Today I'd like to discuss the natural bardo of this life.
According to buddhism life is a dream or an illusion of karma which starts with our birth and ends with our death.Another dream will start after that and it goes on as long as we take birth.Although for common people like us it would be difficult to understand and accept it since for us everything is so real.Nevertheless,we might get some understanding of this concept if we compare it with our sleeping dream,we call it the dream of the subconscious mind.While we are dreaming all our experiences in it are equally real for us but the moment we are awake we know that it was just a dream,our own world of illusion.In buddhism there are practices to achieve realization of the unreal and illusory nature of the dream while dreaming.So,one can control one's own dream instead of allowing the dream to control oneself.When we gain this freedom completely in our sleeping dream,it is said that we would get certain amount of freedom in the life dream as well.For instance,in my sleeping dream I'm getting drowned in a river.Normally,it would be obvious to undergo the traumatic experience in a 'real' life manner,but if I have the ability to recognise that I'm only dreaming and that I'm asleep in my room where there is no danger of that kind,then my dream body can never get drowned in that dream river.It is not magic but a kind of miracle that comes when we learn to master our situation in the sleeping dream.So,when this process is undertaken in life dream,it is also a miracle and works in a similar way.The great masters in the past performed miracles in this way.They had freedom because they realized the ultimate nature of all things.Now,when one gains freedom of the sleeping dream and then the life dream,it is the beginning of mastery of the samsaric dream/illusion which is the dream that lasts from the beginningless time until the realization of the ultimate,which is buddhahood/enlightenment.So,the total development of freedom and the awakening from the samsaric dream is known as buddhahood or enlightenment.
Human life holds a great deal of importance from a buddhist viewpoint not only because it is difficult to acquire but also because it is best suitable for spiritual transformation.The masters value it more than the life in the realm of the gods.This is because suffering is prevalent in our realm which forces us to find ways to end our suffering and to break free from this cycle of samsara, and moreover, we have the means to do so:awareness and intelligence.But due to our own karma we all are born with a definite life span.Therefore, our existence in this world with this form is only temporary.So,this life should be taken as our only chance to work towards our own betterment because we never know what would become of us after this life!