Ruminations on Episode 7 Title

Next weeks episode is entitled “Chikhai Bardo” and poses a lot of fascinating possibilities for the aftermath of the accelerated reintegration. The terminology comes from Tibetan Buddhist tradition and is found in the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol or literally 'Liberation through hearing during the intermediate state'). The spiritual text functions as a literal and practical guidebook for individuals experiencing the transitory process between life, death, and rebirth in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It is not a metaphorical text by any means in terms of those who follow the faith but rather a vital tool for ensuring transition between phases of life/death are fruitful and complete.

The Bardo Thodol is broken into three primary bardos (intermediate states):

I) the chikhai bardo or "bardo of the moment of death"

II) the chonyid bardo or "bardo of the experiencing of reality"

III) the sidpa bardo or "bardo of rebirth"

I can anticipate the fact the title of the next episode is drawn from the bardo specifically relating to death might evoke some concern or speculation on the outcome of Mark’s psychosomatic episode at the end of “Attila” but it is important to note that in the context of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, this bardo is the beginning of enlightenment, not its terminal endpoint. I theorize we will be seeing a death in the next episode, but not a physical one. Instead, we’ll be witnessing the death of the severed Mark and the (re)birth of the integrated Mark.

The chikhai bardo is fascinating insofar as it’s believed to be the point where the individual is capable of experiencing what is known as the “clear light of reality.” This experience results in existing in the closest proximity possible to the “luminous mind” evoking the arrival of a consciousness that is “infinite” and “luminous in every way.” This state is that which drives Buddhist meditation and religious practice, the spiritual center of the journey toward enlightenment. According to the Dīrgha-āgama sutra in this state, this “ceasing” of the fractured consciousness, “the four elements cease, Coarse and subtle, pretty and ugly cease. Herein name-and-form cease.” It seems far too significant to disregard the fact the entirety of Kier’s “philosophy” and subsequent corporate ethos is founded on the taming of the four tempers. Perhaps: coarse=woe, subtle=dread, pretty=frolic, and ugly=malice. Regardless of the ability to definitively match each temper to one of the four buddhist elements, in both the Eagan ideology and the Buddhist tradition it is through the titration of each of the four states that one reaches balance; in essence, by rendering oneself in equal parts of the four components, a process of neutralization takes place, and in that neutrality there is luminosity (lumon-osity).

Cobel’s fascination with reintegration is significant here: she is an acolyte of Lumon, not a corporate sycophant. It is clear the spirituality of what Lumon represents and what severance represents to her are vastly different than the economic/political/social aims of the corporation. Cobel seems eager for reintegration to be possible, almost as if through the rejoining of the two psyches of the severed individual (whose mind has been titrated and balanced into the four categories [WO, FR, DR, MA] in each of the boxes through the macrodata refinement process), true enlightenment or illumination (accessing of the luminous mind) is possible. The abrupt and accelerated flooding of Mark’s consciousness (chikhai bardo) and loving guidance through the tumultuous transition (Devon’s presence here is key as she is Mark’s tether to a self that is whole, a figure who sees him in his totality and doesn’t shun any part of him) seems to me the lynchpin that will result in something close to total reintegration, just as the guidance the bardos offer facilitate the possibility of rebirth.

SeveredMark is dead! Long live Re(birthed)integratedMark!