Bardo of dying

The 'painful' bardo of dying (Skt. mumūrṣāntarābhava; Wyl. 'chi kha gnad gcod kyi bar do) — one of the four or six bardos. Teachings on the bardo of dying usually contain the instructions for phowa practice.

'Root Verse' for the Bardo of Dying by Padmasambhava

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ཀྱེ་མ་བདག་ལ་འཆ་ཁ་བར་ད་འཆར་དུས་འདིར༔

ཀུན་ལ་ཆགས་སེམས་ཞེན་འཛིན་སྤངས་བྱས་ལ༔

གདམས་ངག་གསལ་བའི་ལམ་ལ་མ་གཡེང་འཇུག༔

རང་རིག་སྐྱེ་མེད་ནམ་མཁའི་དབྱིངས་སུ་འཕང༔

འདུས་བྱས་ཤ་ཁྲག་ལུས་དང་བྲལ་ལ་ཁད༔

མི་རྟག་སྒྱུ་མ་ཡིན་པར་ཤེས་པར་བྱ༔

Now when the bardo of dying dawns upon me,

I will abandon all grasping, yearning, and attachment,

Enter undistracted into clear awareness of the teaching,

And eject my consciousness into the space of unborn rigpa;

As I leave this compound body of flesh and blood

I will know it to be a transitory illusion.

Alternative Translations

• bardo of death

Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha

• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 22-24 August 2010
• Sogyal Rinpoche, London, 30-31 October 2010
• Sogyal Rinpoche, San Diego, 30 November-4 December 2010

Further Reading

• Chögyam Trungpa, Transcending Madness: The Experience of the Six Bardos, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, Volume Six, Ch.6 'The Bardo of Death'.
• Dzogchen Ponlop, Mind Beyond Death (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2006), Ch.5 'Evaporating Reality: The Painful Bardo of Dying'.
• Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, revised and updated edition (Harper San Francisco, 2002), Ch. 14-15.
• Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, Mirror of Mindfulness: The Cycle of the Four Bardos, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang (Boston & Shaftesbury: Shambhala, 1989), Ch.2 'The Painful Bardo of Dying'.
• Tulku Thondup, Enlightened Journey—Buddhist Practice as Daily Life, edited by Harold Talbott (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1995), pages 55-62.