Bardo of Dying (Chikhai Bardo) — Dissolution at Death

The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) describes death as a progressive dissolution: earth dissolves into water, water into fire, fire into air, air into consciousness, consciousness into luminosity. Each element collapses into its successor like a building coming down floor by floor. Hex 23 (Splitting Apart) enacts this: five yin lines erode the mountain's last yang line at the top. The structure falls. The I-Ching says 'it is not favorable to go anywhere' — in the bardo of dying, there is nowhere to go. The only instruction is to recognize what is happening without panic. The hexagram's image of a house collapsing from the foundation is remarkably close to the Tibetan description of elemental dissolution.

Cross-Tradition Resonances