. His lineage is impeccable and true. His simple words speak to the jewel in our hearts.”

—Richard Gere

“Gehlek Rimpoche is one of the wisest, most cheerful people I know. He is a beautiful and gracious spirit who carries the great wisdom of Tibet. We are fortunate to have him teaching in the West.”

—Jack Kornfield, bestselling author of After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

Gehlek Rimpoche’s teaching is concise and soulful; here, tradition is saved only to strengthen the daily path of liberation. Answering Allen Ginsberg’s query, Rimpoche once observed that poetry is compassion. We may learn from Rimpoche’s writings that compassion is also poetry.”

—Francesco Clemente

“Gehlek Rimpoche is one of the great originals alive today—luminous in his wisdom, compassionate in his unstinting care and support, and a very funny man to boot. He is the Buddha nature in a warm and whimsical package.”

—Jean Houston, Ph.D.

“Probably the best available teacher of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. He combines a complete grasp of the teachings of this tradition with an openness and kindness that has endeared him to all those fortunate enough to have come to know him.”

—Philip Glass

“Gehlek Rimpoche is a brilliant scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. Educated in Tibet’s largest monastery—Drepung—he fled to India in 1959, and in the decades since, has become one of the most important and insightful teachers of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.”

—Melvyn C. Goldstein, John Reynolds Harkness Professor and Chair of Anthropology, and director, Center for Research on Tibet, Case Western Reserve University

“Gehlek Rimpoche was trained by the greatest teachers of the last generation of Buddhist masters in Tibet. He has brought their teachings to America, where he is passing on their wisdom to a new generation, with eloquence, wit, and insight.”

—Donald Lopez, Carl W. Belser Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of Michigan

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Reincarnation is something we Tibetans tend to take for granted. We are brought up with the idea that the kind of life we have now is a result of how we have behaved in the past, and that the kind of life we will live in the future depends on how we conduct ourselves now. I feel this is in many ways a very practical approach because it places firmly in our own hands responsibility for the kind of person we are now and the kind of person we may become. What’s more, it gives us a reason for making this very life as meaningful as possible. How should we go about doing this? I believe that cultivating compassion is one of the principal things that make our lives worthwhile. It is the source of all lasting happiness and joy. And it is the foundation of a good heart, the heart of one who acts out of a desire to help others.

Through kindness, through affection, through honesty, through truth, and through justice toward all others, we ensure our own benefit. This is not a matter for complicated theorizing. It is a matter of common sense. Consideration of others is worthwhile, because our happiness is inextricably bound up with the happiness of others. If society suffers, we ourselves suffer. And it is clear that the more our hearts and minds are afflicted with ill will, the more miserable we become. We cannot escape the necessity of love and compassion. As long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint—out of a sense of responsibility—there is no doubt we will be happy.

Of course, confidence in the way we have lived our lives is also one of the principal factors that will help us to remain calm and undisturbed at the time of death. The more we have made our lives meaningful, the less we will regret at the time of death. Therefore, the way we feel when we come to die is very much dependent on the way we have lived. If our daily life has been positive and meaningful, when the end comes, even though we do not wish for it, we will be able to accept it as a part of our life. We will have no regrets.

Nawang Gehlek Rimpoche has made these questions the theme of this book Good Life, Good Death. He is well qualified to discuss them. As a recognized reincarnate lama, he completed his traditional Buddhist training as a monk in Tibet prior to the Chinese takeover. In exile in India, he lived the life of a married man, doing valuable work in broadcasting and publishing Tibetan Buddhist texts. Since becoming an American resident, he has been able to put his clear understanding of the English language and the modern world to good effect when invited to teach about his own tradition. As this book makes clear, he is able to share some of the insights and benefits of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism with modern readers in terms that they can easily understand and put into practice. I am sure that readers interested in the Tibetan approach to inner peace will find much here to attract and inspire them.

—Tenzin Gyatso,                        
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama  
June 16, 2001                          

INTRODUCTION

Over the years, I have probably had more fun with Gehlek Rimpoche than with almost any lama I have known. Extremely bright and perceptive, he has a great sense of humor, and just loves to chat, whether in Tibetan or English. He is also very good-natured and generous to a fault, not minding at all when the joke’s on him. I have also learned a great deal from him, about all levels of the Buddha Dharma, which he lives and breathes. It’s in his mind as a philosophy, in his culture as a way of life, and in his blood as an art of living and dying well—that is, virtuously for the sake of others and pleasantly for his own sake.

Rimpoche was brought up in one of the most upper-crust families in Tibet, belonging to the family of the Great Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso (1876–1933), the “first family” of that...