(A brief teaching by H.E. Tai Situ
Rinpoche, Nov.1982 at Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia)
“Bardo”
is a Tibetan word which means “In-between”. First all of your expectation when
you say and hear about Bardo, you expect something after the death. Actually it
isn't only about after the death. Bardo is a general teaching. It is not a specific teaching. The Lord Buddha Sakyamuni has given the
teachings on the Bardo, and realized and learned masters have been continued
this lineage.
Basically,
the word, “Bardo” expresses the “in-between” of all aspect. In-between the
Samsara and Nirvana, in-between impure and pure, in-between birth and death, in-between
death and birth - but everybody expect is only one aspect of Bardo which is
in-between the death and the birth. And here today, I will explain whole aspect
of Bardo into basic simple principle. As traditional teaching here, I will
explain six aspects of Bardo.
These
6 aspects of Bardo include and summarize the all aspect of samsaric and
spiritual process. For these 6 Bardo, first I will go through just by the name.
The Bardo, the birth. Second is Bardo, the dream. The third is Bardo the
meditation or in the Chinese language you say “ting” sounds like a bell sound. And
then 4th is Bardo of the moment of the death. The 5th is Bardo of the ultimate
nature. The 6th one is known as universal Bardo or the possibility Bardo that
is from this life's death until the beginning of the next life. These are the 6
aspects of Bardo.
1. Bardo of Birth
When
a being reborn in this universe as a sentient being naturally, actually it
means is the coordination of the body, speech, and mind of that person, that
being together. And here, I will explain this according to our human
being. Principally saying for all aspect
of being, but there is special quality which we can learn through the human way
of existence and coordination because we are human being.
First,
because of the karma which is accumulated by the ego, the consciousness of that
being enters into a realm, example, human realm. That is the moment of the
first connection between the body substance and the consciousness of that being.
And since this time, the physical body and formless mind somehow coordinate and
communicate. This way, this physical body develops according to the capability
of the formless mind according to the desire of it, according to the ignorance
of it, according to the anger of it, according to the stinginess of it,
according to the pride and jealous of it.
What
kind of consciousness that being has developed according to that this physical
body will develop and some are healthier, some are unhealthy. Some are fully
developed, some are less developed. Some are complete, some are deformed. That
is the way how it becomes. This process develops by each moment until the. .(actually
this is very complicated, but I will try to explain which is important)...
until the 29 days of the physical substance inside the mother, this
consciousness is all over - all over the substance. What it meant is when the
consciousness enters, the consciousness doesn't have any substance, because of
that it relates with the most subtle substance, the energy, the air. Because of
that, this energy, the air quality can survive all over. When it is 49 days old, it becomes hard and
more solid already. Therefore, it cannot
survive everywhere. Because of this, it goes into the middle of this whole
substance. We call this the central channel or the 'nyima nadi' the outer
aspect. And from this, all aspect of
this quality of this air, even this is the little air, it has great power. It has great quality, unimaginable,
unbelievable quality. For example, with
ourselves we have it, because of that, we don't respect 'it, but if we check
carefully how our hairs grow, how we can see, how we can talk, how we can walk,
how our skin works, how our bone works, how we can see – unbelievable. Everything
is just unbelievable. This is the quality of the karma which created this whole
unbelievable quality. As from the 29th
day, then this central one radiates and manifests into all direction and this
is known as all the chakras, etc. The inner one and secret one are different. I
am talking about outer aspect of chakra and outer aspect of central channel. In
this way, we have all the senses. We have all of these incredible things. They are developed from this stage until the
birth of the child.
The birth of the child is the complete
development of all the important seat. After the birth, then it develops more,
but it develops what is already there. Nothing new comes: just what is there
will develop. Now, what we have understood in this level is, all the outer
coordination of this mind and sense and the universe. Eye and form, nose and
smell, tongue and taste, body and touch etc. etc. And inner coordination, mind
- the Buddha-nature and ego "I" and desire, anger, ignorance, jealous
etc. And this is the way how action is made. All of these are the intention. With
this intention, we make the action. This is the way how the future karma is
created and we have to learn them all as the basic - and since we learn this
then we have to know the ultimate of that.
Now anyway if we go through the detail we can
explain the Buddha Dharma, especially Vajrayana can explain each atom of a
human being body and each moment of the human being's thought, expression,
everything - but the basic of all this complicated thing, the overall point is
body, speech and mind. Body is the solid appearance, speech is the expression, and
the mind is the essence. Therefore, mind is Dharmakaya. Speech - the expression is Sambhogakaya. The
body - the appearance, the manifestation, is Nirmanakaya. That is what we have to understand and this
is the basic, the truth, 1st aspect of Bardo, the Bardo the birth.
N.B.
Briefly
about H.E. Tai Situpa and Karma Kagyu Lineage
H.E.12th
Tai Situ Rinpoche (born on 15th Feburualy1954) founded the Palpung –
Sherabling Monastery in Northern India in the
Himalayan Regions. He is the Root Guru of the present 17th Gyalwa
Karmapa.
The 11th
Tai Situ Rinpoche was the Root Guru of 16th Gyalwa Karmapa and the 16th Gyalwa
Karmapa was the Root Guru of 12th Tai Situpa. By tracing back to the
past, the two of them took turn to be Guru in one life and became the disciple
in the next life. This is the way how the lineage is kept unbroken from Guru to
disciple in the Karma Kagyu
This lineage
was founded by Vajra Dhara (Dorje Chang), sambhogakaya form of Buddha Sakyamuni,
who taught Tilopa , an Indian Mahasidha. And this lineage from India continued to Tibet unbroken until the present 12th
Tai Situ Rinpoche who is the only holder of the Special Oral Transmission
Lineage of the Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhism. When a person receives this
Special Oral Transmission, he or she will get immediate good experience in his
or her meditation practice. According to Rinpoche, to receive this Special Oral
Transmission Blessings, the devotee’s Karma must be ripe at that time. This
blessing is powerful because it comes from the whole Karma Kagyu Lineage.
