Carpe Diem's Theme Week #1 The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, an introduction

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first episode of our Carpe Diem Theme Week of February 2016. As you could have read in our CD-Extra of yesterday I have created an all new feature for our inspiration. This new feature I have called "Carpe Diem's Theme Week" and the goal is to create one week of special prompts about a Theme for your (and mine) inspiration.

This week I have a wonderful "spiritual" Theme Week for you ... This first Carpe Diem Theme Week is all about The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and the Insights it gives to us, to use now, while we are still alive walking through life every day again. In this Theme Week I hope to inspire you.

For every Theme Week (the third week of every month) I also create a special logo and for this week I have created an over all logo (as you can see above), but also a special logo for this Theme Week. For this logo I have used an image of the Wheel of Life ... as it is known in Tibetan Buddhism.

"Everyone of us will once face death, that idea makes us sad and anxious, but it is inevitable, but as you can face your mortality than that will keep your life in balance". Sogyal Rinpoche

This is the leading pattern in the so called "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche. This book is the first book in English that gives us the insights of the "Bardo Thödol" or "The great liberation through hearing in the so called "in between" state of mind, short before real death, as the soul is free once again".

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is one of the holiest in nyingma-buddhism, the classical Tibetan school of Buddhism. The texts from this book were recited, during and after one's death, by the Lama's to take care of the transition of consciousness (the soul) to a new spiritual phase.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead was part of the terma, holy texts which were hidden in a time that Buddhism was oppressed. These terma were sometimes more than one hundred years later recovered by a tertön, a Buddhist priest who explained the texts in a new time. It is believed that Sogyal Rinpoche was a reincarnation of such a tertön.

Sogyal Rinpoche translated The Tibetan Book of the Dead in a way that fits the Western reality and spirituality. Worldwide The Book of Living and Dying (this is the modern title) became a bestseller.

In this first Carpe Diem Theme Week I will try to explain the Insights of the Book of Living and Dying for our life now ...

once lost
wisdom returns to the world -
Narcissus blooms

© Chèvrefeuille

As you all know I am an oncology nurse and that means that I have to do with patients who die after their sickbed. Confronted with dead / death every day was certainly not how I once saw my life and future, but God brought this on my path and I am grateful for that every day again.

In my opinion death is part of life and it is certainly not definitely, because I believe in reincarnation. If you think that way, death isn't something to be afraid of. Of course there are other religious ideas about death and those I ideas I certainly respect.

In Buddhism life is a school in which we create our consciousness (and sub-consciousness) and if, you didn't reach that in the proper way than you have to enter a new life after death. However, if you look at the spiritual meaning of the Book of Living and Dying than it fits the idea that we are all on a journey to find balance in our daily life. This spiritual meaning is the base of these series of posts. I will take you on a spiritual journey along six spiritual Insights revealed / discovered in the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

I hope you all will go with me on this journey and maybe ... just maybe you will discover a new path or a better path ... of course that's not the goal of this Carpe Diem Theme Week. I just love to share some ideas about that spiritual and religious background of our beloved haiku.

secrets unveiled
through the Wheel of Life
seasons come and go

© Chèvrefeuille

Wheel of Life (Bhutan)

Share your inspired haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form with us all ... what inspired you to write your haiku? 

This first episode of our Carpe Diem Theme Week is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 16th at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode of our first Theme Week, Insight 1 We are all travelers, later on.