As you know Phabyab Rinpoche will be here next weekend giving teaching on the Bardo. Rinpoche will first familiarize participants with the Tibetan science of death and rebirth, and then offer clear and hands-on instruction that will teach participants how to: 1) recognize the onset of death, 2) stabilize our minds during the death and dissolution process and 3) greet our journey onwards with confidence, wisdom and a heart of compassion. 
 
From the Buddhist perspective the time of our death is a very special and important time. Once clinical death occurs our subtle consciousness can remain in our bodies for up to three days.  
 
A very ancient text known as “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”, whose actual title is "The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State" or "Bardo Thodol", is traditionally believed to be the work of the legendary Padmasambhava in the 8th century A.C.E. who is responsible for bringing Buddhism to Tibet. This text acts as a guide for those who are dying or have just died. during the state that intervenes death and the next rebirth. The “Tibetan Book of the Dead” is a guide that is read aloud to those who are dying or have just died and believed to be in this in-between or bardo state in order for them to recognize the nature of their mind and attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth. 
 
The Bardo Thodol teaches that once awareness is freed from the body, it creates its own reality as one would experience in a dream. This dream occurs in various phases (bardos) in ways both wonderful and terrifying. It is taught that one will experience the overwhelming of 100 wrathful and peaceful deities - 58 peaceful and 42 wrathful deities. These deities are projections of nothing but our own mind. 
 
Since the deceased's awareness is in confusion of no longer being connected to a physical body, it needs help and guidance in order that enlightenment and liberation occurs. The Bardo Thodol teaches how we can attain Nirvana by recognizing the Clear Light of the Absolute True Nature of Reality and achieve Ultimate Enlightenment instead of entering into the lower realms where the cycle of birth and rebirth continue. 
 
"The Tibetan Book of the Dead," describes six kinds of bardo. 
 
Three are associated with life: 
 
1. The bardo of birth 
2. The bardo of dreams 
3. The bardo of meditation 
 
These three are the states from death to rebirth: 
 
1. The bardo of the moment of death 
2. The bardo of supreme reality 
3. The bardo of becoming. 
 
The Bardo Thodol describes a dissolution of the ego created by the skandhas and a falling away of external reality. The consciousness that remains experiences the true nature of the mind. 
 
Serious meditative practitioners, who have received the proper empowerments (initiations) meditative training and sustained meditative experience, have an opportunity at death to recognize the Clear Light of the Absolute True Nature of Reality and achieve Ultimate Enlightenment at that time. Much of an advanced practitioner's meditative training involves meeting this transformative moment.