Bardo Thodol

Bardo Thodol
Tibetan name
Tibetan	བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ
Transcriptions Wylie bar do thos grol THL Bardo Tödröl Lhasa IPA [pʰàrdo tʰǿɖøl]

The Bardo Thodol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol), "Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State", is a text from a larger corpus of teachings, the "Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones", revealed by Karma Lingpa (1326–1386). It is the best-known work of Nyingma literature, being known in the west as the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to guide one through, the experiences that the consciousness has after death, in the bardo, the interval between death and the next rebirth. The text also includes chapters on the signs of death and rituals to undertake when death is closing in or has taken place.

Etymology

Bardo thosgroll (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol:

• bar do, Sankrit antarabhāva - "intermediate state", "transitional state", "in-between state", "liminal state". Used loosely, the term "bardo" refers to the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth. The concept arose soon after the Buddha's passing, with a number of earlier Buddhist groups accepting the existence of such an intermediate state, while other schools rejected it.
• thos grol "liberation", synonymous with the Sanskrit word bodhi, which means awakening, understanding, or enlightenment, and with nirvana, which means blowing out or extinction: "the extinction of illusion."

Title

The Tibetan title is bar do thos grol, "Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State". It consists of two comparatively long texts:

• Great Liberation through Hearing: The Supplication of the Bardo of Dharmata (chos nyid bar do'i gsol 'debs thos grol chen mo), the bardo of dharmata (including the bardo of dying) and
• Great liberation through Hearing: The Supplication Pointing Out the Bardo of Existence (strid pa'i bar do ngo sprod gsol 'debs thos grol chen mo), the bardo of existence [...]

Within the texts themselves, the two combined are referred to as Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo, Great Liberation through Hearing, or just Liberation through Hearing.

This text is commonly known by its Western title: The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a title popularized by Walter Evans-Wentz's translation. However, the book and the title as found in the west is virtually unknown in Tibet in this form. Francesca Fremantle:

[T]here is in fact no single Tibetan title corresponding to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The overall name given to the whole terma cycle is Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones, and it is popularly known as Karma Lingpa's Peaceful and Wrathful Ones. It has been handed down through the centuries in several versions containing varying numbers of sections and subsections, arranged in different orders, ranging from around ten to thirty-eight titles. These individual texts cover a wide range of subjects, including the dzogchen view [...] meditation instructions, visualizations of deities, liturgies and prayers, lists of mantras, descriptions of the signs of death, and indications of future rebirth, as well as those that are actually concerned with the after-death state.

Wentz's combination of these books is controversial, but today there are other translations available, edited by Tibetans.

Background

According to Tibetan tradition, the Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State was composed in the 8th century by Padmasambhava, written down by his primary student, Yeshe Tsogyal, 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. The Tibetan Book of the Dead 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 Book of the Dead.

The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State is recited by Tibetan Buddhist lamas over a dying or recently deceased person, or sometimes over an effigy of the deceased. The name means literally "liberation through hearing in the intermediate state".

The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State differentiates the intermediate state between lives into three bardos:

1. The chikhai bardo or "bardo of the moment of death", which features the experience of the "clear light of reality", or at least the nearest approximation of which one is spiritually capable.
2. The chonyid bardo or "bardo of the experiencing of reality", which features the experience of visions of various Buddha forms (or, again, the nearest approximations of which one is capable).
3. The sidpa bardo or "bardo of rebirth", which features karmically impelled hallucinations which eventually result in rebirth. (Typically imagery of men and women passionately entwined.)

The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State also mentions three other bardos: those of "life" (or ordinary waking consciousness), of "dhyana" (meditation), and of "dream" (the dream state during normal sleep).

Together these "six bardos" form a classification of states of consciousness into six broad types. Any state of consciousness can form 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 that are due to our previous unskillful actions.

In an introduction to Evans-Wentz' version, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung summarizes his psychological commentary:

The Bardo Thödol [Tibetan Book of the Dead] began by being a closed book, and so it has remained, no matter what kind of commentaries may be written upon it. For it is a book that will only open itself to spiritual understanding, and this is a capacity which no man is born with, but which he can only acquire through special training and special experience. It is good that such to all intents and purposes useless books exist. They are meant for those queer folk who no longer set much store by the uses, aims, and meaning of present-day civilisation.

— Carl Jung

English translations and related teachings

Translations and summaries

• Coleman, Graham, with Thupten Jinpa (eds.) (2005) The Tibetan Book of the Dead [English title]: The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States [Tibetan title]; composed by Padma Sambhava: revealed by Karma Lingpa; translated by Gyurme Dorje. London: Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-14-045529-8 (the first complete translation). Also: New York: Viking Penguin, NY, 2006. ISBN 0-670-85886-2 (hc); ISBN 978-0-14-310494-0 (pbk).
• Conze, Edward (1959) Buddhist Scriptures Harmondsworth: Penguin (includes a précis)
• Evans-Wentz, W. Y. (ed.) (1927) Tibetan Book of the Dead: or, The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane; Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup (translator). Oxford: Clarendon Press ISBN 0-19-500223-7 (reissued 1960) (this includes a "Psychological commentary" by Carl Jung, and was a long-term best-seller in the 1960s; Evans-Wentz came up with the title based on the previously published Egyptian Book of the Dead)
• Fremantle, Francesca & Chögyam Trungpa (1975) The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo by Guru Rinpoche according to Karma Lingpa. Boulder: Shambhala ISBN 0-394-73064-X, ISBN 1-59030-059-9 (reissued 2003).
• Thupten Jinpa (ed.) (2005) The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Penguin Classics). London: Penguin Books (2005) ISBN 0-7139-9414-2
• Thurman, Robert (trans.) (1994) 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; discovered by Karma Lingpa; foreword by the Dalai Lama London: Harper Collins ISBN 1-85538-412-4

Secondary works

• Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche (1991) The Bardo Guidebook Rangjung Yeshe Publications 1991.
• Fremantle, Francesca (2001). Luminous Emptiness: understanding the Tibetan Book of the dead. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications ISBN 1-57062-450-X
• Lati Rinpochay & Hopkins, Jeffrey (1985) Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth, Ithaca: Snow Lion
• Leary, Timothy, Metzner, Ralph & Alpert, Richard (1964) The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead ISBN 0-8065-1652-6 (the three hallucinogenic drug pioneers and researchers authored this book strongly influenced by some parts of the Tibetan Book of the Dead; it was intended for recitation during hallucinogenic drug sessions).
• Lodo, Lama (1987) Bardo Teachings. Ithaca: Snow Lion
• Mullin, Glenn H. (1986) Death and Dying: the Tibetan Tradition Penguin-Arkana ISBN 0-14-019013-9
• Sögyal Rinpoche, with Gaffney, Patrick & Harvey, Andrew (eds.) (1992) The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. San Francisco: Harper ISBN 0-06-250793-1
• The Bardo Thodol - A Golden Opportunity. 2008. Mark Griffin. Los Angeles: HardLight Publishing. ISBN 978-0975902028

Musical and cinematic works

• John Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows" (a song based on the philosophies found in The Tibetan Book of the Dead and performed by The Beatles)
• Line 'it's dying to take you away' from Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" was based on the drug culture and the release of death described in the Bardo Thodol.
• 1985 2-part documentary filmed in Ladakh and the States, first part entitled The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life; the second part The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation was a co-production between NHK (Japan), Mistral (France) and FBC (Canada). Narration in the English version is by Leonard Cohen. See links below.
• In 2007, The History Channel released a documentary film, Tibetan Book of the Dead: "The Tibetan book of the Dead is an important document that has stood the test of time and attempts to provide answers to one of mankind's greatest questions: What happens when we die? Interviews with Tibetan Lamas, American scholars, and practicing Buddhists bring this powerful and mysterious text to life. State-of-the-art computer generated graphics will recreate this mysterious and exotic world. Follow the dramatized journey of a soul from death...to re-birth. In Tibet, the "art of dying" is nothing less than the art of living."
• In 1994, the Modern Rock band Live had a second album, Throwing Copper. On which, track 9, a song titled "T.B.D." (4:28) stands for Tibetan Book of the Dead.
• In 1996, Delerium Records released the Liberation Thru' Hearing CD which contains spoken/chanted readings from the Bardo Thodol set to music.
• Enter the Void, a 2009 French film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, is loosely based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

See also

• Ego death
• Six realms
• Reality in Buddhism

Sources

• Coleman, Graham (2005), "Editor's introduction", in Coleman, Graham (ed.), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0143104940
• Fremantle, Francesca (2001), Luminous Emptiness: understanding the Tibetan Book of the dead, Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, ISBN 1-57062-450-X
• Norbu, Namkhai (1989), "Foreword", in Reynolds, John Myrdin (ed.), Self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness, Station Hill Press, Inc.
• Reynolds, John Myrdin (1989), "Appendix I: The views on Dzogchen of W.Y. Evans-Wentz and C.G. Jung", in Reynolds, John Myrdin (ed.), Self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness, Station Hill Press, Inc.

External links

• History article
• Bardo Thodol - The Tibetan Book of the Dead - Public Domain PDF ebook
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead - Ebook
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life First part of a documentary filmed in Ladakh by NHK, Mistral and CFB
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Second part of a documentary filmed in Ladakh by NHK, Mistral and CFB
• "The Life, Death and Rebirth of The Tibetan Book of the Dead", Donald S. Lopez Jr., Berfrois, 13 April 2011