The Mirror of Mindfulness: The Cycle of the Four Bardos

In The Mirror of Mindfulness, seventeenth-century master Tsele Natsok Rangdr繹l teaches that there is an identical essence intrinsic to the heart, mind, and spirit in every human being. The realization of this essential oneness in humanity, he said, makes any man or woman a Buddha. The book focuses on how to reach this understanding through a system of training of timeless, universal value that has been developed in Tibet. According to editor Erik Pema Kunsang Schmidt, the truth such training conveys is as meaningful for a modern meditation practitioner as it was centuries ago for Buddhists in India and Tibet.

The Mirror of Mindfulness addresses the experiences of passing through the bardos into the next life. While relatively brief, the book fully expresses the depth of the spiritual lineage it springs from: a system of training that offers the possibility of enlightenment in a single lifetime. Newly designed, this book is the foundation for the often-cited commentary Bardo Guidebook by contemporary teacher Ch繹kyi Nyima Rinpoche and is widely seen as indispensable for the serious study of Tibetan Buddhism. Included are contextualizing introductions, a foreword, preface, prologue, epilogue, appendix, and glossary.