Mahasamadhi vijji

Talking about life, but above all death, is not easy for many people. But it takes little effort – especially for sannyasins! – to realise the enormous chasm between Western and Eastern cultures in their perception of death. Yes, there may be sadness when a beloved dies, but in cultures where a person ‘leaves the body’ there tends to be more celebration and awareness of a certain continuity than the ‘long faces’ and seriousness associated with Western death rituals.

While she herself was experiencing the last stages of terminal cancer, Sushila Blackman compiled and edited this remarkable book. The title itself evokes the essence of what the reader can expect to find between the covers and the subtitle emphasises what Sushila wants us to know: How great beings die.

Her work is a highly readable series of more than a hundred clearly-written anecdotes, some short, some considerably longer. One of the shorter anecdotes Short biography sample.