Bardo Thodol
Encyclopedia
The Liberation Through Hearing During The Intermediate State ( "liminality
"; thodol as "liberation"), sometimes translated as Liberation Through Hearing or Bardo Thodol is a funerary text
. It is often referred to in the West by the more casual title, Tibetan Book of the Dead, a name which draws a parallel with the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
, another funerary text.
The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to guide one through, the experiences that the consciousness has after death, during the interval between death and the next rebirth. This 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 the most internationally famous and widespread work of Tibet
an Nyingma
literature.
, written down by his primary student, Yeshe Tsogyal
, buried in the Gampo hills in central Tibet and subsequently discovered by a Tibet
an terton
, Karma Lingpa
in the 12th century. There were variants of the book among different sects.
The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State is recited by Tibetan Buddhist lama
s 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:
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.
s and dakini
s that people see as respective figures of their culture or religious belief.
In an introduction to Evans-Wentz'
version, Swiss psychiatrist
Carl Jung
summarizes his psychological commentary:
Liminality
Liminality is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van...
"; thodol as "liberation"), sometimes translated as Liberation Through Hearing or Bardo Thodol is a funerary text
Funerary text
Funerary texts or funerary literature feature in many belief systems. Its purpose is usually to provide guidance to the newly deceased or the soon-to-be-deceased about how to survive and prosper in the afterlife.-Antiquity:...
. It is often referred to in the West by the more casual title, Tibetan Book of the Dead, a name which draws a parallel with the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead is the modern name of an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom to around 50 BC. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw is translated as "Book of Coming Forth by Day". Another translation would be "Book of...
, another funerary text.
The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to guide one through, the experiences that the consciousness has after death, during the interval between death and the next rebirth. This interval is known in Tibetan as the bardo
Bardo
The Tibetan word Bardo means literally "intermediate state" - also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state" or "liminal state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva...
. 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 the most internationally famous and widespread work of Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
an Nyingma
Nyingma
The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as Nga'gyur or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century...
literature.
Title
This text is commonly known by its Western title: The Tibetan Book of the Dead. However, Fremantle (2001: p. 20) states:Background
According to Tibetan tradition, the Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State was composed in the 8th century by PadmasambhavaPadmasambhava
Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
, written down by his primary student, Yeshe Tsogyal
Yeshe Tsogyal
Yeshe Tsogyal , was the consort of the great Indian tantric teacher Padmasambhava, the founder-figure of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Nyingma tradition considers her equal in realization to Padmasambhava himself. The meditational practices related to her, stress her enlightened...
, buried in the Gampo hills in central Tibet and subsequently discovered by a Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
an terton
Tertön
A tertön is a discoverer of ancient texts or "terma". Many tertöns are considered incarnations of the 25 main disciples of Padmasambhava. A vast system of transmission lineages developed...
, Karma Lingpa
Karma Lingpa
Karma Lingpa , a great tertön, is embraced as a reincarnation of Chokro Luyi Gyaltsen , a great master, and accepted as the revealer of the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead. Karma Lingpa took body in southeast Tibet as the eldest son of Nyida Sangye , the great Tantric practitioner...
in the 12th century. There were variants of the book among different sects.
The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State is recited by Tibetan Buddhist lama
Lama
Lama is a title for a Tibetan teacher of the Dharma. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru .Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries...
s 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:
- 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.
- The chonyid bardo or "bardo of the experiencing of reality", which features the experience of visions of various BuddhaBuddhahoodIn Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
forms (or, again, the nearest approximations of which one is capable). - 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.
Comparison with the Western experience of death
One can perhaps attempt to compare the descriptions of the Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State with accounts of Near-Death Experiences. These accounts sometimes mention a "white light", and helpful figures corresponding to that person's religious tradition. According to the Buddhist teachings, there are four different steps and the "white light" is most probably the last of them; then Mahaparinirvana eternal bliss. The divine beings are BuddhaBuddha
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
s and dakini
Dakini
A dakini is a tantric deity described as a female embodiment of enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or 'sky walker'. The dakini, in...
s that people see as respective figures of their culture or religious belief.
In an introduction to Evans-Wentz'
Walter Evans-Wentz
Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz was an anthropologist and writer who was a pioneer in the study of Tibetan Buddhism.-Biography:...
version, Swiss psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
summarizes his psychological commentary:
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 SambhavaPadmasambhavaPadmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
: revealed by Karma LingpaKarma LingpaKarma Lingpa , a great tertön, is embraced as a reincarnation of Chokro Luyi Gyaltsen , a great master, and accepted as the revealer of the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead. Karma Lingpa took body in southeast Tibet as the eldest son of Nyida Sangye , the great Tantric practitioner...
; translated by Gyurme Dorje. London: Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-140-45529-8 (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, EdwardEdward ConzeEberhart Julius Dietrich Conze was an Anglo-German scholar probably best known for his pioneering translations of Buddhist texts.-Life and work:...
(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 JungCarl JungCarl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
, 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, FrancescaFrancesca FremantleFrancesca Fremantle is a scholar and translator of Sanskrit and Tibetan works of Hindu and Buddhist tantra, and was a student of Chögyam Trungpa for many years...
& Chögyam TrungpaChögyam TrungpaChögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the eleventh Trungpa tülku, a tertön, supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision.Recognized...
(1975) The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo by Guru Rinpoche according to Karma LingpaKarma LingpaKarma Lingpa , a great tertön, is embraced as a reincarnation of Chokro Luyi Gyaltsen , a great master, and accepted as the revealer of the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead. Karma Lingpa took body in southeast Tibet as the eldest son of Nyida Sangye , the great Tantric practitioner...
. 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, RobertRobert ThurmanRobert Alexander Farrar Thurman is an influential and prolific American Buddhist writer and academic who has authored, edited or translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He is the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, holding the first endowed chair...
(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 SambhavaPadmasambhavaPadmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
; discovered by Karma Lingpa; foreword by the Dalai Lama London: Harper Collins ISBN 1-85538-412-4
Secondary works
- Chökyi Nyima RinpocheChökyi Nyima RinpocheTulku Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist lama.-Life:Born in 1951, in Nakchukha Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche is the son of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche who is considered one of the greatest Dzogchen masters of our time. When he was only eighteen months of age, Rinpoche was recognized as the seventh...
(1991) The Bardo Guidebook Ragjung Yeshe. - Fremantle, Francesca (2001). Luminous Emptiness: understanding the Tibetan Book of the dead. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications ISBN 1-57062-450-X
- Lati RinpochayLati RinpocheKyabje Lati Rinpoche Born in the Kham region of Eastern Tibet in 1922, Lati Rinpoche was identified as the reincarnation of a great practitioner by Gongkar Rinpoche and entered monastic life at the age of 10....
& Hopkins, JeffreyJeffrey Hopkins (Tibetologist)Jeffrey Hopkins is a distinguished American Tibetologist. He is Emeritus of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he taught for more than three decades since 1973...
(1985) Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth, Ithaca: Snow Lion - Leary, TimothyTimothy LearyTimothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
, Metzner, RalphRalph MetznerRalph Metzner Ph.D. , is an American psychologist, writer and researcher, who participated in psychedelic research at Harvard University in the early 1960s with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert . Dr...
& Alpert, Richard (1964) The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the DeadThe Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the DeadThe Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead is an instruction manual intended for use during sessions involving psychedelic drugs. Started as early as 1962 in Zihuatanejo, the book was finally published in August 1964...
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 DyingThe Tibetan Book of Living and DyingThe Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by Sogyal Rinpoche, gives a comprehensive presentation of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, exploring: the message of impermanence; evolution, karma and rebirth; the nature of mind and how to train the mind through meditation; how to follow a spiritual...
. San Francisco: Harper ISBN 0-06-250793-1
Musical and cinematic works
- Lennon, JohnJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
Tomorrow Never KnowsTomorrow Never Knows"Tomorrow Never Knows" is the final track of The Beatles' 1966 studio album Revolver but the first to be recorded. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was written primarily by John Lennon...
(a song based on the philosophies found in The Tibetan Book of the Dead and performed by The BeatlesThe BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
) - 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 CohenLeonard CohenLeonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
. See links below. - In 2007, The History ChannelThe History ChannelHistory, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
released a documentary filmDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, 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.
- Enter the VoidEnter the VoidEnter the Void is a French film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, and Cyril Roy. Set in the neon-lit nightclub environments of Tokyo, the story follows Oscar, a young American drug dealer who gets shot by the police, but continues to watch succeeding...
, a 2009 French film written and directed by Gaspar NoéGaspar NoéGaspar Noé is an Argentine filmmaker and the son of Argentine painter and intellectual Luis Felipe Noé. He graduated from Louis Lumière College and is the visiting professor of film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland...
, is loosely based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
See also
- BardoBardoThe Tibetan word Bardo means literally "intermediate state" - also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state" or "liminal state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva...
- Six realmsSix realmsThe desire realm is one of three realms or three worlds in traditional Buddhist cosmology into which a being wandering in may be reborn. The other two are the form realm, and the formless realm The desire realm (Sanskrit kāma-dhātu) is one of three realms (Sanskrit: dhātu, Tibetan: khams) or...
- Reality in BuddhismReality in BuddhismBuddhism evolved a variety of doctrinal/philosophical traditions, each with its distinct ideas of reality. The following are still regularly studied in some branches of the Buddhist tradition: Theravada, Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Jojitsu, Madhyamika, Yogacara, tiantai, Huayan...
- The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the DeadThe Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the DeadThe Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead is an instruction manual intended for use during sessions involving psychedelic drugs. Started as early as 1962 in Zihuatanejo, the book was finally published in August 1964...
- by Timothy LearyTimothy LearyTimothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
, et al.
External links
- History article
- Description of the travel
- The Tibetan Book of the Dead - Ebook
- longer variant form of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, entitled The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States
- The Tibetan Book of the Dead Video
- 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