انگلیسی 1383

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, or the Bardo Thodol, is a book of instructions for the dead and dying. It is meant to be a guide for the dead man during the period of his Bardo existence. The text falls into three parts. The first part, called Chikhai Bardo, describes the psychic happenings at the moment of death. The second part, or Chonyid Bardo, deals with the dream-state which supervenes immediately after death, and with what are called karmic illusions . The third part, or Sidpa Bardo, concerns the onset of the birth-instinct and of prenatal events. This Book, which is of extraordinary interest, both as regards Text and Introduction, deals with the period (longer or shorter according to the circumstances) which, commencing immediately after death, ends with rebirth . In the Buddhists view, Life consists of a series of successive states of consciousness. The first state is the Birth-Consciousness; the last is the consciousness existing at the moment of death, or the Death-Consciousness. The interval between the two states of Consciousness, during which the transformation from the old to a new being is effected, is called the Bardo or intermediate state (Antarabhava), divided into three stages, called the Chikhai, Chonyid, and Sidpa Bardo respectively. The book is welcome not merely in virtue of its particular subject-matter, but because the ritual works of any religion enable us more fully to comprehend the philosophy and psychology of the system to which they belong.