The Tibetan Book of The Dead- also known as Bardo Thodol- is an important book for us all to read because it makes you think about death, and prepare you to face it with calm and composure when the time comes. 

However, the most important part of the book is in the Introduction under the Title “ The Fundamental Teachings Summarized” where the author outlines specific bullet points that underpin the philosophy behind the book. I want to list them here verbatim-

1. That all possible conditions, or states, or realms of sang-saric existence, heavens, hells, and worlds, are entirely dependent upon phenomena, or, in other words, are nought but phenomena;
2. That all phenomena are transitory, are illusionary, are unreal, and non-existent save in the sangsäric mind perceiving them ;
3. That in reality there are no such beings anywhere as gods, or demons, or spirits, or sentient creatures–all alike being phenomena dependent upon a cause;
4. That this cause is a yearning or thirsting after sensation, after the unstable sangsaric existence ;
5. That so long as this cause is not overcome by Enlightenment death follows birth and birth death, unceasingly-even as the wise Socrates believed ;
6. That the after-death existence is but a continuation, under changed conditions, of the phenomena-born existence of the human world-both states alike being karmic;
7. That the nature of the existence intervening between death and rebirth in this or any other world is determined by antecedent actions;
8. That, psychologically speaking, it is a prolonged dreamlike state, in what may be called the fourth dimension of space, filled with hallucinatory visions directly resultant from the mental-content of the percipient, happy and heaven-like if the karma be good, miserable and hell-like if the karma be bad;
9. That, unless Enlightenment be won, rebirth in the human world, directly from the Bardo-world or from any other world or from any paradise or hell to which karma has led, is inevitable;
10. That Enlightenment results from realizing the unreality of the sangsara, of existence;
11. That such realizing is possible in the human world, or at the important moment of death in the human world, or during the whole of the after-death or Bardo-state, or in certain of the non-human realms;
12. That training in yoga, i.e. in control of the thinking processes so as to be able to concentrate the mind in an effort to reach Right Knowledge, is essential ;
13. That such training can best be had under a human guru, or teacher;
14. That the Greatest of Gurus known to mankind in this cycle of time is Gautama the Buddha;
15. That His Doctrine is not unique, but is the same Doctrine which has been proclaimed in the human world for the gaining of Salvation, for the Deliverance from the Circle of Rebirth and Death, for the Crossing of the Ocean of Sangsara, for the Realization of Nirvana, since immemorial time, by a long and illustrious Dynasty of Buddhas, who were Gautama’s Predecessors;
16. That lesser spiritually enlightened beings, Bodhisattvas and gurus, in this world or in other worlds, though still not freed from the Net of Illusion, can, nevertheless, bestow divine grace and power upon the shishya (i.e. the chela, or disciple) who is less advanced upon the Path than themselves;
17. That the Goal is and can only be Emancipation from the Sangsara;
18. That such Emancipation comes from the Realization of Nirvana;
19. That Nirvana is non-sangsaric, being beyond all para-dises, heavens, hells, and worlds;
20. That it is the Ending of Sorrow;
21. That it is Reality.

He who realized Nirvana, the Buddha Gautama Himself, has spoken of it to His own disciples thus :

‘There is, disciples, a Realm devoid of earth and water, fire and air. It is not endless space, nor infinite thought, nor nothingness, neither ideas nor non-ideas. Not this world nor that is it. I call it neither a coming nor a departing, nor a standing still, nor death, nor birth; it is without a basis, progress, or a stay; it is the ending of sorrow.

For that which clingeth to another thing there is a fall; but unto that which clingeth not no fall can come. Where no fall cometh, there is rest, and where rest is, there is no keen desire. Where keen desire is not, naught cometh or goeth; and where naught cometh or goeth there is no death, no birth. Where there is neither death nor birth, there neither is this world nor that, nor in between—-it is the ending of sorrow.

‘There is, disciples, an Unbecome, Unborn, Unmade, Un-formed; if there were not this Unbecome, Unborn, Unmade, Unformed, there would be no way out for that which is become, born, made, and formed; but since there is an Un-become, Unborn, Unmade, Unformed, there is escape for that which is become, born, made, and formed.”