- Discussion of Alexander & Robbins
Homework: Read excerpts from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, including Jung’s “Psychological Commentary” and Meachem “Is Hell Dead?”
Session 4 readings, to prepare for discussions in Session 5:
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, with Jung’s Psychological Commentary:
- What is the Bardo?
- How does Jung use the term Seele?
- What is Jung seeking to do here?
- What time in life affords the greatest possibility of attaining liberation?
- What does the descent from the Chikhai Bardo to the Chönyid Bardo to the Sidpa Bardo illustrate?
- What is the purpose of the Tibetan Book of the Dead?
- What is Jung’s aim in writing a psychological commentary?
- What role has the book played in Jung’s life?
- What does Jung feel is the outlook of the book?
- What is the Western attitude toward the psyche?
- How does Jung describe the Bardo Thödol ?
- What are the gods?
- What does the Bardo Thödol try to make clear to the dead man?
- For whom does Jung think the message of the Bardo Thödol is suitable?
- What is the only initiation process still practiced in the West?
- Why can’t Freud’s theory reach anything but a negative valuation of the unconscious?
- How does Jung suggest Westerners read the Bardo Thödol ?
- How does Jung define archetypes?
- How does Jung describe Sidpa psychology?
- How can a person reach the Dharma-Kaya on any level of the Bardo?
- What does this entail?
- To what does Jung equate the Chönyid state?
- What is the Bardo body?
- What is the psychological equivalent of the disintegration of the wholeness of the Bardo body?
- Why is the Chönyid Bardo called “the Bardo of the Experiencing of Reality”?
- What does the Bardo Thödol prepare a soul for?
- To what does Jung liken the process described in the Bardo Thödol ?
- When does the spiritual climax of a life occur, according to the Bardo Thödol ?
- What is the Bardo Thödol created out of?
- What does the dead man have to recognize?
- Who is meant to read the Bardo Thödol ?
Woodroffe’s “Foreword:”
- What is Death, in the Bardo Thödol ?
- What are the 3 stages of the Bardo?
- What are the 3 characteristics of the text that Woodroffe identifies?
- What is freedom?
- What is the sense shared by all religions about death?
- What determines the future state of the “soul complex”?
- What is the human reality that we don’t recognize?
- What is the key to becoming liberated?
- What are the two paths?
- Where does the first path lead?
- Where does the second path lead?
- What does the text constantly urge on the dead man?
- What does it mean when a dead person achieves liberation?
- What happens in the interval right after death?
- What are the 3 bodies (kayas) associated with the 3 stages of the Bardo?
- Where do the Peaceful Devatas issue from?
- Where doe the Wrathful Devatas issue from?
- How does the Bardo Thödol support Freud’s notion of the Oedipus complex?
- What determines the after-death experience?
- What is necessary to create new karma?
- When is a soul complex ready to reincarnate?
- Why is it important for people to know about the afterlife?
- What is collective karma?
- How long does the first Bardo last?
- What is the Bardo body like?
- What does the whole process demand?
- How did the Tibetans get this information?
- What advice is given to the dying person, to help him?
- Why might the person fail to be liberated, even with a guru helping him?
- What are the 6 states of Bardo?
- What is the dead person urged to realize?
- What condition are most people in, when they die?
- What is the time-line for the process, for the average person?
*To print these documents, click the links to download and open the files once finished. Go to File -> Print
Download Chart of the Bardo Realms
Jung on Tibetan Book of the Dead