bardo

Chapter 3
The Bardo of Becoming
There are two kinds of bardo: the bardo of dharmata
(“the true nature”) and the bardo of becoming. The
peaceful and wrathful deities appear in the bardo of
dharmata. They are always latent within our body and mind
and have the power to appear after death in the bardo of
dharmata. When we are changing bodies, they manifest. If
we don’t recognize them, we are terrified by them. If we do
recognize them, we can turn to them for refuge, and they
can benefit us in our journey. As already described there
are the peaceful deities, the vidyadharas, dakas, dakinis and
these are the wrathful deities, which manifest during the
bardo of dharmata. There are a great number of wrathful
deities because the five Herukas have an entourage of
wrathful deities. If I go through them all, naming them,
describing what they look like and what they wear, it will
not be particularly useful and you may feel a bit
overwhelmed. Therefore I will move on to the next bardo
of becoming.
In the bardo of becoming we exchange our old
existence for a new existence. Many illusory appearances
occur in the gap between our old existence and new
existence. If we cannot recognize them, much fear,
problems, and mistakes may ensue. But if we are
habituated to the various appearances that manifest during
the bardo of becoming, then we will be able to recognize
the illusory appearances and then their frightening
appearance to us will diminish and we will not be
frightened and consequently make fewer make mistakes.
It is said that in the bardo a being has all sensory
faculties and can go anywhere without being impeded. If
we are in a house, we needn’t leave through a door but can
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