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The Bardo Guidebook
Existence is an endless cycle of experience called the four bardos. These four periods include our present life, the process of dying, the after-death experience, and the quest for a new rebirth. Drawing from his intimate knowledge of the innermost Vajrayana teachings, the Tibetan master Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche presents in The Bardo Guidebook straightforward, direct instructions on how to deal with the four bardos.
- GenresBuddhismSpirituality
190 pages, Paperback
First published May 24, 2004
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56 people want to read
About the author
Chokyi Nyima
11 books13 followersChökyi Nyima Rinpoche (Tib.: chos kyi nyi ma), the eldest son of H.E. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, is held to be the seventh incarnation of the yogi Gar Drubchen, an emanation of Nāgārjuna.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 22, 2021
A mix of pith instructions on the nature of mind and practical advice for navigating the bardos. Not a cheerful read, but invaluable.
A few excerpts:
Right now we are in the bardo of this life, the period between birth and death. How long will this situation last? That is uncertain; there is no guarantee how long we will remain alive. Already a good part of our life is behind us. We have grown up and we probably will not remain here much beyond the age of sixty or seventy. Therefore we should start counting our days.
Once ego-clinging is exhausted, all dualistic and confused experiences collapse and there is no need to go through any of the succeeding bardos. Nevertheless, as long as we retain ego-clinging, the idea of 'I' as a self-entity, there is always the idea of 'other,' of 'them' or 'that', and confused experience is perpetuated.
The most important bardo is that of this life. Everything that comes after depends on this life. The most important achievement in this life is liberation, enlightenment. If we cannot attain that, we should try to reach halfway; at the very least, we should have entered the path because then there will be more chances for liberation at the time of dying.
During the bardo of dharmata and the bardo of becoming we have additional opportunities for liberation. It is like the end of a football game with five minutes left. We still can score one more goal. But when the last second is up, then that chance is gone. Life is like that. We must be very careful how we spend the time we have left in the bardo of this life.
Often people ask, "What should I do in the Bardo. What practice should be done when I arrive in the state after death? The bardo of dharmata sounds especially interesting!" To pile up these teachings while not applying them in this life is totally useless. To gain some degree of mastery over our mind, some stability in practice right now is the key point for attaining liberation at the moment of death. Without having any practical experience during this life, the chances for liberation in the bardo of dharmata and especially in the bardo of becoming are very slight. Tsele Natsok Rangdrol emphasizes that what comes after death, the next three bardos, depends totally upon what one does in this life. If we attain the best results in practice right now, we will not have to worry about going through further bardos. If we have some degree of experience, we have a strong chance of becoming liberated at the moment of death or in the bardos thereafter. Therefore the bardo of this life, our present situation, is utterly crucial.
People tend to plan their Dharma practice, and especially like to dream of making a long retreat. We plan how the retreat hut should look, its shape and where it should be positioned; we plan the time to start our retreat, maybe one, two or three years from now. It is very easy to make such plans, but it is more difficult for these plans to become reality.
Therefore it is more realistic to engage in Dharma practice today, right this moment, not tomorrow or next year. Practice now in whatever situation is at hand. Otherwise, your life can easily run out while planning to practice later. Do not make long-term plans.
~
In Vajrayana, the vehicle of Secret Mantra, emphasis is placed on something called yidam practice. Through this practice, we approach the body, speech and mind of a perfect buddha. In order to be free of ego-clinging, which is difficult to immediately discard, we visualize the deity as a body of rainbow light, recite the deity's mantra and rest in the equanimity of enlightened mind. By familiarizing ourselves with the immaterial mental image of the deity the habit of clinging to concrete reality is diminished. Through visualization practice we ultimately obtain a body that is the unity of emptiness and luminosity.
Visualizing the form of the deity, reciting the mantra that is the voice of the deity and resting in the equanimity of the mind of the deity, we realize the nature of things. Why is this? It is because right now our body, speech and mind are by nature already the pure aspects of the three kayas, the state of enlightenment. We ordinarily perceive our body as a material form, our voice as a dualistic way of communicating and our mind as structured by dualistic thinking.
Through the yidam practice we are introduced to and have the opportunity to recognize the pure nature of our body, speech and mind, which although obscured, is already present. This is the whole purpose of yidam practice: to realize the three kayas by uninterruptedly perceiving our body as the unity of appearance and emptiness, our voice as the unity of sound and emptiness and our mind as the unity of awareness and emptiness.
~
The Buddha very kindly gave many different teachings and methods of practicing, but all these different systems converge at one point: right now, while you are alive, get used to the nonconceptual wakefulness called luminous dharmata, the state free from concepts, beyond a meditation of mental fabrication. This is what it all comes down to. Accustom yourself to nonconceptual wakefulness now so at the time of death you will not have to go through the remaining bardos to a new rebirth. Resting in non-conceptual wakefulness is enough to cover all aspects of practice. We call this by so many different names, but once we realize it, buddhahood will no longer be a mere concept, it is a direct experience. The highest yoga is to be attained right now. Rest in non-conceptual wakefulness and you are a genuine yogi - a truly qualified practitioner.
~
Impermanence is a fact we should become accustomed to and not forget. Let us make the understanding of impermanence grow in our minds. By so doing we will have less attachment to the things of this life, and our ability to understand the teachings, to put them into practice, and to rest in the equanimity of meditation will increase. Training the mind in understanding impermanence will make it easier to practice meditation. It is said, "If you cling to this life, you are not a practitioner." By being attached to the things of this life and feeling that what we have is not enough, we waste our time and slowly our life runs out.
There are four main aspects to impermanence. The first is that everybody who is born will die. It is one hundred percent certain that one who has taken birth will die. There is no question about this; it is just a matter of time.
Second, people who come together will separate. Consider the yearly seminar at my monastery in Nepal. It is a group of eighty or ninety people. After a few weeks they separate. After a few months everyone leaves the place and several years in the future they all will be living in different places in the world.
Some of them will have already died and most of them may never meet again. After one hundred years, everyone will be dead, some cremated and some buried under the ground. After one thousand years their names and all trace of their existence will have completely disappeared. That is a fact of impermanence.
Third, everything that has been gathered will be dispersed or depleted. No matter how much wealth and material possessions we may amass, it will all be used up sooner or later.
Finally, everything that is constructed will be destroyed. No matter how solid the material, be it steel, iron or whatever, sooner or later the object will full apart and disintegrate.
Those are the four facts of impermanence. Just as it is the nature of fire to be hot and of water to be wet, all phenomena are by nature impermanent.
A few excerpts:
Right now we are in the bardo of this life, the period between birth and death. How long will this situation last? That is uncertain; there is no guarantee how long we will remain alive. Already a good part of our life is behind us. We have grown up and we probably will not remain here much beyond the age of sixty or seventy. Therefore we should start counting our days.
Once ego-clinging is exhausted, all dualistic and confused experiences collapse and there is no need to go through any of the succeeding bardos. Nevertheless, as long as we retain ego-clinging, the idea of 'I' as a self-entity, there is always the idea of 'other,' of 'them' or 'that', and confused experience is perpetuated.
The most important bardo is that of this life. Everything that comes after depends on this life. The most important achievement in this life is liberation, enlightenment. If we cannot attain that, we should try to reach halfway; at the very least, we should have entered the path because then there will be more chances for liberation at the time of dying.
During the bardo of dharmata and the bardo of becoming we have additional opportunities for liberation. It is like the end of a football game with five minutes left. We still can score one more goal. But when the last second is up, then that chance is gone. Life is like that. We must be very careful how we spend the time we have left in the bardo of this life.
Often people ask, "What should I do in the Bardo. What practice should be done when I arrive in the state after death? The bardo of dharmata sounds especially interesting!" To pile up these teachings while not applying them in this life is totally useless. To gain some degree of mastery over our mind, some stability in practice right now is the key point for attaining liberation at the moment of death. Without having any practical experience during this life, the chances for liberation in the bardo of dharmata and especially in the bardo of becoming are very slight. Tsele Natsok Rangdrol emphasizes that what comes after death, the next three bardos, depends totally upon what one does in this life. If we attain the best results in practice right now, we will not have to worry about going through further bardos. If we have some degree of experience, we have a strong chance of becoming liberated at the moment of death or in the bardos thereafter. Therefore the bardo of this life, our present situation, is utterly crucial.
People tend to plan their Dharma practice, and especially like to dream of making a long retreat. We plan how the retreat hut should look, its shape and where it should be positioned; we plan the time to start our retreat, maybe one, two or three years from now. It is very easy to make such plans, but it is more difficult for these plans to become reality.
Therefore it is more realistic to engage in Dharma practice today, right this moment, not tomorrow or next year. Practice now in whatever situation is at hand. Otherwise, your life can easily run out while planning to practice later. Do not make long-term plans.
~
In Vajrayana, the vehicle of Secret Mantra, emphasis is placed on something called yidam practice. Through this practice, we approach the body, speech and mind of a perfect buddha. In order to be free of ego-clinging, which is difficult to immediately discard, we visualize the deity as a body of rainbow light, recite the deity's mantra and rest in the equanimity of enlightened mind. By familiarizing ourselves with the immaterial mental image of the deity the habit of clinging to concrete reality is diminished. Through visualization practice we ultimately obtain a body that is the unity of emptiness and luminosity.
Visualizing the form of the deity, reciting the mantra that is the voice of the deity and resting in the equanimity of the mind of the deity, we realize the nature of things. Why is this? It is because right now our body, speech and mind are by nature already the pure aspects of the three kayas, the state of enlightenment. We ordinarily perceive our body as a material form, our voice as a dualistic way of communicating and our mind as structured by dualistic thinking.
Through the yidam practice we are introduced to and have the opportunity to recognize the pure nature of our body, speech and mind, which although obscured, is already present. This is the whole purpose of yidam practice: to realize the three kayas by uninterruptedly perceiving our body as the unity of appearance and emptiness, our voice as the unity of sound and emptiness and our mind as the unity of awareness and emptiness.
~
The Buddha very kindly gave many different teachings and methods of practicing, but all these different systems converge at one point: right now, while you are alive, get used to the nonconceptual wakefulness called luminous dharmata, the state free from concepts, beyond a meditation of mental fabrication. This is what it all comes down to. Accustom yourself to nonconceptual wakefulness now so at the time of death you will not have to go through the remaining bardos to a new rebirth. Resting in non-conceptual wakefulness is enough to cover all aspects of practice. We call this by so many different names, but once we realize it, buddhahood will no longer be a mere concept, it is a direct experience. The highest yoga is to be attained right now. Rest in non-conceptual wakefulness and you are a genuine yogi - a truly qualified practitioner.
~
Impermanence is a fact we should become accustomed to and not forget. Let us make the understanding of impermanence grow in our minds. By so doing we will have less attachment to the things of this life, and our ability to understand the teachings, to put them into practice, and to rest in the equanimity of meditation will increase. Training the mind in understanding impermanence will make it easier to practice meditation. It is said, "If you cling to this life, you are not a practitioner." By being attached to the things of this life and feeling that what we have is not enough, we waste our time and slowly our life runs out.
There are four main aspects to impermanence. The first is that everybody who is born will die. It is one hundred percent certain that one who has taken birth will die. There is no question about this; it is just a matter of time.
Second, people who come together will separate. Consider the yearly seminar at my monastery in Nepal. It is a group of eighty or ninety people. After a few weeks they separate. After a few months everyone leaves the place and several years in the future they all will be living in different places in the world.
Some of them will have already died and most of them may never meet again. After one hundred years, everyone will be dead, some cremated and some buried under the ground. After one thousand years their names and all trace of their existence will have completely disappeared. That is a fact of impermanence.
Third, everything that has been gathered will be dispersed or depleted. No matter how much wealth and material possessions we may amass, it will all be used up sooner or later.
Finally, everything that is constructed will be destroyed. No matter how solid the material, be it steel, iron or whatever, sooner or later the object will full apart and disintegrate.
Those are the four facts of impermanence. Just as it is the nature of fire to be hot and of water to be wet, all phenomena are by nature impermanent.
May 2, 2020
The Bardo Guidebook is really a companion text for The Mirror of Mindfulness. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche has written a beautiful summary of The Mirror of Mindfulness that a beginner, intermediate or advanced practitioner could spend significant time ingesting in working ether four bard is - life, death, after death, and rebirth. I look forward to digging into The Mirror of Mindfulness as a result of this wonderful text. 🙏🏻
April 30, 2021
A commentary on the Mirror of Mindfulness, with clear and concise teachings in terms lay enough for even a non-practitioner. Anyone living, dying, or simply interested in learning how consciousness "works" through the four bardo states should study both this guidebook and the Mirror of Mindfulness fervently. Om Soti, choksum tsasum gyalwa gyamtso yi, Ka-Nying Chökyi tenpey Nyima chey, sangsum tagten tendrö zhedön kün, malu yongsu drubpar jingyi lob.
August 3, 2021
As others have written, this is a commentary on the Mirror of Mindfulness. Even without having read that book or referring to it, however, The Bardo Guidebook is a superb reference guide to navigating the bardos, both in terms of philosophy and practice. Also has an excellent glossary of Buddhist terms, defined in some fresh ways. Highly recommended for students of this essential aspect of Vajrayana Buddhist teaching.
April 23, 2013
There are some absolute gems in this book and I'll be referring back to it often. Some of it did go above my head, but overall it is very encouraging.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews