| Bardo Thodol | |||||||||
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| Tibetan | བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ་ | ||||||||
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| Tibetan Buddhism |
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The Bardo Thodol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol, 'Liberation through hearing during the intermediate state'), commonly known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is a terma text from a larger corpus of teachings, the Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones,[1][note 1] revealed by Karma Lingpa (1326–1386). It is the best-known work of Nyingma literature.[3] In 1927, the text was one of the first examples of both Tibetan and Vajrayana literature to be translated into a European language and arguably continues to this day to be the best known.[4][5]
The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to guide one through, the experiences that the consciousness has after death, in the bardo, the interval between death and the next rebirth. The text also includes chapters on the signs of death and rituals to undertake when death is closing in or has taken place. The text can be used as either an advanced practice for trained meditators or to support the uninitiated during the death experience.
- ^ Fremantle 2001, p. 20.
- ^ Norbu 1989, p. ix.
- ^ Coleman 2005.
- ^ Fremantle & Trungpa 2003.
- ^ "Tibetan Book of the Dead, Casey Alexandra Kemp". www.oxfordbibliographies.com.
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