The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

108 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING
therefore the best, time to prepare for death: by becoming
familiar with the teaching and stabilizing the practice.
2. The painful bardo of dying lasts from the beginning of
the process of dying right up until the end of what is known
as the "inner respiration"; this, in turn, culminates in the
dawning of the nature of mind, what we call the "Ground
Luminosity," at the moment of death.
3. The luminous bardo of dharmata encompasses the afterdeath
experience of the radiance of the nature of mind, the
luminosity or "Clear Light," which manifests as sound, color,
and light.
4. The karmic bardo of becoming is what we generally call
the Bardo or intermediate state, which lasts right up until the
moment we take on a new birth.
What distinguishes and defines each of the bardos is that
they are all gaps or periods in which the possibility of awakening
is particularly present. Opportunities for liberation are
occurring continuously and uninterruptedly throughout life and
death, and the bardo teachings are the key or tool that enables
us to discover and recognize them, and to make the fullest
possible use of them.
UNCERTAINTY AND OPPORTUNITY
One of the central characteristics of the bardos is that they
are periods of deep uncertainty. Take this life as a prime
example. As the world around us becomes more turbulent, so
our lives become more fragmented. Out of touch and disconnected
from ourselves, we are anxious, restless, and often
paranoid. A tiny crisis pricks the balloon of the strategies we
hide behind. A single moment of panic shows us how precarious
and unstable everything is. To live in the modern world is
to live in what is clearly a bardo realm; you don't have to die
to experience one.
This uncertainty, which already pervades everything now,
becomes even more intense, even more accentuated after we
die, when our clarity or confusion, the masters tell us, will be
"multiplied by seven."
Anyone looking honestly at life will see that we live in a
constant state of suspense and ambiguity. Our minds are perpetually
shifting in and out of confusion and clarity. If only we
were confused all the time, that would at least make for some
kind of clarity. What is really baffling about life is that some-