The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, Transition To The Otherworld, page 4
The Great Liberation upon
Hearing: The Bardo Prayers
Tibetan: Zhi khro dgongs pa rang
grol: Bar doâi smon lam Kalimpong:
Mani Dorji, 1979. 2 volumes. I-Tib-1990;
79-905078 [v2, folios 387-395]
The four devotional prayers and verses
that constitute The Bardo Prayers
express the very heart of the entire
Great Liberation upon Hearing. They are
meant to be memorized by the lama and
then recited as needed at certain keys
points during the longer guidance
ceremony. The first, "Prayer Requesting
Assistance from the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas," is a humble petition to
all enlightened beings of compassion to
reach out and comfort those who are
dying or who are suffering in the
intermediate state. The "Prayer for
Deliverance from the Narrow Paths of the
Bardo" traces the series of experiences
in the Bardo of Reality, requesting that
the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities help
the deceased to recognize the true
nature of the bardo visions. The "Prayer
for Protection from Fear in the Bardo"
is a general appeal to the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas for compassionate refuge
from the fear and anxiety of death and
transition. Finally, "The Root Verses of
the Six Bardos" encapsulates the
essential instructions on the bardos
which are included in the actual body of
the bardo texts as poetic verses to be
read by the lama to the dying person.
The Mirror of Mindfulness: A
Clarification of the
General
Aspects of the Bardo
Experience
Tibetan: Bar do spyiâi don thams
cad rnam par gsal bar byed pa dran paâi
me long
Author: rTse le sNa tshogs rang grol
(b.1608)
Solu, Nepal, 1983. N-Tib-4294;
84-901065.
The Mirror of Mindfulness is a classic
Tibetan text on bardo by Tse-le Natsok
Rangdröl (rTse le sna tshogs rang grol,
b.1608), a famous Tantric master of the
Kagyu-pa order who was believed to be
the incarnation of the eighth century
translator Vairochana. The notion of
incarnation or tulku (sprul sku) is a
distinctively Tibetan idea that after
death an advanced spiritual personality
will reincarnate in a form that is of
special benefit to the people of a
particular area. Renowned as a tulku at
an early age, Tse-le Natsok Rangdröl was
favored by the people of his day as a
religious virtuoso, and thus, was
permitted to study with some of Tibet's
most famous scholar-practitioners of the
Kagyu and Nyingma sects. In his
amazingly lucid and concise text, The
Mirror of Mindfulness, Tse-le Natsok
Rangdröl combines the wisdom of his own
profound insight with that of the
spiritual masters from whom he had
learned so much to produce an
instructional manual that anyone can
utilize. His commentary on the bardo
states--together covering the whole
cycle of living, dying, the after-death
state, and rebirth--relates meditation
and religious practice to the bardos in
a way that can be easily applied to each
practitioner's individual level of
meditative skill. The Mirror of
Mindfulness, therefore, serves as a
practical guidebook on how human beings,
whatever their religious background, can
best transform their lives and prepare
for death by taking advantage of the
opportunities that each bardo presents.
next page
return to index
