Bardo, the Way Between Death and Rebirth
Publisher
:
Florent Massot
Parution date
:
2009
EAN
:
9782916546278
Number of pages
:
213
Description
The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a guide to the experiences through which human consciousness is believed to pass between death and the next rebirth; the interval is called “the Bardo.” The text, handed down since the eighth century, is recited by Buddhist lamas over the dying or the recently dead. In a modern—a Western—examination of the Bardo in fictional form, Bruno Portier tells the story of a young woman’s journey through each stage.
Anne and her husband Evan are traveling by motorcycle through a remote part of the Himalayas. They are near their destination, only the two of them on the road, and they remove their helmets to better experience their ride. They veer around a sharp turn in the road—suddenly an elderly man is in their path. Evan brakes and swerves to avoid him; the bike skids, and Anne flies off and hits her head on a rock. Evan, who has a badly broken leg, begs the old man to help Anne. The old man knows Anne is about to die and stays with her, helping her in the way he believes best. He recites the Bardo she is traveling through—the one for the moment of death. Evan implores the man to stop talking, to get their first-aid kit, to help in Western ways, but the man won’t leave Anne until she has journeyed through all the stages of death. As Anne dies, she is guided by the words of the old man through the Bardo. She visits the important people in her life, and in flashbacks, she sees the moments of greatest significance. Anne finally accepts that she is gone and that those she has left behind will recover from losing her—and is on the path to her reincarnation.
Author
Bruno Portier : Bruno Portier is a filmmaker and photographer who spent 12 years traveling in Asia before obtaining his Ph.D. in cultural anthropology. Since then, he has devoted his life to writing screenplays and producing documentaries.
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