The Mirror of Mindfulness: The Cycle of the Four Bardos

by Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, Dilgo Khyentse, Tu Rinpoche

This presentation of Tibetan Buddhist teachings on the endless cycle of experience, the four bardos —life, death, after-death, and rebirth—is aimed at inspiring and helping the practitioner achieve liberation from deluded existence and awaken to complete enlightenment for the benefit of others.

This book is the foundation for the commentary Bardo Guidebook by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche and is indispensable for the study of living and dying.

Genres: Buddhism

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Silvio]

How wonderful it is to learn even from this brief but comprehensive illustration of Tibetan Buddhism through examining the bardos that in the end, the most profound and most important practice is still just the one:

Resting as the Ground of Being.

Non-conceptual Self-Awareness.

Being the pure mirror from which all reflections emanate.

"No matter what appears or how it appears, the crucial point is recognizing it to be nothing but personal experiences."

And what is being stressed here over and over is the importance of starting NOW, better yesterday, to become centered in this Ground of Awareness. If you sit and wait, it might be too late. Better sit and meditate.

[C.J. Hamilton]

In lay terms, this text/book is a "Death Map". Anyone living and or dying would do well to not only read this treasure but, also, study it fervently. I studied this alongside the Bardo Guidebook by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche (my teacher), a commentary on the Mirror of Mindfulness, to which I also highly recommend.

[Nate]

GREAT clear summary of the bardo of death