The word bardo literally means "an interval between two things" whether spatial or temporal. To a large extent our entire realm of experience is made up of intervals between one thing and another. Even in the case of the momentary thoughts that arise in our mind, there is an interval between one thought arising and fading and the next thought appearing. Such a gap, even if infinitesimal, is part of every process; therefor everything we experience has this quality of being an interval between stages. In the Between draws its inspiration from the six bardos discussed in The Bardo Thodol or The Book of Liberation Through Understanding in the Between (commonly known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead in the west). The work, composed by Padma Sambhava, is connected with a large literature in Tibetan that thoroughly investigates the phenomena of dying. In Buddhist societies it is not considered morbid to contemplate the reality of death, but rather liberating from fear, and even beneficial to the health of the living. Although The Bardo Thodol primarily concerns itself with the three bardos which take place between death and rebirth, the other three “living bardos” are equally important - for it is in them that one can make the most progress in developing the ability to deal effectively with the others.

The six are as follows:

1. che shi bardo - the bardo between life and death. The interval of our waking existence from the moment of birth until the time that we die.

2. sam ten bardo - the bardo of meditative stability. The state of consciousness that is attained during the interval of formal meditation.

3. mi la bardo - the bardo of dream. The state of consciousness between the moment we go to sleep and the moment we wake (unconsciousness).

4. cho nyi bardo - the bardo of death point (or the interval of the ultimate nature of phenomena). The interval of unconsciousness into which the mind is plunged by the trauma of death - here the mind is immersed into its own nature, though in a confused or ignorant way.

5. si pa bardo - the bardo of becoming (or the interval of possibility). The reawakening of consciousness, which includes the many days that can be spent experiencing the fantastic projections of mind, the hallucinations produced and experienced by the mind in the after-death state.

6. che nay bardo - the bardo of gestation. This interval begins at the end of the 'bardo of becoming' when the consciousness of the being unites with the sperm and the egg in the womb of the mother and last until the time of physical birth.