The Tibetan
Book of the Dead and NDEs
By
Kevin Williams
The
Tibetan Book of the Dead,
whose actual title is "The
Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State"
or "Bardo Thodol", is traditionally believed to
be the work of the legendary Padma Sambhava in the 8th century
A.D. The book acts as a guide for the dead during the state
that intervenes death and the next rebirth. He is considered
to be one of the first persons to bring Buddhism to Tibet.
The Bardo Thodol is a guide that is read aloud to the dead
while they are in the state between death and reincarnation
in order for them to recognize the nature of their mind
and attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
The Bardo Thodol teaches that
once awareness is freed from the body, it creates its own
reality as one would experience in a dream. This dream occurs
in various phases (bardos)
in ways both wonderful and terrifying. Overwhelming peaceful
and wrathful visions and deities appear. Since the deceased's
awareness is in confusion of no longer being connected to
a physical body, it needs help and guidance in order that
enlightenment and liberation occurs. The Bardo Thodol teaches
how we can attain Nirvana by recognizing the heavenly realms
instead of entering into the lower realms where the cycle
of birth and rebirth continue.
The following is
a description of the bardo realms that one travels through
after death.
1. The First Bardo
Afterlife Realm
The
first bardo comes at the very moment of death, when
there dawns the
Clear Light of the Ultimate Reality. This is the
very content and substance of the state of liberation, if
only the soul can recognize it and act in a way to remain
in that state. The instructions intended to be read at the
moment of the person's death are designed to help him do
this. He is told, first of all, to embrace this supreme
experience not in a selfish and egoistic way but rather
with love and compassion for all sentient beings. This will
aid him in the second step, which is to realize that his
own mind and self is identical with the Clear Light, implying
that he himself IS the Ultimate Reality, "the All-good
Buddha", transcending time, eternity, and all creation.
If he can recognize this while in this supreme state at
the moment of death, he will attain liberation-that is,
he will remain in the Clear Light forever. This condition
is called the "Dharmakaya",
the highest spiritual body of the Buddha.
Most
souls, however, will fail to do this. They will be pulled
down by the weight of their karma into the second stage
of the first bardo, called the
Secondary Clear Light seen immediately after death.At
this point, there are separate instructions to be read according
to the spiritual condition of the person while in life.
For an individual advanced in meditation and other spiritual
practices, there is repeated over and over the same instructions
as at the moment of death, enjoining him to recognize himself
as the Dharmakaya.For a person who was still at a student-level
on the spiritual path, there is the injunction for him to
meditate on his "tutelary deity", that is, the
particular god for whom he performed devotional practices
while alive. Finally,"if the deceased be of the common
folk", unpracticed in any spiritual disciplines, the
instruction is to "meditate upon the Great Compassionate
Lord", which is to say an "Avatar" worshipped
by the multitude, equivalent to Jesus as conceived by the
average Christian.
2. The Second Bardo
If
the soul is still not liberated at this stage, it will descend
into the
second bardo, which is said to last for two weeks. The
second bardo is also divided into two parts; in the first,
the soul of the deceased encounters what are referred to
as "the Peaceful Deities."On each of the seven
days, a particular Buddha-being will appear in radiance
and glory, with a bevy of angelic attendants. At the same
time, on each day in turn there will shine a light from
one of the six worlds of the Buddhist universe, called"Lokas"
(the basic meaning is "place";our English words "location"
and "locale" are derived from the same Sanskrit
root).
On the first day
of the second bardo, there appears to the soul the divine
Father-Mother - that is, the supreme deity of the universe,
transcending all dualities, including the division into
sexes. The next step in the destiny of the soul is determined
by his reaction to this God. If his life on Earth was well
lived, he will now be in a state of purity and grace, and
he will enter into the joy of the God and attain liberation.
If on the other hand he has lived an ignoble and impious
life, the effects of his bad karma will cause the intense
radiant presence of the God to strike fear and terror in
his heart, and he will be drawn instead to the softer light
of the Deva-Loka, which has dawned along with this deity.
This is still a fairly attractive fate, for the Devas are
the Gods (or angels), and their Loka is equivalent to the
Christian heaven; however, the Buddhist teaching is that
even heaven is not the highest spiritual objective, because
it is still only a temporary state in the manifest universe.
Liberation is believed to be the only final and permanent
resting-place for the soul, an un-manifest state beyond
all existence.
On
the second day, there appears the
second-highest God in the Buddhist pantheon - in fact,
he is actually the Second Person in the literal Buddhist
Holy Trinity. At the same time, there dawns a smoky light
from hell; and here we note that, just as the Buddhist
heaven is not a permanent, eternal state, neither is its
hell. Even the most wretched souls will eventually work
their way out of even the deepest pit of hell, just as even
the highest and purest souls will eventually lose their
footing in heaven and descend again into the cycle of death
and rebirth. Liberation is the only way out.
Once again, if the
soul responds to the "dazzling white light"of
the second God with the joy of a pure heart, he will be
liberated thereby; but if he specifically reacts with ANGER
from having indulged in this vice on Earth, he will recoil
from the light in fear and be drawn into hell.
The
pattern is repeated on the third day; this time it is the
fault if egotism that will cause the soul to react to the
God with fear, and he will be drawn to the human world,
where his next incarnation will thereby take place. On the
fourth day dawns the
God of Eternal Life; if the soul has a negative reaction
to him because of miserliness and attachment, he will be
drawn toward rebirth in the
Preta-Loka, a world of"hungry ghosts"who have
huge stomachs and throats the size of pinholes, and so they
wander about in a constant state of unsatisfied ravenous
desire. On the fifth day comes God in the form of an Almighty
Conqueror; this time it's jealousy that will unseat the
soul, and he will be born into the Asura-Loka,
a world of fierce warrior-deities (or demons). On the
sixth day all the deities return and dawn together, along
with the lights from all six Lokas. On the seventh
day there appear the Knowledge-Holding Deities, who are
more fierce and demonic-looking than those that have previously
dawned;and in fact they are sort of a transitional element
to the next stage of the second bardo, where the soul encounters
the wrathful deities. Meanwhile, if because of stupidity
the soul cannot face the Knowledge-Holding Deities, he is
drawn toward the Brute-Loka -
that is, he will be reborn on Earth as an animal.
In
the second week of the second bardo, the soul meets seven
legions of
Wrathful Deities: hideous, terrifying demons who advance
upon him with flame and sword, drinking blood from human
skulls, threatening to wreak unmerciful torture upon him,
to maim, disembowel, decapitate and slay him.The natural
tendency, of course, is for the soul to attempt to flee
from these beings in stark, screaming, blood-curdled terror;but
if he does, all is lost. The instructions at this stage
of the Bardo are for the soul to have no fear, but rather
to recognize that the Wrathful Deities are really the Peaceful
Deities in disguise, their dark side manifesting as a result
of his own evil karma. The soul is told to calmly face each
demon in turn and visualize it as the deity it truly is,
or else as his own tutelary deity; if he can do this, he
will merge with the being and attain the second degree of
Liberation, that lesser aspect of it which is now the best
he can hope for here in the second bardo.
Furthermore, he is told to awaken
to the fact that all these fearsome creatures are not real,
but are merely illusions emanating from his own mind. If
he can recognize this, they will vanish and he will be liberated.If
he can't, he eventually wanders down to the third bardo.
3. The Third Bardo
In
the
third bardo the soul encounters the
Lord of Death, a fearsome demonic deity who appears
in smoke and fire, and subjects the soul to a Judgment.
If the dead person protests that he has done no evil, the
Lord of Death holds up before him the Mirror of Karma, "wherein
every good and evil act is vividly reflected." Now
demons approach and begin to inflict torments and punishments
upon the soul for his evil deeds. The instructions in the
Bardo Thodol are for him to attempt to recognize the Voidness
of all these beings, including the Lord of Death himself;
the dead person is told that this entire scene unfolding
around him is a projection from his own mind. Even here
he can attain liberation by recognizing this.
The soul who is still
not liberated after the Judgment will now be drawn remorselessly
toward rebirth.
The lights of the
six Lokas will dawn again; into one of these worlds the
soul must be born, and the light of the one he is destined
for will shine more brightly than the others.The soul is
still experiencing the frightening apparitions and sufferings
of the third bardo, and he feels that he will do anything
to escape from this condition. He will seek shelter in what
appear to be caves or hiding-places, but which are actually
the entrances to wombs. He is warned of this by the text
of the Bardo Thodol, and urged not to enter them, but to
meditate upon the Clear Light instead; for it is still possible
for him to achieve the third degree of liberation and avoid
rebirth.
Finally there comes
a point where it is no longer possible to attain liberation,
and after this the soul is given instructions on how to
choose the best womb for a favorable incarnation. The basic
method is non-attachment:to try to rise above both attraction
to worldly pleasures and repulsion from worldly ills.
The final words of
the Bardo Thodol are: "Let virtue and goodness
be perfected in every way."
|