Graceful Exits:  How Great Beings Die has just been
published.  It contains the death stories of 108 Zen, Tibetan, and Hindu
masters.  When she started work on the book two years ago, my wife,
Sushila Blackman, the editor and compiler, had no idea how important it
was going to become in her life.  Recently she learned that she had
cancer and six months to live, and the book took on a special meaning
for her.  She died peacefully and consciously last November, just a few
days after completing an Afterword she wrote for the book describing her
own transition experiences.  

                Here are the back cover blurbs:

                This beautiful little book is a gem.  It contributes to
our understanding that we are truly timeless.
                Deepak Chopra, M.D. 

                Graceful Exits teaches a profound lesson.  As I've
lived, so will I die.  This book is a simple, potent guide for people
facing life or death.
                John Heider, author of The Tao of Leadership

                Graceful Exits is a magical little volume illustrating
the dignity and wonder with which the dying process is confronted by the
great sages of the world.  It carries a quintessential message from
which each of us can benefit, and reveals with simplicity and lucidity
how wise and compassionate living leads to a wise and compassionate
death.
                Glenn H. Mullin, author of Death and Dying: The Tibetan
Tradition

                Graceful Exits is a most important book that teaches us
another way of looking at life and eath, a way that allows us to let go
of our fear of death and to experience the reality of our eternal
Oneness with our Source.
                Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., author of Love is Letting Go
of Fear

                Graceful Exits affirms that dying is merely a profound
part of our living-to be embraced and experienced, not feared and
denied.
                Anne Thal, LCSH, Hospice Director

                The book's significance might be seen in this
observation from the Dalai Lama:

                Awareness of death is the very bedrock of the entire
[spiritual] path.  Until you have developed this awareness, all other
practices are obstructed.
                His Holiness the Dalai Lama, author of The Way to
Freedom

                You can find the book at a bookstore, and it can be
ordered at the Weatherhill Web Site (http://www.weatherhill.com).


                Joe Blackman
                14100 N. 46th St., 112A
                (813) 978-9196
                joe@iirp.coedu.usf.edu