Mind Beyond Death: The Bardos
In a previous article, I summarized the introduction of the book, Mind Beyond Death by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche (linked here Death) A few months ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Eight Stages of Death” about the eight stages of death talked about in The Tibetan Book of the Dead (linked here Eight Stages). In my last article, I explained why I find death such a fascinating subject (linked here Fascinating).
In this article I want to continue my exploration of the book, Mind Beyond Death, by going over the first chapter, giving an overview of the Bardos. A lot of people are confused by exactly what a bardo is, so I want to clarify that.
The Transit State
Rinpoche starts off this chapter by saying that when we embark on a long journey there is a sense of death and rebirth. Let’s say we are taking a long drive from our home to the hotel in which we are going to stay. Our home represents one moment and our destination is the next moment.
Between those two moments is the interval or the transit state. When we leave our home and start our trip, we gradually leave behind our home life and its concerns, and start to think about what might happen when we reach the hotel. There can be a sense of freedom in this “in between state” because we are free from our home responsibilities and we are not yet at our new…