(WQ) Before Buddhism came to greater Tibet (Nepal, Bhutan, and the Himalayan regions of northern India), Bön was prevelant. Bön is, or in any case was, an animistic Shamanistic tradition overly concerned with magic and death. Buddhist philosophy and cosmology combined with it to produce the unique Vajrayana Buddhist tradition and the ancient Bardo Thodel (Book of the Dead), which explains the intermediate states of passing from life to life:
- Chikai Bardo or intermediate period of the moment of death. This includes the process of dying and the dissolution of form (or four great elements of earth, water, fire, and air) that make up the physical body. During this period one experiences the "Clear Light," conceived of as one's own innate Buddha-nature. This is therefore a very favorable moment for the attainment of enlightenment and liberation from the Wheel of Rebirth. The Tibetan account of the Chikai Bardo shows striking parallels with the so-called "Near Death Experience" of people who have died, experienced themselves floating out of their bodies, and so on, and then been revived.
- Chonyid Bardo or intermediate period of visions of deities. This refers to the state where one experiences visions of deities, heavens and hells, judgment, and so on. Modern writers have been struck by the parallels with both psychedelic and psychotic states and such experiences as astral travelling and the astral plane.
- Sidpa Bardo or intermediate period of rebirth. During this bardo the consciousness descends and chooses a new body to be born into. (Buddhists do not accept the existence of a single continuing entity that "reincarnates" and therefore refer instead to the "rebirth" or continuation of the consciousness-process in a new form). The number of days given in the Tibetan Book of the Dead -- 49 -- is obviously symbolic, in spite of the fact that Tibetans themselves, like all people (including Westerners) immersed in a particular religious tradition, take it quite literally. More>>
A good English translation is The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate Zone by Joe Schaeppi through Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Powell II at opensourcebuddhism.org. We receive an introduction to the stages of death, dying, rebirth, and the process of attaining liberation through hearing -- while dying.
This information is derived from a long line of Indian and Tibetan literature. Schaeppi makes one feel as if one is dying. For, as has often been explained -- by, for example, Timothy Leary and the Beatles -- the "death" being spoken of is the liberating death of the ego which can be accomplished while living.
