Dying to Be Reborn

About the Book

This book explores some of the many similarities and parallels between the birth and death process. It does not rely on the testimony of people who have had near death experiences. Neither does it base its argument on the kind of mystical experience that is not available to most people. The exploration of this material requires only the active critical participation of the reader. Therefore, neither faith nor the testimony of some authority is necessary; only the willingness to suspend judgment until the deeper resources of one’s own experience can be critically examined. My view is that in many ways culture in the West has it upside down and backwards. In my own small way, I am trying to counteract a cultural bias, that in its narrow definition of wisdom, has virtually nothing to say about soul cultivation and the process of dying to be reborn.

About the Author

With this book Robert Colacurcio has brought the series of his previous nine books full circle. The concept of the “virtual self” from his first book, The Virtual Self: Beyond the Gap in Buddhist Philosophy is now used to give the reader a way to ponder the question, “What is it that takes rebirth?” This question takes its place in a long line of questions that have guided the author’s approach to spirituality from an early age. He trained as a Jesuit for eleven years, earned a doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University and explored every aspect of The Human Potential Movement available in NYC in the ‘70’s. After practicing Zen and the methods of G.I. Gurdjieff in a Sufi commune, he discovered the spiritual technology of the Buddha. For the past thirty years, the Buddha’s methodology has provided his path to deeper study and contemplation of life’s most important questions. He currently lives with his wife, Carol Jo, on a mountain top in Virginia. Together they share a partnership in the spirit which they believe was begun many lifetimes ago.