The Bardo Experience: Death, Intermediate States and Luminous Visions

The eyebrows flashing like lightning, the protruding teeth, shining and overlapping; emitting violent cries and penetrating hisses; [...] Do not fear this. Do not be frightened. Recognize this as the incarnation of your own intellect. Since it is your tutelary divinity, do not let yourself be seized by terror. One of the main concerns therefore in all the prayers that were repeated while traveling in this intermediate state was that of remembering to have before them illusory forms that they could fight. To remember to stay awake. All these visions, however, are visions dictated by the projection of the telluric forces present in one's consciousness. When the Changing Experience of Reality arises upon me, may every thought of fear or terror or dread for everything stand aside, may I recognize that whatever apparition is the reflection of my own consciousness, may I recognize that they are of the same nature as the apparitions of the Bardo: at this fundamental moment to achieve a great end, may I not fear the hosts of the Pacifying Deities and the Furious Deities, who are only my thought forms. ENTRY INTO DEATH When the individual has reached the end of his life, he is accompanied by a monk in charge of guiding him on the journey in the intermediate stage. Between the two - the dying person and the guide - a strong understanding must be established. As long as the dying person will be alive - during all phases of agony until the first times of death - the monk will suggest aloud the invocations and formulas trusting that hearing is the last sense to abandon the body. Conversely, after the influence will be exclusively telepathic. At the moment when death has come then the Guide to the Bardo reaches the deceased and celebrates a rite, in the presence of the dying deceased who, if possible, repeats formulas and prayers. At the moment of death the dying person repeats physically and mentally this invocation if he can, otherwise the disciple for the dying person. Buddhas and bodhisattvas who reside in the ten directions of space you who have great compassion omniscience and love who possess the five types of eyes. You who are the protectors of all beings, driven by the force of compassion come and accept these offerings. Lords of compassion now that I am going away from this world to the other world I am dying without possibility of choice be a refuge for me who have no refuge. Protect me! defend me! Do not forget your ancient vows! Make me exit from the great hurricane of karma! Protect me from the great fear of the lord of death, free me from the long and dangerous path of the Bardo. [...] When separated from the friends I love I wander wandering and the empty forms of my projections appear may the Buddhas intervene with the force of their compassion so that the terrors of the Bardo do not emerge. When the five luminous lights of wisdom shine may I fearlessly recognize myself. When the peaceful and wrathful forms appear, may I fearlessly and confidently recognize the Bardo. In this phase at the moment of passing the dying person finds himself before a strong blinding light in which he must fix himself to transfer immediately into Nirvana. If he succeeds in abandoning his old self and transferring into the Primordial Light, then his work is accomplished. However, this transfer is very difficult because it involves abandoning all of oneself and being reborn in this light that the texts describe as incredibly blinding and almost unbearable to sight. In the absence of this transfer the Tibetan Book of the Dead begins. 1st DAY PRIMORDIAL LIGHT In the Tibetan tradition it hints at the possibility of escaping the mechanism of the Bardo by fixing oneself in the Clear Light of Pure Reality that appears to the individual at the moment of death. But this part is barely mentioned in the text and we will treat it more thoroughly when we deal with the Christian Book of the Dead. In the Christian liturgy indeed - and therefore in the Christian Book of the Dead - attention is not only to the post mortem phases relative to the 49 days after death. Living those states is for the Christian already - in a certain sense - a failure and a large part of the liturgy concentrates on making these intermediate states of the post-mortem avoided, taking place during agony and helping the soul to fix consciousness in the Clear Light of Pure Reality during the passage into death. If however the individual has not managed to recognize and fix himself in this Light of Reality here begins for him the journey in the states of the Post-mortem or of the Bar-do. As the transit from the state of disincarnate to a human body does not happen immediately and consciousness needs time to adapt to the new state so also for the deceased the first days are a delirium characterized by continuous fainting and absence of consciousness. Therefore the suggestions of the guide through the Bardo begin 3 or 4 days after the death of the deceased. The consciousness of the deceased in the first 49 days in the life of the afterlife undergoes a progressive awakening of consciousness to the different planes of existence and therefore luminous apparitions relative to these worlds are presented to him. • The consciousness of the deceased in fact opens progressively to different states of consciousness and which manifest to the individual in the form of luminous perceptions and opening to new worlds to which vices and virtues correspond. With the opening to these worlds the deceased becomes receptive to forces that act in his consciousness and which manifest as particular lights in which the deceased who wants to abandon the phenomenic world must transfer himself. On one hand therefore the incorporeal blinding transparent lights almost unbearable to the sight of the world of Nirvana are presented to the deceased, each of a specific color in relation to the plane of existence that has been catalyzed and