What is the tibetan book of dead?

Answer 1

The Bardo Thodrol (popularly known in English as The Tibetan Book of the Dead) presents Tibetan Buddhist teachings related to death and the afterlife. The text is believed to have originated from Padmasambhava, the Indian spiritual master who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the 9th century. According to the tradition of mind terma (treasure text) literature, he concealed the teaching for the benefit of future generations, and it was rediscovered in the 14th century. Today it is one of the most famous works of world religious literature. Three translations that have been published in English are by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Francesca Fremantle & Chogyam Trungpa, and Robert Thurman.

A more accurate translation of the title is "Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo." The word bardo refers primarily to the in-between state between death and rebirth (though there are other types of bardo as well). It is taught that in this afterdeath state, the advanced meditator has an enhanced opportunity to achieve enlightenment, attaining liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. The book consists of explanations about the process of dying and instructions to enable the meditator to recognize and identify with the true nature of mind, which is experienced as a brilliant "clear light."

There is a custom of reading this book of instructions aloud to the dying or the dead. However, in the view of Fremantle and Trungpa, the text also offers guidance to the living, since "whatever happens to us after death is simply a continuation of what is happening to us now in this life" (Fremantle, Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 7).

Answer 2

The Bardo Thodrol (popularly known in English as The Tibetan Book of the Dead) presents Tibetan Buddhist teachings related to death and the afterlife. The text is believed to have originated from Padmasambhava, the Indian spiritual master who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the 9th century. According to the tradition of mind terma (treasure text) literature, he concealed the teaching for the benefit of future generations, and it was rediscovered in the 14th century. Today it is one of the most famous works of world religious literature. Three translations that have been published in English are by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Francesca Fremantle & Chogyam Trungpa, and Robert Thurman.

A more accurate translation of the title is "Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo." The word bardo refers primarily to the in-between state between death and rebirth (though there are other types of bardo as well). It is taught that in this afterdeath state, the advanced meditator has an enhanced opportunity to achieve enlightenment, attaining liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. The book consists of explanations about the process of dying and instructions to enable the meditator to recognize and identify with the true nature of mind, which is experienced as a brilliant "clear light."

There is a custom of reading this book of instructions aloud to the dying or the dead. However, in the view of Fremantle and Trungpa, the text also offers guidance to the living, since "whatever happens to us after death is simply a continuation of what is happening to us now in this life" (Fremantle, Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 7).