I once readin a very old book (“Magick and Mystery In Tibet”) that the Tibetian Book of the Dead contains a ritual for actually restoring a dead person to life! It is only undertaken VERY rarely, and only by a very senior lama. The ritualis long and involves various prayers, the burning of incense, and special music and bells. At the completion of the ritual, the dead person is seen to return (briefly) to life. He/she will answer questions, but often expresses the desire toreturn to (the state of death). Supposedly, the englishwomen who wrote this book witnessed such a ritual…sometime in the 1930’s…has this ever been reported since then?
And, for a devout Bhuddist…why would you ever WANT to return to your old body? Wouldn’t this violate the rule of karma? 
don’t know about the whole karma thing, but on the existence of a ritual that briefly ‘returns people to life’, color me highly sceptical. Although it would be cool. Solving a murder would be that much easier. Move over Magnum PI, its the Dalai Lama
You’re referring to Alexandria David-Neel. She’s made some pretty wild claims. I can’t remember if she wrote about actually witnessing such a “resurection” or discussed it as a rare practice.
It’s on my bookshelf as is the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and frankly it’s been a while since I’ve read either. I vaguely remember the mention of resurrection by Alex but the Book of the Dead didn’t stick in my mind as having “baking” instructions for doing so.
In tibetian bhuddism, the bardo (soul) leaves the body upon the moment of death. It (the bardo) then seeks another body…ideally a a new one (usually a fertiled egg from a copulating couple). Should the bardo choose to return to the dead body, it would be regressing… this is why it seems to violate Karma.
In any case, the revived body could not support the bardo for long, because it is physically dead. Does Bhuddism advocate life support for dying people?
Cite?
If someone was awakened, they would be free from karmic consequences. So if an awakened one chose to stay in his body we must assume it’s for all the right karmic reasons.
The Tibetan buddhist system was considered NOT buddhist when it was first reunited with the world buddhist community. A lot of there reincarnation stuff seems to fly in the face of teachings, IMHO. Still, I don’t remember any body reanimation stuff when I read TBotD a few years ago. The book is mainly about the mental preparation before and mental action during death.
In Mahayana Buddhism the Bardo is the intermediate state between lives, when the mind experiences a series of hallucinations culminating in its next birth.
The word “Bardo” comes from the Tibetan words “bar” meaning “in between”; “do” meaning “island” or “marking point.” It’s the place you go between lives.
I used to own a copy of the TBotD, it was a guidebook through the bardo, instructions to escape the birth-death-rebirth cycle and attain nirvana, or at least something better than rebirth. Nowhere do I recall a recipe for reanimating a corpse. There’s some information on it here.