Tibetan Buddhism and the resolution of grief: the Bardo-thodol for the dying and the grieving

This article is a contribution to the cross-cultural study of grief. The Bardo thodol (sometimes translated the Tibetan Book of the Dead ) and the ritual associated with it provides a way to understand how Buddhism in Tibetan culture manages the issues associated with what is called grief in Western psychology. The resolution of grief in the survivors is intertwined with the journey to rebirth of the deceased. The present article describes (a) the progression of the deceased, (b) the rituals by which survivors separate from the physical incarnation of the deceased, (c) how, by channeling the feelings of grief to support the progress of the deceased, grief is brought to a positive resolution, and (d) the continuing bond survivors maintain with the dead even though the dead has moved on to the next life.