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I heard in Tibetan Buddhism the soul will remain in Bardo after death.

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In what form or manner is this entity, after it detaches from the body at death, perceives the physical reality?

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Yeah, I don't get it.

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The grammar is not so perfect.

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criticize that, but it's hard to understand exactly what's being asked there.

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Perceived?

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In what manner is it perceived, or what manner does it perceive the physical reality?

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Well, first of all, I'm not a Tibetan Buddhist, so I'm not going to comment exactly, and it may not be the exact answer to the question, but

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I don't actually think that Tibetan Buddhists believe in a soul.

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I'm not positive on that, but I would highly doubt it that the Tibetan Buddhists do believe such a thing.

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What they believe is the being continues, or the existence continues in what they call the bardo.

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Now, maybe they do have the idea that there is a soul there.

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I'm sure some people do.

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Of course, many Buddhists do have attachment to the soul.

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Until you become a sotapanna, you still have the potential to cling to .

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Cling to self.

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But the truth of what's going on there is there is experience.

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There is the arising and ceasing of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking.

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In Theravada Buddhism, we might call that a ghost.

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And I know in Tibetan Buddhism they say 49 days is the time that they stay in the bardo.

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I think in Theravada Buddhism we're not so clear on the 49 days, but it may be the truth.

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People have actually kind of verified this, that on the 50th day the ghost comes and says goodbye or something like that.

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We would just say it's a ghost.

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The point is that it's not in between.

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It's not an antarabhava.

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in an ultimate sense.

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It's not between existences.

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It is an existence in and of itself.

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If a person who dies, if the experience continues on locally or even remotely or in whatever location without the arising of a coarse material body, we consider that to be a bhava in and of itself.

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It's an existence.

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the existence of the being has continued.

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And how long it lasts, it might last a short time, it might last a long time.

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Usually I would say depending on the karma, if the person has done the karma to lead them to be a ghost for a long time, then they might stay in that state for longer than 49 days.

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The Tibetans have interesting ideas about what that being perceives.

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Now, when they are getting ready to go on to the next life, they will perceive all sorts of crazy stuff.

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They'll perceive, well, technically they'll perceive one of three things.

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They'll perceive the, so up until this point they would perceive reality kind of like an angel.

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They would perceive people maybe flying around, kind of like floating around and

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They would see the people crying over their dead body and they'd be unable to communicate with these people.

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Or they might go here or go there based on their attachment to their past lives.

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But then at the moment when they're going to move on, one of three things will come to them.

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And this, of course, can also come at the moment of death in the body.

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So without actually leaving the body, a person can go directly, apparently can go directly to heaven or hell or wherever.

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based on the arising of three things.

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So whether it's still in the body or whether it's after having left the body, there will be one of three experiences.

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One, an experience or a remembrance of the karma that one has done.

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I did a talk a while back.

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I should probably do a video.

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I don't know that I've ever done a video on the 12 types of karma, but there are four types that are pertinent here.

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there is karma that is niyata, the garu kamma, the kamma that is sure.

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After you've done this karma, that's what's going to lead to the rebirth.

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So if you've killed your father, killed your mother, killed an Arahant, hurt a Buddha, or caused a schism in the Sangha, if you've done any of these things, then...

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That's what's going to come to you.

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You're going to remember the karma, or you're going to remember a symbol of the karma.

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So there's kama nimitta, then there's kama, kama nimitta.

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So a symbol of the karma.

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You might not remember the actual act, think of the actual act, but instead you'll think of something that symbolizes it.

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So if you killed someone, you might see a knife, or you might see blood, or so on.

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If you've done this, you'll see something that reminds you of it, or that is symbolic of it.

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Or third, you might see ,, you might see an image of the way that you're going to go.

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So some people actually feel like they're flying up to heaven, or they're taking a trip.

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Kids who were reborn, kids who remember their past lives, will say they remember traveling to the house that they were born in.

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And they're standing outside of this house, and suddenly,

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born in the womb of the woman inside the house.

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This is called gati nimitta, so the person sees the destination, a vision or a dream of the destination.

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So if it's garu kamma, it will be, if you've done any really, really bad deeds, it will be based on this.

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If you did something particularly potent at the moment of death,

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then you're more likely to remember, but you haven't done a garukamma, then you're likely to remember that.

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If there's nothing you've done, particularly at the moment of death, and you haven't performed garukamma, then you'll remember some karma that you did repeatedly that was habitual, the chinakamma.

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Something that, so if you were a thief and you stole, continue, you stole regularly, or if you were a murderer, a hunter, or a

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a butcher or so on, then this is what would come back to you as one of these three things.

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Or that one of these three things would be based on that karma.

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And if not, then it will be just some sort of karma that you perform, meaning some experience that had an effect on your mind that caused you to

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attached to it, like it or dislike it or so on, and so was some sort of karma in the mental sense.

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So that's the last perception, and at that moment, and Tibetan Buddhism, as I understand, they talk about this as well, how there will be an image or a vision come up, and you'll be attracted to that, and if you're not mindful at that moment, you'll get sucked into it and be reborn based on it.

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So that's the process.

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Now, as far as the existence up to that time, well, as I said, it's either the moment of death passing on, or else at the moment of death, there's an out-of-body experience, like the bardo, and then eventual continuing on into the next life.