Teachings on the Bardo
༡) PART ONE
One can be liberated by looking, hearing, and reading without needing to practice meditation.
According to the profound oral instructions, this is the teaching for liberating those who have committed non-virtue.
These profound and vast oral instructions which guide one on the secret path
are the supreme path that is useful in both this and future lives.
Thus, the wise should train in the teachings of the bardo.
They can be realized without difficulty for one with correct knowledge.
Importantly, now while you have the ability to do so,
you should strive to practice at all times for the sake of this life and the next.
While making effort with belief in the practice,
apply your body, speech, and mind to this teaching on the bardo.
DIVISIONS OF BARDO
According to Jetsun Milarepa there are six bardos:
(1) the bardo in between samṣāra and nirvāṇa, (2) the natural bardo of the path,
(3) the bardo in between birth and death, (4) the bardo of dreaming and sleeping,
(5) the bardo of existence, and
(6) the bardo of the next life.
Even though there are many subdivisions of the bardo,
according to Milarepa, it is in the bardo in between samṣāra and nirvāṇa
that the reality of mahāmudrā is pointed out and the perfect view is correctly determined.
During the natural bardo of the path,
it is important for those who have embarked on the path to meditate
on the oral instructions of the whispered lineage in order to realize the face of innate wisdom.
Within the appearances of the bardo in between birth and death
you should strive at the two paths of the creation and completion stages
in order to advance in your conduct and radiant capacity of awareness.
While in the bardo of dreaming and sleeping,
since sleep is mainly based on your habitual tendencies,
train primarily in luminosity and the illusory body
in order to make use of these habitual tendencies on the path.
Finally, in the bardo of existence, you should take the three kāyas into the path
and travel to the three pure lands.
If you don’t realize them in this life,
then with pure aspirations, make a connection in the bardo of the next life.
According to The General Meaning of Mantra, all phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are without nature, and yet they appear otherwise. That is the coarse nature of illusion. This is the general meaning of the illusory body. The illusory body is exemplified by a dream, an echo, and a rainbow. According to many gurus, the actual illusory body is when, due to the extraordinary practice of the winds dissolving into the heart, the wind and mind arise from emptiness in the pure form of the deity; the approximate illusory body is when, due to just the ordinary practice of the channels and winds, the winds dissolve into the heart and the wind and mind arise from emptiness in the pure form of the deity.
In general, there is the luminosity of the basis, path, and result. The luminosity of the natural state, the luminosity of sleep, and the luminosity of the time of death appear to everyone whether they meditate or not and whether they are able to recognize it or not. That is the luminosity of the basis. The luminosity of the path, which is the view that realizes the unarisen emptiness of all phenomena, is general luminosity.
The luminosity of the fourth emptiness due to the winds dissolving into the central channel, or the recognition on the basis of the experience of the fourth co-emergent joy, is the hidden luminosity. Moreover, example luminosity is the co-emergent joy or fourth emptiness together with the dualistic appearance of subject and object. The actual luminosity is the co-emergent joy or emptiness without subject-object dualism. The luminosity of the result is explained as the luminosity of the union of no more learning.