Bardo Thodol

Bardo Thodol
The Bardo Thodol ('Liberation through hearing during the intermediate state'), commonly known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is a terma 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. In 1927 the text was one of the first examples of both Tibetan and Vajrayana literature to be translated into a European language and arguably continues to this day to be the best known.
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. The text can be used as either an advanced practice for trained meditators or to support the uninitiated during the death experience.
Etymology
Bar do thos grol translates as: “Liberation (grol) through Hearing (thos) in the Intermediate State (bardo)”
The Tibetan bar and its Sanskrit equivalent antarā mean ‘between.’ The Sanskrit bhava means a place of existence. Thus antarābhava means ‘an existence between,’ translated into Tibetan as bardo.
thos grol: thos means hearing. Grol means ‘liberation,’ which may be understood in this context as being synonymous with the Sanskrit bodhi, "awakening", "understanding", "enlightenment", as well as with the term nirvāṇa, "blowing out", "extinction", "the extinction of illusion". Grol has connotations of freeing, liberating, unravelling, becoming undone.
Original text
Origins and dating
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.
bar do thos grol
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);
"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.
kar-gling zhi-khro
It is part of a larger terma cycle, Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones (zab-chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol, also known as kar-gling zhi-khro), popularly known as "Karma Lingpa's Peaceful and Wrathful Ones."
The Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation is known in several versions, containing varying numbers of sections and subsections, and arranged in different orders, ranging from around ten to thirty-eight titles. The individual texts cover a wide range of subjects, including meditation instructions, visualizations of deities, liturgies and prayers, lists of mantras, descriptions of the signs of death, indications of future rebirth, and texts such as the bar do thos grol that are concerned with the bardo-state.
Three bardos
The Bardo Thodol 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 Buddha forms, or 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 yab-yum imagery of men and women passionately entwined.
The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State also mentions three other bardos:
"Life", or ordinary waking consciousness;
"Dhyana" (meditation);
"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.
English translations
Evans-Wentz's The Tibetan Book of the Dead
The bar do thos grol has become known in the English speaking world as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a title popularized by Walter Evans-Wentz's edition, after the Egyptian Book of the Dead, though the English title bears no relationship with the Tibetan's, as outlined above. The Evans-Wentz edition was first published in 1927 by Oxford University Press.
According to John Myrdhin Reynolds, Evans-Wentz's edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead introduced a number of misunderstandings about Dzogchen. In fact, Evans-Wentz collected seven texts about visualization of the after-death experiences and he introduced this work collection as "The Tibetan Book of Death." Evans-Wentz was well acquainted with Theosophy and used this framework to interpret the translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which was largely provided by two Tibetan lamas who spoke English, Lama Sumdhon Paul and Lama Lobzang Mingnur Dorje. Evans-Wentz was not familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, and his view of Tibetan Buddhism was "fundamentally neither Tibetan nor Buddhist, but Theosophical and Vedantist." He introduced a terminology into the translation which was largely derived from Hinduism, as well as from his Theosophical beliefs.
The third revised and expanded Evans-Wentz edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead contains a psychological commentary by Carl Jung in an English translation by R. F. C. Hull. The same analysis appears in Jung’s Collected Works. Jung applied his extensive knowledge of eastern religions to craft a commentary aimed at western audiences unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism which highlights the karmic phenomena described in the Bardo and shows how they parallel unconscious contents (both personal and collective) in the context of analytical psychology.
Other translations and summaries
Conze, Edward (1959) Buddhist Scriptures. Harmondsworth: Penguin (includes a précis)
MacHovec, Frank (1972) The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Mount Vernon: Peter Pauper Press
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 , (reissued 2003)
Thurman, Robert (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
Hodge, Stephen & Martin Boord (1999) The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead: A New Translation and Commentary. New York: Sterling
Dorje, Gyurme (trans.); Graham Coleman and 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. London: Penguin Books Also: New York: Viking Penguin, NY, 2006. (hc); (pbk) Reprinted in Penguin Classics; London: Penguin Books (2005) (As of 2022, this remains the only translation of the complete cycle of texts of which the Tibetan Book of the Dead is part. Here it comprises chapter 11.)
Related (from the same terma cycle)
Natural Liberation. 1998. Padmasambhava. B. Alan Wallace (translator), with commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche. Wisdom Publications. Natural Liberation is from the same terma cycle and gives detailed instructions for practice within the six bardos.
Popular influence
The Psychedelic Experience
The Psychedelic Experience, published in 1964, is a guide for LSD trips, written by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass), loosely based on Evan-Wentz's translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Aldous Huxley introduced the Tibetan Book of the Dead to Timothy Leary. According to Leary, Metzner and Alpert, the Tibetan Book of the Dead is
They construed the effect of LSD as a "stripping away" of ego-defenses, finding parallels between the stages of death and rebirth in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the stages of psychological "death" and "rebirth" which Leary had identified during his research. According to Leary, Metzner and Alpert it is:
Musical, cinematic, and literary works
French composer Pierre Henry based his pioneering 1963 electroacoustic ballet work Le Voyage on the narrative of the text. A recording of the work was released by Philips in 1967.
In 1974 Finnish composer Erik Bergman composed a work titled Bardo Thödol for a speaker, mezzo-soprano, baritone, mixed choir and orchestra; the text was based on a German translation of the Book of the Dead.
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.
Between 1983 and 1993 French composer Éliane Radigue created her three-hour work of electronic music, Trilogie de la Mort. Her Tibetan Buddhist meditation practise, including engagement with the Bardo Thodol after the deaths of her son and her meditation teacher, are central to this piece, in particular the first section entitled "Kyema (Intermediate States)".
Screenwriter and film producer Bruce Joel Rubin, who once lived in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, considers his 1990 film Jacob's Ladder a modern interpretation of the Bardo Thodol.
Space rock band Bardo Pond, formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1991, take their name in part from the Bardo Thodol.
In 1991 The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche was published as an updated version of the Bardo Thodol.
In 1999, avant-garde composer and performer Laurie Anderson, Tibetan musicien Tenzin Choegyal and activist and composer Jesse Paris Smith recorded Songs from the Bardo: Illuminations on the Tibetan Book.
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
Left Ginza
Reality in Buddhism
Six realms
References
Notes
Citations
Works cited
Further reading
Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche (1991) The Bardo Guidebook Rangjung Yeshe Publications.
Cuevas, Bryan J. (2003) The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: Oxford University Press.
Griffin, Mark (2008) The Bardo Thodol – A Golden Opportunity. Los Angeles: HardLight Publishing.
Lati Rinpochay & Hopkins, Jeffrey (1985) Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth, Ithaca: Snow Lion
Venerable Lama Lodo (1987) Bardo Teachings: The Way of Death and Rebirth Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications
Mullin, Glenn H. (1986) Death and Dying: the Tibetan Tradition Penguin-Arkana
External links
Bardo Thodol – The Tibetan Book of the Dead – Public Domain PDF 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
8th-century books
Nyingma texts
Tibetan Buddhist treatises
Cultural aspects of death
Books adapted into films
Buddhism and death
Books about death
Funerary texts