The Mirror of Mindfulness by Natsok Rangdrol This is the main book that Thrangu Rinpoche used as an outline for his major teaching on the Bardo. T H E MOST LEARNED TSELE PEMA LEGDRUB was the body-emanation of the great translator Vairochana, and he attained the pinnacle of learning and accomplishment of the masters of the Land of Snow. Also known as Kongpo Gotsang Natsok Rangdrol, he was unmatched in his three qualities ofscholarship, virtue, and noble-mindedness. Among the five volumes of his collected works, I con- sidered that this explanation of the bardos would benefit everyone interested in the dharma. The words are clear and easy to understand, and lengthy scholarly expositions are not emphasized. This text, easy to comprehend and containing all the key points and very direct instructions, results from following the oral advice of a qualified master. In order to help the foreigners who are presently inter- ested in the dharma to gain true confidence, I, old Dilgo Khyentse, encouraged my disciple Erik Perna Kunsang to translate this book into English. Therefore, may everyone trust in this.      -- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Dream Yoga and Practice of Natural Light by Namkai Norbu Rinpoche This book is a fairly comprehensive book on dream yoga with a good review of  dream yoga by Michael Katz and then Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche's extensive teaching on dream yoga as a  Buddhist practice.

The world-renowned Tibetan Book ofthe Dead has its origin in the esoteric disciplines of the 'Great Perfection' which represent the highest system of meditation in the Tibetan religious tradition. These texts — which date back to the pre- Buddhist Bonpo era — include The Great Secret Union of the Sun and Moon and The Doctrine of the Six Lights. According to these esoteric writings all aspects of the after-death experience — vivid lights, sounds, imagery — arc reflections of one's own mind, and it is important to recognise that such appearances are essentially illusory. In this way we can liberate ourselves from the causal chain of birth, death and rebirth, and achieve transcendence from the world of form.  

This is Thrangu Rinpoche's latest book which includes three of Thrangu Rinpoche's teachings on the Bardo.  The Bardo is the interval between when we die and when we are reborn. For ordinary persons the experience in the bardo is a very frightening with uncontrolled streams of visions, sounds that are louder than thunder, and frightening deities and visions. For the unprepared mind these could lead to a very undesirable rebirth. In this book Thrangu Rinpoche describes that when we are alive, we can prepare for this experience of dying and why this will be very beneficial to us. Rinpoche describes activities that we can do in our daily life and also our sleep and outside of our meditation to prepare for the Bardo. If we are meditators, Rinpoche describes and explains the meditations that are specifically beneficial for the Bardo experience. Rinpoche also describes the nine stages of death at we go through and what we and companions helping us can do to help us in the dying process. He then describes the visions and sounds of the bardo and how to deal with our fear and how to make correct choices in the Bardo. This book is a very lucid, comprehensive, and practical explanation of the bardo. It contains extensive appendices and some color pictures to help anyone interested in navigating the bardo. This book of over 200 pages has a list price of $19.95 and is available for $ 9.95 as a book and $ 1.25 as a PDF.  

Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities by Rene De Nebesky-Wojkowitz The iconography of the deities worshiped by the Tibetans as protectors and guardians of Buddhism belongs to the least known field of Tibetan Studies. The exceedingly numerous class of protective divinities com- prises many figures who originallY belonged to the pantheon of the old Tibetan Bon faith. A study of the Tibetan protective deities and their cult, apart from giving an insight into a little known aspect of Lamaism, reveals new facts regarding the beliefs of pre-Buddhist Tibet and their relation to the early shamanistic stratum out of which the Bon religion developed.

It is research such as Dr. Moody presents in his book that will enlighten many and will confirm what we have been taught for two thousand years- that there is life after death. Though he does not claim to have studied death itself, it is evident from his findings that the dying patient continues to have a conscious awareness of his environment after being pronounced clinically dead. This very much coincides with my own research, which has used the accounts of patients who have died and made a comeback, totally against our expectations and often to the surprise of some highly sophisticated, well- known and certainly accomplished physicians. All of these patients have experienced a floating out of their physical bodies, associated with a great sense of peace and wholeness. Most were aware of another person who helped them in their transition to another plane of existence. Most were greeted by loved ones who had died before them, or by a religious figure who was significant in their life and who coincided, naturally, with their own religious beliefs. It is enlightening to read Dr. Moody's book at the time when I am ready to put my own research findings on paper.

Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra by Mipham The Guhyagarbha Tantra is the first tantra to introduce the concept of the 42 peaceful and 58 wrathful deities that are experienced in the Bardo. One of the most accomplished scholars and prolific writers of recent times in Tibet was Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche. An eclectic master, who was prom- inent in the nonsectarian movement that flourished, particularly in East- ern Tibet, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his works are regarded as authoritative. I am pleased to know that great care has been taken in preparing this trans- lation of Luminous Essence, Mipham Rinpoche’s commentary on the Guhya- garbha Tantra, the root tantra which reveals mind and wisdom to be naturally manifest.  

Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences by Jeffrey Long, MD. This is an excellent book giving many examples of Near-Death Experiences with a lot of research on this topic.

  AMoNG the secret traditions of Tibetan Buddhism we find certain doctrines that deal with the central problems of human existence, with the advanced paths to self-knowledge, and with death. To these secret traditions belong the Tibetan Books of the Dead, which were for the most part found by "treasure discoverers" and thereby brought to our attention. Even though there is a definite and clearly developed basic structure peculiar to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, there are so many different works that build on this structure and elaborate various aspects of it, that we must talk of several Tibetan Books of the Dead rather than of one. This book is an extensive commntary on the bardo not only in Buddhism but other cultures and diagrams of explanation that are found nowhere else in the literature. This book is mentioned in Thrangu Rinpoche's Journey of the Mind and is available here as a free PDF download.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a psychiatrist with a particular interest in end-of-life care. Especially interested in the care of dying patients, she researched their attitudes to death. Her groundbreak- ing work, On Death and Dying, identified the “five stages” that dying people go through as they approach death and this model has been enormously influential over the past forty years. The book is a classic because it introduced scientific observation of death and dying and near death experiences in popular form to the United States 40 years ago.