Bardo Thodol

Samding Dorje Phagmo The Bardo Thodol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol, 'Liberation through hearing during the intermediate state'), commonly known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is a terma text from a larger corpus of teachings, the Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones,[1][note 1] revealed by Karma Lingpa (1326–1386).

Bar do thos grol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol, THL: bardo thödrol) translates as: “Liberation (grol) through Hearing (thos) in the Intermediate State (bardo)” According to Tibetan tradition, the Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State was composed in the 8th century by Padmasambhava, written down by his primary student, Yeshe Tsogyal, buried in the Gampo hills in central Tibet and subsequently discovered by a Tibetan terton, Karma Lingpa, in the 14th century.

"[1] The Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation is known in several versions, containing varying numbers of sections and subsections, and arranged in different orders, ranging from around ten to thirty-eight titles.

Indeed, one can consider any momentary state of consciousness a bardo, since it lies between our past and future existences; it provides us with the opportunity to experience reality, which is always present but obscured by the projections and confusions that are due to our previous unskillful actions.

[14] The third revised and expanded Evans-Wentz edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead contains a psychological commentary by Carl Jung in an English translation by R. F. C.

[20] The Psychedelic Experience, published in 1964, is a guide for LSD trips, written by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass), loosely based on Evan-Wentz's translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

[22] According to Leary, Metzner and Alpert, the Tibetan Book of the Dead is ... a key to the innermost recesses of the human mind, and a guide for initiates, and for those who are seeking the spiritual path of liberation.

Manuscript of the Bardo Thodol .
Centuries old Zhi-Khro mandala , a part of the Bardo Thodol's collection, a text known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which comprises part of a group of bardo teachings held in the Nyingma (Tibetan tradition) originated with guru Padmasambhava in the 8th century.
Tibetan Thanka of Bardo. Vision of Serene Deities , 19th century, Guimet Museum