“Navigating the terrains of the Bardo, we may face unwelcome travelers of fear and disorientation, which stir the waters of our minds, obscuring the serene reflection needed for recognizing the Clear Light. Familiarity with the path is indispensable; without prior experience and reflection on the essence of the Clear Light, recognition in the Bardo becomes akin to finding a needle in a cosmic haystack. The “Bardo Thödol” prescribes practices and teachings aimed at peeling away these veils, refining our perception, and revealing the luminous nature inherent in all beings. By integrating mindfulness, compassion, and wisdom into daily life, practitioners prepare to meet this unique juncture with awareness and understanding, recognizing the Clear Light as their true nature. This unveiling is more than an ephemeral experience; it’s a golden opportunity for immediate liberation, an invitation to awaken to our innate wisdom and compassion, to reflect on life’s impermanence, and to live with mindfulness and spiritual vigor. The teachings of this Bardo serve as a guide for the dying and a reflective mirror for the living, unveiling deeper truths of existence and offering a path towards self-realization and liberation.”

-the Tibetan Book of the Dead

Unwelcome Travelers

TheWord Bardo refers to the place where we are between Heaven and Earth, but what the quote says about unwanted travelers applies to the physical world as well. Not only might we face “unwelcome travelers,” we definitely will. These unwelcome travelers of fear and disorientation are generally called demons and devils. Their purpose is to keep us confused about what is real and what is illusion, what is important and what isn’t. They want to prevent us from awakening and developing our spiritual Self.

Serene Reflection

Serene Reflection is needed to recognize the Clear Light of God and the path to it. Some schools teach that this “serene reflection” means practicing basic meditation, but that is a tool for beginners and we must remember that the ancient schools were careful to not put too much knowledge in writing to prevent it from being misused. There is, as we know in Cosolargy, ample evidence that the ancient spiritual groups and mystery schools in many parts of the world practiced some form of spiritual Sun Gazing.

Bardo Thödol

Bardo Thödol is another name for the Tibetan Book of the Dead, so the real purpose of this book is to teach people how to engage in spiritual development. The quote says that its teachings are aimed at “peeling away the veils”. It was taught in many spiritual schools that the Spiritual Sun was blocked from us by “veils”, and those veils would be lifted at some future date. We are now living in the time when the veils are being lifted and people are awakening to the reality of a Spiritual Self, and the need to awaken and develop it. Although some veils may remain, practicing the proper techniques can lift those veils.

Awaken to Wisdom

The quote says the lifting of the veils gives us an opportunity to “ awaken to our innate wisdom and compassion.” Another way of saying it is that it gives us the ability to develop higher levels of consciousness until we reach the highest levels where we are one with the All, one with God. When that happens, we are also one with True Wisdom and Love for all. That is how we become part of the Clear Light of God.

“David in the Psalms says, ‘I believe I see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living.’ He also says, ‘Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.’ Solomon declares, ‘But the just will inherit the earth and live on it forever.’ About creation, I wish to confess that our lord God is the creator and author, but not of the elements of the world, which are impotent and empty, and as Paul said in Galatians, ‘How can you now turn back to the impotent and empty elements under which you suffer a new slavery?’ The messenger also says in Colossians, ‘If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?

GOD HAS NOT MADE DEATH

“ Even less can we admit that our lord is the creator and author of death, and of the things that are, by their essence, in death, because, as it is written in the book of Wisdom, ‘God has not made death, and he does not rejoice at the loss of the living.’ There exists, then, with no doubt whatsoever, another creature or factor, who is the principle and cause of death, of perdition, and of all evil.

ON THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE TRUE LORD GOD

“I wish to speak now of the omnipotence of the true lord God, which so often permits our adversaries to play the glorious one when they claim against us that there is no other force or power than theirs. Although in the testimony of the holy scriptures, the true lord God may be called all powerful, one must not believe that he is called that because he can do and does all evils, because there exist many evils that the lord cannot and will never do.

THAT GOD CANNOT DO EVIL

“If God does not want to do all the wicked things, if he does not want to lie or destroy himself, surely he cannot. Because what God in his unity does not want to do, he cannot do. And what he cannot do, he does not want to do. And in this sense, one must say that the power of sinning and of doing evil does not belong to the true lord God. All that is thought to be God’s attributes and conduct is not accidental, as the learned know. It necessarily follows, then, that God himself and his will are one and the same. The good God cannot lie or commit every kind of evil, if he wants to, because this true God cannot do what he does not want to, we repeat, since he himself and his will are one and the same.

-Book of The Two Principles

Goodness of God

Yes, God is good in the Land of the Living. Actually, God is always good. But what is the land of the Living? It is the realm of spirit, especially the highest level of spirit that most call Heaven or Nirvana. The Earth, currently a part of the physical realm created by the false god, the Demiurge, is a place of death and disease. Yet Solomon says ‘the just will inherit the earth and live on it forever.’ Which means the Earth must change back into a world of spirit so eternal spirits can live here.

God Doesn’t Kill

In many cases, people believe that God kills under certain circumstances. That is not true. God never kills. Some will argue that if God allows demons, devils, and evil people to kill, that is the same as if God kills them. That is like saying a rock is a killer because someone shaped the rock into a spearhead. In any case, God doesn’t kill because it is pointless to kill the physical body which is already temporary, and God cannot kill the eternal Soul as he made it to be immortal.

God is Omnipotent

God is all-powerful and indestructible. While the false gods will say otherwise, the true God remains the only God that is omnipotent. There is a simple reason for this. When you put together the spirits of all beings, all things, all spirits of any kind, you have God. There is no way for anyone to destroy all of that.

God does not do Evil

Some think that if God is omnipotent, then he must do evil as well as good, but simply because God is all-powerful doesn’t mean God does all things, including evil. It is the very nature of God to be Good, to be loving, to be forgiving. Only false gods do evil, get jealous, take revenge, etc. The true God is not like that.

“Then I said to them, ‘In no way would I destroy the commandments of the Savior. But if you reproach me on account of wheat bread, because I have said, “It is necessary to eat of it,” this the savior has done; as it is written, that when he had blessed it and shared it with his students, “over bread he said a blessing and gave it to them.” Was not that bread from wheat? The scripture points out that he reclined to eat with tax collectors and idolaters. Likewise, he also reclined to eat in the house of Martha and Mary on the occasion when Martha said to him, “Lord, do you not care enough for me so as to tell my sister to help me?” and the savior said to her, “Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.” Consider, moreover, how even the students of the savior ate bread from women and idolaters and did not separate bread from bread, nor vegetable from vegetable; nor did they eat, while laboring in the toil and tilling of the land, as you do today. Likewise, when the savior sent his students out to preach in each place, neither mill nor oven did they carry with them, but made haste, taking one garment. . . ‘

“Then Mani said to them, “Consider these famous men of your law, those who saw these visions, who were moved by them and proclaimed them as good news to others. Likewise, I too practice everything I was taught by them.” “While I was speaking to them, reducing their words to nothing, suddenly they became angry and violent, and one of them even got up and hit me. They huddled around me and beat me. They grabbed my hair as though I were an enemy. They shouted at me in a loud voice that grew bitter and angry as at someone who was superstitious. Out of malice, they wanted to strangle me. Because Pattikios, the master of the house, begged them not to be impious toward people among them, they were ashamed and released me. After I went through this trial, I withdrew to one side and stood praying. I prayed for our lord to come to my aid.”

-On the Origins of His Body (a Manichian scripture)

Mani on Eating Bread

It is not clear who Mani was, though he calls himself a disciple of Jesus. He was the leader of a Gnostic group that we now refer to as Manichians. In the first part of the above quote, he is addressing someone who has apparently objected to Mani and his followers eating wheat bread and eating bread from “unclean” sources. He points out that Jesus and his apostles did the same. He notes, however, that Jesus blessed the bread before sharing it with the apostles. The implication is that his blessing removes all negative characteristics from it. We know today that most types of bread are not as healthy as people believed for centuries, but it isn’t the nutritional value that Mani is talking about.

Ate Bread from Women and Idolaters

Mani adds that the students of the savior ate bread that came “from women and idolaters”. It is not clear if he means bread that was made by such people, or simply served by them. Perhaps both. He adds that they even ate vegetables from such people. Why anyone should be concerned about eating bread or other foods from women is beyond me, but apparently there were people in the time of Mani who objected to doing so.

Mani adds that when the followers of Jesus traveled, they did not carry an oven with them. The implication is that they did not bake their own bread, but relied on the people they were visiting to supply them with food, no matter who those people were.

Such things sound silly to most people today, but we have those who avoid buying products from some companies because of their politics.

Reducing Their Words to Nothing

Mani changes the subject here and is now telling the story of a time he was attacked by a crowd of people he was speaking to for “reducing their words to nothing”. In other words, he was contradicting long-held beliefs of theirs and many people will turn on someone who does that rather than admit they were wrong. We still see a lot of this today. Many politicians take advantage of this fact to manipulate and control people. We see this in Cosolargy where we lose a number of students after six or seven months of study because they reach some teaching in the books that contradicts a belief they are not willing to change. They don’t see that if you can’t change, you can’t move forward.