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

THE BARDO OF BECOMING 297The overwhelming power of thought, then, is the key issuein the bardo of becoming. This crucial moment finds us completelyexposed to whatever habits and tendencies we haveallowed to grow and dominate our lives. If you don't checkthose habits and tendencies now in life, and prevent themfrom seizing hold of your mind, then in the bardo of becomingyou will be their helpless victim, buffeted to and fro bytheir power. The slightest irritation, for example, in the bardoof becoming can have a devastating effect, and that is whytraditionally the person reading the Tibetan Book of the Deadhad to be someone with whom you had a good connection; ifnot, the very sound of his or her voice could infuriate you,with the most disastrous consequences.The teachings give us many descriptions of the rawness ofthe mind in the bardo of becoming; the most striking of thesesays that our mind in this bardo is like a flaming red-hot ironbar that can be bent in whichever way you want until itcools, when whatever form it finds itself in rapidly solidifies.In just the same way, it is said, a single positive thought inthis bardo can lead directly to enlightenment, and a single negativereaction can plunge you into the most prolonged andextreme suffering. The Tibetan Book of the Dead could not warnus more strongly:Now is the time which is the borderline between going up andgoing down; now is the time when by slipping into laziness evenfor a moment you will endure constant suffering; now is the timewhen by concentrating for an instant you will enjoy constant happiness.Focus your mind single-mindedly; strive to prolong theresults of good karma!The Tibetan Book of the Dead tries to awaken any connectionwith spiritual practice the dead person may have had, and itencourages us: to give up attachment to people and possessions,to abandon yearning for a body, not to give in to desireor anger, to cultivate kindness rather than hostility, and noteven to contemplate negative actions. It reminds the dead personthere is no need to fear: On the one hand, it tells themthat the terrifying bardo figures are nothing more than theirown deluded projections and by nature empty; and on theother hand, that they themselves have only "a mental body ofhabitual tendencies," and are therefore empty too. "So emptinesscannot harm emptiness."