The Tibetan Book of the Dead — ed. W. Y. Evans-Wentz

Dr. L. A. Waddell, a well-known authority on Lamaism, in Ladmaism in Sikhim| refers to the symbolism of the famous, but recently ruined, wall-painting of the Sz-pa-z-khor-lo or ‘Circle of Existence’ in the Tashiding monastery, Sikkim, as follows: ‘This picture is one of the purest Buddhist

1 See Gazetteer of Sikhim, ed. by H. H. Risley, p. 266.

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emblems that the /amas have preserved for us. And by its means I have been able to restore the fragment of a cycle in the verandah of Ajanta Cave No. XVII, hitherto uninterpreted, and merely known as “the Zodiac”. This picture portrays in symbolic and concrete form the three original sins and the recognized causes of rebirth (Vzdanas), so as to ensure their being vividly perceived and avoided ; while the evils of existence in its various forms and the tortures of the damned are intended to intimidate evil-doers.’ In it, the three original sins are depicted as a pig, a cock, and a snake, and their esoteric significance is given by Dr. Waddell thus: ‘The pig symbolizes the ignorance of stupidity; the cock, animal desire or lust; and the snake, anger.’! In the accompanying symbolic illustrations of the Twelve Midanas, only the third is an animal symbol, the others being human and figurative symbols; and this is a monkey eating fruit, symbolizing entire knowledge (Tib. nam-she; Skt. Vifidna) of good and evil fruits, through tasting every fruit or sensuous experience in the manner of a roving non-philosophically guided libertine, thus engendering consciousness.”

Accordingly, the animal forms and environments named in the Second Book of the Bardo Thédol (see pp. 178-9, 185) as possible forms and environments to be entered by the human consciousness-principle upon rebirth in this world may be interpreted as follows:

(1) The dog-form (like that of the cock in ‘The Wheel of Life’) symbolizes excessive sexuality or sensuality.? It also symbolizes, in popular Tibetan lore, jealousy. And the dogkennel environment symbolizes abiding in, or living in, a state of sensuality.

(2) The pig symbolizes (as in ‘The Wheel of Life’) the ignorance of stupidity dominated by lust; and _ selfishness

1 See Gazetteer of Sikhim, ed, by H. H. Risley, p. 267.

2 Ibid., p. 268.

8 Compare the following passage from the Yoga Vashishtha (Nirvana Prekarana, Sarga 28, verses 78-9): ‘Those wise Pandits, learned in the Shastras, should be considered Jackals if they relinquish not desire and anger.’

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and uncleanliness as well. The pigsty environment symbolizes worldly existence dominated by these characteristics.

(3) The ant symbolizes (as it does amongst the nations of the West) industry, and the lust for worldly possessions ; and the ant-hill environment the dwelling under the corresponding conditions of life.

The pigsty environment symbolizes worldly existence dominated by these characteristics.

(3) The ant symbolizes (as it does amongst the nations of the West) industry, and the lust for worldly possessions ; and the ant-hill environment the dwelling under the corresponding conditions of life.

(4) The insect or grub symbolizes an earthly or grovelling disposition, and its hole the dwelling in an environment dominated by such disposition (see text, p. 179).

(5) The calf, kid, lamb, horse, and fowl forms mentioned (see text, pp. 178-9) symbolize, in like manner, corresponding characteristics common to those animals and to the highest of the animal beings, man, such as almost all civilized races have associated therewith, and popularly illustrated in animal mythology like that which Aesop made the basis of his /ad/es. In the Old Testament the visions of the prophet Ezekiel and in the New Testament the Revelation of John show how similar animal symbolism affected even the zb/e. And, in our view, should the Buddhist and Hindu exotericists re-read their own Scriptures in the light of the Science of Symbols their opposition to Esotericism would probably be given up.

Accordingly, the animal symbols in the Szdpa Bardo— despite evident corruptions of the text and of the esoteric rebirth doctrine denoted by these symbols—should rightly be taken to imply that, in accordance with its karma, a human principle of consciousness, unless winning Emancipation, will, under the normal karmic conditions of gradual progression which govern the majority of mankind, continue to be born in a human form in this creation-period, with the mental traits or characteristics symbolized by animals. Under exceptional or abnormal armze conditions of retrogression, it may, on the other hand, during the course of ages, gradually lose its human nature and fall back into sub-human kingdoms.

As the translator explained, we need but look round us in the human world to find the bloodthirsty tiger-man, the murderer; the lustful swine-man; the deceitful fox-man; the thieving and imitating monkey-man; the grovelling worm-man; the industrious and oft-times miserly ant-man ;

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the ephemeral—sometimes professedly aesthetic—butterflyman; the strong ox-man; or the fearless lion-man. Human life is far richer in possibilities for the workings out of evil Zarma—no matter how animal-like the karma may be—than any sub-human species could possibly be. The illiterate folk-beliefs so common in Buddhist and Hindu lands, that a human murderer must inevitably be reborn as a ferocious beast of prey, or a sensualist as a pig or dog, or a miser as an ant, are, therefore, like many other popular beliefs, evidently based upon false analogies—some of which have crept into Oriental Scriptures—and upon an unduly limited view of the innumerable conditions offered by human embodiment, from the saint to the criminal, from the King-Emperor to the slum-dweller, or from the man of culture to the lowest savage.

In accordance with our findings, that higher and rational teaching concerning rebirth, which in the Bardo Thodol is, perhaps, confused because of corruptions of text, may now be summarized. If, on the Plane of Uncertainty, the influence of innate or karmic propensities of desire for the grosser sensations of sangsdric existence, such as govern life in a human body, can be dominated through the exercise of the more powerful influence of Right Knowledge, that part of the consciousness-principle capable of realizing Buddahood triumphs, and the deceased, instead of being obsessed with the frightful hallucinatory spectres of his lower or animal nature, passes the interval between human death and rebirth in one of the paradise realms instead of in the Bardo. If such a more enlightened one be very unusually developed spiritually, that is to say if he be a great yogic saint, he may gain even the highest of the paradises and be reborn among mankind under the guiding power of the ‘Lords of Karma’, who, though still sangsaric beings, are described by the Jamas as being immeasurably higher in evolution than man. When thus directed by the ‘Guardians of the Great Law’, the earth-returning one is said to reincarnate out of compassion, to assist human kind; he comes as a Teacher, as a Divine Missionary, as a Nirmdana-K aya

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