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

326 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING
complete transformation it often makes in the lives, attitudes,
careers, and relationships of the people who have this experience.
They may not lose their fear of pain and dying, but they
lose their fear of death itself; they become more tolerant and
loving; and they become interested in spiritual values, the
"path of wisdom," and usually in a universal spirituality rather
than the dogma of any one religion.
How, then, should the near-death experience be
interpreted? Some Western writers who have read the Tibetan
Book of the Dead equate these experiences with the experiences
of the bardos taught in the Tibetan tradition. At first glance
there do seem to be tantalizing parallels between the two, but
how exactly do the details of the near-death experience relate
to the teachings on the bardos? I feel that this would require a
special study beyond the scope of this book, but there are a
number of similarities and differences we can see.
THE DARKNESS AND THE TUNNEL
The final phase of the dissolution process of the bardo of
dying, you will remember, is when the black experience of
"full attainment" dawns "like an empty sky shrouded in utter
darkness." At this point, the teachings speak of a moment of
bliss and joy. One of the main features of the near-death experience
is the impression of moving "at a terrific speed" and
"feeling weightless" through a black space, "a total, peaceful,
wonderful blackness," and down a "long, dark, tunnel."
One woman told Kenneth Ring: "It's just like a void, a
nothing and it's such a peaceful—it's so pleasant that you can
keep going. It's a complete blackness, there is no sensation at
all, there was no feeling ... sort of like a dark tunnel. Just a
floating. It's like being in mid-air." 3
And another woman told him:
The first thing I remember was a tremendous rushing sound, a
tremendous ... It's hard to find the right words to describe. The closest
thing that I could possibly associate it with is, possibly, the sound
of a tornado—a tremendous gushing wind, but almost pulling me.
And I was being pulled into a narrow point from a wide area. 4
A woman told Margot Grey:
/ was in what felt like outer space. It was absolutely black out there
and I felt like I was being drawn towards an opening like at the