The Great Book of the Dead - Bardo Todol. This unique artifact only recently came to the attention of mankind. The greatest shrine in Tibet! It is kept like the apple of an eye by monks who transmit the wisdom of ancient generations.
Until now, the texts from this book are read over the body of the deceased for forty days. The Book of the Dead instructs the deceased on how to behave after death, and prepares the living for the moment of inevitable departure.
The text of the book is truly unique. It was written by Tibetan lamas in the eighth century, but it remains interesting even to modern people. Initially, it was believed that the Book of the Dead should help the consciousness of the deceased move from the real world to the ephemeral world. And for this you need to prepare yourself during your lifetime.
The translator deliberately dubbed this work "The Book of the Dead", perhaps in order to give it an appropriate emotional flavor and interest the average Western reader.
Literally the book is called Liberation in the Bardo Through Hearing. By "bardo" the Tibetans understand the intermediate state "between two" worlds. But few people try to grasp the essence of the term, perceiving only two stages - death and reincarnation.
However, the text speaks, first of all, about the path to Wisdom, which will allow not to get bogged down in a series of incessant rebirths, which are inevitable due to ignorance and misunderstanding of suffering.
For many hundreds of years, this manuscript was kept in the Forbidden Kingdom, an isolated place created by the Tibetan monk Padmasambhava, who is the author of the Great Book.
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He was a Buddhist teacher and magician. It was Padmasambhava who is believed to have founded the Vajrayana school in Tibet, which gave its followers the hope of attaining nirvana in one human life.
In 775, with his cares, the construction of the first Buddhist monastery, Samye, was completed in the country. New monasteries became centers of Buddhist enlightenment, where they taught not only ritual rituals, philosophy and dogma, but also medicine.
Padmasambhava hid the book in a hiding place, so that the wisdom that was revealed to him would go to people of other generations. In those days, the Tibetan teachings were subjected to numerous persecutions. Therefore, many dissidents hid in the network of Himalayan caves, hiding there unique scrolls, discovered by descendants only many centuries later.
The first European who had a chance to touch the wisdom of their ancestors was William Evans-Wentz, an Oxford professor, an avid traveler and an expert on Buddhism. He managed not only to get acquainted with the unique text, but even to make a translation, which was published in 1927.
In order to make adjustments to his translation, he has repeatedly visited the ancient monastery, lost among the mountains.
For three years, Evans-Wentz worked from morning until late at night. And his efforts were rewarded. The translation of the Book of the Dead was a resounding success. She gave people answers to the most intimate question: is there life after death? In addition, the Book contained valuable advice to the living, for example, how to approach the moment of leaving this world.
Work on the text of the book has continued for a century by scholars who have studied Tibetan Buddhism. If in the 90s of the twentieth century in Russia the political system had not changed, this book would not have been translated into Russian.
Correct withdrawal from life is called phowa. A person should start the first stage during his lifetime. But the Phowa technique can be unsafe for an unprepared person who, through carelessness, may actually die prematurely.
For example, many monks who meditate in the morning were able to move the bones of the skull apart. On the top of their heads blood appeared, and this place was called "the hole of Brahma."
According to tradition, after a person has expired and the fact of biological death is evident, the head of the deceased is covered with a white cloth. From that moment on, no one should touch his body, in order not to interfere with him calmly retreating into another world.
There comes a time when consciousness leaves the flesh. This lasts four days, during which the lama must perform a ceremony on the body. He sits down at the head of the dead and asks all people to leave the room. Thus, he frees the deceased from unnecessary sorrows and sorrows.
Then the lama begins the ritual of expulsion of consciousness from the "hole of Brahma". This entire complex system of rituals serves to enable the deceased to achieve nirvana in the chain of further rebirth.
As one old monk said: “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” teaches that a dying person must face death not only calmly, with a clear mind and courage, but also with a properly trained intellect, skillfully guided by consciousness. This is done so that, if necessary, in spite of bodily suffering and infirmity, he demonstrated the art of dying as successfully as he excellently demonstrated the art of living throughout his life."
Until now, the Book of the Dead provides food for discussion among philosophers and religious scholars, psychologists and cultural historians. But in order to understand its essence, you need to understand yourself, follow the simple advice that is set out in this great work. And then death will not be so terrible, and life is so hard.