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

After the expiration hath completely ceased, press the nerve of sleep firmly ; and, a /é@ma, or a person higher or more learned than thyself, impress in these words, thus:

Reverend Sir, now that thou art experiencing the Fundamental Clear Light, try to abide in that state which now thou art experiencing.

And also in the case of any other person the reader shall set him face-to-face thus:

O nobly-born (so-and-so), listen. Now thou art experiencing the Radiance of the Clear Light of Pure Reality. Recognize it. O nobly-born, thy present intellect,? in real nature void, not formed into anything as regards characteristics or colour, naturally void, is the very Reality, the All-Good.?

Thine own intellect, which is now voidness, yet not to be children, parents, and vice versa; for shishyas, gurus, and vice versa; for common people, kings or rulers ; and for kings, ministers of state.

1 Cf. the following, from The Book of the Craft of Dying, chap. V, in Bodleian MS. 423 (circa fifteenth century), Comper’s ed. (p. 35) : ‘Also, if he that shall die have long time and space to be-think himself, and be not taken with hasty death, then may be read afore him, of them that be about him, devout histories and devout prayers, in the which he most delighted in when he was in heal [{i.e. health].’

2 Text: Shes-rig (pron. She-rig) isthe intellect, the knowing or cognizing faculty.

3 Text: Chés-nyid Kiin-tu-bzang-po (pron. Ché-nyid Ktintu-zang-po), Skt. Dharma-Dhdaiu Samanta-Bhadra, the embodiment of the Dharma-Kaya, the first state of Buddhahood. Our Block-Print text, in error here, gives for the All- Good (Kuntu-Zang-po, meaning ‘All-Good Father’) Kuntu-Zang-mo, which means ‘All-Good Mother’. According to the Great Perfectionist School, the Father is that which appears, or phenomena, the Mother is that which is conscious of the phenomena. Again, Bliss is the Father, and the Voidness perceiving it, the Mother; the Radiance is the Father, and the Voidness perceiving it, the Mother; and, as in our text here, the intellect is the Father, the Voidness the Mother. The repetition of ‘void’ is to emphasize the importance of knowing the intellect to be in reality void (or of the nature of voidness), i.e. of the unborn, uncreated, unshaped Primordial.

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regarded as of the voidness of nothingness, but as being the intellect itself, unobstructed, shining, thrilling, and blissful, is the very consciousness,! the All-good Buddha.?

Thine own consciousness, not formed into anything, in reality void, and the intellect, shining and _blissful,—these two,—are inseparable. The union of them is the Dharma- Kaya state of Perfect Enlightenment.®

Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Light—Buddha Amitabha.*

The union of them is the Dharma- Kaya state of Perfect Enlightenment.®

Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Light—Buddha Amitabha.*

Knowing this is sufficient. Recognizing the voidness of thine own intellect to be Buddhahood, and looking upon it as being thine own consciousness, is to keep thyself in the [state of the] divine mind ® of the Buddha.®

1 Text: Rig-fa, meaning ‘consciousness’ as distinct from the knowing faculty by which it cognizes or knows itself to be. Ordinarily, rig-pa and shesrig are Synonymous; but in an abstruse philosophical treatise, as herein, 7ig-pa refers to the consciousness in its purest and most spiritual (i. e. supramundane) aspect, and shes-rig to the consciousness in that grosser aspect, not purely spiritual, whereby cognizance of phenomena is present.

In this part of the Bardo Thédol the psychological analysis of consciousness or mind is particularly abstruse. Wherever the text contains the word rig-pa we have rendered it as ‘consciousness’, and the word shkes-ng as ‘intellect’ ; or else, to suit the context, »#g-pa as ‘consciousness’ and shes-rig as ‘ consciousness of phenomena’, which is ‘ intellect’,

2 Text: Kun-tu-bzang-po: Skt. Samanta (‘All’ or ‘ Universal’ or ‘Complete’) Bhadra (‘Good’ or ‘ Beneficent’), In this state, the experiencer and the thing experienced are inseparably one and the same, as, for example, the yellowness of gold cannot be separated from gold, nor saltness from salt. For the normal human intellect this transcendental state is beyond comprehension.

8 From the union of the two states of mind, or consciousness, implied by the two terms vig-pa and shes-rig, and symbolized by the All-Good Father and the All-Good Mother, is born the state of the Dharma-Kdaya, the state of Perfect Enlightenment, Buddahood. The Dharma-Kaya (‘ Body of Truth’) symbolizes the purest and the highest state of being, a state of supramundane consciousness, devoid of all mental limitations or obscurations which arise from the contact of the primordial consciousness with matter.

4 As the Buddha-Samanta-Bhadra state is the state of the All-Good, so the Buddha-Amitabha state is the state of the Boundless Light ; and, as the text implies, both are, in the last analysis, the same state, merely regarded from two viewpoints. In the first, is emphasized the mind of the All-Good, in the second, the enlightening Bodhi power, symbolized as Buddha Amitabha (the personification of the Wisdom faculty), Source of Life and Light.

5 Text: dgongs-pa (pron. gong-pa): ‘thoughts’ or ‘mind’, and, being in the honorific form, ‘ divine mind’.

® Realization of the Non-Sangsara, which is the Voidness, the Unbecome, the

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5 Text: dgongs-pa (pron. gong-pa): ‘thoughts’ or ‘mind’, and, being in the honorific form, ‘ divine mind’.

® Realization of the Non-Sangsara, which is the Voidness, the Unbecome, the

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Repeat this distinctly and clearly three or [even] seven times. That will recall to the mind [of the dying one] the former [i.e. when living] setting-face-to-face by the guru. Secondly, it will cause the naked consciousness to be recognized as the Clear Light ; and, thirdly, recognizing one’s own self [thus], one becometh permanently united with the Dharma-Kaya and Liberation will be certain.}

[INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING THE SECOND STAGE OF THE CHIKHAT BaARDO » THE SECONDARY CLEAR LIGHT SEEN IMME- DIATELY AFTER DEATH]

Thus the primary Clear Light is recognized and Liberation attained. But if it be feared that the primary Clear Light hath not been recognized, then [it can certainly be assumed] there is dawning [upon the deceased] that called the secondary

Unborn, the Unmade, the Unformed, implies Buddhahood, Perfect Enlightenment—the state of the Divine Mind of the Buddha. Compare the following passage, from The Diamond [or Immutable] Sara, with its Chinese commentary (trans. by W. Gemmell, London, 1912, pp. 17-18): ‘Every form or quality of phenomena is transient and illusive. When the mind realizes that the phenomena of life are not real phenomena, the Lord Buddha may then be clearly perceived.’—(Chinese Annotation : ‘ The spiritual Buddha must be realized within the mind, otherwise there can be no true perception of the Lord Buddha.’)