{"id":233,"date":"2020-06-29T10:37:07","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T00:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/?page_id=233"},"modified":"2020-06-29T11:12:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T01:12:12","slug":"glimpses-beyond-death","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/glimpses-beyond-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Glimpses Beyond Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Glimpses of the Bardo<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

To illumine what it is like to cross the threshold of death and what we may meet on the other side, I have translated and retold some of the amazing stories in Tibetan Buddhist literature about meditators who leave their physical bodies for days at a time to travel through the invisible world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These meditators, known as delogs<\/em>, or those who \u201creturn from death,\u201d would then come back to their bodies and record their extraordinary journeys, which could span the lowest rungs of hell and the sublime pure lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pure lands are ineffably joyful and peaceful paradises that the buddhas, the enlightened ones, manifested through their compassion so that devotees might take rebirth there without needing to be highly realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being reborn in a pure land is not the same as attaining enlightenment. But once there, we will make continuous progress toward enlightenment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some delogs<\/em> tell of visits to pure lands, where they receive teachings from the buddhas. Other delogs<\/em> spend more time describing the bardo, with its court of judgment and the various realms where ordinary beings may be reborn, such as realms of hungry ghosts or gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delogs<\/em>\u2019 accounts are deeply moving. Most delogs<\/em> are profoundly religious people and were sent back to our world by enlightened beings to tell us about what lies ahead and how to prepare for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each tale is a gift, for by opening a window into the vastness of our futures beyond this current life, delogs<\/em> broaden our perspective and inspire us to improve our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through delogs<\/em>\u2019 eyes we become privy to the sorts of things that will matter in determining where we will be reborn. We witness the power of spiritual practices to cleanse negative deeds and thoughts. We realize the power of prayer to help the dead secure better rebirths. We observe how devotion \u2013 which is in reality a skillful way to open up our minds \u2013 allows the lamas and blessed ones to intercede on behalf of beings in the bardo and lead them to pure lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most delogs<\/em> bring back messages from departed loved ones to friends and relatives. These personal pleas reinforce the basic message to change our lives while we are alive in human form and have the chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the West, people who were revived from clinical death sometimes had \u201cnear-death experiences\u201d (NDEs). Although NDEs share many similarities with delog<\/em> experiences, they may last only a few minutes or so, whereas delog<\/em> experiences usually last many days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delogs<\/em> also seem to penetrate much further into the after-death realm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many delog<\/em> texts came into my hands. However, due to space limitations, I could include only small parts of them in the book [Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirt: A Tibetan Buddhist Guidebook<\/em>]. The accounts generally date from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century (dating was not available for all the texts). Delogs<\/em> are not a modern phenomenon, however. Nor are they exclusively Tibetan. They are discussed in the teachings of the Buddha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you read the accounts, some of you might wonder why the tales are tinted by Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhist culture and iconography. How come the delogs<\/em> keep meeting Tibetan acquaintances? Why do the judges resemble those in Buddhist iconography?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main answer is that the terrain that unfolds before us in the bardo is a reflection of our habits and emotions. Whatever we see and experience after death accords with the way our culture and belief system have shaped our thinking. All of us \u2013 whether child or adult, pious or atheist, communist or capitalist \u2013 are immersed in acquired habits of perceiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the delogs <\/em>were all Tibetan Buddhists, or familiar with Buddhism, they perceived things from that perspective. However, while the details of our habits differ across cultures, we all share \u2013 regardless where we\u2019re from \u2013 a mentality of seeing the world in terms of rewards and penalties for right and wrong. We constantly bounce between hope and fear under the all-seeing eyes of some imagined higher authority or judge. Our perceptions are soaked in this judgmental mentality. That is why, when we have been unvirtuous, we fear being judged, and after death we will perceive a judge handing us a harsh sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, there is no external judge. There is no sentence. Our after death experiences are simply the dividends we earn from our own mental and emotional investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why the great Indian master Shantideva said about the hell realms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who constructed all those burning iron grounds [of hell]?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did those flames come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of them are [mere reflections of] your unvirtuous mind,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Buddha has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of us might well see some higher power in the bardo. Its form will correspond with our habits. Tibetan texts describe a courthouse presided over by the Dharma King and his assistants, the Lords of the Dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other cultures and religions envision the judgment seat of a divine being, a book in which virtues and sins are recorded by an angel, or the weighing of deeds on a scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western near-death experiencers often describe \u201clife reviews\u201d in which they are encouraged to judge their own lives. Common to all, however, is the universal law that positive habits and deeds result in joy, while negative ones lead to suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Thondup, Tulku. Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth: A Tibetan Buddhist Guidebook<\/em>. Shambhala. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a PDF copy of the above text, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Reflection:
Most delogs<\/em> bring back messages from departed loved ones to friends and relatives. These personal pleas reinforce the basic message to change our lives while we are alive in human form and have the chance.
(Tulku Thondup)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glimpses of the Bardo To illumine what it is like to cross the threshold of death and what we may meet on the other side, I have translated and retold some of the amazing stories in Tibetan Buddhist literature about …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-233","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/233\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-six-bardos.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}