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... of great saints and teachers, ritual texts for the dying, instructional manuals for trainees in death. The best known of these texts is the Bardo Thodol Chenmo, or The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The authorship of the text is attributed to Padmasambhava , who dictated to his consort Yeshe Tosgyal and then hid the text during the persecution of Buddhism in the 9th. Century. Karma Lingpa discovered the text in the 14th. Century. Thus the book falls into the type of Tibetan revelation literature called treasure texts or Terma. Because it was discovered at a later date and because it's original author has/had an exalted or canonical status. The journey of the deceased can best be understood by an analysis of the Bardo Thodol and the ritual in which it is used. Bardo literally means "in between". It indicates a number of transitional or liminal conditions: 1.) Between birth and death 2.) ...