The Bardo

Bardo is a Tibetan word meaning "intermediate state" or "in between." The book known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead is also known as Liberation through Hearing in the Between or in the Bardo.

Many in the Buddhist world consider the time after death and before the next incarnation to be a bardo. The book of Liberation through Hearing exhorts the soul in bardo to be aware of its true mind and to not fall prey to false illusions.

Buddhism stresses the centrality and primacy of the mind. As stated in Stephen Hodge's translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead,

The mind is the source of all things; it contains within it the possibility of enlightenment or else continued repetition of the dreary miserable round of lives in the cycle of existence. Indeed, it is the view of these teachings that the mind in its purest form, shorn of all ignorance and negativity, is inherently enlightened and replete with all the qualities one normally associates with enlightened beings such as the Buddhas. This pure primorial mind that precedes any manifestation of our own egocentric lives is said to be the very substance of reality. (pp. 8–9)

The true mind sees reality as it is, without the distortions of psychological filters or expectations. A crude analogy might be vision versus perception. Look at the following image. What do you see?

You see lines and circles. But you perceive a cat. The mind puts its filters and expectations to work to make meaning out of the lines and circles. The book of Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo keeps telling the soul in bardo to ignore what it's perceiving and just see with a true mind.

Stephen Hodge's translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead discusses the bardo, the transitional phase, in his introductory material:

The state called here "the transitional phase" (Tibetan: "bardo") is the actual moment of change, occurring at the end of one phase and the beginning of the next. It is the state of flux itself, the only state that can really be called "real." It is a condition of great power and potential within which anything could happen. It is the moment between moments. It may seem to span an entire lifetime, like the moment between being born and dying, or it may be imperceptibly short and fleeting, like the moment between one thought and the next. Whatever its duration, however, it is a moment of great opportunity for those who perceive it. Anyone who can do this is called a yogin. Such a person has the power of destiny in their hands. He or she has no need of a priest to guide him towards the clear light of truth, for he sees already the clear light of truth in the intermediate phases that occur between all other states. Refusing to become trapped in the false belief that all about him is fixed and solid, the yogin moves with calm and graceful ease through life, confident that changes are now under his own direction. He becomes the master of change instead of slave.

To one who understands this and develops some skill in its application, the difficult uncertainties of life become no more troublesome than the bardo of getting dressed in the morning. Between waking up and getting dressed, one must decide what clothes to wear. That is all. It should not be a problem. Similarly, between any encounter and one's reaction to it, there is an intermediate space that offers choice to those who can see it. One is not obliged to react on the basis of habit or prejudice. The opportunity for a fresh approach is always there in the intermediate state for those who have learned to recognize it. Such recognition is the essential message of this ancient and profound book. (pp. 10–11)

As Robert Thurman says in his introductory material to his translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Buddha taught that the psychological habit of assuming a fixed subjectivity, an unchanging identity, was a key obstacle to a good life. He insisted on the changeable, fluid soul's reality, vulnerability, responsibility, and evolutionary potential (p.16).

Being aware of each bardo as I walk through my day provides the opportunities for me to stretch toward my evolutionary potential.