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

4 Text: rang-snang (pron. rang-nang): ‘one’s own [mental] visions (or thought-forms).’

p. 104

recognition is certain; and forget not this vital secret art lying therein.

O nobly-born, when thy body and mind were separating, thou must have experienced a glimpse of the Pure Truth, subtle, sparkling, bright, dazzling, glorious, and radiantly awesome, in appearance like a mirage moving across a landscape in spring-time in one continuous stream of vibrations. Be not daunted thereby, nor terrified, nor awed. That is the radiance of thine own true nature. Recognize it.

From the midst of that radiance, the natural sound of Reality, reverberating like a thousand thunders simultaneously sounding, will come. That is the natural sound of thine own real self. Be not daunted thereby, nor terrified, nor awed.

The body which thou hast now is called the thought-body of propensities! Since thou hast not a material body of flesh and blood, whatever may come,—sounds, lights, or rays, —are, all three, unable to harm thee: thou art incapable of dying. It is quite sufficient for thee to know that these apparitions are thine own thought-forms. Recognize this to be the Bardo.

O nobly-born, if thou dost not now recognize thine own thought-forms, whatever of meditation or of devotion thou mayst have performed while in the human world—if thou hast not met with this present teaching—the lights will daunt thee, the sounds will awe thee, and the rays will terrify thee. Shouldst thou not know this all-important key to the teachings,—not being able to recognize the sounds, lights, and rays,—thou wilt have to wander in the Sangsara.

[THE DAWNING OF "THE PEACEFUL*s DEITEa]
PROM THE FERST TO THE SEVENTH Diag)

[Assuming that the deceased is karmically bound—as the average departed one is—to pass through the forty-nine days of the Bardo existence, despite the very frequent settings-faceto-face, the daily trials and dangers which he must meet and

' Text: bag-chags yid-liis (pron. bag-chah yid-li). yid-lis: ‘mind-body’ or

‘thought-body’; dag-chags: ‘habit’, ‘propensities’ (born of samgsaric or worldly existence).

PART II] DAWNING OF VAIROCHANA 105

attempt to triumph over, during the first seven days, wherein dawn the Peaceful Deities, are next explained to him in detail; the first day, judging from the text, being reckoned from the time in which normally he would be expected to wake up to the fact that he is dead and on the way back to rebirth, or about three and one-half to four days after death.]

[THE FIRST DAY]

O nobly-born, thou hast been in a swoon during the last three and one-half days. As soon as thou art recovered from this swoon, thou wilt have the thought, ‘What hath happened !’

As soon as thou art recovered from this swoon, thou wilt have the thought, ‘What hath happened !’

Act so that thou wilt recognize the Bardo. At that time, all the Saxgsara will be in revolution ;! and the phenomenal appearances that thou wilt see then will be the radiances and deities. The whole heavens will appear deep blue.

Then, from the Central Realm, called the Spreading Forth of the Seed,® the Bhagavan Vairochana,* white in colour, and

1 That is to say, phenomena, or phenomenal experiences as experienced when in the human world, will be experienced in quite another way in the Bardo world, so that to one just dead they will seem to be in revolution or confusion ; hence the warning to the deceased, who must accustom himself to the after-death state as a babe must accustom itself after birth to our world.

2 At this point, where the marvellous Bardo visions begin to dawn, the student in attempting to rationalize them should ever keep in mind that this treatise is essentially esoteric, being in most parts, especially from here onwards, allegorical and symbolical of psychic experiences in the after-death state.

3 Text: Thiglé-Brdalva (pron. Thigle-Dalwa): ‘ Spreading forth the Seed [of all Things].’? Esoterically, this is the Dharma-Dhatu.

4 Text : Rnam-par-Snang-mzad (pron. Nam-par-Nang-2ad) ; Skt. Vairochana, the Dhyani Buddha of the Centre (or Central Realm). Vavvochana literally means, ‘in shapes making visible’; hence he is the Manifester of Phenomena, or the Noumena, The wheel he holds symbolizes sovereign power. His title Bhagavan (applied to many other of the deities to follow hereinafter), meaning “One Possessed of Dominion’ (or ‘of the Six Powers’), or ‘The Victorious’, qualifies him as being a Buddha, i.e. One who has conquered, or has dominion over, sangsaric, or worldly, existence.

As the Central Dhyani Buddha, Vairochana is the highest path te Enlightenment of the Esoteric School. Like a Central Sun, surrounded by the four Dhyani Buddhas of the four cardinal directions, who dawn on the four succeeding days, he symbolizes the One Truth surrounded by its four constituents or elements. As the source of all organic life, in him all things visible and invisible have their consummation and absorption.

For general references to the deities of the Bardo Thédol, see L. A. Waddell, The Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism (London, 1895) ; and A, Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism (Oxford, 1914).

3069 Pp. 106 seated upon a lion-throne, bearing an eight-spoked wheel in his hand, and embraced by the Mother of the Space of Heaven,! will manifest himself to thee.

It is the aggregate of matter resolved into its primordial state which is the blue light.”

3069 Pp. 106 seated upon a lion-throne, bearing an eight-spoked wheel in his hand, and embraced by the Mother of the Space of Heaven,! will manifest himself to thee.

It is the aggregate of matter resolved into its primordial state which is the blue light.”

The Wisdom of the Dharma-Dhatu, blue in colour, shining, transparent, glorious, dazzling, from the heart of Vairochana as the Father-Mother,’ will shoot forth and strike against thee with a light so radiant that thou wilt scarcely be able to look at it.

Along with it, there will also shine a dull white light from the devas, which will strike against thee in thy front.

Thereupon, because of the power of bad karma, the glorious blue light of the Wisdom of the Dharma-Dhatu will produce in thee fear and terror, and thou wilt [wish to] flee from it. Thou wilt beget a fondness for the dull white light of the devas.

At this stage, thou must not be awed by the divine blue light which will appear shining, dazzling, and glorious; and be not startled by it. That is the light of the Tathagata * called the Light of the Wisdom of the Dharma-Dhatu. Put thy faith in it, believe in it firmly, and pray unto it, thinking in thy mind that it is the light proceeding from the heart of the Bhagavan Vairochana coming to receive thee while in the

1 Text: Nam-mkh-ah-dvyings-kyi-duang-phyung-ma (pron. Nam-kha-ing-hyawang-chug-ma) : ‘ Sovereign Lady of the Space of Heaven’: Skt. Akasa Dhatu /shvari. The Mother is the female principle of the universe; the Father, Vairochana, the seed of all that is,

? Here the Block-Print reads: ‘It is the aggregate of consciousness (Rvampar Shes-tahi—pro. Nam-par She-pay —Skt. Vijfiana Skandha) resolved into its primordial state which is the blue light.’ In our MS. the aggregate of consciousness shines as a white light in relationship with Vajra-Sattva, on the Second Day (see p. 109).

* Here, as in parallel passages following, the chief deity personifies in himself the female as well as the male principle of nature, and hence is called the Father-Mother—depicted, as described by the text, in appropriate symbolic colours, on the corresponding illuminated folio of our MS., as the Divine Father and the Divine Mother in union (i.e. in divine at-one-ment).

* Text : De-bshing-shegs-pa (pron. De-shing-sheg-pa) : Skt. Tathagata, meaning ‘{He] who hath gone that same way’, i.e. One who hath reached the Goal (Nirva@na)—a Buddha,

PART II] LIBERATION BY VAIROCHANA 107

dangerous ambuscade! of the Bardo. That light is the light of the grace of Vairochana.