Hello,

How is the light which is universally experienced by NDErs (near death experience) understood in a Buddhist context?

The Bardo Thodol deals with this subject if I'm not mistaken, but its been years since i read it. Can anyone briefly summarize what this energy is considered to be?

for example in Shaiva it is considered to be the kundalini of Shakti which absorbs the self into the Self as a drop into the ocean.

thanks and blessings
Michael
Jampa Rinchen

In the book of the dead the chapter called the Great Liberation goes into detail (also see togel practices) but the main thrust is recognise it as your own buddha nature make an aspiration to move/join the light

Union of Mother and Son

interesting Jeff. Thanks, i feel like i am already part of the light if that makes any sense. Hard to explain, i guess you either get it or you don't. Some things don't lend themselves to explanation well. Mother and Son, yes Ocean and Drop, Buddha nature, yes all of the above. I have a strong urge to live at present, but at the time of my death I am completely comfortable with my own dissolution into said light. No problem there. I have never felt such intense incredible love in my life, nor bliss.

i ask because i had an NDE and actually put my arm (my ethereal arm) into the light up the elbow, and it jolted me from the reverie of nirvakalpa samadhi back to dualistic consciousness and i realized i didnt actually want to die right then. I guess you could say it wasn't my time.

that jolt awakened my kundalini, so i relate to the Shaiva understanding of it in that way. It destroyed my fear of death too. It was a really profound experience and i am still trying to sort it out and my feelings about it 15 years later

i am going to have to re-read the Bardo Thodol for myself, so hopefully this thread will serve to provide some insights into the matter and some inspiration to dig up my copy from the archives or buy a new one.

well

i have started reading the Bardo Thodol again. Which is just lovely.

although i still welcome other responses to my query.

so feel free to contribute if you know anything about it.

i am reading Robert A. F. Thurman's translation

hmm.. i haven't read the texts you're mentioning. the phrase "ocean and drop" you wrote above caught my eye, though. cuz the
other day i wrote this to a friend (as part of some other advice):

the key here then, is to rid the misperception of submission and dominance - in seeing that neither actually apply. the ocean would not exist if not for all the droplets of water. the droplets of water would not form into an ocean if not for the earth and the air enveloping them.

steph