Particularly because we have been born as human beings. It is very important not only to receive these instructions but also to put them into practice.

Some people regard the bardo as something unimportant and take the attitude that there is no point in thinking about it or worrying about it. That is a mistaken attitude. The bardo is something that we have experienced already in the past and that we will definitely come to experience again in the future, so it seems unrealistic and an insufficient response to our life situation simply to dismiss it as something one need not think about.

Other people are so terrified by the idea of the bardo and what they have heard about the bardo that they dislike hearing about it or thinking about it. It may be that from one point of view the bardo is terrifying, but from another point of view it is not. Since the beginning of this universe and since beginningless time, all of the numberless beings that have been born and have died have passed through the bardo, and all the beings that will die in the future will do so also. So must we.

The experience of the bardo does not have to be such a bad or terrifying experience. It could be very negative, but it could also be very positive. Rather than forgetting about it, however, it would be better actually to prevent the bardo from becoming a negative experience and to cause it to become a positive experience by preparing for it in this life. Therefore, the best attitude toward the bardo is the resolution that you will do whatever you can to ensure that the bardo becomes a positive and not a negative experience for you. This is an appropriate attitude, because if you put these teachings into practice, you can actually determine what will happen.

Sometimes people have the attitude that, although instructions for traversing the bardo exist, they are not easy to practice. These people seem to be too timid to practice these instructions, feeling that they will be unable to practice them at all or to practice them effectively. But it is not that difficult to understand the process of the bardo, and it is by no means impossible to put the teachings on the bardo into effective practice. Just as the appearances of this life are produced by states of mind, so are the appearances in the bardo and the appearances in one’s future lives produced by states of mind. Positive states of mind produce positive experiences, and negative states of mind produce negative appearances or experiences. Therefore, if you cultivate a positive state of mind in this life, the appearances or experiences of this life, of future lives, and of the bardo will become more and more positive. While you may regard the bardo as a state that you have very little control over, the fact is that if you cultivate a strong positive state of mind, you will gain some control over it.

In the instructions of the mahasiddhas, we find different classifications of the bardos or intervals, classified primarily into six bardos and into four bardos. If we use the classification of the bardos into four, the first of these is called the natural interval or natural bardo between birth and death (Tib: rang bzhin skye gnas kyi bar do). This is the period or bardo starting from your birth and ending in your death. The particular significance of this bardo, which seems somewhat distinct from the bardos that occur after death, is that one uses this period of one’s life to practice in preparation for one’s death and for one’s experience of subsequent bardos. By practicing, one develops a certain impetus or momentum in this natural bardo of life, which will be of benefit when the bardo of dharmata and the bardo of becoming and so on arise at the time of death and afterwards. Therefore, first I am going to begin by looking at the first of the four bardos, the natural bardo between birth and death.

What is the principal practice that we should be doing in our present state, the natural bardo between birth and death, to prepare ourselves for death? The most obvious difference between this state or this bardo and, for example, the bardo of becoming, which occurs after death, is in the quality of the appearances which arise. The appearances which arise to us now, no matter how unstable our minds may be, are grounded in our physical bodies. Being so grounded causes a stability of place and location. For example, in our present state, when we think of some place other than where we are, our minds will stay where we are because our minds are held here by our bodies. Therefore, in this present bardo, the natural bardo between birth and death, appearances are characterized by a stability produced by this physical groundedness.

However, in the bardo of becoming, because the body and mind have separated and the mind is, therefore, no longer physically grounded, the mind is unstable. When the mind thinks of a place, it immediately finds itself there; then again, thinking of some other place, it finds itself at that other place. So the mind is unstable in the bardo of becoming. Even if it wishes to, it cannot stay in one place. Therefore, the practice of meditation in this life, in our present state of physical groundedness, will help in that future bardo a great deal. If you practice meditation during your life, then the principal benefit that you gain is control over mind and freedom of mind. If you do not practice meditation, then you will not be able to send the mind to a chosen place or to hold the mind on a chosen object in the bardo. Through the practice of meditation, you gain the ability to apply your mind to a chosen object or state of mind and hold it there. This produces a stability of mind which is very helpful after death in the bardo of becoming, in which the only stability is produced by mental stability, and not by physical groundedness, as in this present life.

When someone has had no experience of meditation whatsoever, then when their mind experiences the bardo, their consciousness wanders uncontrollably. They cannot control what happens, so they have no ability whatsoever to direct or control their rebirth. On the other hand, if someone has had some experience of meditation and, therefore, has gained some control over their mind and some stability of mind, then they have some degree of control or freedom in the bardo. By recollecting that this interval between the onset of dying and rebirth is a period of vital importance—one in which the dying person/bardo being must not become distracted and must not allow their mind to wander—and by remembering that they must be careful, and by virtue of the momentum of their previous training in meditation, they will be able to avoid suffering and avoid negative rebirths and will have a degree of control over what happens to them in the bardo. It is for this reason, among many others, that meditation is very important. Particularly in the beginning of one’s path, the practice of shamatha, or tranquillity meditation, is important.

The practice of tranquillity meditation produces a state of mental stability, and this mental stability in turn gives you the ability to control or direct your traversal of the bardo states. While tranquillity meditation has many other benefits, from the point of view of traversing the bardo, we would have to say that the most significant benefit is this one.

In the bardo states after death, because one’s mind lacks stability, it is easily affected by the arising of kleshas (negative emotions). Just as kleshas arise in our present situation, they will continue to arise in the bardo. These kleshas, such as anger and attachment and states of anxiety and so forth, because of the particular situation after death, can take hold of you and become very strong. In order to prevent this from happening, we need to practice meditation and, in particular, tranquillity meditation in this life.

The particular approach to meditation that one takes in preparation for this aspect of the bardo is to focus one’s meditation on those kleshas which arise, and especially on those which are strongest for you as an individual. Now, people vary. For some people, anger or aggression is their strongest klesha; for other people jealousy is the strongest, and for others pride. To begin with, it is helpful to recognize which kleshas afflict you most, and then to focus your practice on developing a faculty of mindfulness which will serve as an effective remedy to the arising of those kleshas.

When you focus your meditation on its becoming a remedy to those kleshas, when you have that aspiration and intention, then at best you will be able to totally relinquish those kleshas; at the very least you will certainly be able to weaken them substantially. Through developing this type of meditation and intention you will weaken your kleshas in this life, and as a result, through the habit of weakening the kleshas and remedying them with mindfulness in this life, when they arise in the bardo they will be much weaker and less overwhelming. The appearances of the bardo, and especially the hallucinations produced by the kleshas, will be much less bewildering and less overwhelming. Therefore, the practice that we do in this life in preparation for the bardo is to cultivate meditation, and especially to dedicate one’s meditation to being a remedy for one’s kleshas, starting with those kleshas which one recognizes most strongly afflict one.

Using your practice in this life to confront and remedy your particular make-up of kleshas is very helpful in the bardo, and in general. We see that some people practice meditation for a relatively short time and find that their minds are effectively pacified and tamed by their practice, whereas other people can practice meditation for a much longer time without deriving much benefit. When we look at the difference between these two types of practitioners, we may say that the samadhi or meditation that they are practicing is fundamentally the same. The difference between them lies not so much in the technique of meditation used as it does in the intention or focus with which the meditation is performed. In the case of a very effective practice of meditation, the person is applying the meditation to their actual kleshas, the actual problems which they face. If someone has that intention, the intention that their meditation serve as a remedy to particular kleshas, then the meditation practice will serve as that remedy and, therefore, will be effective. If, on the other hand, someone practices a fundamentally similar meditation, but with a very vague motivation, without focusing on particular things that need to be worked through or relinquished, then the meditation itself will be less effective. It is important, therefore, to remember that meditation, and indeed all dharma practice, becomes most effective when you particularly and consciously apply it as a remedy to particular problems or particular kleshas. This is beneficial in general, and especially when these kleshas arise in the bardo.

In addition to the practice of shamatha or tranquillity meditation, another effective technique in training for the bardo is a technique of the Vajrayana or secret mantra called the generation stage (Tib: bskyed rim), which refers to the visualization of the forms or bodies of the various deities or yidams. These deities include many that are peaceful, many that are wrathful, and so on. In general, regardless of the nature of the deity, this technique of visualizing yourself in the form of a deity is very effective in producing progress in meditation and in causing the blessing of these deities to enter into you. Deity meditation is especially beneficial in training for the bardo, because in the bardo after one’s death a variety of appearances will arise, some of them seemingly threatening. Although these appearance are not in any way external to you and are merely projections of your mind, because of the confusion of your mind in that state you will tend to mistake them as external to you, and therefore, will tend to regard them as threatening, which will, of course, produce fear.

The important point to remember in the bardo is to recognize these appearances to be merely the projections of your mind. Therefore, working with the practice and visualization of a yidam such as Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha Amitabha, or some other deity, is very helpful, because by doing these deity visualizations in this life, you cultivate the habit of recognizing appearances as projections of mind. When you first practice these meditations, the form of the deity may be very unclear, but as you continue to practice, eventually you are able to generate a clear image. Sometimes, though the image is clear, it may initially still be unstable, but if you continue to practice, it will not only be clear but will also become a stable image. This comes about simply through becoming accustomed to the practice itself.

When you have cultivated a clear and stable image of the deity in this life, then through that habit you will generate an even clearer and more stable image of the deity in the bardo, because the appearances are much more vivid in the bardo. When this especially vivid and stable image of the deity arises in the bardo, it will serve as a remedy to the confused and terrifying projections which you would otherwise generate and will cause these to subside or to be purified.

The other aspect of Vajrayana practice is called the completion stage (Tib: rdzogs rim). The completion stage, as distinct from the generation stage, is essentially the Vajrayana equivalent to what in the sutra tradition is called insight or vipashyana, as distinct from the technique of tranquillity or shamatha.

Essentially, we use the term vipashyana to mean much the same thing as what is meant by the completion stage. What this meditation consists of is what the Buddha taught in the sutras as meditation upon emptiness and in the tantras as meditation upon the nature of mind or on the mind in itself. If we look at the traditions of instruction which have arisen through the various masters in Tibet, we find that the main object of meditation has also been the nature of one’s own mind. Therefore, having cultivated a good practice of tranquillity as a foundation, one should then go on and receive instruction in and cultivate the practice of insight meditation.

What is recognized through the practice of insight meditation is that, in its nature, your mind is without birth or origination and is without substantial existence of any kind. This recognition frees you from the fear that would otherwise be produced by the appearances of the bardo. Having recognized the nature of your mind, you recognize that the only thing to fear in the bardo is the panic, the fear, and the suffering that the mind experiences upon encountering its own appearances. You recognize that this fear and panic arise simply because you have no control over your mind. If you understand this, and if you resolve to take control or gain control of your mind, then, through practicing this insight or vipashyana, you can gain control of your mind and thereby be free from any kind of fear that would otherwise arise when the mind experiences its own projections.

It is for this reason that it is always worthwhile to receive instruction in the meditations of mahamudra and dzogchen and to practice these. At best, of course, it is wonderful if you can practice these in a complete way and come to a definitive realization; but even if you cannot gain a definitive realization, any degree of connection with these teachings and these practices is always worthwhile, because any degree of habit of this kind of recognition that is produced in your mind is always helpful. Even to receive a slight amount of instruction in mahamudra or dzogchen and to practice it is good, because the habit of the recognition of the mind’s true nature that is produced thereby will benefit you in the bardo. Therefore, the more you can inculcate this habit of recognition, the better.

There are two other aspects to our meditation training: meditation itself and post-meditation. Meditation, as we have seen, consists fundamentally of three types of techniques: tranquillity or shamatha meditation; the generation stage or meditation upon deities and insight or vipashyana meditation, also called the completion stage. We have seen how, when practiced in coordination with one another, these bring about great benefit in the bardo after death. However, our practice consists more of post-meditation than of meditation itself, since the amount of time we spend meditating formally may not be proportionally very much of our time at all. Therefore we cannot ignore the need to practice in a continuous if informal way throughout all of our various activities.

Even though we are not doing a formal practice of meditation in post-meditation, we still cannot afford to let our minds run wild. We need to preserve some degree of mindfulness, alertness and carefulness in our conduct. For example, if your principal practice is tranquillity or shamatha meditation, then throughout all of your various activities—eating, sitting around, walking, lying down, talking and so on—you should attempt to preserve some degree of mindfulness, alertness, and carefulness in your mind and in your conduct. Through preserving this kind of mindfulness and so forth, your post-meditation conduct, rather than taking away from your meditation, will come to enhance it. As a result, your formal meditation, as well, will come to produce naturally a state of mindfulness in post-meditation and to enhance that state. So, fundamentally, we always need to apply mindfulness, alertness, and carefulness.

If your principal practice is meditation upon deities, then in a similar way you should attempt to bring some degree of the awareness or mindfulness of that practice into your post-meditation. Even if you cannot generate a clear appearance of the deity in post-meditation you can generate a confidence or pride of actually being the deity. This is based upon an understanding of the nature of appearances. The actual nature of appearances, no matter how impure we may consider them to be, is pure, because the nature of all things is emptiness, not a static or dead emptiness, but an emptiness that is at the same time a fullness of all of the qualities of buddha nature. Because this is the nature of all things, therefore, the fundamental nature of all appearances and all experiences is pure.

The recognition of this, which is the basis of the application of deity meditation in post-meditation, produces a confidence in the purity of appearances, which will be very helpful in the bardo, because it will cause you to be less confused or overwhelmed by the different appearances which will arise there.

The third meditation technique is vipashyana or insight meditation. Through this practice you generate some experience in your mind of its own nature. This experience arises initially principally in the formal practice of meditation. However, in post meditation you do not relinquish or abandon this experience, but attempt to bring it back or flash on it again and again throughout your various activities. If you do not, if you simply cast the experience of formal meditation away in your post-meditation, then no matter how good your experience may have been, there will be very little progress, because your post-meditation activities will interfere with the practice of meditation.

Therefore, it is important, in whatever practice you are doing, to cultivate mindfulness, alertness, and carefulness in post-meditation. Through inculcating these habits in your mind, then the same habits will arise for you in the bardo. And when the habits of mindfulness, alertness, carefulness, and so forth arise in the bardo, they will cause the appearances of the bardo to be far less overwhelming. And because the experience of the appearances of the bardo will then be less overwhelming, you will gain more control over what happens to you, including more control over your rebirth. Therefore, mindfulness and alertness are extremely important.

Not only are mindfulness and alertness important and beneficial, they are also convenient to practice. We all need to work in this world, to eat, to talk, and so on, and from one point of view we might regard these activities as inconvenient, because they seem to interfere with our practice of meditation. But if you understand meditation as consisting not only of formal meditation but also of the practice of post-meditation, which can be combined easily with our daily activities, then you will understand that the practice of mindfulness throughout your many activities, far from being a concession to that which is interfering with your practice, is a way to enhance it and a way to inculcate a very strong habit of mindfulness, which will help you in the bardo.

So far, all of the practices of which I have been speaking are fundamentally mental. But we do not practice with our minds alone in isolation; we also have to concern ourselves with and work with our bodies and our speech. Although we may engage in the mental practice of meditation, if we are careless in our physical and verbal conduct, if we engage carelessly in physical and verbal wrongdoing, then our actions will counteract the benefit of our meditation, and there will be no progress or improvement. Therefore, our mindfulness and alertness must extend beyond our states of mind and include our modes of conduct of body and speech.

This is especially important in connection with the bardo. While it is true that once one is in the bardo after death, one does not actually have a physical body and, therefore, does not have actual physical speech, nevertheless, through a long-standing habit of physical embodiment, there is the appearance in the bardo of a mental body and a corresponding faculty of speech. Furthermore, the appearances which arise in the bardo are fundamentally produced by habits that have developed in one’s mind. Therefore, if you have a habit of good conduct of body and speech, then the appearances of body and speech which arise in the bardo will be correspondingly positive; and if you have a habit of careless or negative conduct of body and speech, then the appearances corresponding to these which arise in the bardo will be, in the same way, negative.

Now, all of these points are concerned with how one can use one’s present interval or bardo, which is the natural bardo of this life, as a way to prepare for the states after death. I would like to stop here, but if you have any questions, please ask them.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

QUESTION: Rinpoche, does this first bardo begin at conception, or does it begin at birth?

RINPOCHE: Generally speaking, this bardo is classified as beginning from the moment of birth, and going up to the time of death, especially in the context of talking about practices which can be done by someone who is living in a human body.

QUESTION: Is the appearance of a person’s body and speech in the bardo similar to that which they had in their previous life? Does it maintain the same appearance or characteristics?

RINPOCHE: There are various explanations of this question, but the most common one is that, given that the bardo lasts for seven weeks, for the first three weeks the body appears to take the form of the body one had in the previous life; for the fourth week, it is a mixture in appearance of the body one had in the previous life and what one will have in the next life; and for the last three weeks it generally takes the form of the body one will have in one’s next life.

QUESTION: Could Rinpoche expand on the post-meditation practice of awareness in connection with the practice of deity meditation?

RINPOCHE: The practice of deity meditation consists fundamentally of three elements, which are clear appearance, stable pride or stable confidence, and recollection of purity. Of these three, it is difficult to cultivate clear appearance and the recollection of purity in post-meditation. Therefore, the principal post-meditation practice in connection with the generation stage is the maintenance of the stable pride or confidence of actually being the deity—which means to maintain the confidence or certainty that the true nature of your body, speech, and mind is the body, speech, and mind of the deity being practiced. We find this expressly stated in commentaries on deity meditation, where it is commonly said, “In post-meditation, never part from the confidence of being the deity.”

QUESTION: When one has nightmares, is this a sign of lacking control over one’s mind?

RINPOCHE: Having nightmares is not particularly a sign that you have absolutely no control over your mind. Nightmares can occur for different reasons. Sometimes we have nightmares because we are thinking a lot about things or because we are becoming very emotionally disturbed or anxious about something. But sometimes you will have a nightmare, even though you haven’t become particularly disturbed or anxious on that particular day, through the emergence of a habit from sometime in the past, possibly even from a long time in the past. If you are afflicted by nightmares, one thing that will help is to meditate immediately before going to sleep, not allowing your mind to run wild with many thoughts or many kleshas or a great deal of anxiety. If you go to sleep in a meditative state, then nightmares will tend not to arise; whereas if, immediately before going to sleep, your mind is running wild with thoughts and fears and anxieties, then of course, this state of mind will tend to produce nightmares.

QUESTION: So, in the context of the bardo, what is the definition of the moment of death?

RINPOCHE: First of all, the term bardo or interval refers to an interval between two things, a period which follows the ending of something and the beginning of something else. So we use the term to refer to these four or six states which are periods in between one thing and another. We talk about the natural bardo between, or interval between, birth and death, the bardo of the time of death, the bardo of dharmata, the bardo of becoming, and so on. The basic definition of death, and, therefore, the defining moment/event of death, is the separation of body and mind, because what defines a living being, from this point of view, is, that the body of that being and the mind of that being are combined in such a way that anything that happens to one will affect the other. So, for example, when you are alive, if your physical body becomes ill, that causes you to have a mental experience of suffering, and so on.

Now what happens when you die is that, through this separation of your body and mind, your mind becomes unconscious. When it emerges from the state of unconsciousness into a state of consciousness, not only does it no longer reside in that previous body, but it is unable to effectively re-enter it. This is distinct from states of unconsciousness that we experience in this life. When we re-arise from unconsciousness in this life we are still in our bodies. But when unconsciousness is produced by the separation of body and mind, then the consciousness cannot re-enter the body. That is the definition of death here.

© Copyright Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Shenpen Osel & Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications 2002.