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

Phra-men-ma) is probably the name of an order of pre-Buddhistic deities belonging to the ancient Bén religion of Tibet. Wang-chugma (as pronounced from Tib. Duang-phyugma) is the Tibetan rendering of the Sanskrit /shvari, meaning ‘ Mighty Goddesses’.

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shaurima, her right [hand] clinging to his neck, the left offering to his mouth a red shell; the Father and Mother in union, issuing from the northern quarter of thy brain, will come to shine upon thee. Fear that not. Be not terrified. Be not awed. Recognize them to be the embodiment of thine own intellect. [They] being thine own tutelary deity, be not afraid. In reality they are the Father-Mother Bhagavan Amogha-Siddhi. Believe; and be humble; and be fond [of them]. Concomitantly with recognition, liberation will come. Through such acknowledging, recognizing them to be tutelary deities, in at-one-ment thou wilt merge [into them], and obtain Buddhahood. Through the gurw’s select teaching, one cometh to recognize them to be the thought-forms issuing from one’s own intellectual faculties. For instance, a person, upon recognizing a lion-skin [to be a lion-skin], is freed [from fear]; for though it be only a stuffed lion-skin, if one do not know it to be so actually, fear ariseth, but, upon being told by some person that it is a lion-skin only, one is freed from fear. Similarly here, too, when the bands of blood-drinking deities, huge of proportions, with very thick-set limbs, dawn as big as the skies, awe and terror are naturally produced in one. [But] as soon as the setting-face-to-face is heard [one] recognizeth them to be one’s own tutelary deities and one’s own thoughtforms. Then, when upon the Mother Clear-Light—which one had been accustomed to formerly—a secondary Clear-Light, the Offspring Clear-Light, is produced, and the Mother and Offspring Clear-Light, coming together like two intimate acquaintances, blend inseparably, and [therefrom] a self-emancipating radiance dawneth upon one, through self-enlightenment and self-knowledge one is liberated.

[THE THIRTEENTH DAY]

If this setting-face-to-face be not obtained, good persons on the Path,! too, fall back from here and wander into the Sangsara. Then the Eight Wrathful Ones, the Kerimas, and the Htamenmas, having various [animal] heads, issue from within

1 Or ‘undergoing psychical development’,p. 142 one’s own brain and come to shine upon one’s self. Thereupon the setting-face-to-face is, calling the deceased by name, thus:

O nobly-born, listen undistractedly. On the Thirteenth Day, from the eastern quarter of thy brain, the Eight Kerimas will emanate and come to shine upon thee. Fear that not.

From the east of thy brain, the White Kerima,’ holding a human corpse, as a club, in the right [hand]; in the left, holding a [human] scalp filled with blood, will come to shine upon thee. Fear not.

Fear that not.

From the east of thy brain, the White Kerima,’ holding a human corpse, as a club, in the right [hand]; in the left, holding a [human] scalp filled with blood, will come to shine upon thee. Fear not.

From the south, the Yellow Tseurima,? holding a bow and arrow, ready to shoot; from the west, the Red Pramoha,° holding a #akara‘-banner ; from the north, the Black Petali,° holding a dorje and a scalp filled with blood; from the southeast, the Red Pukkase,® holding intestines in the right [hand} and [with] the left putting them to her mouth; from the south-west, the Dark-Green Ghasmari,’ the left [hand] holding a scalp filled with blood, [with] the right stirring it with a dorje, and [she then] drinking it with majestic relish ; from the north-west, the Yellowish-White Tsandhali,’ tearing asunder a head from a corpse, the right [hand] holding a heart, the left putting the corpse to the mouth and [she then] eating {thereof}; from the north-east, the Dark-Blue Smasha,’ tearing asunder a head from a corpse and eating [thereof]: these,

1 Text: Kerima, corrupted from Skt. Keyunri, name of an Indian cemetery goddess. 2 The corrupted Skt. form in text, name of another Indian cemetery goddess. 8 Tib.-Skt. of text. 4 Text: chu-srin (pron. chu-sin): ‘water-lion’, or ‘leviathan’ (Skt. Makara), mythological monster. 5, 6,7 Tib.-Skt. of text. 8 Textual form, from Skt. Chandali, referring, apparently, to the spirit of female of low caste (i.e. Chandali), who, like each of the goddesses of our text herein, haunts cemeteries or cremation grounds. All such goddesses, here appearing, seem intended as symbols—each in its own way—to impress upon the deceased, as in an initiatory drama, the nature of sangsdric existence—its impermanence, its unsatisfactoriness—and the need to rise above it, conquering it through world-renunciation: all the goddesses emanating, as the text repeatedly teaches, from the mental content which the percipient’s sangsavic existence has bequeathed to him.

° In place of this Tib.-Skt. form of our text, the Block-Print gives Smashali, which is a more correct form.

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the Eight Kerimas of the Abodes [or Eight Directions], also come to shine upon thee, surrounding the Five Blood-drinking Fathers. Yet be not afraid.

form of our text, the Block-Print gives Smashali, which is a more correct form.

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PART II] THE EIGHT WRATHFUL ONES 143

the Eight Kerimas of the Abodes [or Eight Directions], also come to shine upon thee, surrounding the Five Blood-drinking Fathers. Yet be not afraid.

O nobly-born, from the Circle outside of them, the Eight Htamenmas of the [eight] regions [of the brain] will come to shine upon thee: from the east, the Dark-Brown Lion-Headed One, the hands crossed on the breast, and in the mouth holding a corpse, and shaking the mane; from the south, the Red Tiger-Headed One, the hands crossed downwards, grinning and showing the fangs and looking on with protruding eyes ; from the west, the Black Fox-Headed One, the right [hand] holding a shaving-knife, the left holding an intestine, and [she] eating and licking the blood [therefrom]; from the north, the Dark-Blue Wolf-Headed One, the two hands tearing open a corpse and looking on with protruding eyes; from the south-east, the Yellowish-White Vulture-Headed One, bearing a gigantic [human-shaped] corpse on the shoulder and holding a skeleton in the hand; from the south-west, the Dark-Red Cemetery-Bird-Headed One, carrying a gigantic corpse on the shoulder; from the north-west, the Black Crow-Headed One, the left [hand] holding a scalp, the right holding a sword, and [she] eating heart and lungs; from the north-east, the Dark- Blue Owl-Headed One, holding a dovje in the right [hand], and holding a sword in the left, and eating.

These Eight Htamenmas of the [eight] regions, likewise surrounding the Blood-Drinking Fathers, and issuing from within thy brain, come to shine upon thee. Fear that not. Know them to be the thought-forms of thine own intellectual faculties.

[THE FOURTEENTH DAY]

O nobly-born on the Fourteenth Day, the Four Female Door-Keepers, also issuing from within thine own brain, will come to shine upon thee. Again recognize. From the east [quarter] of thy brain will come to shine the White Tiger- Headed Goad-Holding Goddess, bearing a scalp filled with blood in her left [hand]; from the south, the Yellow Sow- Headed Noose-Holding Goddess; from the west, the Red

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Lion-Headed Iron-Chain-Holding Goddess; and from the north, the Green Serpent-Headed Bell-Holding Goddess. Thus issue the Four Female Door-Keepers also from within thine own brain and come to shine upon thee; as tutelary deities, recognize them.

O nobly-born, on the outer Circle of these thirty wrathful deities, Herukas, the twenty-eight various-headed mighty goddesses, bearing various weapons, issuing from within thine own brain, will come to shine upon thee. Fear that not. Recognize whatever shineth to be the thought-forms of thine own intellectual faculties. At this vitally important time, recollect the select teachings of the guru.