A beautiful, life-affirming reflection on how a Buddhist monk's near-death experience changed his outlook on life.
The author takes a risk to leave what I suspect is a fairy privileged life as 'someone' in a monastery to go on a solitary anonymous wandering retreat. What happens next is very unexpected. Yet his reflections on the experience of dying are profound. We are indeed dying everyday and this is a powerful reminder. Thank you for writing this memoir which serves to remind us that all that matters is NOW.

“I am a monk; a son, a brother, and an uncle; a Buddhist; a meditation teacher; a tulku, an abbot, and an author; a Tibetan Nepali; a human being. Which one describes the essential me?”

In 2011 Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche left a note on his bed, walked out of his monastery in India and began a four year wandering retreat.

Inspired by Tibetan Buddhist yoginis of the past, he aspired to achieve enlightenment and experience his true Buddha nature.

Following the Tibetan principle of ‘adding wood to the fire’ he deliberately embraced difficult situations to work with them directly.

Little did he realise that within days he would be facing his own death.

This book is part travelogue, part memoir and teachings on the Bardos - how we face the transitions and changes in our lives. Including the transition from life to death.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy.