Graceful Exits: How Great Beings Die (Death stories of Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, and Zen masters)

One of the most inspiring books about a topic that is normally treated with the most unconsciousness. The stories are really beautiful. This book reminds us all of our own potential to die at peace, in love, in joy and with grace. That is all our human potential.This book is one of the prompts for me to create a project called Re-Imagining Death, and the site Happy At Death.This project sets out to inspire millions of people to set the goal for their own lives of dying complete and fulfilled and happy. As we discover in the book these amazing great beings had prepared for death their whole lives by living with great clarity, and deep understanding about life. As we aspire to emulate them we also live life with more joy.The legacy we leave behind is similar to the legacies told in the book, beautiful teachings, heartfelt connections and inspiration. I recommend you read the book regularly to embrace the idea that you too could die in this way. It is possible. Let this book serve as a guidepost for you.

The title of this book---GRACEFUL EXITS : HOW GREAT BEINGS DIE says it all. This book is about death stories of Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, and Zen Masters. On the first page of the book the author, Sushila Blackman, writes the following, " In that marvelous Indian epic poem, the MAHABHARATA, the sage Yudhisthira is asked : " Of all things in life, what is the most amazing? Yudhisthira answers : " That a man, seeing others die all around him, never thinks that he will die." The spiritual masters in this book are role models by showing that through their deaths, death can be approached gracefully without fear. They put death in it's proper perspective. On page 92 the author quotes the great Indian spiritual master Paramahansa Yogananda who said, " DEATH IS ONLY AN EXPERIENCE THROUGH WHICH YOU ARE MEANT TO LEARN A GREAT LESSON : YOU CANNOT DIE." A few months before the author completed this book, she learned that she had advanced lung cancer. She died a month and a half after finishing the book.

I found this book very inspiring. The fact that the author was herself dying while she wrote it added poignancy and depth. I read this book on an airplane, and while I was reading it, there was terrible turbulence. I wondered if the plane was safe and whether I might be close to death. The juxtaposition of reading the book while looking at my own mortality was powerful and had quite an impact on me. I highly recommend this book.

What an extraordinary idea for a book. The author has done us a great service by sharing with us the experiences of many Spiritual Masters as they prepared for death. Death they say, is not death but liberation, and it should be approached with simplicity and discipline. The Teachers profiled here had definitely mastered those two things. But they often did not leave many words of inspiration. Instead, they merely said a few words to their students, sat in the lotus position, and peacefully died. There is much food for thought in the book, though. I think I found the author's own story just as compelling as those of the great Masters. She, more than the others, conveyed a warmth and understanding that moved me. She had to deal with the deaths of her parents, and the sudden realization that she, too, was dying. She managed to find humor, compassion and beauty in her final days. We should all be so lucky. I think I will read this book many times.

"Graceful Exits" by the late Sushila Blackman was an interesting collection of ..."Spiritual Obituaries" for lack of a better term. Ironically, there were 108 of these "Graceful Exits" listed and, in the art of numerology, that number (108) adds up to a "9". The number "9" translates to "a completion" and it was after all, snippets of life's completion...including that of the author who died shortly after the book was published.Many of these death endings of the Great masters and sages were interesting and some even comical. Dying is perhaps the most personal event of our lives (or rather the ending of our lives), and the ability to deal with that event in a graceful manner takes a special individual, no doubt!I realize that the author was paving the road of acceptance for her own death and these stories were a means of allowing her to gracefully exit her own life. I truly applaud her writing and ability to put such a collection together for herself and others who follow.However, after reading these stories one after another, the uniqueness seemed to loose some of it's potency and had a tendency to become lost in the overall mixture.Perhaps, fewer stories and more concentration on "how they lived" would have illuminated and enhanced the power of "how they died."None the less, this is an interesting little book and should be part of everyone's library that has any feeling or interests in humanity and its greatest mystery...death.

This is a beautiful book of stories of the deaths or mahasamadhis of great beings. Each story is extraordinary and evocative. Shows the transcendent experiences of the highest of the high. Very well-written and highly recommended..

Graceful Exits: How Great Beings Die (Death stories of Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, and Zen masters)  by Sushila Blackman is based on the interesting premise that we can learn from the deaths of Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, and Zen Buddhist masters.The book has 108 short summaries of these deaths covering 2500 years. Unfortunately it appears that no effort was made to verify accounts, particularly for deaths in the 19th and 20th centuries, and many of the claims made seem to be more hagiography than biography.It's also difficult to discern any organizing principle behind these accounts. They aren't given chronologically, alphabetically, thematically, or even grouped by religious tradition.

The book looked like a new one and nice

The title states it all. When I prepare for the next chapter in my afterlife these quotes will inspire me. I am 70 looking in 50 range due to the types of literature I absorb concerning mental & physical wellness. I'm not sure how great one must be to imitate these exits but ,it does give better options . Fear not the title nor the contents just embrace your learning path .The best of the best reading comes from Amazon.

A really graceful account of exits of the great ones. These are the events you don't understand and need not understand because probably you can't but knowing that death is not an event to fear is itself worthknowing. These stories of the last moments of these great people might even change your view of death for good.

This is an amazing little book containing such precious stories of the old sages and masters. The work that has been put in collecting these stories is just astonishing and must have been done with so much care and love. That is what this book emanates, love for the teachers, love for the Dharma, love for all beings to find peace and happiness. beautiful!

Prompt delivery. Great book in great condition.