The Bardo Thödol is a manual written in the eighth century by Guru Padmasambhava, based on older texts from ancient Tibet, with the purpose of guiding deceased people through the stage between detachment from the physical body and rebirth. Bardo Thödol is actually titled “Liberation Through Hearing in the Intermediate State” as it is believed that it is possible for a deceased person to free himself from the painful cycle of reincarnation – samsara – by following instructions of an experienced lama.
When a person is about to die, a lama is called to read the pages of the Bardo Thödol in order to help the deceased person to find peace in the afterlife. The main objective of the lama is to stop the person from being quickly reborn, as rebirth is considered a result of a person’s attachment to the physical world and therefore, it must be avoided.
The lama reads the Bardo Thödol for as long as it’s necessary for the deceased one to find his bardo – the place where his consciousness will stay in the interval between death and a rebirth.
The Three Stages of the Bardo
There are three main stages trough which a deceased person goes until a new rebirth. They are:
- Chikhai Bardo – This is the moment of death. The lama warns about the feelings associated to the detachment from the physical body. There’s a pressure in the chest but the deceased person still believes that he is alive even though the thoughts are confusing and he feels cold. When finally, he feels his whole being exploding into millions of atoms and the cold transforming into a peaceful warmth, he will see the clear and pure light of reality – the Dharmakaya. It’s like the truth appeared before him transcending the duality of mind. If he recognizes this as his own eternal consciousness, he will have reached nirvana and will be free from all rebirths. However, if he is scared of the primordial light or doesn’t recognize it as his own eternal part, he will jump to the next bardo.
- Chonyd Bardo – This bardo lasts for approximately fourteen days. This is when the deceased person will face the projections of his own mind. The Bardo Thödol describes peaceful and angry deities representing many aspects of the human psyche. The glow of the peaceful deities of wisdom, faith and fraternity can be eclipsed by the hypnotic colours of the angry figures. The emotions that the person feels may attract him to the heart of one of the images, which will lead him to a specific bardo. If the person was trained through spiritual practices while he was in the physical world, he will understand that these deities are projections of his mind and will not fear them, being able to reach a state called Buddhahood, that guarantees peace to his consciousness.However, if he fears the angry images and believe they are real, this feeling will take him to the next bardo, the bardo of rebirth.
- Sidpa Bardo – In this bardo, the person will have a body that can appear and disappear as he pleases, travel long distances, penetrate through solid objects and be in different places at the same time. The Sidpa Bardo will be good or bad depending on the person’s karma. If he accumulated bad karma, he will face situations of despair, fear, anguish and sharp pain. The lama tries to remind him that everything he sees in this bardo are just his guilt and fears in the form of demons. If he accumulated good karma, this bardo will be pleasant and joyful, the deceased one will face the projections of his good thoughts.
The Final Judgment of the Dead
Many different traditions depict a kind of judgment in the afterlife that determines whether the person will go to hell or heaven. The image of the judgment appears in Christian, Egyptian and eastern religions, and, the Bardo Thödol has its own version of the final judgment, with a difference: the judge, the assistants and the penalty are created by the defendant himself, who, unable to comprehend that everything he sees is just his guilt taking form, becomes a slave of his fears.
In the final judgment, which takes place in the third bardo, the Lord of Death, the Yama Raja, also known as Dharma Raja, uses a mirror that shows the actions of the defendant. The device doesn’t mirror the actions themselves, but the intentions and motivations behind them. This is when all masks fall down as it’s possible to fake good actions, but not possible to fake good intentions. This is very clear in all eastern traditions, like Hinduism, which dedicates many pages of the Mahabharata to explain the nature of a good intention, such as in the Tale of Yudhisthira.
The Bardo Thödol describes six locations – the lokas – where the person can be sent by the Lord of Dharma in order to expiate for his sins. One of the most atrocious lokas is said to have fire all over and beasts that torture people. Some Gnostic studies suggest that this loka is the origin of the idea of the Christian hell.
When the lama identifies that the deceased person is walking to hell, he tries to release the defendant from the pain and suffering by convincing him that everything he feels, is illusion. After that, if the person still fears the hell and its beasts, he will start to feel impelled towards a rebirth. Now all that is left for the lama is the task of helping the deceased person choose good parents for his new life.
Sources:
- Grof, Stanislav. Books of the Dead – Manuals for Living and Dying. Thames and Hudson, 1994.
- Jinpa, Thupten (Editor). Graham, Coleman (Editor). The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation. Penguin Classics, 2007.
- Sambhava, Padma (compiler). Thurman, Robert (translator). The Dalai Lama (forewrod), Karma Lingpa (collaborator). The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between. Bantam Books, 1993.
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