LOST and the Liberation Through Hearing
Apr. 16th, 2017 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stefanie_beanThe afterlife segments of LOST ("flashsideways" or FSW, although the show itself never uses the term) remind me of the Bardo Thodol: the Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State, also called the Tibetan Book of the Dead in the West.
Back in the early seventies, every self-respecting hippie bookshelf bore the Whole Earth Catalog, Be Here Now, the I Ching, Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Dharma Initiative might not have been aware they were living in a genuine bardo on the Island, but I bet Howard Goodspeed had read the Bardo Thodol.
A bardo is basically any in-between or intermediate state. Everything that sits adjacent to something else has a bardo, because there is always an in-between where the first thing ends and the second begins. There is a bardo between heartbeats; between breaths; between sleeping and waking. Most important for LOST, there is a bardo between "life, death, birth and rebirth:" the Island itself.
Sometimes we call that place, that experience a liminal space.
Tibetan Buddhism recognizes six bardo states:
1. Life from birth until death (cheshi bardo)
2. Dreaming (milam bardo)
3. Meditation (samten bardo)
4. The instant of death (chönyi bardo)
5. The period after death where the soul passes through trials and various experiences (sipa bardo)
6. Entering into the world in the act of conception, and the period until birth. (chenay bardo)
(link)
The FSW in LOST is very much like the sipa bardo, which itself is divided into three stages:
A. The initial meeting with powerful spiritual entities. Those who know they are dead can accept them, but this is uncommon and difficult. Those who don't know they are dead react with fear, repulsion, rejection etc.
B. Unresolved karma creates a world of illusion that the person lingers in, sometimes for a long time - especially if they still haven't awoken to their actual state. Entities keep appearing, sometimes in beautiful forms and some terrifying.
C. Ultimately the person wants to leave the sipa bardo, and begins searching for the right womb (or egg, or whatever) that will allow it to reincarnate. Sometimes if the soul is desperate and terrified, it will choose whatever comes first. Others will wait until the right opportunity presents itself. This is also governed by unresolved karma.
Entering another realm by rebirth ends the sipa bardo.
Back in the early seventies, every self-respecting hippie bookshelf bore the Whole Earth Catalog, Be Here Now, the I Ching, Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Dharma Initiative might not have been aware they were living in a genuine bardo on the Island, but I bet Howard Goodspeed had read the Bardo Thodol.
A bardo is basically any in-between or intermediate state. Everything that sits adjacent to something else has a bardo, because there is always an in-between where the first thing ends and the second begins. There is a bardo between heartbeats; between breaths; between sleeping and waking. Most important for LOST, there is a bardo between "life, death, birth and rebirth:" the Island itself.
Sometimes we call that place, that experience a liminal space.
Tibetan Buddhism recognizes six bardo states:
1. Life from birth until death (cheshi bardo)
2. Dreaming (milam bardo)
3. Meditation (samten bardo)
4. The instant of death (chönyi bardo)
5. The period after death where the soul passes through trials and various experiences (sipa bardo)
6. Entering into the world in the act of conception, and the period until birth. (chenay bardo)
(link)
The FSW in LOST is very much like the sipa bardo, which itself is divided into three stages:
A. The initial meeting with powerful spiritual entities. Those who know they are dead can accept them, but this is uncommon and difficult. Those who don't know they are dead react with fear, repulsion, rejection etc.
B. Unresolved karma creates a world of illusion that the person lingers in, sometimes for a long time - especially if they still haven't awoken to their actual state. Entities keep appearing, sometimes in beautiful forms and some terrifying.
C. Ultimately the person wants to leave the sipa bardo, and begins searching for the right womb (or egg, or whatever) that will allow it to reincarnate. Sometimes if the soul is desperate and terrified, it will choose whatever comes first. Others will wait until the right opportunity presents itself. This is also governed by unresolved karma.
Entering another realm by rebirth ends the sipa bardo.