Encyclopedia of Buddhism

One of the most famous and influential of these In-
dian siddhas was NA
ROPA(1016–1100), who codified
a diverse system of tantric instruction that would come
to be widely known in Tibet as the “Six Doctrines of
Na
ropa” (Tibetan, Na
ro chos drug). In Na
ropa’s sys-
tem the intermediate state was expanded to include
three separate states:

1. The long period between birth and death, which
   was identified as the “intermediate state of birth-
   to-death”;


2. The interval between sleep and waking con-
   sciousness called the “intermediate state of
   dreams”;


3. The intervening period between death and re-
   birth identified as the “intermediate state of be-
   coming.”

The tradition argued that all three intermediate states
provide particularly fruitful opportunities for tantric
practice leading eventually to buddhahood itself. The
aim of such practice was to actually become embod-
ied as a buddha using special tantric techniques of yoga
and contemplation to mix or blend (Tibetan, bsres ba)
one’s experience with the three bodies of a buddha
during each of the three transitional periods—in med-
itation during life, in dreams during sleep, and in the
interim state after death. In Tibet this practice of
blending the intermediate states with the three em-
bodiments of buddhahood is commonly referred to as
“bringing the three bodies to the path” (sku gsum lam
’khyer).

In Tibet the tantric reinterpretation of the interme-
diate state inspired even further innovations. In time
there emerged several Tibetan religious systems that
posited multiple intermediate states beyond the three
separate interim periods developed previously by In-
dian siddhas like Na
ropa. The ritual and literary tra-
dition of the famous TIBETANBOOK OF THEDEAD(Bar
do thos grol chen mo,pronounced Bardo thödol), for
example, enumerates six individual states, including
the three described in Na
ropa’s scheme and adding:

4. The intermediate state of meditative stabiliza-
   tion;


5. The intermediate state of dying; and


6. The intermediate state of reality-itself, wherein
   the deceased encounters the true nature of real-

ity manifest as a radiant display of one hundred

peaceful and wrathful deities.

In particular, the concept of the intermediate state of

reality-itself is derived from the unique doctrines of

the Great Perfection tradition that began to emerge in

Tibet in the eleventh century and became fully sys-

tematized by the late fourteenth century. The Tibetan

Great Perfection tradition was promoted largely by the

RNYING MA(NYINGMA) and non-Buddhist BONorders.

As for the formal doctrine of the intermediate state

in its ritual dimension, Buddhist funeral rites in Tibet

and East Asia are timed ideally to coincide with the

forty-nine days of postmortem intermediate existence,

although it is not uncommon for this prolonged pe-

riod to be abbreviated depending on the resources and

influence of the deceased’s family. In Tibet the fully

developed liturgical sequence, inscribed in specialized

texts such as those belonging to the Tibetan Book of the

Dead,consists of a variety of offerings for generating

merit, tantric initiation rites for the ripening of virtues,

prayers of confession and reconciliation in the purifi-

cation of nonvirtuous karma, and guidance rites for

leading the deceased through the perilous intermedi-

ate state into the next life.

In East Asia the doctrine of the intermediate state

is linked to bureaucratic notions of the judgment of

ten postmortem kings and to rituals performed for

the benefit of the deceased presumed to be under-

going a kind of purgatory, a period in which the good

and bad deeds of the departed are put under judicial

review. The ritual actions performed by the living for

the penitent dead include the dedication of merit,

almsgiving, and the recitation of Buddhist scripture.

The general assumption underlying the intermediate-

state funeral rites in Tibet and East Asia is that ac-

tions performed by the living affect directly the

condition of the dead. Buddhist funerals are thus de-

signed to provide for the dead a means of expediting

safe passage over death’s threshold and of ensuring an

auspicious future destiny.

See also:Cosmology; Death; Mainstream Buddhist

Schools; Rebirth; Sarva
stiva
da and Mu
lasarva
stiva
da

Bibliography

Bareau, André. “Chuu.” In Ho
bo
girin,ed. Jacques May. Paris

and Tokyo: L’Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres,

Institut de France, 1979.

INTERMEDIATESTATES