Kar glin Zi khro: A Tantric Buddhist Concept.

• Author: Guenther, Herbert
• Position: Brief Reviews of Books

Kar glin Zi khro: A Tantric Buddhist Concept. By HENK BLEZER. CNWS Publications, vol. 56. Leiden: RESEARCH SCHOOL CNWS, 1997. Pp. 237, plates.

The author, well versed in the Pali and Buddhist Sanskrit tradition, was drawn by the scanty references in these traditions to the wider Tibetan tradition concerning the in-between state or bar-ma-do, usually referred to as bar-do, that was experienced between death and rebirth. It was in this in-between state that the "experiencer" was confronted by images of peaceful and wrathful deities. However, as the author points out, this in-between state is much more complex, if not to say, complicated, because here we deal not so much with states as with processes. The primary source for this study is Karma gling-pa's (thirteenth-century) presentation. The present study starts with a historical survey of the development of the relevant concepts, and continues through the traditional interpretation to an attempt to render these concepts intelligibly. In the course of his painstaking and critical assessment...