Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; DP (video); BD (art)  |
| Tibetan Book of the Dead Comic (Bardo Thodol/flickriver.com) |
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| Tibetan lamas in elaborate ritual (sacbee.com) |
What will we do at death? Unless we are guided during the dying process, many of us will react habitually in the liminal intermediate (
bardo) world. That world of loud and scary spirits, shapeshifters and oddities (where the wild things are), is not likely to lead us to good choices. A confident guide in this world can lead one to more profitable options for rebirth.
Of course, this is dependent on cultural norms and assumptions. These instructions would not likely help Finnish Christians or African Buddhists (yes,
there are African Buddhists) because they are not steeped in Tibetan lore. Other groups will have other lore that applies. Why? It is because so much of our experience is based on perception, assumptions, and a general paradigm religion introduces us to. We think science is our religion, with white clad priests, a secret language open to all but mastered by only a few in ultra exclusive journals, strict rituals (experimental design), and gatekeepers galore.
But even that belief system, far from being "objective" or able to find absolute truth, is full of lore and expectations about postmortem experience. Consciousness persists, form persists (in subtler states of matter), feeling, perception, formation all persist. Death is no obstacle to anything but memory and opportunity. Do what can be done now with a long future in mind. Enjoy what can be enjoyed here because soon it will be forgotten in detail yet traced in our karma. Actions lead to habits, which lead to the formation of our character. But what about doubters? We survive death; we pre-exist life?
Liberation through Hearing
Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia editThe
Bardo Thodol, or
Liberation Through Hearing in the Intermediate State, is often referred to in the West by the more casual title,
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a name which draws a parallel to another funerary text,
The Egyptian Book of the Dead.
The Tibetan text describes experiences the individual consciousness has after death, during the interval in between death and the next rebirth. It is is intended to guide one through safely. The interval is known in Tibetan as the
bardo. The text also includes chapters on the signs of death and rituals to undertake when death is closing in, or has taken place. It is internationally famous, the most widespread work of Tibetan
Nyingma literature.
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| Tibetans bow at Chinese confiscated palace |
According to Tibetan tradition, the book was composed in the eighth century by Padmasambhava, as written down by his primary student, Yeshe Tsogyal. It was buried in the Gampo hills in central Tibet and subsequently discovered by a Tibetan terton, Karma Lingpa, in the 14th century. There were variants of the book among different sects.
It was first published in 1927 by Oxford University Press. Dr. Walter Y. Evans-Wentz chose this title because of the parallels he found with the Egyptian work. It is recited by Tibetan Buddhist lamas over a dying or recently deceased person, or sometimes over an effigy of the deceased.
