Tibetan Buddhism: to help the dying person cross the borders of death.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: stages of death and afterlife - how the dying individual should confront and react.

The Bardos - Stages of the Afterlife

The realm of the afterlife

= the world of the bardo

= the period of the afterlife that lies in between two different incarnations.

DYING PROCESS:

SENSES fail MUSCLES lose strength BODY becomes inert 4 ELEMENTS get dissoluted

• physical matter (earth)

• bodily fluids (water)

• warmth (fire)

• breath (air)

The First BardoThe First Bardo passes by in a split second.

Only those who have practiced meditation, contemplative prayer, and similar spiritual disciplines will be aware of it.

There will be opportunities to meet with spiritual beings and enter the realms of enlightened beings.

The Second BardoIf attempts at spiritual states failed, the next bardo begins.

The second bardo: "bardo of becoming"

The desires of the individual carry the helpless soul through a variety of intense emotional states. Good thoughts bring great bliss and pleasure, and hateful or negative thoughts bring great pain and desolation.

The Third BardoThe last bardo is the stage of reincarnation.

Beside the physical world, there are other 5 worlds of rebirth: the heaven worlds, the hell worlds, the world of hungry ghosts, the demigod worlds, and the animal worlds.

They exist to receive good or bad karma, not to create new karma.

Persons who were fascinated with exercising power over others would incarnate in the demigod realm.

The hungry ghost realm is a place where souls are denied fulfillment or given only small rewards.

The animal world is reserved for those with extreme instincts for violence, gluttony, or sexual gratification.

The heaven and hell worlds have wide variations. Heavens are not entirely desirable because they are places where little learning takes place, and they do not allow for much creativity or compassionate action. They are also viewed as temporary and not eternal.