Bardo Thodol
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| Bardo Thodol Wylie: bar do thos grol literally: Liberation through Hearing in the State of Bardo |
The Bardo Thodol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ), Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate State, traditionally but inaccurately called the Tibetan Book of the Dead, is a funerary text that describes the experiences of the consciousness after death during the interval known as bardo between death and rebirth.
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[edit] Background
The Bardo Thodol is recited by lamas over a dying or recently deceased person, or sometimes over an effigy of the deceased. It has been suggested that it is a sign of the influence of shamanism on Tibetan Buddhism. The name means literally "liberation through hearing in the intermediate state".
The Bardo Thodol actually differentiates the intermediate states between lives into three bardos (themselves further subdivided):
- the chikhai bardo or "bardo of the moment of death"
- the chonyid bardo or "bardo of the experiencing of reality"
- the sidpa bardo or "bardo of rebirth".
The chikhai bardo features the experience of the "clear light of reality", or at least the nearest approximation to it of which one is spiritually capable.
The chonyid bardo features the experience of visions of various Buddha forms (or, again, the nearest approximations of which one is capable).
The sidpa bardo features karmically impelled hallucinations which eventually result in rebirth. (Typically imagery of men and women passionately intwined.)
One can compare the descriptions of the Bardo Thodol with accounts of certain "out of the body" near-death experiences described by people who have nearly died in accidents or on the operating table - these typically contain accounts of a "white light", experienced as, somehow, a living being, and of helpful figures corresponding to that person's religious tradition.
The Bardo Thodol also mentions three other bardos: those of "life" (or ordinary waking consciousness), of "dhyana" (meditation), and of "dream". Thus together the "six bardos" form a classification of states of consciousness into six broad types, and any state of consciousness forms a type of "intermediate state" - intermediate between other states of consciousness. Indeed, one can consider any momentary state of consciousness a bardo, since it lies between our past and future existences; it provides us with the opportunity to experience reality, which is always present but obscured by the projections and confusions due to our previous unskillful actions.
According to Tibetan tradition, the Bardo Thodol was composed by Padmasambhava, written down by his wife, Yeshe Tsogyal, buried in the Gampo hills in central Tibet and subsequently discovered by a Tibetan terton, Karma Lingpa.[1]
[edit] English translations and related teachings
- W. Y. Evans-Wentz (editor) Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup (translator). Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or, The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, Oxford, 1927, 1960. ISBN 0-19-500223-7 This was a long-term best-seller in the 1960s. Evan-Wentz came up with the title based on the previously published famous Egyptian Book of the Dead.
- Edward Conze provides a precis in Buddhist Scriptures, Penguin, 1959.
- Francesca Fremantle and Chögyam Trungpa, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo by Guru Rinpoche according to Karma Lingpa, Shambhala, 1975, 2003, ISBN 0-394-73064-X, ISBN 1-59030-059-9
- Robert Thurman (translator), Dalai Lama (Forward), The Tibetan Book of the Dead, as popularly known in the West. Known in Tibet as The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between, Composed By Padma Sambhava Discoverd by Karma Lingpa, Harper Collins, 1994, ISBN 1-85538-412-4
- Francesca Fremantle, Luminous Emptiness: A Guide to the Tibetan Book of the Dead
- Timothy Leary Psychedelic Prayers, a loose interpretation of the book.
- Jean-Claude van Itallie, The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Reading Aloud
- Graham Coleman (Translator), Gyurme Dorje (Translator), Thupten Jinpa (Editor) , The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Penguin Classics; new edition (2005) ISBN 0-7139-9414-2
- Lati Rinpochay and Jeffrey Hopkins, Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth, Snow Lion, 1985.
- Lama Lodo, Bardo Teachings. Snow Lion, 1987.
- Chokyi Nyina Rinpoche, The Bardo Guidebook, Ragjung Yeshe, 1991.
[edit] Yidams
Center
Element: Ether
Chief Buddha: Vairochana
Consort: Dharma-Dhatu
Color: Blue
Enemy: Stupidity
East
Element: Water
Chief Buddha: Vajra Sattva
Consort: Mamaki
Color: White
Enemy: Violent Anger
Virtue: Mirror-like Wisdom
Accompanying Bodhisattvas: Kshitigarbha, Lasema, Maitreya, Pushpema
South
Element: Earth
Chief Buddha: Ratna Sambhava
Consort: Sang-Yay Chan-ma
Color: Yellow
Enemy: Egotism
Virtue: Equality
Accompanying Bodhisattvas: Akasha Garbha, Mahlaima, Samanta Bhadra, Dureme
West
Element: Fire
Chief Buddha: Amithaba
Consort: Cokarmo
Color: Red
Enemy: Attachment
Virtue: Discrimination
Accompanying Bodhisattvas: Chanrazee, Chirdhima, Jampal, Aloke
North
Element: Air
Color: Green
Chief Buddha: Amogha-Siddhi
Consort: Dolma
Color: Green
Enemy: Jealousy
Virtue: All-performing Wisdom
Accompanying Bodhisattvas: Chag-na-Dorje, Gandhema, Dibpanamsel, Nidhema
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] End notes
- ^ Evans-Wentz (1960), p. liv; and, Fremantle & Trungpa (2003), p. xi.
