In Buddhism, death can be thought of as a return to a kind of scalar world called the Bardo (བར་དོ་) or, in Buddhist Sanskrit, antarābhava. Here, we have left the corporeal body (NDEs?). We are now a 'signal' (manomayakāya) that has not yet found another body to connect with (at the embryo stage).
Because of our ignorance, we are not looking at phenomenal illusions from the absolute perspective. We still believe they are real, and we are eager to return to these familiar images. This is our first great mistake by which we enter into the 12 nidāna/fettrs. Our attachment returns us to the unending cycles of birth and death.
Advanced Buddhists have had these experiences before the death of their body. They are quite real at the time and difficult to put into words because the experiences are so overpowering. At this stage, all this has yet to be put into its proper perspective, which is seen in the Avatamsaka Sutra/Huāyán Jīng (華嚴經). According to D.T. Suzuki:
According to Kegon scholars, the Buddha in this Samadhi keeps his mind so serene and transparent as the ocean in which all things are sealed or impressed, that is, reflected as they are in themselves; the world thus appearing to him is not a world of the senses, but one of light and spirit. This world is called the Dharmadhatu, a world of pure beings, or simply a spiritual world, and is technically known as the “ World of the Lotus Treasure.”
The advanced Buddhist eventually learns that it is this mysterious pure light or radiant bliss that is the Buddha and perpetually shines upon all finite things, revealing the truth that all these are nothing more than dazzling jewels of the divine light.