Bardo

In some schools of Buddhism, bardo (Classical Tibetan: བར་དོ་ Wylie: bar do), antarabhāv (Sanskrit), or chūu (Japanese: 中有)[1] is an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state between death and rebirth. It is a concept which arose soon after the Buddha's passing, with a number of earlier Buddhist groups accepting the existence of such an intermediate state, while other schools rejected it. In Tibetan Buddhism, bardo is the central theme of the Bardo Thodol (literally Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State), the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

For other uses, see Bardo (disambiguation).

Used loosely, "bardo" is the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth. According to Tibetan tradition, after death and before one's next birth, when one's consciousness is not connected with a physical body, one experiences a variety of phenomena. These usually follow a particular sequence of degeneration from, just after death, the clearest experiences of reality of which one is spiritually capable, and then proceeding to terrifying hallucinations that arise from the impulses of one's previous unskillful actions. For the prepared and appropriately trained individuals, the bardo offers a state of great opportunity for liberation, since transcendental insight may arise with the direct experience of reality; for others, it can become a place of danger as the karmically created hallucinations can impel one into a less than desirable rebirth.

Metaphorically, bardo can describe times when our usual way of life becomes suspended, as, for example, during a period of illness or during a meditation retreat. Such times can prove fruitful for spiritual progress because external constraints diminish. However, they can also present challenges because our less skillful impulses may come to the foreground, just as in the sidpa bardo.

Intermediate state in Indian Buddhism

From the records of early Buddhist schools, it appears that at least six different groups accepted the notion of an intermediate existence (antarabhāva), namely, the Sarvāstivāda, Darṣṭāntika, Vātsīputrīyas, Saṃmitīya, Pūrvaśaila and late Mahīśāsaka. The first four of these are closely related schools. Opposing them were the Mahāsāṃghika, early Mahīśāsaka, Theravāda, Vibhajyavāda and the Śāriputrābhidharma (possibly Dharmagupta) (Bareau 1955: 291).

Some of the earliest references we have to the “intermediate existence” are to be found in the Sarvāstivādin text the Mahāvibhāṣa (阿毘達磨大毘婆沙論). For instance, the Mahāvibhāṣa indicates a “basic existence” (本有), an “intermediate existence” (中有), a “birth existence” (生有) and “death existence” (死有) (CBETA, T27, no. 1545, p. 959, etc.). Bareau (1955: 143) provides the arguments of the Sarvāstivāda as follows:

The intermediate being who makes the passage in this way from one existence to the next is formed, like every living being, of the five aggregates (skandha). His existence is demonstrated by the fact that it cannot have any discontinuity in time and space between the place and moment of death and those of rebirth, and therefore it must be that the two existences belonging to the same series are linked in time and space by an intermediate stage. The intermediate being is the Gandharva, the presence of which is as necessary at conception as the fecundity and union of the parents. Furthermore, the Antarāparinirvāyin is an Anāgamin who obtains parinirvāṇa during the intermediary existence. As for the heinous criminal guilty of one of the five crimes without interval (ānantarya), he passes in quite the same way by an intermediate existence at the end of which he is reborn necessarily in hell.

Deriving from a later period of the same school, though with some differences, Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa explains (English trs. p. 383ff):

What is an intermediate being, and an intermediate existence? Intermediate existence, which inserts itself between existence at death and existence at birth, not having arrived at the location where it should go, cannot be said to be born. Between death—that is, the five skandhas of the moment of death—and arising—that is, the five skandhas of the moment of rebirth—there is found an existence—a "body" of five skandhas—that goes to the place of rebirth. This existence between two realms of rebirth (gatī) is called intermediate existence.

He cites a number of texts and examples to defend the notion against other schools which reject it and claim that death in one life is immediately followed by rebirth in the next, without any intermediate state in between the two. Both the Mahāvibhāṣa and the Abhidharmakośa have the notion of the intermediate state lasting "seven times seven days" (i.e. 49 days) at most. This is one view, though, and there were also others.

Similar arguments were also used in Harivarman’s *Satyasiddhi Śāstra, a quasi-Mahāyāna text, and the Upadeśa commentary on the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, both of which have strong influence from the Sarvāstivāda school. Both of these texts had powerful influence in Chinese Buddhism, which also accepts this idea as a rule.

The Saddharma-smṛty-upasthāna Sūtra (正法念處經) classifies 17 intermediate states with different experiences.[2]

Six bardos in Tibetan Buddhism

Fremantle (2001) states that there are six traditional bardo states known as the Six Bardos: the Bardo of This Life (p. 55); the Bardo of Meditation (p. 58); the Bardo of Dream (p. 62); the Bardo of Dying (p. 64); the Bardo of Dharmata (p. 65); and the Bardo of Existence (p. 66).

Shugchang, et al. (2000: p. 5) discuss the Zhitro (Tibetan: Zhi-khro) teachings which subsume the Bardo Thodol and mention Karma Lingpa, terma and Padmasambhava and list the Six Bardo: "The first bardo begins when we take birth and endures as long as we live. The second is the bardo of dreams. The third is the bardo of concentration or meditation. The fourth occurs at the moment of death. The fifth is known as the bardo of the luminosity of the true nature. The sixth is called the bardo of transmigration or karmic becoming.[3]

1. Kyenay bardo (skye gnas bar do) is the first bardo of birth and life. This bardo commences from conception until the last breath, when the mindstream withdraws from the body.
2. Milam bardo (rmi lam bar do) is the second bardo of the dream state. The Milam Bardo is a subset of the first Bardo. Dream Yoga develops practices to integrate the dream state into Buddhist sadhana.
3. Samten bardo (bsam gtan bar do) is the third bardo of meditation. This bardo is generally only experienced by meditators, though individuals may have spontaneous experience of it. Samten Bardo is a subset of the Shinay Bardo.
4. Chikhai bardo ('chi kha'i bar do) is the fourth bardo of the moment of death. According to tradition, this bardo is held to commence when the outer and inner signs presage that the onset of death is nigh, and continues through the dissolution or transmutation of the Mahabhuta until the external and internal breath has completed.
5. Chönyi bardo (chos nyid bar do) is the fifth bardo of the luminosity of the true nature which commences after the final 'inner breath' (Sanskrit: prana, vayu; Tibetan: rlung). It is within this Bardo that visions and auditory phenomena occur. In the Dzogchen teachings, these are known as the spontaneously manifesting Thödgal (Tibetan: thod-rgyal) visions. Concomitant to these visions, there is a welling of profound peace and pristine awareness. Sentient beings who have not practiced during their lived experience and/or who do not recognize the clear light (Tibetan: od gsal) at the moment of death are usually deluded throughout the fifth bardo of luminosity.
6. Sidpa bardo (srid pa bar do) is the sixth bardo of becoming or transmigration. This bardo endures until the inner-breath commences in the new transmigrating form determined by the "karmic seeds" within the storehouse consciousness.

Bardo in other traditions

Sōtō Zen Buddhism

Some Sōtō Zen lineages also teach on the bardo realms. It is taught that kenshō experience is important for preparing for death and facing the bardos. Koshin Schomberg explains:

Very frequently, however, beings die in ignorance and confusion so that, instead of offering everything into Infinite Love at the time of death, they look down in despair and self-blame. When this happens, the opportunity for full reunion with the Eternal at the time of death is missed. But that is not the last opportunity! For a period of up to seven weeks (forty-nine days) after death, other opportunities manifest. At the end of this period (if not sooner), spiritual need that has not found its way back to recognized reunion with the Eternal is reborn in one or more of the realms of existence.[4]

Exegesis

Fremantle (2001: p. 53–54) charts the development of the bardo concept through the Himalayan tradition:

Originally bardo referred only to the period between one life and the next, and this is still its normal meaning when it is mentioned without any qualification. There was considerable dispute over this theory during the early centuries of Buddhism, with one side arguing that rebirth (or conception) follows immediately after death, and the other saying that there must be an interval between the two. With the rise of mahayana, belief in a transitional period prevailed. Later Buddhism expanded the whole concept to distinguish six or more similar states, covering the whole cycle of life, death, and rebirth. But it can also be interpreted as any transitional experience, any state that lies between two other states. Its original meaning, the experience of being between death and rebirth, is the prototype of the bardo experience, while the six traditional bardos show how the essential qualities of that experience are also present in other transitional periods. By refining even further the understanding of the essence of bardo, it can then be applied to every moment of existence. The present moment, the now, is a continual bardo, always suspended between the past and the future.

However, as shown above, Fremantle's idea that it was originally only "between one life and next" was not how it was understood by the Sarvāstivāda school at the outset. Also, the idea that the ascendancy of this idea was due to the Mahāyāna is unfounded, and it is much more likely that it was due to the Sarvāstivāda influence, several centuries before the Mahāyāna had any real influence.

See also

• Bardo Thodol
• Barzakh
• Desire realm
• Reality vs Dreams in Dzogchen
• Index of Buddhism-related articles
• Intermediate state, a somewhat related concept in Christianity
• Limbo
• Liminality
• The Years of Rice and Salt, a 2002 novel by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Lincoln in the Bardo, a 2017 novel by George Saunders
• Secular Buddhism
• Six Yogas of Naropa

References

1. Bareau, André (1979). "Chuu". In Lévi, Sylvain; Takakusu, Junjiro; Gernet, Jacques; May, Jacques; Durt, Hubert (eds.). Dictionnaire encyclopédique du bouddhisme d'après les sources chinoises et japonaises. Hôbôgirin. Fasc. 5. Editions Maisonneuve. pp. 558–563. ISBN 9068316052. OCLC 928777936.
2. "第五章　死亡、死后与出生---《生与死——佛教轮回说》--莲花山居士网". web.archive.org. January 6, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-01-06.
3. Shugchang, Padma (editor); Sherab, Khenchen Palden & Dongyal, Khenpo Tse Wang (2000). A Modern Commentary on Karma Lingpa's Zhi-Khro: teachings on the peaceful and wrathful deities. Padma Gochen Ling. Source: Archived 2008-02-29 at the Wayback Machine (accessed: December 27, 2007)
4. Schomberg n.d.

Sources

Published sources

• Schomberg, Koshin (n.d.), How to Grow a Lotus Blossom: Reflections (PDF), Serene Reflection Dharma Association

Online Sources

Further reading

• The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Awakening Upon Dying. 2013. by Padmasambhava (Author), Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (Commentary), Karma Lingpa (Author), Elio Guarisco (Translator). Shang Shung Publications & North Atlantic Books.
• Abhidharma Kośa Bhāṣyām. 1991. de la Vallèe Poussin, L.; translated by Pruden, L. Vols. I, II, III & IV. Asian Humanities Press.
• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. 1993. Sogyal Rinpoche. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
• Luminous Emptiness. 2001. Francesca Fremantle. Boston: Shambala Publications. ISBN 1-57062-450-X
• American Book of the Dead. 1987. E.J. Gold. Nevada City: IDHHB.
• Death, Intermediate State, and Rebirth. 1981. Lati Rinpoche. Snow Lion Publications.
• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. 1967. By Timothy Leary, Ph.D.; Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.; & Richard Alpert, Ph.D. (later known as Ram Das)
• Natural Liberation. 1998. Padmasambhava. The text is translated by B. Alan Wallace, with a commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche. Somerville, Wisdom Publications.
• Bardo Teachings: The Way of Death and Rebirth. 1987. By Venerable Lama Lodo. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications ISBN 0937938602
• Mirror of Mindfulness: The Cycle of the Four Bardos, Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang (Rangjung Yeshe Publications).
• The Bardo Thodol: A Golden Opportunity. 2008. Mark Griffin. Los Angeles: HardLight Publishing. ISBN 978-0975902028.
• Les sectes bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule. 1955. Bareau, A. Saigon: École Française d’Extrême-Orient.
• The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. 2003. Bryan J. Cuevas. New York: Oxford University Press.