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

108 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYINGtherefore the best, time to prepare for death: by becomingfamiliar with the teaching and stabilizing the practice.2. The painful bardo of dying lasts from the beginning ofthe process of dying right up until the end of what is knownas the "inner respiration"; this, in turn, culminates in thedawning of the nature of mind, what we call the "GroundLuminosity," at the moment of death.3. The luminous bardo of dharmata encompasses the afterdeathexperience of the radiance of the nature of mind, theluminosity or "Clear Light," which manifests as sound, color,and light.4. The karmic bardo of becoming is what we generally callthe Bardo or intermediate state, which lasts right up until themoment we take on a new birth.What distinguishes and defines each of the bardos is thatthey are all gaps or periods in which the possibility of awakeningis particularly present. Opportunities for liberation areoccurring continuously and uninterruptedly throughout life anddeath, and the bardo teachings are the key or tool that enablesus to discover and recognize them, and to make the fullestpossible use of them.UNCERTAINTY AND OPPORTUNITYOne of the central characteristics of the bardos is that theyare periods of deep uncertainty. Take this life as a primeexample. As the world around us becomes more turbulent, soour lives become more fragmented. Out of touch and disconnectedfrom ourselves, we are anxious, restless, and oftenparanoid. A tiny crisis pricks the balloon of the strategies wehide behind. A single moment of panic shows us how precariousand unstable everything is. To live in the modern world isto live in what is clearly a bardo realm; you don't have to dieto experience one.This uncertainty, which already pervades everything now,becomes even more intense, even more accentuated after wedie, 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 aconstant state of suspense and ambiguity. Our minds are perpetuallyshifting in and out of confusion and clarity. If only wewere confused all the time, that would at least make for somekind of clarity. What is really baffling about life is that some-