The
following is a description of the bardo realms that one travels
through after death.
The
First Bardo
The first
bardo comes at the very moment of death, when there
dawns the Clear
Light of the Ultimate Reality. This is the very
content and substance of the state of liberation, if only the soul
can recognize it and act in a way to remain in that state. The
instructions intended to be read at the moment of the person's
death are designed to help him do this. He is told, first of all,
to embrace this supreme experience not in a selfish and egoistic
way but rather with love and compassion for all sentient beings.
This will aid him in the second step, which is to realize that his
own mind and self is identical with the Clear Light, implying that
he himself IS the Ultimate Reality, "the All-good Buddha",
transcending time, eternity, and all creation. If he can recognize
this while in this supreme state at the moment of death, he will
attain liberation-that is, he will remain in the Clear Light
forever. This condition is called the "Dharmakaya", the highest
spiritual body of the Buddha.
Most souls,
however, will fail to do this. They will be pulled down by the
weight of their karma into the second stage of the first bardo,
called the Secondary
Clear Light seen immediately after death.At this point,
there are separate instructions to be read according to the
spiritual condition of the person while in life. For an individual
advanced in meditation and other spiritual practices, there is
repeated over and over the same instructions as at the moment of
death, enjoining him to recognize himself as the Dharmakaya.For a
person who was still at a student-level on the spiritual path,
there is the injunction for him to meditate on his "tutelary
deity", that is, the particular god for whom he performed
devotional practices while alive. Finally,"if the deceased be of
the common folk", unpracticed in any spiritual disciplines, the
instruction is to "meditate upon the Great Compassionate Lord",
which is to say an "Avatar" worshipped by the multitude, equivalent
to Jesus as conceived by the average Christian.
The
Second Bardo
full book on this
website
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/buddhism01.html