BUDDHISM IN THE TIBETAN CULTURAL AREA 291sure that they stayed put and did not return to bother the living. This practice
has long since been brought into the framework of Tantric theory through the
Bardo T' odrol-known in the West as the Tibetan Book of the Dead-which is
chanted for the first 49 days after a person's death to help him/her circumvent
the fruits of karma and safely negotiate the hazards of the postdeath bardo, or
intermediate state. Ideally, through this guidance, the spirit may escape the
need for rebirth altogether; failing that, it can be directed to a decent rebirth.
This guidance is intended primarily for those who have not mastered Tantric
ritual, for the adept should have enough experience with the bardos experi-
enced during lifetime that the death bardo should pose no problems.
There are four bardos in all: the mental space between two events, the
space between two thoughts, the space between sleeping and waking (the
dream bardo), and the space after death (the death bardo). In all of these
spaces-which form the openings toward altered states of consciousness-is
an intense experience of clear light that, if one is unfamiliar with it, can be
terrifying. The Tibetans feel that if one feels terror at the light after death,
one will not be able to deal skillfully with the various possibilities for rebirth.
Thus the highest aim of all religious practice, in their eyes, is to familiarize
oneself thoroughly with the "child light" appearing in the bardos that can be
experienced during one's lifetime, so that one will skillfully let it be subsumed
into the "mother light" appearing at death. In this way, one can master the re-
birth process if one has inclinations toward being a tiilku or a bodhisattva, or
escape it entirely if not.
For most people, however, their ability to negotiate the dangers of the
spirit world around them is of more immediate concern than their fate after
death. These issues are covered under the topics of exorcism and coercion.
Little is known about how Tibetans handled these issues before the propaga-
tion ofBuddhism, although the Tun-huang manuscript previously mentioned
suggests that one of the reasons the Tibetans adopted Buddhism was because
it had more effective techniques for dealing with these problems. On the sim-
plest level, the doctrine of karma provides a rationale by which one's good
acts may tip the balance of power in one's favor. In this sense, Tibetan popular
Buddhism is similar to what we have already seen in Thai popular Buddhism
(see Section 7 .5): Merit, interpreted in a ritual way, is a form of power that
can override but does not necessarily abrogate the power of the spirit world.
The Tibetans have devised a number of almost mechanical ways of increasing
one's stock of merit. For people in general, this can include repeating Avalo-
kitdvara's mantra, Olfl mat:ti-padme hu1f!; writing mantras on flags, which are
considered to repeat the mantra in one's stead each time the flag flapsin the
wind; and spinning "prayer wheels" containing mantras inscribed on slips,
which are thought to repeat the mantra each time the wheel is spun. Another
popular form of acquiring merit is making pilgrimages to pay respect to im-
portant religious sites (Strong EB, sec. 7.5.1).
These merit rituals, however, are rather amateurish compared with the
skills of a Tantric master. Although we noted the ritualistic nature of merit
making in Thailand, the Tibetan Tantric master takes this ritualism to a