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

Meru as given by Dr. Waddell: ‘Its eastern face is of silver, the south of jasper, the west of ruby, and the north of gold’*—which illustrates a use of ancient symbols very similar to that in the Revelation of John. The complete rational explanation of all the symbolism connected with

1 Cf. Gazetteer of Sikhim, pp. 320-3.
2 Cf. ibid., p. 322.
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Hindu and in turn Buddhist cosmography would be—even if it were possible for us—quite beyond the scope of an introduction. Suffice it to say that the possession of a key to such explanation is claimed by expert professors of the Occult Sciences in India and in Tibet—compared to which, in the realm of mind and matter, our Western Science is, so they maintain, but at the Threshold of the Temple of Understanding.

XII. THE FUNDAMENTAL TEACHINGS SUMMARIZED

Ere passing on to the final Sections of this Introduction, touching the Manuscript itself, we may now summarize the chief teachings upon which the whole of the Bardo Thédol is based, as follows:

1. That all possible conditions, or states, or realms of sangsaric existence, heavens, hells, and worlds, are entirely dependent upon phenomena, or, in other words, are nought but phenomena ;

2. That all phenomena are transitory, are illusionary, are unreal, and non-existent save in the samgsd@ric mind perceiving them ;

3. That in reality there are no such beings anywhere as gods, or demons, or spirits, or sentient creatures—all alike being phenomena dependent upon a cause;

4. That this cause is a yearning or thirsting after sensation, after the unstable sangsaric existence ;

5. That so long as this cause is not overcome by Enlightenment death follows birth and birth death, unceasingly—even as the wise Socrates believed ;

6. That the after-death existence is but a continuation, under changed conditions, of the phenomena-born existence of the human world—both states alike being karmic ;

7, That the nature of the existence intervening betwcen death and rebirth in this or any other world is determined by antecedent actions ;

8. That, psychologically speaking, it is a prolonged dreamlike state, in what may be called the fourth dimension of space, filled with hallucinatory visions directly resultant fromp. 67 the mental-content of the percipient, happy and heaven-like if the karma be good, miserable and hell-like if the arma be bad ;

g. That, unless Enlightenment be won, rebirth in the human world, directly from the Bardo-world or from any other world or from any paradise or hell to which arma has led, is inevitable ;

10. That Enlightenment results from realizing the unreality of the sangsdara, of existence ;

11. That such realizing is possible in the human world, or at the important moment of death in the human world, or during the whole of the after-death or Bardo-state, or in certain of the non-human realms ;

That such realizing is possible in the human world, or at the important moment of death in the human world, or during the whole of the after-death or Bardo-state, or in certain of the non-human realms ;

12. That training in yoga, i.e. in control of the thinking processes so as to be able to concentrate the mind in an effort to reach Right Knowledge, is essential ;

13. That such training can best be had under a human guru, or teacher ;

14. That the Greatest of Gurus known to mankind in this cycle of time is Gautama the Buddha;

15. That His Doctrine is not unique, but is the same Doctrine which has been proclaimed in the human world for the gaining of Salvation, for the Deliverance from the Circle of Rebirth and Death, for the Crossing of the Ocean of Sangsdra, for the Realization of Mirvéua, since immemorial time, by a long and illustrious Dynasty of Buddhas, who were Gautama’s Predecessors ;

16. That lesser spiritually enlightened beings, Bodhisattvas and gurus, in this world or in other worlds, though still not freed from the Net of Illusion, can, nevertheless, bestow divine grace and power upon the shzshya (i.e. the chela, or disciple) who is less advanced upon the Path than themselves ;

17. That the Goal is and can only be Emancipation from the Saugsara ;

18. That such Emancipation comes from the Realization of
Nirvana ;

19. That Mirvaua is non-sangsaric, being beyond all paradises, heavens, hells, and worlds ;

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20. That it is the Ending of Sorrow ;

21. That it is Reality.

He who realized Nirvana, the Buddha Gautama Himself, has spoken of it to His own disciples thus:

‘There is, disciples, a Realm devoid of earth and water, fire and air. It is not endless space, nor infinite thought, nor nothingness, neither ideas nor non-ideas. Not this world nor that is it. I call it neither a coming nor a departing, nor a standing still, nor death, nor birth; it is without a basis, progress, or a stay; it is the ending of sorrow.

‘For that which clingeth to another thing there is a fall; but unto that which clingeth not no fall can come. Where no fall cometh, there is rest, and where rest is, there is no keen desire. Where keen desire is not, naught cometh or goeth ; and where naught cometh or goeth there is no death, no birth. Where there is neither death nor birth, there neither is this world nor that, nor in between—it is the ending of sorrow.

‘There is, disciples, an Unbecome, Unborn, Unmade, Unformed; if there were not this Unbecome, Unborn, Unmade, Unformed, there would be no way out for that which is become, born, made, and formed; but since there is an Unbecome, Unborn, Unmade, Unformed, there is escape for that which is become, born, made, and formed.’!

XUI. THE MANUSCRIPT

XUI. THE MANUSCRIPT

Our manuscript copy of the Bardo Thédol was procured by the editor early in the year 1919 from a young /éma of the Kargyutpa Sect of the Red Hat School attached to the Bhutia Basti Monastery, Darjeeling, who said that it had been handed down in his family for several generations. The manuscript is unlike any other seen by the translator or editor, in that it is illustrated by paintings in colour painted on the folios of the text. All other similarly illustrated Tibetan manuscripts seen by us have had the illustrations made on separate pieces of manuscript paper or else of cotton cloth, pasted to the folios. When procured, the

1 Udana, viii. 1, 4, 3; based on a translation from the original Pali by Mr. Francis J. Payne, London, England.

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manuscript was in a very ragged and worn condition, now remedied by each folio being inserted in a protective frame of Tibetan paper of the same sort as that upon which the manuscript is written. Fortunately, all of the illuminated folios, though faded, were in a fair state of preservation, One of the ordinary folios, folio number 111, was missing, but this has now been replaced by a faithful copy of the same passage found in a Block-Print version of the Bardo Thédol belonging to Dr. Johan Van Manen, Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, well known as a Tibetan scholar. Reference to this Block-Print version is made throughout our translation. In all essentials, and, generally, word for word, our manuscript and Dr. Van Manen’s Block-Print were found to be identical. In some spellings of proper names of deities of Sanskrit origin there are variations in the two versions, and in both books a number of clerical errors. The manuscript is far older than the modern Block- Print and seems to have been copicd from an earlier manuscript.

The manuscript itself is undated, but the translator judged it to be from 150 to 200 years old. It has seen very much service, having been read many times over the dead; its ragged and worn condition is, therefore, no criterion—as it might seem to be—of its age. It is written in an excellent hand on the ordinary paper used for manuscripts among the Tibetans and Himalayan peoples, made from the pulped bark of the Adal (pronounced Daa), otherwise known as Daphne, a kind of laurel of which one species bears a purplish white blossom, another a yellowish white. It is usually by lamas in a monastery that the paper is manufactured. On account of the bark of the Adal being extremely tough, the Sikkimese used it as ropes.

The total number of folios composing the manuscript is 137, each measuring about 9% by 3% inches. Excepting the first folio and the first half of the second, the space actually occupied by the text on each measures on an average 8% by 24 inches. Most of the folios contain five lines of matter, a few contain four lines. The title-page contains two lines

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