This book is the account of a historic dialogue between leading Western scientists and one of the foremost representatives of Buddhism today, the Dalai Lama of Tibet. Revolving around the three key moments of consciousness of sleep, dreams, and death-what internationally acclaimed neuroscientist Francisco Varela calls the ego's shadow zones-the conversations recorded here took place at the fourth Mind and Life Conference in Dharamsala, India. With contributions from acclaimed voices such as philosopher Charles Taylor, psychoanalyst Joyce McDougall, psychologist Jayne Gackenbach, cultural ecologist Joan Halifax, and neuroscientist Jerome Engel, the book is both engrossing and highly readable. Whether the topic is lucid dreaming, near death experiences, or the very structure of consciousness itself, the participants in this unique exchange continually surprise and delight us with their discoveries of convergences and divergences between their respective traditions. Any reader interested in Buddhism, psychology, neuroscience, or the alternative worlds of dreams and the afterlife will surely enjoy the rich discoveries contained in this book.

Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying, Dalai Lama, Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 256 pages, $19.95

Tenzin Gyamtso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was born on July 6, 1935 in a small village called Takster in northeastern Tibet. At the age of two, His Holiness was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalaia Lama. He was enthroned at the age of five and assumed full political power in 1950. In 1959, His Holiness was forced into exile and has striven ever since for a peaceful solution to the the Sino-Tibetan crisis. He continually promotes his compassionate approach to life struggles, whether personal or global, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Tenzin Gyamtso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was born on July 6, 1935 in a small village called Takster in northeastern Tibet. At the age of two, His Holiness was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalaia Lama. He was enthroned at the age of five and assumed full political power in 1950. In 1959, His Holiness was forced into exile and has striven ever since for a peaceful solution to the the Sino-Tibetan crisis. He continually promotes his compassionate approach to life struggles, whether personal or global, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Acknowledgments	ix
Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama	1
A Prelude to the Journey	3
Charting Ego's Shadow Zones	5
Cross-Cultural Dialogue and the Mind and Life Conferences	8
Chapter 1: What's in a Self?	11
A History of the Concept of Self	11
Self-Exploration and Modernity	14
Science and the Self	16
The Self and Humanism	18
Non-Self in the West	19
Chapter 2: Brain's Sleep	23
Sleep in Neuroscience	23
Early Ideas	24
The Basics of the EEG	24
Sleep Patterns	27
Characterizing REM Sleep	30
Dreaming and REM	32
Sleep in Evolutionary Perspective	33
Why Do We Sleep?	35
Dreams in the Tibetan Tradition	38
Dissolution in Sleep and Death	43
Are There Correlates of Subtle Mind?	45
Intention and Effort in Practice	48
Sleep, Orgasm, and Death	49
Awareness and Discontinuities	50
Chapter 3: Dreams and the Unconscious	53
Psychoanalysis in Western Culture	53
Freud and Company	54
A Topography of the Mind	55
Dreaming and the Unconscious	56
Narcissism	60
Dreams, the Royal Road to the Unconscious	61
Marie-Jos�e's Story	66
Beyond Freud	76
Is There an Unconscious in Buddhist Teaching?	79
On the Complex Inheritance of Mental Tendencies	82
Foundation Consciousness and the Unconscious	86
Imprints and the "Mere-I"	88
More on Mere Identities	90
Gross and Subtle Mind	92
Conventional Designation	95
Psychoanalysis as Science?	98
Chapter 4: Lucid Dreaming	101
Evidence for Lucidity	101
How Common Is Lucidity?	103
Traits of Lucid Dreamers	104
Inducing Lucid Dreaming	106
Lucidity and Witnessing	107
Chapter 5: Levels of Consciousness and Dream Yoga	111
The Notion of a Self	111
Self and Action	113
Motivation for Action Is Mental	115
Levels of Consciousness	118
Types of Causal Connections	119
Foundation Consciousness	120
Continuity of Levels	122
Mental Factors and Sleep	123
Clear Light, Subtle Self	124
The Cycle of Embodiments	126
Dream Yoga	127
Chapter 6: Death and Christianity	131
Christianity and the Love of God	131
Death in the Christian Tradition	132
Attitudes Toward Death in the West	134
Secular Attitudes Toward Death	135
Chapter 7: What Is Bodily Death?	137
The Western Medical Definition of Death	137
A Buddhist Definition of Death	140
Interlude: A Conversation on Body Transplants	141
Brain Death	144
Brain Correlates of Consciousness	146
Alterations of Consciousness	148
Epilepsies	154
Epilepsy and Tibetan Medicine	158
Indications of Death in the Tibetan Tradition	161
Stages of Death	162
Gross and Subtle Levels of Mind	164
Gross and Subtle Sexual Intercourse	171
Transference of Consciousness	173
Experimental Occasions for Subtle Mind	175
Chapter 8: Near-Death Experiences	177
Death as Rite of Passage	177
Exploring the Edge of Death	178
Archaeology of Death Rituals	180
Western Discovery of the Afterlife	181
Testimonies and Their Patterns	182
Detailed Nature of Near-Death Experiences	188
Feelings and Sensations	191
Core Experiences	193
Company and Well-Being	197
Some Materialistic Perspectives	198
Possession and Epilepsy	202
Near-Death Experiences and Buddhist Teachings	204
Near-Death Experiences and the Clear Light	208
Coda: Reflections on the Journey	215
Winding Down	215
What We Learned	215
Return	218
Appendix: About the Mind and Life Institute, Acknowledgments	219
Notes	225
Glossary	227
Contributors	243
Index	247