Bardo is a Tibetan word that literally means “intermediate state.”
Put simply, it is a period between one state of existence and another. The best-known example is the interval between death and a new birth. In Tibetan Buddhism, this meaning became especially important.
What, According to Tradition, Happens After Death?
According to Tibetan Buddhist teachings, a person does not immediately take a new birth after death.
Consciousness passes through a transitional period in which vivid and sometimes frightening images and experiences may arise. The Bardo Thödol teaches that the task is not to mistake these experiences for an external, absolute reality, but to recognize their true nature.
This is why instructions were traditionally read aloud to the deceased: they were intended to remind the person of what was happening and help them avoid becoming overwhelmed by fear.
What Can This Idea Teach a Living Person?
This is where the meaning becomes more practical.
Bardo reminds us that human beings are constantly passing through transitions:
childhood → adulthood, relationship → separation, health → illness, life → death.
Within Tibetan tradition, the word bardo also came to be used more broadly for transitional states in which the old has already ended but the new has not yet become established.
The central idea is simple: during periods of transition, familiar points of stability disappear. At such moments, it becomes especially important to recognize how our own fear and perception shape the way we experience what is happening.
Bardo, then, is not simply a teaching about the afterlife.
It is also a teaching about how human beings encounter uncertainty, loss of control, and change.