“It is perhaps rather ironic that many people enjoy reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead because it describes the amazing things that happen to us after death and it reassures us that we will have another chance in a future life, when really the purpose of these teachings is to help us escape from the whole cycle of birth and death. The very fact that someone is going through the bardo means that he or she has not yet attained liberation and is therefore still under the power of karma. In the bardo state, a sense of self arises, linked by the chain of cause and effect to the previous life. The subtle imprints or traces in the mind create the feeling of having a body like the old one, with all its senses intact, very similar to the sensation of a body we have when we are dreaming. In dreams we are not using our physical senses to see and hear, but we still seem to have the experience of seeing and hearing. The same kind of process takes place for beings in the bardo. Whatever kind of communication may reach them, they will interpret it in terms of seeing and hearing.”
Excerpt From
Luminous Emptiness
Francesca Fremantle
This material may be protected by copyright.
