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Sogyal Rinpoche writes:

:Bardo is a Tibetan word that simply means a “transition” or a gap between the completion of one situation and the onset of another. Bar means “in between,” and do means “suspended” or “thrown.”

The different bardos can be categorized into four or six:

The four above with the addition of: :5. the bardo of meditation (Skt. samādhyantarābhava; Tib. བསམ་གཏན་གྱི་བར་དོ་, Wyl. bsam gtan gyi bar do) :6. the bardo of dreaming (Skt. svapanāntarābhava; Tib. རྨི་ལམ་གྱི་བར་དོ་, Wyl. rmi lam gyi bar do)

These two bardos are part of the natural bardo of this life.

• Union of the Sun and Moon (Tib. ཉི་ཟླ་ཁ་སྦྱོར་, Wyl. nyi zla kha sbyor)
• Self-arising Primordial Awareness (Tib. རིག་པ་རང་ཤར་, Wyl. rig pa rang shar)

• Karma Lingpa, The Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, The Profound Dharma of Self-liberated Wisdom Mind (Tib. Zabchö Shitro Gongpa Rangdrol; Wyl. zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol), which contains the Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo (Tib. Bardo Tödrol Chenmo; Wyl. bar do thos grol chen mo) (see English translations in related article)

• Jikmé Lingpa, Yeshe Lama

• Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, བར་དོ་སྤྱིའི་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་དྲན་པའི་མེ་ལོང་, bar do spyi'i don thams cad gsal bar byed pa dran pa'i me long (see English translation below)

• transitional process (Wallace)

• For Sogyal Rinpoche's teachings on the bardos, see each of the individual articles on the four bardos.
• For Garchen Rinpoche's teachings, see Six bardos

• Chögyam Trungpa, Transcending Madness: The Experience of the Six Bardos, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa, Volume Six.
• Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, The Bardo Guidebook, Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1991
• Dudjom Rinpoche, 'An Introduction to the Bardo' in Counsels from My Heart, Shambhala 2001, pages 59-75
• Dzogchen Ponlop, Mind Beyond Death (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2006)
• His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Pure Appearance—Development and Completion Stages in the Vajrayana Practice (Halifax: Vajravairochana Translation Committee, 2002), Ch. 2 & 3. (restricted publication)
• Padmasambhava, Natural Liberation—Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche, translated by Allan Wallace (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1998, 2008)
• Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, revised and updated edition, Harper San Francisco, 2002.
• Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, Mirror of Mindfulness: The Cycle of the Four Bardos, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang (Boston & Shaftesbury: Shambhala, 1989).
• Tulku Thondup, Enlightened Journey—Buddhist Practice as Daily Life, edited by Harold Talbott (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1995), Ch.6 'Preparing for the Bardo'.
• Tulku Thondup, Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2005) ISBN 1-59030-182-X
• Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Rainbow Painting: A Collection of Miscellaneous Aspects of Development and Completion (North Atlantic Books, 2004), 'Bardo' chapter.
• See the Tibetan Book of the Dead article for English translations & further reading

<!– moved into the wiki:

• Glossary of terminology connected with dying and the bardos
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• Glossary of terminology connected with dying and the bardos

• by Longchen Rabjam

• by Patrul Rinpoche

Key Terms Bardos