Bardo Thodol

The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State (Tibetan: bardo "liminality"; thodol as "liberation"Fremantle (2001: p.21) states that: Liberation is 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.), 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 Tibetan Nyingma literature.Dorje, Gyurme. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. "A Brief Literary History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, 2007). Translated by Gyurme Dorje. ISBN 978-0-14-310494-0.
== Title ==
This text is commonly known by its Western title: The Tibetan Book of the Dead. However, Fremantle (2001: p. 20) states:
...there is in fact no single Tibetan title corresponding to the Tibetan Book of the Dead.Information about these texts and others relating to death can be found in Detlef Ingo Lauf, Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books of the Dead, Boulder, Shambhala, 1977. 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.In Tibetan, zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol and kar gling zhi khro. 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. the [sic.] Tibetan Book of the Dead as we know it in English consists of two comparatively long texts on the bardo of dharmata (including the bardo of dying) and the bardo of existence.... They are called Great Liberation through Hearing: The Supplication of the Bardo of Dharmata and Great liberation through Hearing: The Supplication Pointing Out the Bardo of Existence.In Tibetan, chos nyid bar do'i gsol 'debs thos grol chen mo and strid pa'i bar do ngo sprod gsol 'debs thos grol chen mo. Within the texts themselves, the two combined are referred to as Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo, Great Liberation through Hearing, or just Liberation though Hearing,In Tibetan, bar do thos grol, thos grol chen mo, and thos grol.....
== Background ==
According to Tibetan tradition, the Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State was composed 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.Evans-Wentz (1960), p. liv; and, Fremantle & Trungpa (2003), p. xi. There were variants of the book among different sects.寧瑪派版 《死者之書》 的死後世界
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: 
# 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, 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 certain "out of the body" near-death experiences described by people who have nearly died in accidents or on the operating table. 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 buddhas, dakkis and dakinis 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:
==English translations and related teachings==
Translations and summaries
*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)
*Conze, Edward (1959) Buddhist Scriptures Harmondsworth: Penguin (includes a precis)
* 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)
*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
* 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 978-0-140-45529-8 (the first complete translation)
* Thupten Jinpa (ed.) (2005) The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Penguin Classics). London: Penguin Books (2005) ISBN 0-7139-9414-2
* Coleman, Graham (ed.) (2006) The Tibetan Book of the Dead; composed by Padma Sambhava; revealed by Karma Lingpa; translated by Gyurme Dorje. New York: Viking Penguin, NY, 2006.
*Van Itallie, Jean Claude The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Reading Aloud
Secondary works
* 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)
* Lati Rinpochay & Hopkins, Jeffrey (1985) Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth, Ithaca: Snow Lion
* Sögyal Rinpoche, with Gaffney, Patrick & Harvey, Andrew (eds.) (1992) The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. San Francisco: Harper ISBN 0-06-250793-1
* Mullin, Glenn H. (1986) Death and Dying: the Tibetan Tradition Penguin-Arkana ISBN 0-14-019013-9
* Lodo, Lama (1987) Bardo Teachings. Ithaca: Snow Lion
* Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche (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 
Musical and cinematic works
* Lennon, John Tomorrow Never Knows (a song based on the philosophies found in The Tibetan Book of the Dead and performed by The Beatles)
*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."The History Channel: Tibetan Book of the Dead
*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.
==See also==
*Bardo
*Six realms
*Reality in Buddhism
*The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead - by Timothy Leary, et al.
==Notes==
==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
*Bardo Thodol in comic book format.
Category:Tibetan Buddhist texts
Category:Cognitive science literature
Category:Death
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