Often credited to the great Indian master Padmasambhava—known affectionately as Guru Rinpoche—the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödol) actually reached daylight in the 14th century. While its teachings are said to derive from Padmasambhava’s 8th-century instructions on navigating the moments after death, these words were concealed as a terma, or “hidden treasure,” in the mountains of Tibet. It wasn’t until the young visionary Karma Lingpa stumbled upon these secret manuscripts around the mid-1300s that the text was penned for the wider world.

Karma Lingpa, born in 1326, unearthed a collection of scrolls in a remote cave near Lake Rewalsar—what felt like discovering a cosmic time capsule. By around 1383, he had organized and compiled the Bardo Thödol into the form widely studied today. Its three main sections guide souls through the “bardo” states: the moment of death, the luminous visions that follow, and the rebirth process.

Fast-forward to the present, and a surprising number of mindfulness apps have borrowed pieces of its wisdom, drawing parallels between modern near-death simulations and ancient bardo instructions. With psychedelics riding another wave of scientific curiosity—just last month another study linked “bardo-like” experiences under DMT to similar charts of consciousness—the Book of the Dead feels oddly current, as though those hidden scrolls still whisper across centuries.

What begins as an 8th-century oral teaching, hidden for generations, ends up shaping global conversations on life, death, and what might lie in between. It’s a storyline that proves profound ideas never stay buried forever.