EL TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD - THE BARD Thödol
0 - Introitus: Requiem
the time This article comes to the 'Lux' has gone through Christmas and some readers may wonder why an article about the Dead or rather on the death appears perhaps inappropriate on dates so close to the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ, ie on dates where Celebrates Life or New Life. The answer to that question is possible that Life or New Life in a symbolic language as possible is based on the Death of the Old. Death of the Old to the New Birth or Rebirth. "Something must die so that I can be born", can be a phrase that inspires thought. At the time of writing this article I am temporarily located in the Death of the Year, the end of a cycle time defined by the astronomical cycle of the Sun To the ancients and also for New Pagans Winter Solstice (21/22 of December) is part one of the Holidays in your Calendar. Renaissance Festival is the Sun God, the shortest day of the year after which grows steadily in strength and influence towards its peak in mid-summer. For them this time is the real end of the year and spiritual astronomical (as they believe that Nature Exterior and Interior are closely related feeling one with nature itself, the key word would probably tune with natural cycles). On these dates in addition to the Christmas special reports which are reviewed the most important news of the year, many people do 'balance' as a friend recently pointed me in the style of imagery Egyptian Book of the Dead, weighing in the balance the 'dead heart' (the events during the year, our lives) with the pen of the Goddess Maat, Egyptian Goddess of Justice and Balance (our objectives achieved and unfulfilled, our Will), is thus a time of reflection, 'stop' during these few days off and relax and observe as objectively as possible what has happened over the course of the year. It's time to judge whether it was a good year or not, to examine our own successes and failures when usually for the rest of the year we usually do so with the others. It seems the right time to apply this energy balancing and purging and having completed the cycle, terminate or Dead Annual Internal Analysis of this analysis will emerge the new Child (Dead and Risen Osiris, Horus the Child), new promises and targets to meet (how many of us have promised quit, or we have decided once and for all learn English in New Year's Eve). As recited in the Pagan invocations in this holiday: "Queen of the Moon, Queen of the Sun Queen of Heaven, Queen of the Stars Queen of the Waters, Queen of the Earth bring the Promised Child! Is the Great Mother who brought to the world, is the Lord of Life who will be born again... " 1 - Kyrie, Sequentia, Offertorium, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead or Bardo Thodol is dedicated to the Dead, is the Book of the Art of Dying as important as the Art of Living of which is its complement. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a book for the dead and the dying , like the so-called Egyptian Book of the Dead (actually entitled Moving toward the light of day or Peri Em Heru in Egypt) is a guide for the deceased at the time of its actual existence (ie dead) in the call by the Buddhist Bardo, an intermediate state symbolically lasts 49 days (7x7) duration between a Birth or Death and Rebirth. According to Tibetan tradition, the Bardo Thodol is one of the works of Padma Sambhava (the founder of Lamaism) in the eighth century AD hidden in secret in order to preserve them for future generations and had to be revealed when the time was 'ripe' . During the persecution of Buddhism in the early Langdarma IX hid the text with appropriate ceremonies, mystical, under rocks, in caves and countless caches in order to preserve this and countless books of Tibetan Buddhism pristine period to prevent destruction. Because most members of the Buddhist Order were killed or driven out of Tibet, these writings remained buried where they had been hidden, many were subsequently recovered in the following centuries, calling them Spa, a term derived from the word gter which means "Treasure" and who discovered these spiritual treasures and spread their tertons teachings or call them "Developers of the Treasury." According to one tradition is endowed with certain disciples of Padma Sambhava with yogic power to reincarnate at the appropriate time as determined by astrology, to recover these books with the hidden treasures with them and the requirements necessary to properly carry out the rituals described in texts. Another Tradition says tertons tertons or are or were the very Padma Sambhava in multiple incarnations. Bardo Thodol The name means 'Liberation by Hearing in Plano Postmortem', and treats the whole cycle of existence sangsarica, that is phenomenal, between death and birth. Thus the concepts of karma and rebirth are accepted as essential laws. The book traces the experiences of consciousness in the Bardo for forty-nine days, according to Buddhist tradition, 49 refers to the seven worlds or seven degrees of Maya (Illusion or impermanence) within Sangsara (phenomenal existence) made as seven orbs of a planetary chain and in each world there are also seven Rounds of evolution, thus forming the 49 stations active existence.
as the mourning ceremony is held following the steps described very briefly as follows (excerpt taken from the Tibetan Book of the Dead WYEVANS WENTZ): "When the symptoms of death are completed throw a white cloth over the face of body and no one touches the body not to interfere with the process culminating in the death that ends only with complete separation of the body of his earthly counterpart bardic, a process that usually lasts between 3 and 4 days, unless assisted by a priest called the hpho-bo or 'exhaust the principle of consciousness', although this usually does not wake the dead the fact of earthly separation until expiration of this time span. The hpho-bo after settle in a chair, ordering the closing of doors and windows and away to relatives who mourn, begins his service consisting of a mystical song that contains guidelines for the spirit of the deceased to find its way to the Western Paradise of Amitabha (also the realm of the dead Egyptian was in the 'Bello West') and thus escape, if your karma is substantial enough, undesirable Intermediate State (the Bard). This intermediate state is considered undesirable from the point of view that the principle of consciousness of the deceased could not take the opportunity to break free from the chain of Birth and deaths that offers the first stage (Chikhai Bardo) as seen later. After examining the crown of the body in the sagittal suture line to determine if the spirit departed from there. If there was no earthly body because of some accident, the lama is focused on the deceased mentally, imagine that this presents and performs the ceremony described it usually lasts an hour. Meanwhile tsi-pa astrologer or lama having spent doing a horoscope mortuary decide as this, that people can come and touch the body, time and manner of funeral rites and the class to be held for the benefit of the deceased . Buddhist ways to dispose of the corpse are the same as those of the Hindu tradition, that is the burial or funeral, burial in water, outdoors where the corpse is devoured by carrion birds, or cremation. These four modes corresponding to the four elements (earth, water, air and fire). Subsequently the body is bound in a seated position or embryo and placed in one corner of the burial chamber. Are invited to join relatives and friends of the deceased home and are fed and housed until the body has at the same time also offers the late part of any solid food and liquid meals by placing it in a bowl beside the body, renewed periodically. When moving the corpse to its final destination, is replaced with an effigy of the deceased at the corner where the dead to take his position and thus it continues to offer food to the expiry of forty-nine days of the bard. While meeting the funeral rites, including the reading of the Bard Thodol in the deceased's house or place of death, other lamas sing, taking turns all day and all night to get the deceased to reach the Western Paradise of Amitabha . After the funeral, the lamas who read the Bard Thodol back to death house once a week until the end of the forty-ninth day of the Intermediate State. After the funeral rites the effigy is burned ceremoniously with the flame of a butter-fed lamp, giving a final farewell to the spirit of the deceased. The destination post-mortem found that the deceased is determined by the color of the flame and the way this is stirring. "They have a similar funeral rites exceptional Egyptian burial rites, as the effigy of the deceased with the statue of Osiris (or dead), the reading of the Bard Thodol the effigy with the reading of the Egyptian Book of the Dead to the statue of Osiris to guide the traveler to the realm that is beyond death, restoring the principle of consciousness after ' fainting 'which immediately follows the death and get used to the deceased in his new environment as both books the 'weighing of the soul' by the Divine Tibetan Dharma-Raja or Shinje-chho-gyal (King of the Dead), who holds a mirror where the 'soul' is seen in its full nakedness while his servant is placed before him Shinje black and white pebbles in a similar way to the Egyptian Weighing of the Heart of the deceased with the pen of the Goddess of Truth and Justice or Maat, both supervised by the God of Wisdom, Monkey Thodol Shinje in the Bard and the God Thoth ( Mono-headed or with it) in the Egyptian version. Buddhist funeral rites probably have a much older origin, according to Dr. LA WADDELL is essentially a rite Bon Pass (animist religion that prevailed in Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism and subsequently 'food' of it), and probably both texts for their significant overlap and share many similarities line incalculable antiquity. Interestingly one of the features of this book is that unlike other starter is a book backwards, ie preparing the 'soul' or rather the beginning of consciousness to a decline in the physical, contrary to the usual books of other religions that prepare the living for the fact of death.
And from this perspective I describe a summary of the divisions of the Bard and the experiences of the deceased as are described in the book of Evans WENTZ: The first Bardo, Bardo or Chikhai called "Transitory State Time of Death" is what happens immediately after death, which lasts between 3 days and a half to four as described above. In this state the Clear Light appears first as a primordial purity, then the perceiving, unable to "recognize" that is unable to hold on and stay in this state (because of their karma) of unmodified mind perceived as dark. When you finish the Bardo, the late wake to the fact of death, ie it becomes aware of his change of status, and begin to experience Second Bardo Bardo called Chonyid or Transitory State of Reality ", the deceased is under the illusion (unless a beginner or have practiced the 'Yoga' in the sense of those who have practiced the preservation of consciousness with the various state changes and are able to discern consciously pun intended) that although dead, still has a body flesh and blood, symbolic visions appear to him created by their own karmic reflections occasioned by the actions and thoughts that created when he was in his state of physical consciousness, the content of his consciousness belonging to his personality is revealed in a powerful now . When the deceased is actually realizing that the physical body has no 'real' begins to develop an overwhelming desire to own one and it goes immediately called the Third Bardo Bardo Sidpa or Transitional State of the Renaissance ", which ends when the principle of consciousness is reborn in the human world or in some other world. Visions being experienced by the deceased in the transition from intermediate state of Deities Peaceful and Wrathful Deities are but a reflection of his own mental contents, so a Buddhist observe through the Bardo deities of the Buddhist pantheon, while a Christian or Muslim have their respective visions of their own pantheon characteristics, whether deities or angelic influence in the case of monotheistic religions. Before finalizing this section I describe mortuary teachings Buddhism core on which presumably based on Thodol Bardo (as Northern Buddhist school):
- That all conditions, states or 'realms' of existence possible sangsarica are but phenomena and these phenomena are transient and therefore illusory and unreal and exists only in the mind perceives sangsarica.
- That in fact there are no such beings as gods, demons, spirits and sensitive creatures, all events are equally dependent on a cause and this cause is a longing, a thirst for sensation according to the instability sangsarica. - That while this cause is not defeated by the Light or the dissipation of ignorance, the cycle of birth and reincarnation remains incessantly.
- that the afterlife is just a continuation, in conditions of physical phenomenal existence and they both are karmic.
- That the nature of existence between death and rebirth are determined by previous actions of the being in question.
- The post-mortem state resembles or is a continuation of the dream state, filled with hallucinatory visions directly resultant of perceiving mental content.
- What Enlightenment is the state that prevents the wheel of births and deaths and that such lighting is to take or grasp the unreality of Sangsara or possible existence in life and in the state known as death and the Yoga and control of thought processes or ability to concentrate is essential to achieving the right knowledge and that such instruction can best be achieved under the guidance of a Guru or human teacher and one of its most important is the Buddha Gautama.
- That this emancipation comes from the Realization of Nirvana which is a 'state' no sangsarico and is the true Reality and the End of Pain and Suffering.
- (Maybe you could made a final thought) that there is really dead.
2 - COMMUNIA: Lux Aeterna
Timothy Leary and his colleagues Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert searched the text of the Bardo Thodol guide experimentation of interior space, guided by the effects of hallucinogenic type drugs or 'psychedelic' as LSD. Leary and his colleagues stressed the important fact that the Tibetan Book of the Dead was directed at the living reality, ie those which necessarily had to face the inevitability of death. The book described a series of visions post-mortem (the successive phases of consciousness of 'Bardo') LEARY however note that these descriptions were in fact an esoteric guide to the expansion of consciousness or mind as well as being a manual Tibetan priests read to the dying. Ie by LEARY, Bardo levels were realms of consciousness, thanks to which one could become familiar with post-mortem separation of mind and body before the very fact of death. As Leary and his colleagues noted: "The Tibetan Book of the Dead called 'die' to the projection of the powers of perception." Some of the phases LEARY experiment in psychedelic trips under the guidance and explanations Thodol Bardo and recommendations are these: "Experiments of the energy flow in which the individual comes to realize that this is part of and surrounded by a charged energy field, which seems almost electrical" and "strange noises can occur , shocking and disturbing visions presences. They can scare, intimidate and terrify unless you are prepared... the fundamental solution is to recognize that your brain is producing the visions. None. Nothing exists but your conscience gives them life. "
