The Bardo of Becoming
We have now just about come full circle. We started out with the bardo of this life, and now we are at the final bardo of the six bardo series, the bardo of becoming, where we end up in the womb of our future parents, whoever or whatever they may be. More on that later.
In the previous bardo, the bardo of dhamata (the after-death state), we had two stages. The Dharmakaya Luminosity where all appearances disappear into the ultimate nature of mind, and the Sambhogakaya Luminosity where those appearances began to arise again out of mind.
The Nirmanakaya Luminosity
In the bardo of becoming we move onto the the third luminosity, the Nirmanakaya Luminosity.
Rinpoche defines the Nirmanakaya and its relation to the Dharmakaya and the Sambhogakaya luminosities.
“In the bardo of dharmata we experienced both the empty essence and the luminous nature of the Dharmakaya and the Sambhogakaya luminosities. These two aspects of essence and nature are the ultimate aspects of this mind. Now, in the bardo of becoming, we experience the mind’s expressive power or aspect of unceasing manifestation…