Lucid Death & Lucid Rebirth: What is Bardo? | Osho

Know the mystery of Bardo, Lucid death, and Lucid Rebirth. 

Lucid death is a bardo of death in which a person dies consciously. It is conscious death. When death is happening, a person remains fully aware. 

He knows that his death is happening. And after the departure of the soul from the body, he consciously enters the process of bardo.

Similarly, Lucid Rebirth is the conscious birth in which the soul who is taking rebirth knows that his birth is happing. It is conscious rebirth. He consciously chooses the mother to take the rebirth.

Death and birth are not two separate events, they are two parts of the same event. 

They are, therefore, two sides of the same coin. If the first side of the coin lands in the hand, then the second side also falls in the hand. 

Death and birth are two parts of the same event. If death is conscious, the birth must also be conscious. If death is unconscious, birth is also unconscious.

Death in Full Consciousness

If a person is conscious at the time of death, he is also fully conscious at the moment of his new birth. If he is unconscious at the time of death, he is also unconscious at the moment of new birth. 

We all live in unconsciousness and are born in unconsciousness, so at the time when we are born, there is no memory of it. 

But if we want, this memory can be awakened. Another thing, nothing can be done directly regarding birth. Whatever can be done, can be done in relation to death. Because nothing can be done after death. 

Anything can be done before dying. Now if a person becomes unconscious, then this unconscious person cannot do anything until he is born. There is no way. He will remain unconscious.

Therefore, if you die in unconsciousness, you have to be born in unconsciousness. Whatever could be done, it could be done at the time of death because before death we have many opportunities, one opportunity to live a full life.

 One can try to wake up to the full opportunity of this life. If someone expects to wake up at the time of death, he will be greatly mistaken. You cannot wake up when you die. Awakening practice should be started long before death. You have to prepare for it. Because if no preparation is done, unconsciousness will come. Unconsciousness is there, if unprepared.

First Operation Done in Consciousness:

Kashi Naresh's (an Indian Yogi) stomach operation was done around 1915. That operation was the first operation on the whole earth, which was done without anesthesia. At first, the doctors refused. There were three English doctors who performed the operation. 

They denied that it was not possible. Because if a person is not made completely unconscious, there is complete danger in the operation. 

That is a danger, because of so much pain, that person will start screaming, jumping, kicking, and falling. Anything can happen. That is why the doctor did not agree. 

But Kashi Naresh said, the longer I stay in meditation, the more I will stay. I don't have any anxiety or pain, I can meditate for one and a half to two hours. Kashi Naresh was not willing to accept the pressure of unconsciousness. 

He used to say, I want to do the operation while I am conscious. But the doctor did not agree to be conscious. Because it was not possible to bear that much pain in consciousness and it was dangerous. 

But seeing no other way, first, he was asked experimentally to meditate on Naresh and cut some of his hands so that he could know whether his hand trembled or not, but there was no tremor and only after two hours Naresh realized that his hand was hurting. Nothing was known for two hours. Then the operation was done.

That was the first operation on Earth, in which the doctors were working on the stomach for one and a half hours by cutting open the stomach, that too without any kind of unconscious pressure (anesthesia), the Yogi was fully conscious. But to be so conscious requires deep meditation.

 So much attention is needed, to be fully aware that the body and I (self) are separate. There should not be any doubt about it. There was a doubt throughout the night that I am a body, even such a small thought can be dangerous. 

Death is a Natural Operation

Death is a very big operation, a very big surgical operation. No doctor has ever done, nor will he do, such a big operation, as big as death, because in death there is a way to completely remove the soul from the body and enter another body. 

There has never been such a big operation, nor can it happen. We can cut one or two parts, and we can replace one or two parts. Here we have to remove all the energy from one body and enter the other body.

Nature has already arranged that you should be unconscious. It is beneficial because you may not be able to bear much pain with it. 

But this thing is beneficial, but in a deep sense, it is also harmful. Because again we don't remember what happened behind. In almost every birth, we repeat the same thing without realizing it, which we repeated in the previous birth. If we remember what we did in our first birth, we cannot be the person we are now.

It is impossible that we can be the same person. Because we have accumulated wealth many times and each time death has wasted all the accumulated wealth, perhaps today the mad race to accumulate wealth would not have been so much within us. 

We have loved a thousand times and all love has been wasted, then perhaps the mad race of loving and being loved will merge. If this memory comes, perhaps today our ambition will be very weak. We cannot be the person we are.

The bad thing is that we don't remember anything about our previous birth, so a person goes around in the same circle, he doesn't know that I have been in this circle many times. This time too he is walking in the same hope, that he had walked in the hope many times before, again death comes and makes all the hopes futile.

All goes in vain, this loss can be avoided, but it has to be used very consciously. One cannot wait for death, because in such a big shock, in such a big operation, one cannot wake up at all. 

We have to use it gradually. We have to use it slowly in small pains so that we can wake up with small pains, and headaches. If there is pain in some part of the body, then you must know consciously that the particular part of your body is paining. You must be fully aware of that pain. First of all, you have to wake up in small-small pains, then only you will be able to remain conscious in a big operation of death.

Swami Ram went to America. Then at first, it was difficult for the people there to understand him. The President of America came to meet him, then he also got into more trouble and he said, what language do you speak? 

Because Ram spoke in the third person. He didn't say I was hungry. He said that Ram is very hungry. He did not say that I have a headache. He used to say, Ram's head is hurting. Then at first people were in more trouble, Ram felt very cold at night when he said what he was talking about. Then someone asked him, who are you talking about? Then he would say, this is Ram. It got very cold at night and we laughed with joy, look Ram, how cold you are. 

If he said that Ram is going on the road, some people start cursing, then we started laughing with great fun, see how they are cursing Ram. He went out to find honor, he got insulted. People used to say, But who are you talking about? Who are you talking about? Who is Rama? Then he would say, the name of my body is Ram, I am not Ram. He used to say my body is Ram, I am not Ram.

You have to start experimenting with the small pains of life. There is always a small pain in life, every moment it is there. Why is it pain and happiness also have to be used? Because it is not so difficult to wake up in pain, but it is difficult to wake up in happiness. 

It is not very difficult to experience that the head is separate and the pain is happening in it. But it is also difficult to experience that the body is separate and the sap of health that is coming from it is also separate, it is also not me. 

It is more difficult to go away in happiness because in happiness we want to be close, and others want to be close, with the pain we want to stay away. Or in the case of suffering, we know for sure that suffering is far away, it is also our desire that suffering is far away. Let us know this, let us be free from suffering.

Then it is necessary to use awakening in pain and also in happiness, and one who engages in these exercises, he can use it many times willingly even after choosing the pain. This is the basic secret of all penance. It is an experiment done willingly and with suffering. Like a person fasting, standing hungry. He is trying to figure it out. 

He is just hungry and has to eat tomorrow, waiting for him is doing but the basic use of fasting is that hunger and hunger are far from me, I have to experience it, I am not hungry. Then the friend is trying to find out that the hunger is there, that Rama is hungry. I'm not hungry. I know, I'm hungry. 

It has to be known and that hour has to be reached, where there is a decision between hunger and me, I will not be hungry. Even in hunger, I do not starve. Let the body be hungry, let me know that. I just become a person who knows. Then fasting will have a deeper meaning. It doesn't just mean being hungry.

Suffering Helps Us to Wake Up from Sleep

Generally, a person who fasts repeats round the clock that I am hungry, and have not eaten today. He is busy planning to eat tomorrow. And the plan of what to eat tomorrow is also being made. Then fasting became futile, then it became only fasting. 

In this way, suffering can also be caused voluntarily. But the pain caused voluntarily is a very deep use. A man can sleep on a thorn, if he realizes that the thorn is not pricking me, the thorn is pricking somewhere and I am at the end. There is no need to invite, the pain is always too much. You have to start using it now. 

Suffering has been going on like this. Even in the suffering that comes, if you can keep the awareness that I am inside, I am far away, then the suffering becomes practice.

We have to practice being aware even in happiness because we can deceive ourselves into suffering. The mind seems to accept that I am not in pain, but the mind accepts happiness and says that I am in happiness. That is why it is difficult to do practice in happiness. 

In fact, experiencing far from happiness is the greatest pain. It is a very sad thing to experience away from happiness. Because there is mind, hub and completely forget I am separate. 

Happiness drowns, and sadness also breaks and separates. We are forced to deal with pain, you may think so, but we want to embrace happiness with all our hearts.

Wake up to the pain that comes, wake up to the happiness that comes, and sometimes even wake up to the pain that is invited for use. Because there is something different about invited suffering. 

Because we can never fully immerse ourselves with whomever we call, whomever we invite. Because it is called, it is invited, this realization also creates distance. We can never be guests. The guest who came to the house is different from us. When we invite suffering as a guest, sometimes it is separate, because we have invited it.

While walking on the road, a thorn is hidden, this is an accident and will drown you in sorrow. But you bring a thorn and stick it in the leg and try to know the result, I am sticking a thorn in the leg and see where it hurts. There is something different about this incident. 

But I am not saying that you are going to invite suffering now, there is too much suffering. Live that pain and wake up in the middle of it. Relive happiness and wake up in the midst of it. Then you may think, never call any pain and see how far we can live.

Mind you, summoning pain is an important practice. Because everyone wants to call happiness, no one wants to call sadness. The funny thing is that the pain we don't want to call comes, the pain we call never comes, but the happiness we call doesn't come. 

When someone acquires the ability to summon sorrow, it means that he has become so happy that he can summon sorrow. He is living in such joy that now there is no difficulty in summoning sorrow. Now you can say to the pain, come on.

But that is a matter of deep usage. Before that, the pain that is coming should be used to wake up. If we wake up to suffering, that ability will come, till the moment of death we can wake up even in death and nature will give us leave or keep us in place. Because even nature has experienced that this person can wake up in pain, then now he can also wake up in death. But no one can wake up from sudden death.

Russian Mathematician Practices Conscious Death

 P. D. Ouspensky was a Russian mathematician. This man has used the most about death in this century. At the time of his death, he became very ill and the doctor said, this man could not get out of bed, then for three months he labored so much that it is unimaginable. 

He didn't sleep all night, he kept walking, running, and playing, then the doctor was surprised. The doctor said you should rest, why aren't you resting? Then he said, I want to see all the pain so that at the time of death I do not faint because of the pain, I do not sleep. 

Now I want to see all such suffering before that, I want to generate in me that ability, that stamina, that energy so that I can die consciously at the time of death. Then he tried to endure all kinds of pain for three months.

His friend wrote. We who were perfectly healthy, we used to get tired in front of him, but we did not see him tired. The doctor is saying that he must rest completely or else he will suffer a lot. The night he agreed, he walked the whole night. He did not even have the strength to lift one leg. 

The doctor examined him and said that now he could not even lift one leg, but he continued to walk throughout the night. He used to say, I want to die walking while walking, so that I don't die sitting or fainting, and that I don't faint while sleeping.

As he walked, he informed his friend that I will be able to lift ten more steps this time, but everything is sinking. But I will take the last step because I want to do something until the last moment so that I can stay fully awake. Lest I sleep in rest.

He died walking on his last step. Few people die walking on the ground. He fell walking on the ground when death came. Before he took the last step, he said, "just this is the last step now I'm going to fall but I'm telling you, the body is too far gone, now you will see, the body is leaving, but I have been seeing for a long time, the body is leaving and I am." 

The relationship is over and I'm in. That is why his friend experienced that now the body will fall, the joy that is in it, the light that stands at the door of the second world. 

But you have to prepare for it. It has to be continuously prepared. If this preparation is completed, the event of death is a wonderful event. There is no event worth it. If we know the true nature of death then death seems like a friend. Because we can experience life only in the event of death, we cannot experience it before that.

Remember, the darker the night, the brighter the stars appear. The darker the cloud, the brighter the lightning. When death is completely standing around, then the point of life is revealed in its full brightness, which has never been revealed before. 

Death becomes darkness all around, the point of life in the middle, which we call the soul, shines in full light, and the darkness surrounding it makes it shine. 

But we become unconscious at that moment when we recognize the soul, which could have been dead, at that moment we become unconscious. It has to be prepared. Meditation is its preparation.

How consciousness gradually dies, is the use of it voluntarily. How we lose our friends and how we leave the body is the use of it. If the preparation for meditation goes on and on, then complete meditation will be available at the time of death. 

Lucid Rebirth 

The soul of such a person who is going to die will be born again in a waking state. Then the first day after his birth there will be no ignorance, then his birth will be of knowledge. 

Then in the mother's womb, he is full of consciousness and once he has awakened, he is born once, after that there can be no rebirth again because, for him who has experienced so much, ultimate liberation is available to him regarding birth and death.

This is the one birth of the awakened person. We call such people avatars, Tirthankaras, Buddhas, Jesus, and Krishna. We consider such people separate from human beings for no other reason. The reason for that is that they are definitely very different from us. 

The only difference is that we are asleep and they are awake, this is their last journey on earth, so what we don't have, they have, which they are trying tirelessly to reach us. Yes, that's why this whole life is awake.

In Tibet, there is a small meditation practice by chanting. That use is valuable. It can be done at the time of death. When someone is dying, those who know about it gather around and mourn. 

But Bardo is also done to those who have meditated on life. One who has not meditated cannot be made bardo. In the use of bardo, when a person dies, a notification is given from outside to wake him up. 

Everything will be told to him, what happens now, let him watch. Because many times such incidents happen but he cannot understand. A new event cannot be understood suddenly.

If a person remains awake after death, he does not know that he is dead for a long time. He will know at that time when people will start picking up the dead body and take him to the riverside to be burnt, then he will be sure that I am dead. 

Because inwardly no one is dead, only a distance arises. But no one has ever experienced that distance in their life. That experience is so new that there is no old definition to remind him, he just feels that something is different. 

But he realizes that something is dead when all people start crying and start falling around his dead body and starts picking up the dead body.

As fast as possible, the body is buried. The corpse is buried as quickly as possible or set on fire. As quickly as that self is sure, the body is gone, burned. But if a person is unconscious, he cannot know this too. All this can be known only if it is conscious.

So this is enough for today. We will discuss more similar topics in the next post.