A Wheel of Great Bliss For The Bardo Road

A Wheel of Great Bliss for the Bardo Road
Minling Kenpo Tsewang Rigdzin
I bow to the glorious Samantabhadra!
The instructions for Bardo recognition include its essence, definition, types, appearance, and boundaries. I will explain them separately. First, the Bardos essence: Any situation where samsara and nirvana appear to be something different from a domain that is primordially pure is a Bardo. First there is the Pure Bardo of the Dharmadhatu. It appears to us from the inner luminescence of the Buddhas body and wisdom in their basic manifestation, which is an act of the Buddhas two physical aspects. Then there is the Impure Bardo of Samsara, which includes every deluded perception that goes to form samsara with its six realms. Second, the definitions: Both of these Bardos rise out of a domain that is primordially pure and sink back into primordial purity. They exist in the place that is between this rising and returning. Third, the types: There are four. The Bardo of our Natural Birth, the Bardo of the Pain of Death, the Bardo of Realitys Clear Light, and the Bardo of Lifes Karma. I will explain the appearance of these four and how they are differentiated in four sections: First, The Bardo of our Natural Birth. Right now we seem to be truly engaged in perceived realities made of painful karma, characterized as life among the six classes of
A Wheel of Great Bliss for the Bardo Road by Minling Khenpo Tsewang Rigdzin Translated by Christoph Wilkinson, Sept. 2012 Wilkinson.christoph@gmail.com
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sentient beings. This is because our basic consciousness is composed of diverse inclinations that come from a beginningless series of lives. The Maintenance of Memory says:
Beings in hell experience the fires of hell. Ghosts experience hunger and thirst. Animals experience eating each other. Demi-gods experience fights and disputes. Gods experience things they find inappropriate. Humans experience short lifespans. At the tip of samsaras needle There is never any happiness.
In the Mahayana we work to liberate both ourselves and all the other sentient beings from this samsara. We propagate an enlightened attitude. Those who find sense in a gradual approach propagate wisdom through study, contemplation, and meditation like little birds that are looking for a nest, even though the Dharmas of Sutra and Mantra are like a vast ocean. Those who have an instant approach use only a few profound Upadesha instructions to hit the bulls-eye: There is no real pleasure in life. We arent sure when we will die. We arent sure of what will cause our death. Nothing, with the exception of the holy Dharma, will help us when its time to die, whether it be power, wealth, or benefactors. We consider these things repeatedly. We
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have to learn things that we will not regret under any circumstances when we face death. The great prince Shantideva said:
If we use our humanity as a boat We can escape from this great river of sorrow. This is a boat that is very hard to find. Dont go back to sleep when you feel upset.
The Lord Jowo Dipamkara said:
These are the days when our time is like a ship. We dont have time to study the great ocean of all the Dharmas. Stop doing things to rest your troubled mind. The only thing to do is to meditate On what the holy ones taught those near to them.
Our basic condition is one of potential and opportunity, so dont waste your body, speech, and mind pursuing the average. Keep your head in the sun and live by the Dharma. The things we do and the things we give up for our life in the world may be great or small, but theres not even the tip of a sesame seeds point to them. Think about that. We must strive to do our best to give this life meaning.
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The boundaries of this Bardo are from when we emerge from our mothers womb to when we are struck by fatal disease. Second, the Bardo of the Pain of Death: The signs that our life has run out are evident, so we have to work hard to get our lives back. We do religious ceremonies and apply life prolonging procedures. We get depressed and cancel our engagements when we realize that nothing will bring us back. We have to get rid of any wealth we still have, so we either offer it up or hand it down. We lose our attachment to those closely connected to us: our entourage, servants, relatives, and friends. It is extremely important that we repeatedly remind ourselves how impermanence works. Master Aryadeva said:
Even the lord of the three dominions of the world Is not the master of his own death. It would be natural to wake him from his sleep, But what could be more inappropriate?
When the continuity of the composites that hold us together is disrupted the time has come to spin on down to the worlds other side. We go alone, like a hair that has been plucked out. We do not go out like a fire that dies or water that dries up, where there is nothing left. Our consciousness holds on. The Precious Ones are not capable of taking care of us. What happens to us is entirely based on our own personal karma and the behaviors we adopted so that we could get this karma. We dont have even a hairs worth of independence from it. We must experience the pain of death.
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This is when bile fills our bodys channels and we have phlegmatic diseases that cant be healed. Even if the king of all the doctors came to see us he really could not find anything that would help. The wind of our worldly karma shifts and we cant get a hold on what is happening through our five sensory apertures. We go onward in a dark confusion. The winds that hold us to life shift. Our memories are unclear, but we put down our last wills and instructions. The winds that draw us upward shift and our stomachs wont hold food. The winds that clear the lower passages shift and we cant retain our digestive fluids, so they spill out on the carpet. The winds that regulate our fire shift, and our bodys warmth withdraws from our extremities. The winds that permeate our bodies shift, and all our limbs freeze up like dry wood. Our breath is short and all our physical channels are stopped up. The patient collapses at the side of the bed. When the pain of death crushes down on us we regret the wide variety of karma we collected through deceit, fraud, and lies when we were still healthy, but its too late. The flesh and blood that is inside us, then our warmth and breath, then our consciousness gradually resolve into the earth, water, fire, wind, and space. The knots that hold the channels for our five chakras together are destroyed. We go on. Our earth element resolves into water. The channels connected at the snake chakra at our navel are destroyed. The external signs are that our body becomes heavy and wont move. The internal signs are that our consciousness falls under the power of a dense depression. The secret sign is that we perceive a clear light that seems to be a mirage. The fire element resolves into the wind, and the channels connected at the enjoyment chakra at our throat are destroyed. The external sign is that most of our warmth, both external and internal, is lost. The inner sign is that our cognition cannot
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be directed and is distorted. The secret sign is that we perceive clear light as if we were being carried through a fire. The wind element resolves into our consciousness. The channels connected at the bliss keeping chakra at our private parts is destroyed. The external signs are that our breath comes out as Ngar Ngar. The inner sign is that we start to see all kinds of amazing things. The secret sign is that we perceive clear light as if it were a lamp. Our consciousness resolves into space. The five doors of our sensory perception are blocked up all at once. All the blood from the upper and lower parts of our body collects in our vital channel (srog rtsa) and our external breathing stops. Then the three subtle resolutions happen one by one: perception, dispersion, and acquisition. This is how: During the first moment the pale part of our constitution that we get from our father descends from the brahmanical aperture at the crown of our head into the current of our central channel. At this moment the external signs are that we perceive a pale road, as if we saw moonlight through a crack in a wall. The inner sign is that our forty kinds of desirous thoughts cease. The secret sign is that we start to experience bliss. During the second moment the red part of our constitution we get from our mother rises up from our navel along the path of our central channel. The external sign is that we perceive a red road that seems to be under a cloudless sky where there are the sun, moon, and planets. The inner sign is that our thirty kinds of hateful thought cease. The secret sign is that we start to experience clarity. During the third moment the pale and the red parts of our constitution meet up in our heart. The external sign is that we perceive a dark path, as if the darkness of evening was penetrating a cloudless sky. The inner sign is that our seven kinds of stupid thinking cease. The secret sign is the birth of non-conceptual experience.
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Then the pale and the red elements of our constitution move upward and spread out into eight separate channels that still cling to life. Our inner breath stops. We faint into the space of our basic consciousness. This is when our thoughts about eighty ways that things really are resolve into space. A clear light on how things really are at base appears to us purely and naturally, like an autumn sky without the three conditions. This is the moment we use the power of the samadhi meditation we have done in the past to recognize our path. The clear lights mix together like a mother and her child. This is liberation into the Dharmakaya at the moment of death. Its boundaries are from when we are afflicted with mortal illness till we perceive the clear light that is at base. While we are still alive we must develop wisdom through study, contemplation, and meditation, repeatedly placing ourselves in the samadhi of freedom through the three doors. When we die we will succeed on the road, the border crossings will be positive. The Blessed Ones Sutra says:
Akashagarbha, when it is time for a Bodhisattva to die he must meditate on the wisdom of the moment of death. The wisdom of the moment of death is a meditation on a consciousness devoid of material things, where all dharmas are naturally pure. He must meditate on a consciousness of great compassion, for all dharmas come together in the Bodhicitta. He must meditate with a consciousness that is not attached to anything at all, for all dharmas are not objectified and are as clear as light by nature. He must meditate with a consciousness that does not go searching for the Buddha somewhere else, for our minds understanding is wisdom.
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In the Bardo where we face death we must develop a level of serious exertion when we meditate in the samadhi where awareness interacts with emptiness, as if we were pretty girls looking at ourselves in the mirror. Third, the Bardo of Reality: Everything we perceive appears to us is the luminescence of five different colored lights. The first moment a yogi recognizes this a conviction about it will come to him by itself. In the second moment he will be free in his own space. In the third moment he will, on top of being free, be received at his own fortress (btsan). Then an assortment of interactive peaceful and wrathful deities will gradually appear to him during five days of dhyana meditation. During the first day it will be Vairocana, Vajrasattva during the second, Ratnasambhava during the third, Amitabha during the forth, and Amoghasiddhi during the fifth. The five lineages will show themselves in the company of their teams in the sky right in front of us, filling the entire horizon. We gain a conviction that they appear to us by themselves, and in that moment we are free, as we were a child set down on our mothers lap. It is said:
Death is a primordially pure clear light ripening into the Dharmakaya. The things that appear in the Bardo Are our liberation into the Sambhogakaya. When we have perfected effulgence on the path, Doing Trekcho and Todgyal, May we be as free as a child on his mothers lap.
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After this we get a perception in which the four aspects of our wisdom are covered by the luminescence of the five lights, as if a blanket were stretched out. The Thigle and the Thigdren (thig phran) appear to us as if rainbow light were dropped into our eyes. At that moment we recognize that things appear this way by themselves. We are free. A perception of our basic consciousness as a whole finally comes to us. This is how: unstoppable compassion rises into our sight and we have great compassion for sentient beings without trying to get it. Light that is clear and pure rises into our sight and we perceive the five wisdoms, luminous in themselves, as if they were a splendorous rainbow. A non-conceptual wisdom rises into our vision and we abide with the dharmas of samsara and nirvana without classifying them as good or evil. A perception that our body is not independently existent rises into our vision and we see crowds of peaceful and wrathful deities with their teams from the minor lineages. The non-duality of samsara and nirvana rises up into our vision and we awaken to the wheel of wisdom that is forever pure and appears to us by itself. We gain liberation through the perfection we always had and at last we perceive the wheel of wisdom as a whole, without any complications. The doorway of pure wisdom rises into our vision and we remain in the space of the way things are, fundamentally pure. Its like the sky. The door to samsaras impurity rises into our vision and we perceive the six classes of beings and the entire world, the container and those it contains, without getting mixed up. It is certainly true that from this point forward we recognize that things occur to us by themselves, which liberates us into the Buddhas Sambhogakaya. We also understand the purposes of all living beings, who equal the sky. The boundaries are from the time our inner breath ceases till the clear light rises and our perception is whole.
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Forth, the Bardo of this worlds karma: Those who sense things gradually and coarse people fail to perceive the signs that will liberate them through the previously mentioned Bardos. They have not achieved stability in completion stage samadhi. They are controlled by their inclinations, so they meet up at the border crossings where spirits go back into the world. The way they perceive things is one where their inclinations take on bodies in their minds. Compounds are brought together to form a basis on which things are named. Their feelings are naturally painful. They are tormented by freezing, hunger, and thirst. The only things they consider are having all their senses intact, a mothers womb, and a vajra seat, so when the magic illusions of karma appear to them they rush forward without consideration toward places like stone houses in the mountains. They dont have space for the causes and conditions it takes to get a father and mother. They cant even perceive whether their future includes a sun and a moon. A moderate amount of light emerges to embody them and they are carried onto a yellowish pathway. They eat smells for food and use the cognitive power of their eyes to watch for their own kind of beings in the Bardo. Some of them go to places they have close connections with, but no one there sees them. No one notices them. Their sorrow resembles getting stabbed in the heart by thorns. Their experiences are intolerable. They think Am I dead? They let out their tears and throw sand. Once they figure out that they are dead they are enraged with limitless mental afflictions. They think: Why dont I get another body to live in? They throw together a place to stay with burnt logs in a fire pit, but they dont have the power to stay there for even a minute. They are carried off like feathers in the wind. They arrive in a place where they think of things but they cant move their limbs in and out to touch them. There is nothing whatever to recon by, so they wander around while they feel dejected. They have strong memories of their families and children, but they couldnt find any way to meet them even if they didnt have the problem of being dead.
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They have no refuge, no protector, no comrade, no helper, and no companion whatever. Everything they like, even bodies, turn out be horrible things. These are clearly seven things to understand that we didnt have before. They have thrown off the body they depended on and wont get it back again. They get worn out. Half way through the Bardo we perceive the body we used to have as well as seeing some of the body we will have in the future. We wont be sure whether it will be a long time or a short time. For some it is seven days. For others it is twenty one. A very long time is forty nine days. It wont be more than that. It does say in the Abhidharma that once we have gotten to the point between lives there is no way to get back, but the scriptures of the Mahayanas Secret Mantra teach a variety of techniques and have connections for doing this, The boundaries are from when our perception of wholeness sinks away on up to when we get caught up in the consciousness of holding on tight to the dreamlike smells we consume in our mothers womb. Now sentient beings who are wandering through the Bardo make four frightening sounds. They face three caverns of anguish. There are six signs that indicate the intolerable torturous pains that we will feel in our fear and delusion, but we arent sure what they are. So why not go for refuge to the Three Jewels, meditate on a Yidam deity such as the most glorious Hayagriva, and present our requests to our guru and virtuous friends as if we were planting a stake? Our good work will be extended just as if we installed struts where the legs of an aqueduct have broken. We must set our minds on the Pure Land, release a great sigh for freedom, then set out in a one pointed determination to get there. We will be reborn in a truly pleasant land off to the East, as if we had shot out arrow a great distance.
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A virtuous being of dull senses that has faith and has nothing to hide about his samaya will be diverted from being born in an evil doers womb. They will gain a human body with potential and opportunity, and will be born where the Buddha has manifested his person. There will be others who have not done any virtues that will support their backs. They will not have the correct perspective, and once again they will take a body appropriate to them among the six classes of living beings. They will fall into undesirable conditions. They will experience incessant sorrows. So right now we have acquired a dependable body that has potential and opportunity. We should turn ourselves about by the reins, as if we were horses. Give up evil. Practice virtue. Persevere at the methods there are for comprehending how it is that we are without a self. It is important that we have our own memories.
These days people contrive a semblance of the Dharma to be the Dharma. They enter the door of the Dharma only to get famous. Our human lives are eaten up by poison while we are on shaky roads. Bless us that we do something meaningful With our potential and opportunity.
This Wheel of Great Bliss in the Recognition of the Bardo was written by Tsewang Rigdzin from Ngari to be of use to myself, others, and all sentient beings as a clear statement to encourage virtue. It is good.
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A Wheel of Great Bliss for the Bardo Road

Minling Kenpo Tsewang Rigdzin

I bow to the glorious Samantabhadra!

The Lord Jowo Dipamkara said:

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