Dzongsar Jamyang KhyentseReseñas

> RÉSUMÉ. — Le moment le plus important de votre vie, c'est la mort
Un guide pour se préparer à mourir en conscience et en paix, aider ceux qui vont mourir, et comprendre enfin la mort pour ne plus la craindre.

QUE SE PASSE-T-IL PENDANT ET APRÈS LA MORT ?
COMMENT S'Y PRÉPARER ET AIDER LES MOURANTS ?
COMMENT ACCOMPAGNER AU MIEUX NOS PROCHES ?

Qu'il ne vous reste que quelques mois à vivre ou que vous croyiez avoir toute la vie devant vous, la mort est une réalité qu'il faut affronter tôt ou tard. D'un point de vue bouddhiste, c'est sans doute le moment le plus important de la vie !
Peu importe la richesse, la célébrité, l'intelligence, le talent ou la bonté, la mort est inéluctable. Pourtant, combien d'entre nous savent s'y préparer ?
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentsé, enseignant bouddhiste, répond à toutes les questions que nous nous posons sur la mort. Il détaille chaque étape du processus et dispense des conseils et des pratiques simples pour guider les mourants à travers les bardos et dans l'autre vie.
Que vous soyez ouvert ou non à la dimension spirituelle de la vie, voici un guide pour vous préparer à la mort de manière consciente et sereine. Vous y découvrirez comment accompagner les mourants avec compassion et aborder de nombreuses situations telles que : parler de la mort à quelqu'un qui n'a aucune croyance, faire face à la douleur des proches, s'occuper des affaires du défunt, aider quelqu'un qui est déjà mort...
En apprivoisant la mort de votre vivant, vous apprendrez à vivre pleinement chaque instant !

This is one of the more accessible books on Buddhism I have read. The author does a good job of explaining the fundamental tenets and beliefs of Buddhism, and I would recommend for that reason.

Where the author loses me is in claiming that Buddhism is not a religion. Yet the origin story of the Buddha is a mythic epic, where Siddhartha faces demons and gods. As is often the case with believers of any faith, his own faith seems so true that it cannot possibly be compared with another religion, and therefore is above the label of "religion."

He writes, "Probably the biggest discovery in human history was Siddhartha’s realization that the self does not exist independently, that it is a mere label, and therefore that clinging to it is ignorance." This statement relies on faith. There is actually no evidence to back up this statement, but no doubt it seems inarguably true to those who believe it already.

This was expected when I started reading, so I still recommend this book highly for its clear explanations of Buddhism, especially the Four Seals. And I suppose also for the insight as to What Makes Me Not a Buddhist.

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Norbu-Pas-pour-le-bonheur/982714

1894

Moving away from conventional presentations of Buddhist teachings, Khyentse challenges readers to make sure they know what they're talking about before they claim to be Buddhist. With wit and irony, Khyentse urges readers to move beyond the superficial trappings of Buddhism beyond a romance with beads, incense, and exotic people in robes straight to the heart of what the Buddha taught.

In essence, this book explains what a Buddhist really is, namely, someone who deeply understands the truth of impermanence and how our emotions can trap us in cycles of suffering. Khyentse presents the fundamental tenets of Buddhism in simple language, using examples we can all relate to.

Good, in-depth explanation of the guru tradition in Tibetan Vajrayana. Full of sensible advice. Probably best for Vajrayana practitioners - most of it is very specific to that tradition.

So, a true Buddhist:

- believes in mystical nonsense like "nirvana is beyond concepts" and reincarnation and that Buddha was capable of flying.
- believes in profound-sounding mumbo-jumbo like "all composite things are impermanent".
- believes that "One of the main effects of science and technology has been to destroy the world more quickly." (Never mind all the suffering that vaccines, penicillin, and anaesthetics have prevented, or that the world has never been so peaceful and prosperous.)
- believes that "Because of greed, jealousy, and pride, the economy will never become strong enough to ensure that every person has access to the basic necessities of life" and that if "every nation and individual truly lived Mao Tse-tung's pragmatic communist philosophy ... we would be perfectly happy." (Never mind that 30 million people starved to death under Mao's Great Leap Forward.)
- believes that it's ok to live off other people's charity, without producing anything.

So, Buddhism is a philosophy of mystical, fatalistic Maoists. Fair enough: happily not a Buddhist then.

Lifetimes of effort go into organizing, designing, and structuring every aspect of our lives, but how many people are willing to contemplate the inevitability of death? Although dying is an essential part of life, it is an uncomfortable topic that most people avoid. With no idea what will happen when we die and a strong desire to sidestep the conversation, we make all kinds of assumptions.

Living Is Dying collects teachings about death and the bardos that have been passed down through a long lineage of brilliant Buddhist masters, each of whom went to great lengths to examine the process in minute detail. Renowned author and teacher Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse responds to the most common questions he's been asked about death and dying-exploring how one prepares for death, what to say to a loved one who is dying, and prayers and practices to use as a handhold when approaching the unknown territory of death. Whether you are facing death today or decades from now, preparing for it can help to allay your worst fears and help you appreciate what it means to be truly alive.

Lifetimes of effort go into organizing, designing, and structuring every aspect of our lives, but how many people are willing to contemplate the inevitability of death? Although dying is an essential part of life, it is an uncomfortable topic that most people avoid. With no idea what will happen when we die and a strong desire to sidestep the conversation, we make all kinds of assumptions.

Living Is Dying collects teachings about death and the bardos that have been passed down through a long lineage of brilliant Buddhist masters, each of whom went to great lengths to examine the process in minute detail. Renowned author and teacher Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse responds to the most common questions he's been asked about death and dying-exploring how one prepares for death, what to say to a loved one who is dying, and prayers and practices to use as a handhold when approaching the unknown territory of death. Whether you are facing death today or decades from now, preparing for it can help to allay your worst fears and help you appreciate what it means to be truly alive.

this is a great synthetic summary and exposition of a rich ngondro tradition, but i wish the author was a little more transparent abt the sources of the various specific aspects and sections of the practice; i was particularly surprised by the shallowness of presentation for the kusali visualization meditation, and wish some caveats had been mentioned regarding the more or less incompleteness of presentation (esp. dangers and precautions) for each practice

i strongly object to khyentse's arguments abt the necessity of absolute devotion to a separate outer guru, but i have yet to read his "the guru drinks bourbon?"; but even so, his frequent allusions to and dismissal of the accusations of sexual assault against many notable lineage holders of tibetan schools left an incredibly sour taste in my mouth; further joke-asides abt sexual attraction further soured

A Buddhist teacher discusses how to prepare for death in the Buddhist tradition. Though not a practicing Tibetan Buddhist, I picked this book up because I am interested in ideas of dying and the afterlife of varied cultural traditions. The author, who is not a particularly good writer, cops to to writing the book on his phone, assumes a good deal of Buddhist knowledge, and is contradictory in places (die in the presence of someone who can introduce you to Buddha Nature / die solitarily), and seems ill-equipped to explain essential concepts at times. One example is in this illustration of "the ground of liberation" via this metaphor:

It's a bit like this: Imagine you are sitting on a sofa in a very small living room. Suddeenly, all you want to do is dance, so you move the sofa into the dining room. You can move the sofa because, no matter how heavy and bulky it is, the sofa is movable, and the space you move it into is inherently available.

No more is said about the sofa.

Initially I thought this book might try to be a gatekeeper of Buddhism, as the title suggests. However, I believe that this is the book to recommend to people interested in understanding the core philosophy of Buddhism, the "Buddhism in a nutshell." No meditation or mindfulness practices are described, only the four truths of Dharma, in a concise yet thorough manner.

> De la dynamite dans votre mental…
Par Zuihô (Livresbouddhistes.com), le 5 mars 2018 (Sur Amazon.fr) 5/5

World Cup soccer fever sweeps into a remote Himalayan monastery and centuries-old traditions are threatened the young monks will do just about anything to watch the final match, posing a unique challenge to the venerable lamas in charge. An inspiring tale of colliding cultures, midnight escapades and daring secret plots...

I did not like it. The message of the book is not at all clear. On the one hand the author seem to promote the four dharma seals as the core of buddhism, yet at the same time he refers to many other teachings throughout the book. To make matters worse sometimes these seem to contradict, unfortunately no convincing explanation is given for these contradictions. At the end it becomes clear why this is the case, the author is a teacher in the tibetan tradition of mahamundra, which I personally feel is a rather magic based and authoritarian teaching, and confusing as hell.

Six-word review: Without the Four Seals, no Buddhist.

Extended review:

During the past 18 years I've read my way through a quantity of Buddhist literature, most of it of the Zen variety. I've seen and heard numerous discussions of the Four Noble Truths.* But this is the first time I can remember encountering the Four Seals, to wit:

All compounded things are impermanent.
All emotions are pain.
All things have no inherent existence.
Nirvana is beyond concepts. (page 3)

The premise of this book is simply that a person who does not accept these four truths is not a Buddhist, regardless of what other practices that person might follow or ideas he or she might embrace. And a person who does is:

Once you have intellectually accepted the view, you can apply any method that deepens your understanding and realization. In other words, you can use whatever techniques or practices help you to transform your habit of thinking that things are solid into the habit of seeing them as compounded, interdependent, and impermanent. This is true Buddhist meditation and practice, not just sitting still as if you were a paperweight. (page 119--little dig at Zen there.)

Each of the four statements in turn is the subject of a chapter, followed by a conclusion that enlarges upon the subject of what Buddhism is and what it is not, as well as what prevents Buddhism from being a religion, despite some superficial trappings:

Buddhist disciplines such as maroon robes, rituals and ritual objects, incense and flowers, even monasteries, have form--they can be observed and photographed. We forget that they are a means to an end. We forget that one does not become a follower of Buddha by performing rituals or adopting disciplines such as becoming vegetarian or wearing robes. But the human mind loves rituals and symbols so much that they are almost inevitable and indispensable. Tibetan sand mandalas and Japanese Zen gardens are beautiful; they can inspire us and even be a means to understanding the truth. But the truth itself is neither beautiful nor not beautiful. (page 121)

For me, the most arresting and valuable passage is the one on page 115 that includes the statement: "when you see that you will never come to the end of problem solving, that is the beginning of the search for inner truth."

Sometimes all it takes for something to sink in is to hear it a different way. For me this presentation was a different way and one that served to open my mind a little more. I can't say that I am yet in full possession of the Buddhist view or even close to it, and I may never reach that point; but I don't think I understand less than I did before I read this book.

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*The Four Noble Truths (approximately):

Life is suffering.
The origin of suffering is desire (craving).
There is an end to suffering.
The Eightfold Path is the way.

After attending Sangha most Monday nights for the past couple of years, people are starting to assume that I'm Buddhist, and I really don't consider myself to be, so I got this book looking for arguments to support my position. And I really didn't get that: I got a very readable treatise on the Four Noble Truths and how anyone who accepts them is a Buddhist, regardless of pretty much anything else. Including eating meat. (Not that he encourages that, but he seems to put it a bit more in the 'trappings' category than in the 'matter of faith' category.)

But then, in the very last paragraph, he writes that anyone who kills so much as a single insect, or who hears of one who calls themself 'Buddhist' and kills so much as an insect and does not protest, is no Buddhist at all. Which would rule out all but a few people alive today, I think. And, since I believe the recent campaign to eradicate malaria, which I'm certain involved killing lots of mosquitoes, was an excellent idea, I can never be a Buddhist. And I'm OK with that. But I do find it to be a bizarre turn in the text.

Reading this book confirmed my feeling that I am not a Buddhist, or inclined toward it as a path. The book is a clear exposition of the precepts of Buddhism, with a bit of the history included. A good place to start.

What Makes You Not a Buddhist is a very readable and accessible introduction to the core of the Buddhist philosophy. It is structured in four parts corresponding to four (fundamental) seals of Buddhism. It turns out that why I am not a Buddhist is in fact four-fold: I didn’t identify with any of them. While this book was written in a mostly engaging and interesting way, the author’s pop culture references were sometimes a bit cringe-worthy, and will probably date badly.

All things are impermanent; all emotions bring pain and suffering; all phenomena are illlusory and empty; and enlightenment is beyond concepts, release from delusion. If you can remember these four seals, you're a Buddhist. If not, no amount of ritual or vegetarianism will make you one. Inspiringly well written by the western-raised film director ("Travelers and Magicians") whose familiarity with Tibetan and western culture enables him to explain principles in language that resonates with Americans.

"What is a Buddhist? some one who understand and lives the truth of impermanence".

This straight forward books takes you from the basic principles of Buddhism and encourages
you to analyze its roots and share the view that far from the shaved heads, robes, meditation and peaceful smiles, Buddhism has a more practical approach to our everyday existence.

The book is divided in four main chapters explaining the "four seals" or truths followed by all Buddhists:

All compounded things are impermanent.
All emotions are pain.
All things have no inherent existence.
Nirvana is beyond concepts.

Personally I would recommend this book to anyone with the slightest interest in knowing a little more
about what people really talk about when Buddhism comes up. Give it a try.½

The author challenges common misconceptions, stereotypes and fantasies. The reader is challenged to go beyond romance with beads, incense or exotic robes and go to the heart of what the Buddha taught.