The Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the dead)
Additional Information
Although the immortality of the soul seems to be a foregone conclusion in the minds of many westerners (and certainly in western religion), and is generally rejected out of hand by those of empirical or materialist bent, the possibility of some sort of afterlife seems to have had minimal impact on western culture. There has long been an unspoken agreement amongst westerners that death is not a healthy topic for conversation, and that the subject is best left to the rather sentimental niceties of religious ideation within the context of the church service and the funeral. Concern and guidance for the souls of the departed, so intrinsic to many Eastern cultures, is significantly absent in the West with the probably sole exception of the Roman Catholic convention of praying for the welfare of departed souls. Rites and ceremonies surrounding the event of death are designed, rather, for the benefit of the still-living survivors of the dead, who are expected, after a period of natural grief at the death of a loved one, to have done with the dead and to continue on with life almost as if the dead had never existed. Indeed, western civilization seems to have sidestepped the issue of life after death to a remarkable degree considering the importance of the question. This attitude is accurately reflected in such quintessentially western aphorisms as "Life is for the Living." Life in the western world is an exclusive club, and the dead are not welcome.
Nevertheless, we wonder about life after death. The persistence of the idea was helped along the nineteenth century of Spiritualism, which concerns itself with conditions of life after death and communication with the dead. Also significant was the timely arrival of a remarkable book from the East containing many centuries of accumulated wisdom about the afterlife and reincarnation: The Bardo Thodol, or the Tibetan Book of the Dead. This ancient work is primarily concerned with the aspects of death which have been largely ignored in the West: the exact nature of the world in which the newly dead find themselves immediately after death (The Bardo) and their destinies involving future incarnations in the human world or on some other plane, or more rarely, a tormented extended existence in the Bardo itself. Particularly significant in the paradigm of the Tibetan Book of the Dead is the emphasis on the individual volition of the dead to direct his own destiny, and also the descriptions of the "body" of the dead and the enhanced, sharpened senses, comprehension, and memories the dead will possess. Also noteworthy is the concept of Karma, which is now widely known in the west and is used in conjunction with concepts of reincarnation.
The Bardo Thodol, then, represents the sum total of accumulated wisdom of an eastern culture highly concerned with the welfare of departed souls. To what degree do the ideas contained therein converge with those of western Spiritualism? It seems logical to assume, although the approaches to the subject of the afterlife are rather markedly different in Western spiritualism from the mysticism of the Tibetan lamas, that there would nevertheless exist marked similarities if the two approaches indeed focus upon the same phenomena...those surrounding the life after death.
It is perhaps most appropriate to begin by briefly reviewing the roots of both the Bardo Thodol and Western spiritualism. Perhaps the most significant difference surrounding the development of each is the cultural context in which they evolved. The Book of the Dead, although wreathed in secrecy and sealed with "seven seals of silence," represents an integral and central dimension of Tibetan Buddhism, which embraced many of the sacred writings and even the deities of the early animistic Tibetan sects which predated Buddhism. Although the Tibetan Book of the Dead had its earliest roots in these early sects, called collectively the Bon-pos, the scriptures are inherently Buddhist in nature: according to the Lama Anagarika Govinda, who commented upon the book, "the central idea and the profound symbolism of the Bardo Thodol are genuinely Buddhistic".
Affirming this thoroughly Buddhistic philosophy was the Bardo Thodol's concern with the welfare of the incarnate as well as the dead or dying...Buddhistic mysticism depicts the mortal lifespan as a series of deaths and rebirths even in the midst of life. Thus the wisdom recorded in the Book of the Dead was of benefit even to those with many years left to live. Typically the instructions contained within the scriptures were recited to living initiates who were passing into a symbolic rebirth of the soul, in which spiritual revelation resulted in a kind of death from the "old ego". Thus the teachings of the Book of the Dead were to serve the living, at the same time preparing them for death and the world which would follow. The didactic nature of the ancient scriptures confirms a deeply-held sentiment of Buddhism, that the "privilege" of being born as a human being allows the individual to direct his own destiny in a way unknown to animals and other lifeforms. This freedom of volition is especially apparent in the world of the Bardo as revealed in the Book of the Dead, in which the soul of the recently dead seems to be powered by the naked will of the mind upon the winds of karma.
In contrast to the rich cultural context of the Bardo Thodol, spiritualism evolved more or less in the fringes of the dominant culture which surrounded it, and rather lacked the authoritative blessings of either Western science or religion during its early years. Although spiritualism shared with Tibetan Buddhism an interest in life after death and in reincarnation, the former concerned itself significantly with evidence of the manifestations of departed souls in this the "material" world. The sort of supernatural evidence which first caused the spiritualist movement as a cogent social phenomenon in the West, so-called "spirit rapping," was highly representative of the kinds of phenomena which continued to concern spiritualists...or at least, those who attempted to verify the claims of the spiritualists. Whereas Buddhistic mysticism took for granted the pure fact of death survival and attempted to muster its collective wisdom to guide the newly departed through the worlds of the dead, the spiritualist phenomenon in the Western world was balked at the outset by general resistance to the very idea of death survival and reincarnation, as if these ideas were so alien to the cultural heritage of the West. It is quite telling that the Fox sisters, pioneers in the spiritualist movement, made their public debut under P.T. Barnum, showman and huckster of the entertainingly absurd, rather than in the pulpit or even in the laboratory. A Tibetan lama of the time, if confronted with the evidence of spirit-rapping as reported by the Fox sisters, would surely have wondered what all the fuss was about!
The claims of spiritualists were soon taken seriously enough that later supernatural manifestations were in fact the subject of laboratory, or at least scientific, investigation. However, the advent of scientific interest in the "supernatural" is only further evidence of the radically different paths chosen by Spiritualism and Tibetan Buddhism. The fact that spiritualism has historically invoked more scientific inquiry than religious mysticism in the West is indicative of this divergence.
However, it could be argued that that the social reaction to spiritualism does not in fact make an adequate account of the philosophies of the spiritualists themselves. To compare Spiritualism with Tibetan Buddhism (as manifested in the Bardo Thodol) on its own ground requires a deeper analysis of the metaphysics of Spiritualism. Such an enterprise presents immediate and formidable problems; the point has already been made that Spiritualism did not represent a comprehensive religious institution as did the mysticism of the Bardo Thodol. But was Spiritualism based upon a comprehensive philosophical creed? Great care must be taken in considering this most fundamental question. "New Age" metaphysics and other modern descendants of Spiritualism are characteristically integrated with attendant religious or philosophical assumptions, often colored by Eastern religious thought, and many individual "mediums" prescribe to various models of the cosmos, from fundamentalist Christian to Hindu or Buddhist. Certain seminal thinkers such as Frederick Myers undertook to unify the Spiritualistic experiences under grand visions of the human psyche or of the universe in which it exists. However, such theorists who sought to describe a comprehensive world-view in which supernatural experiences could be included were generally the exception to the rule: the main stream of spiritualists remained fixated on the fantastic and the utilitarian aspects of the afterlife and reincarnation. Thus the scientific researchers continued to search for acceptable explanations of alleged supernatural events, and mediums devoted their talents to communicating with the dead for the benefit of surviving loved-ones, and to amazing and delighting observers with feats of spirit-rapping, knowledge from beyond the grave, and other demonstrations of supernatural manifestations. In short, classical Western Spiritualism was chiefly concerned with the supernatural events themselves; attempts to organize the information thus obtained into comprehensive visions of the cosmos followed. This contrasts with the principles of Tibetan Buddhism of the Bardo Thodol, which were less concerned with supernatural displays than with mystical truths and how these edified the soul both during life and during death.
Given the general differences in approach between Spiritualism and Buddhism, it remains to compare specific conclusions drawn by both disciplines on the subject of death and rebirth.
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, in a prolific introduction to the original W.Y. Evans-Wentz translation of the original Bardo Thodol text, briefly addresses the subject of intercultural convergence upon at least two aspects of afterlife. Jung notes that among the "astonishing parallelisms" shared by Spiritualism and Buddhism is the important conviction that newly dead are not in fact aware that they have died. This accounts for the Spiritualist's observations that apparitions continue to frequent places and accompany people they had been used to in life, and accounts for the central concern of the Book of the Dead to encourage the departed to realize the new state of their existence: "When the consciousness...getteth outside the body, it sayeth to itself, 'Am I dead, or am I not dead?' It cannot determine. It seeth its relatives and connections as it has been used to seeing them before."
Another parallel drawn by Dr. Jung is the confusing and disturbing nature of the death state into which the newly departed soul has entered. According to the Book of the Dead, "...Sounds, lights, and rays--all three--are experienced. These awe, frighten, and terrify, and cause much fatigue." The terrifying visions experienced in the Bardo naturally disorient the errant departed soul, thus necessitating the guiding wisdom of the Bardo Thodol. The "degenerative character" of the Bardo manifests, according to Jung, in the "utter inanity and banality of communications from the 'spirit world.'" However, in this instance Dr. Jung's opinion may differ from that of many spiritualist mediums, who offered access to the souls of the dead to provide guidance and reassurance to loved ones, or even to provide objective information. Nevertheless, many mediums report a kind of almost childish insecurity in the characters of their spirit contacts, suggesting that these contacts might just be in the grips of a world such as the Buddhist's Bardo.
The fact that departed spirits are able to provide significant information and keen observation for mediums is certainly supported by the Bardo Thodol. The Book affirms that the dead possess such enhanced senses and powers of intellect as they never knew if life: "...the consciousness in the Bardo possessing supernormal power of perception..." The lamas outline six particular enhanced senses which the dead enjoy: supernatural vision and hearing, telepathy, knowledge "of miraculous power", memory of previous lives, and knowledge of "the destruction of the passions." The departed spirits observed by spiritualists certainly seem to possess such powers.
One particularly interesting parallel which might be explored between Spiritualism and the Book of the Dead is the appearance of departed souls, manifested in our world as apparitions. The Bardo Thodol has little to say on the subject of apparitional appearances, but does contain descriptions of the "body" of the departed. Apparently the newly dead retain some sort of "astral" body, at least temporarily, which so closely resembles the corporeal body that this contributes to the frequent failure of the dead to realize that they have passed on; yet this astral body has been transformed by death into a form now "subtle, sparkling, bright, dazzling, glorious, and radiantly awesome." Compare these adjectives with, for example, the appearance of a phantom described by Charles Richet, a careful investigator of spiritualist phenomena: "The softness and vaporous outline of the hands are curious, likewise the veil surrounding the phantom has indeterminate outlines..." Other apparitions are frequently described as consisting of glowing mist.
On the Spiritualistic notion of hauntings the Book of the Dead again says little directly, but implies that this phenomenon exists and that it has roots in the stubbornness of some departed souls in clinging tenaciously to life: "Do not cling, in fondness and weakness, to this life...thou hast not the power to remain here. Thou wilt gain nothing more than wandering in this Sangsara (vortex)." It would seem natural to assume that the terror that the Bardo comes to hold for the malingering soul would manifest in supernatural behaviors evident in the angry haunting spirit---the poltergeist.
Objective parallelisms become somewhat more difficult to draw within the domain of reincarnation. Modern models of reincarnation have evolved within a western culture now intimately acquainted with the language of eastern religions...so much so that now, in the West, any self-respecting reincarnationist will use the actual word "karma" (as well as myriad other Sanskrit terms) in any description of the reincarnation process. Hence it is difficult if not impossible to establish a true cross-cultural convergence of ideas such as would have impressed Jung...the case cannot be made that Western reincarnationists arrived at modern notions of reincarnation independently of direct eastern influences. Furthermore, the classical Spiritualists concerned themselves primarily with communication from beyond the grave, and less with living individuals with claims of memories of past lives. However, individual and isolated cases of past-lives memories conform in many ways to the ideas contained in the Bardo Thodol, which asserts, for instance, that within certain states of consciousness (certain Bardo states) memories of past lives and other feats of supernormal sensing and thinking are possible. As has been stated before, physical death is not a prerequisite for reaching these altered states of consciousness. Each of the six states of the Bardo can be reached within the life-span on Earth.
The idea that supernormal functioning is a characteristic of certain altered states of consciousness certainly encourages the conclusion that the epic sweep of the Book of the Dead might be applied towards understanding many other "paranormal" phenomena besides spirit-communications and reincarnation. However, such an undertaking would be, as Jung expressed it, "unwelcome to our Western philosophy as it is to our theology." The West continues to take paranormal phenomenon as individual quandries, each a challenge to the materialistic universe. The Westerner, faced with a case of spirit-communication, for example, would certainly experience the first question to spring to mind as "How did that happen?" rather than "What are the theological implications?" Such an attitude is quintessentially Western, and has resulted on the one hand in an unprecedented technology, but on the other hand in a failure to progress beyond a stage in which, again according to Jung, "Philosophy and theology are still in the mediaeval, pre-psychological stage where only the assertions are listened to, explained, defended, criticized, and disputed, while the authority that makes them has, by general consent, been disposed as outside the scope of discussion." The Western mindset is pointedly manifest in such examples as psychics using their talents to predict gold futures on the stock market, to open garage doors, and to spy on Russians. In short the West is particularly interested in the utility of paranormal phenomena, but aggressively uninterested in the affairs of the soul such as are addressed in the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
In conclusion it can be said that although East and West approach the issues of death survival from, it might be said, diametrically opposed philosophical directions, there are a number of interesting parallels in the conclusions drawn by each. Stated another way, both approaches have drawn very similar pictures of the world after death, and especially of reincarnation. Thus far, the two cultures have gone on to do radically different things with this esoteric information. Whether East and West may converge once again, this time in mutual concern for the journey of the soul, remains to be seen.