Bardo Thodol
I gave this book a try after listening to a review on the radio of an album from Laurie Anderson titled Songs from the Bardo. This is a spoken word album on which she reads from the ‘Book of the Dead’. I gave the album a listen and occasionally play it in the background while doing things around the house.
Like some other Buddhist literature, the sutras in this book are inscrutable for me at times. I frequently read passages more than once in an attempt to understand them. I don’t mind not getting it completely though and maybe that’s the point. But I do enjoy reading sections of chapters from time to time. This piecemeal approach to the book occasionally feels akin to being in a sutra service where the readings seem to be related but not necessarily thematic.
Perhaps coincidentally, I found a novel about the Bardo, Lincoln at the Bardo, challenging to understand as well. Although who knows, maybe George Saunders was modeling the Bardo Thodol with his novel.
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