藏傳佛教=西藏佛教=Tibetan Buddhism; 中有=中陰身=Bardo; 死亡與臨終=Death and Dying; 度亡儀軌=Buddhist Funeral Rites and Ceremonies; 輪迴=轉世=Reincarnation=Rebirth=Samsara
摘要
Yes, it' s about Tibet, but not the mystical wonderland of Western imagination. There is magic, to be sure--saints who pass invisibly among prison guards, ceremonies that stop torrential rain, and a ferocious landscape that inspires uneasy reverence. But the country described in these pages is incontestably real, harsh, and shocking.
The book is the story of Eric Swanson' s journey through East Tibet in the company of a Tibetan lama and several other Americans. The ostensible purpose of the trip is humanitarian supporting fledgling schools and bringing medical aid to nomads—but Swanson, a self-confessed “spiritual shopper,” nurses private hopes of enjoying a peak experience in a cave once inhabited by the 8th-century mystic who transcribed the classic Tibetan Book of the Dead. Through episodes alternately comic and harrowing, Swanson gradually discovers the liberating power of disenchantment, and in a startling turn of events, at last deciphers his lama' s cryptic statement that Tibetan Buddhism offers Westerners a way to die.
Written in a fragmentary style evocative of the classic text that inspired Swanson' s journey, the book introduces the reader to the irreducible complexities inherent in the search for spiritual solace.
