Chapter 18: "The Bardo of Becoming" Summary

Sogyal notes that if one fails to reach enlightenment during the bardo of dharmata, one falls into unconsciousness, and enters the bardo of becoming. With failure to recognize the Ground Luminosity and bardo of dharmata, habitual tendencies reawaken. In this bardo, the mind is no longer limited by the physical body, and thus, can be reborn into different realms. One's karma determines the direction of the mind, in that the winds of karma reappear, as do the thought states of ignorance, desire, and anger. One then forms a mental body, similar to the body one had in life, which possess all senses, is light, lucid, mobile, seven times more aware than in life, and able to read the minds of the living. Any physical or mental deficit in life is no longer present...