An extraordinary introduction to — and preparation for — the art of living and dying. "The Bardo Guidebook" is written in astonishingly elegant, simple prose, and provides a great service: the mere act of reading it diminishes one's personal pain and suffering. The book, written by a Tibetan rinpoche, is a living thing that needs to be read each day. The translation is lyrical and pellucid, yet pulls no punches; it is mountain-stream clear. This presentation of Tibetan Buddhist teachings on the endless cycle of experience, the four bardos — life, death, after-death, and rebirth — is aimed at inspiring and helping the practitioner achieve liberation from deluded existence and awaken to complete enlightenment for the benefit of others. The author, Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, was renowned as one of the most learned and accomplished masters of seventeenth-century Tibet. His other books include The Heart of the Matter, Lamp of Mahamudra and Empowerment. This book is the foundation for the commentary Bardo Guidebook by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and is indispensable for the study of living and dying.