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

8 That is, hides of ra@kshasas, an order of giant demoniacal beings having human form and possessed of certain s¢ddhis (i. e. supernormal powers).

* Tibetan /amas, in chanting their rituals, employ seven (or eight) sorts of

PART IT] WISDOM RADIANCES 129

O nobly-born, five-coloured radiances, of the Wisdom of the
Simultaneously-Born,! which are the purified propensities,

vibrating and dazzling like coloured threads, flashing, radiant, and transparent, glorious and awe-inspiring, will issue from the hearts of the five chief Knowledge-Holding Deities and strike against thy heart, so bright that the eye cannot bear to look upon them.

At the same time, a dull blue light from the brute world will come to shine along with the Radiances of Wisdom. Then, through the influence of the illusions of thy propensities, thou wilt feel afraid of the radiance of the five colours; and [wishing to] flee from it, thou wilt feel attracted towards the dull light from the brute-world. Thereupon, be not afraid of that brilliant radiance of five colours, nor terrified; but know the Wisdom to be thine own.

Within those radiances, the natural sound of the Truth will reverberate like a thousand thunders. The sound will come with a rolling reverberation, [amidst which] will be heard, ‘Slay! Slay!’ and awe-inspiring mantras? Fear not. Flee not. Be not terrified. Know them [i.e. these sounds] to be [of] the intellectual faculties of thine own [inner] light.

musical instruments: big drums, cymbals (commonly of brass), conch-shells, bells (like the handbells used in the Christian Mass Service), timbrels, small clarionets (sounding like Highland bagpipes), big trumpets, and human thighbone trumpets. Although the combined sounds of these instruments are far from being melodious, the /@mas maintain that they psychically produce in the devotee an attitude of deep veneration and faith, because they are the counterparts of the natural sounds which one’s own body is heard producing when the fingers are put in the ears to shut out external sounds. Stopping the ears thus, there are heard a thudding sound, like that of a big drum being beaten; a clashing sound, as of cymbals; a soughing sound, as of a wind moving through a forest—as when a conch-shell is blown; a ringing as of bells; a sharp tapping sound, as when a timbrel is used; a moaning sound, like that of a clarionet ; a bass moaning sound, as if made with a big trumpet; and a shriller sound, as of a thigh-bone trumpet.

Not only is this interesting as a theory of Tibetan sacred music, but it gives the clue to the esoteric interpretation of the symbolical natural sounds of Truth (referred to in the second paragraph following, and elsewhere in our text), which are said to be, or to proceed from, the intellectual faculties within the human mentality.

1 That is, the Wisdom which is born simultaneously with the achievement of Recognition; the Simultaneously-Born Wisdom,

1 That is, the Wisdom which is born simultaneously with the achievement of Recognition; the Simultaneously-Born Wisdom,

2 See Addenda, pp. 220-2.

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p. 130

Be not attracted towards the dull blue light of the bruteworld; be not weak. If thou art attracted, thou wilt fall into the brute-world, wherein stupidity predominates, and suffer the illimitable miseries of slavery and dumbness and stupidness ;* and it will be a very long time ere thou canst get out. Be not attracted towards it. Put thy faith in the bright, dazzling, five-coloured radiance. Direct thy mind one-pointedly towards the deities, the Knowledge-Holding Conquerors. Think, onepointedly, thus: ‘These Knowledge-Holding Deities, the Heroes, and the Dakinis have come from the holy paradise realms to receive me; I supplicate them all: up to this day, although the Five Orders of the Buddhas of the Three Times have all exerted the rays of their grace and compassion, yet have I not been rescued by them. Alas, for a being like me! May the Knowledge- Holding Deities not let me go downwards further than this, but hold me with the hook of their compassion, and lead me to the holy paradises.’

Thinking in that manner, one-pointedly, pray thus:

‘O ye Knowledge-Holding Deities, pray hearken unto me ;

Lead me on the Path, out of your great love.

When [I am] wandering in the Sangsdara, because of intensified propensities,

On the bright light-path of the Simultaneously-born
Wisdom

May the bands of Heroes, the Knowledge-Holders, lead me;

May the bands of the Mothers, the Dakinis, be [my] rearguard ;

May they save me from the fearful ambuscades of the Bardo,

And place me in the pure Paradise Realms.’

Praying thus, in deep faith and humility, there is no doubt that one will be born within the pure Paradise Realms, after

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? The deceased, having by now fallen to lower and lower stages of the Bardo, looks to the heaven-worlds (which are worlds of embodiment within the Sangsara) rather than to Nirvana (which is non-Sangsaric) asa place of refuge. Although, theoretically, Mirvdva is ever realizable from any stage of the Bardo, practically, for the ordinary devotee, it is not, meritorious karma being inadequate ; hence the /dma or reader officiating aims at making the best of the situation in which, it is assumed, the deceased inevitably finds himself,

PART IT] THE WRATHFUL DEITIES 131

being merged, in rainbow-light, into the heart of the Knowledge-Holding Deities.

All the pandit classes, too, coming to recognize at this stage, obtain liberation ; even those of evil propensities being sure to be liberated here.

Here endeth the part of the Great 7Aédol concerned with the setting-face-to-face of the Peaceful [Deities] of the Chinyid Bardo and the setting-face-to-face of the Clear Light of the Chikhai Bardo.

Here endeth the part of the Great 7Aédol concerned with the setting-face-to-face of the Peaceful [Deities] of the Chinyid Bardo and the setting-face-to-face of the Clear Light of the Chikhai Bardo.

att DAWNING OF THE WRATHFUL DEITIES,
PROM THE EIGHTH TO THE FOURTEENTH
DAY]
[INTRODUCTION]

Now the manner of the dawning of the Wrathful Deities is to be shown.

In the above Bardo of the Peaceful [Dcities] there were seven stages of ambuscade. The setting-face-to-face at cach stage should have [caused the deceased] to recognize either at one or another [stage] and to have been liberated.

Multitudes will be liberated by that recognition; [and] although multitudes obtain liberation in that manner, the number of sentient beings being great, evil karma powerful, obscurations dense, propensities of too long standing, the Wheel of Ignorance and Illusion becometh neither exhausted nor accelerated. Although [all be] set face-to-face in such detail, there is a vast preponderance of those who wander downwards unliberated.

Therefore, after the cessation [of the dawning] of the Peaceful and the Knowledge-Holding Deities, who come to welcome one, the fifty-eight flame-enhaloed, wrathful, blood-drinking deities come to dawn, who are only the former Peaceful Deities in changed aspect—according to the place [or psychiccentre of the Bardo-body of the deceased whence they proceed]; nevertheless, they will not resemble them."

1 Up to this time, the fifty-two Peaceful and Knowledge-Holding Deities, emanations from the heart and throat psychic-centres of the Bardo-body of the deceased, have dawned. The Wrathful Deities now about to dawn issue from

p. 2

This is the Bardo of the Wrathful Deities; and, they being influenced by fear, terror, and awe,! recognition becometh more difficult. The intellect, gaining not in independence, passcth from one fainting state to a round of fainting states. [Yet], if one but recognize a little, it is easier to be liberated [at this stage]. Ifit be asked why? [the answer is]: Because of the dawning of the radiances—[which produce] fear, terror, and awe—the intellect is undistractedly alert in one-pointedness ; that is why.?

If at this stage one do not meet with this kind of teaching, one’s hearing [of religious lore]—although it be like an ocean [in its vastness]|—is of no avail. There are even disciplinc-holding abbots [or dAzkkhus] and doctors in metaphysical discourses who err at this stage, and, not recognizing, wander into the Sangséara.