3 ideas
The peaceful and wrathful deities that appear after death are presented as emanations of the dead person's own mind, not external beings. Recognizing an apparition as self-projection dissolves its power to terrify or compel, while failing to recognize it produces flight and fear. Liberation depends on recognition, not on escape.
The post-death passage is mapped as sequential intermediate states: the moment of death (chikhai), the bardo of reality (chönyid), and the bardo of becoming (sidpa). Each offers a chance at liberation, but each is harder than the one before. The Clear Light at death is the highest and easiest chance if recognized, and later stages call for progressively more conditioned methods, down to choosing a favorable womb.
Alongside each brilliant wisdom-light appears a softer, duller light leading to one of the six realms of rebirth. The disoriented mind is repelled by the intense light and attracted to the dim one because it matches ingrained karmic tendencies such as anger, pride, or desire. Rebirth is therefore driven by the pull of the familiar, which is why the text instructs the listener to resist comfort and go toward what feels overwhelming.