The Sipa Bardo and an airline
Apr. 16th, 2017 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stefanie_beanSpiritual Travel has these interesting remarks about the sipa bardo:
This analogy reminds me of the whole Oceanic Airlines trope as it's used in the LOST flash-sideways (FSW.) Because the FSW consists mostly of Jack's bardo passage, the FSW opens with Jack staring out the window at white, featureless clouds.
One suggestion that the characters have already passed through the bardo of death. Some, though, like Rose seem to have "woken up" before the FSW starts. These awakened ones have recognized their death state; seen the clear light and accepted it. (Jack is staring at white clouds, but absently.)
The "bardo of becoming" starts when Oceanic 815 lands in LAX. Interestingly, the episode's name isn't "LAX," but "LA X," as in "LA Unknown."
Most LOST fans consider the FSW to be the experience of the major cast in the afterlife, based on Christian's remarks in "The End" that this was a place "you all made together to find each other." The question remains whether the other characters are Jack's karmic projections left over from his life (which is what bardo illusions *are*) or whether they are actually the various characters each experiencing karmic projection together.
There's also the issue of exoteric vs. esoteric understandings of the story. Most viewers call the FSW "purgatory" because culturally that is what we in America are most familiar with. The imagery in the FSW is so complicated, so deliberate, so involved with depicting stages and conflicts that I can't help think that it's referring to the Bardo Thodol, syncretized with purgatorial elements.
One environment that is sometimes used to help describe the place of karmic processing is an airport runway at night. The goal of karmic processing is to issue a ticket for a destination. This destination is the new body in which the soul will be reborn.
As with an airline, the ticket's information and processing are invisible until a ticket is issued. The soul in this example waits out on a runway at night with colored lights flashing around it and noises of takeoffs and landings. The winds of flight surround the soul but the soul cannot understand the flashing signals and forces of movement that are represented by colored lights moving in the distance.
Once the processing of karma is complete, a (usually) small set of tickets are issued and it is here where the soul has a limited choice of options as to where it will be reborn. The last thought of the person at death may influence the choice made here. If the soul does not choose, a choice will be made for the soul. When the final ticket is issued, the soul takes flight symbolically boarding a vehicle which rides on the karmic winds to a specific destination or rebirth. Once the person is in their new life, the karma of impulse takes over to influence their actions in that new life. (link)
This analogy reminds me of the whole Oceanic Airlines trope as it's used in the LOST flash-sideways (FSW.) Because the FSW consists mostly of Jack's bardo passage, the FSW opens with Jack staring out the window at white, featureless clouds.
One suggestion that the characters have already passed through the bardo of death. Some, though, like Rose seem to have "woken up" before the FSW starts. These awakened ones have recognized their death state; seen the clear light and accepted it. (Jack is staring at white clouds, but absently.)
The "bardo of becoming" starts when Oceanic 815 lands in LAX. Interestingly, the episode's name isn't "LAX," but "LA X," as in "LA Unknown."
Most LOST fans consider the FSW to be the experience of the major cast in the afterlife, based on Christian's remarks in "The End" that this was a place "you all made together to find each other." The question remains whether the other characters are Jack's karmic projections left over from his life (which is what bardo illusions *are*) or whether they are actually the various characters each experiencing karmic projection together.
There's also the issue of exoteric vs. esoteric understandings of the story. Most viewers call the FSW "purgatory" because culturally that is what we in America are most familiar with. The imagery in the FSW is so complicated, so deliberate, so involved with depicting stages and conflicts that I can't help think that it's referring to the Bardo Thodol, syncretized with purgatorial elements.