Energetic Dimension
2026, April, Issue 195
All possibilities
Energetically displayed
When this mental body
Traverses this great bardo
of living
and dreaming
and dying,
these storms arise
storms that cannot seem possible,
not possible, beyond all possibilities;
We are completely helpless among these
Swirling
Turbulent
Manifestations of mind;
This energetic condition
of great expanse
beyond our limited point of view
beyond, beyond
dimensions that we
had never before
considered,
never imagined, never ignored
because, because we simply could not sense,
we could not expand into
their existence to us,
not knowing, not knowing
that beyond there was there, even though
It is apparent
to those who expand heart and mind,
to all Buddhas, apparent
to those who traverse beyond
at ease, with great ease,
traversing with awareness in this condition
where we can imagine
the worst, or
the best, or
beyond madness.
A poem by Robert Aho © 2026
When you die, the first place, the first condition that you may encounter, is something akin to this dark realm we call Earth, or maybe just a dark void. If you go a little bit deeper, you may encounter visions of a light at the end of a long tunnel, or see your loved ones, or something associated with this life, or even something such as visions of stars and galaxies. You may not even know that you are dead for a few days, as you wonder why your body doesn’t move or why people are behaving strangely around your corpse. It may take some time for you to be convinced that your body has become a corpse that will never be revived again.
This dense realm holds us snuggly, like a bug in a rug for quite some time, if we have certain causes and conditions holding us in place with what we know, or maybe just a bit too much clinging to what is not real. When this starts to loosen, however, we start to venture into the energetic dimension, first by seeing the energy surrounding everything, then by noticing quite a lot more than that. It may sound or feel like great roaring winds for a time, even though we no longer have a physical body. This energy can become unbearable, especially if we are not prepared for such amazing sensations. Imagining all sorts of things, we will likely become extremely agitated, terrified and unable to cope.
We won’t know what to do, if we have made no preparations for death, relying only upon belief or various stories that have given us comfort. What awaits us, just beyond this limited dense realm of existence we have grown accustomed to, is an energetic field that boggles the mind. Something this vast, this powerful, is something we hadn’t considered within our limited sphere.
Great storms a trillion times greater than Earth, winds blowing at lightning speed ripping apart manifestations we hadn’t thought possible, every conceivable possibility appearing in ways that we really weren’t able to fathom as mere humans, all this is about to propel us uncontrollably into the next lifetime. The unprepared newly dead person is likely to freak out far more than they have ever freaked out before; well, that is, this spectacular epic freak out will be like their last time through the death bardo. We will be directly experiencing all that and more, without the insulating characteristics of a physical body, without the filters of an inner narrative, without someone telling us that it will be okay.
All that we have done before this moment, all of our actions since beginningless beginnings, an eternal accumulation of karma from an infinite array of lifetimes, will propel us into a rebirth, depending upon how we have been able to prepare ourselves. If we can remain at ease in all circumstances, then we have prepared in general. If we can maintain our Aspiration to Awaken, then we could very well awaken within the death bardo. It’s important to unlock your own inner power before the time of death. We must prepare for this energetic dimension or we will be utterly uselessly pathetically helpless.
Awakening is really all about releasing our own innate power through the discovery of what we can call Ultimate Reality. Even when we simply begin to unlock this power through genuine Spiritual Practice, through meditation and living our lives with love and compassion, we create some semblance of control, something quite necessary for our passage through the death bardo. If we can simply maintain this attitude of being able to face anything whatsoever without losing our composure, then we can find safe passage into a fortunate rebirth.
I remember a teaching that I received from a great master whom I encountered in the dream bardo. I was floating in space at the top of a mountain. The master was sitting on the mountain top, and there was no room for me to sit next to him. My practice was to remain at ease, floating next to him. He criticized me for losing my composure a couple times when I nearly tumbled through the clouds into the valley below, after the winds became fierce. This was a good lesson from a great master whom I did not know at the time. I revealed more about that in The Frog.
Blessings of Source,
Rigdzin Robert Aho
Robert Aho is the author of Timeless Luminosity and The Frog: A Spiritual Autobiography, Spanning Many Lifetimes. Both books, written after his death experience, give advanced spiritual advice regarding the complete Spiritual Path, inspiration for living each day and words of encouragement, with the intention of helping people to stay committed to their Spiritual Path, which leads to Awakening. The books are available on Amazon, as well as various small bookstores.