Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

During the Dalai Lama's recent teaching in Nottingham he made some references to Tibetan Lamas being overly interested in the exact performance of ceremonies without being mindful of their meaning and that really connected with me. My opinion of him went up even more that it had already been and I thought that I would make more of an effort to explore Tibetan Buddhism.

I've just started reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (http://www.rigpa.org/Tibetan_Book_of_Living_and_Dying.html) , I'm only a few pages in but I can say that it's very good and well worth a read. Although I've been studying Buddhism for around ten years, I have never felt attracted to Tibetan Buddhism, I have always thought (without enough exploration I am sure) that Tibetan Buddhism was too tied up with mysticism and elaborate ceremonies, but I think that this opinion has blinded me to the very deep understanding of Buddhism that Tibetans have achieved.

I am also very pleased to find that I feel very comfortable with the explanations that the author, Sogyal Rinpoche, has used for some of the concepts. The more that I explore different traditions of Buddhism the more that I can see and am glad to see, the similarities.