The Eight Bardos

The Eight Bardos - The Son of Realization – Milarepa

1. A: Sentient beings in the three realms of samsara

And Buddhas who have passed beyond suffering

B: Are one in their actual true nature

This is the bardo of view

2. A: The various white and red manifestations

And the inexpressible innate mind

B: Are inseparable, being one in the intrinsic state

This is the bardo of meditation

3. A: Delusiory appearances in their various manifestations

And one's own non arising mind

B: Are one as nondual co-emergence

This is the bardo of conduct

4. A: Last night's dreams arise from habitual patterns

We know them to be false when we awaken

B: These states are one in being illusion-like

This is the bardo of dreams

5. A: The impure five skandas

And the pure five families of the victorious ones

B: Are one within the non-conceptual completion stage

This is the bardo of the generation and completion stage of the path

6. A: The father tantras arising from skillful methods

And the mother tantras arising from wisdom

B: Are one as the co-emergence of empowerment

This is the bardo of the essential point

7. A: The unchanging of dharmakaya for one's own benefit

And the unceasing form kayas for the benefit of others

B: Are inseparable being one in the intrinsic state

This is the bardo of the three kayas

8. A: The impure illusory body born from a mother's womb

And the pure form of the deity

B: Are one in the luminosity of the bardo

This is the bardo of result

All: When one sees everything clearly and precisely

There is no samsara and no nirvana to achieve

Duality and all bardos are transcended.

Tibetan Master Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen

Glossary

Bardo means a state between any two things; happiness and suffering, delusion

and enlightenment, this life and the next. Our life constantly plays out in between, in duality.

The three realms that comprise samsara are the desire, form and formless words

Hard as we try, we cannot stabilize or establish

as true that which does not exist.

No matter how long we meditate

Never see a self

The five skandas are:

Form

Feeling

Perception

Mental Formations

Consciousness