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

p. 924.)

* See our Introduction, pp. 6~7.

2069 Y

162 BARDO OF SEEKING REBIRTH [BOOK Il illusion. Thick awesome darkness will appear in front of thee continually, from the midst of which there will come such terror-producing utterances as ‘Strike! Slay!’ and similar threats.! Fear these not.

In other cases, of persons of much evil karma, karmicallyproduced flesh-eating rakshasas [or demons] bearing various weapons will utter, ‘Strike! Slay!’ and so on, making a frightful tumult. They will come upon one as if competing amongst themselves as to which [of them] should get hold of one. Apparitional illusions, too, of being pursued by various terrible beasts of prey will dawn. Snow, rain, darkness, fierce blasts [of wind], and hallucinations of being pursued by many people likewise will come; [and] sounds as of mountains crumbling down, and of angry overflowing seas, and of the roaring of fire, and of fierce winds springing up.”

When these sounds come one, being terrified by them, will flee before them in every direction, not caring whither one flecth. But the way will be obstructed by three awful precipices—white, and black, and red. They will be terrorinspiring and deep, and one will feel as if one were about to fall down them. O nobly-born, they are not really precipices; they are Anger, Lust, and Stupidity.*

1 The dweller in the Bardo, because of the karmic effects of selfishness when living in the human world, is obsessed with the belief that all other Bardo beings are at enmity with him; hence he has these frightful hallucinations, as in anightmare. (Cf. p. 148.)

2 In The Six Doctrines, a treatise on the practical application of various yogas, which we have translated out of the original Tibetan, there is a parallel passage which amplifies this, as follows: ‘If one findeth not the Path during the Second Bardo (i.e. during the Chényid Bardo), then four sounds called ‘‘awe-inspiring sounds”? [are heard]: from the vital-force of the earth-element, a sound like the crumbling down of a mountain; from the vital-force of the water-element, a sound like the breaking of [storm-tossed| ocean-waves ; from the vital-force of the fire-element, a sound as of a jungle afire; from the vital-force of the airelement, a sound like a thousand thunders reverberating simultaneously.’ Herein are described the psychic resultants of the disintegrating process called death as affecting the four grosser elements composing the human body aggregate ; the ether-element is not named, because in that element alone— 1,e. in the ethereal, or Bardo-body—the consciousness-principle continues to exist. (Cf. page 933.)

3 The precipices are karmic illusions, symbolical of the three evil passions , and the falling down them symbolizes the entrance into a womb prior to rebirth. (See page 125%.)

Para il SIDPA BARDO EXPERIENCES 163

(Cf. page 933.)

3 The precipices are karmic illusions, symbolical of the three evil passions , and the falling down them symbolizes the entrance into a womb prior to rebirth. (See page 125%.)

Para il SIDPA BARDO EXPERIENCES 163

Know at that time that it is the Sidpa Bardo [in which thou art]. Invoking, by name, the Compassionate One, pray earnestly, thus: ‘O Compassionate Lord, and my Guru, and the Precious Trinity, suffer it not that I (so-and-so by name) fall into the unhappy worlds.’ Act so as to forget this not.

Others who have accumulated merit, and devoted themselves sincerely to religion, will experience various delightful pleasures and happiness and ease in full measure. But that class of neutral beings who have neither earned merit nor created bad karma will experience neither pleasure nor pain, but a sort of colourless stupidity of indifference. O noblyborn, whatever cometh in that manner—whatever delightful pleasures thou mayst experience—be not attracted by them ; dote not {on them]: think, ‘May the Gurz and the Trinity be worshipped [with these merit-given delights]’. Abandon all dotings and hankerings,

Even though thou dost not experience pleasure, or pain, but only indifference, keep thine intellect in the undistracted state of the [meditation upon the] Great Symbol, without thinking that thou art meditating.’ This is of vast importance.

O nobly-born, at that time, at bridge-heads, in temples, by stiépas of eight kinds,? thou wilt rest a little while, but thou wilt not be able to remain there very long, for thine

1 Text: bsgom-mced-yengs-med (pron. yom-med-yeng-med) = ‘non-meditation + non-distraction’; referring to a state of mental concentration in which no thought of meditation itself is allowed to intrude. This is the state of Samadhi. If one thinks one is meditating, the thought alone inhibits the meditation; hence the warning to the deceased,

2 This refers to the eight purposes for which a sfnpa (or pagoda) is built. Two such instances may be cited in elucidation: (1) rnam-rgyal-mchod-rten (pron. vam-gyal-chéd-ten) : mchod-rten (or chorten = stupa) is here translatable as ‘object of worship’, and rnam-rgyal as ‘victory’; hence this sort of pagoda is one for marking a victory, i.e. a monument ; (2) myang-hdas-mchod-rien (pron. nyang-day-chéd-ten) refers to a stupa used as a monument for marking the spot where a saint or sage died, or the place of burial of the urn containing such a one’s ashes. Other pagodas are purely symbolical structures erected—as Christian crosses are—as objects of worship or veneration. In Ceylon many stiipas are erected solely to enshrine sacred books or reliques. The great stapas of North -west India, near Peshawar and at Taxila, lately opened, contained bone-reliques and other objects. Two of them contained authentic bits of the bones of the Buddha.

p. 164

The great stapas of North -west India, near Peshawar and at Taxila, lately opened, contained bone-reliques and other objects. Two of them contained authentic bits of the bones of the Buddha.

p. 164

intellect hath been separated from thine [earth-plane] body." Because of this inability to loiter, thou oft-times wilt feel perturbed and vexed and panic-stricken. At times, thy Knower will be dim; at times, fleeting and incoherent. Thereupon this thought will occur to thee, ‘Alas! I am dead! What shall I do?’ and because of such thought the Knower will become saddened and the heart chilled, and thou wilt experience infinite misery of sorrow.? Since thou canst not rest in any one place, and feel impelled to go on, think not of various things, but allow the intellect to abide in its own [unmodified] state.

As to food, only that which hath been dedicated to thee can be partaken of by thee, and no other food.? As to friends at this time, there will be no certainty.‘

These are the indications of the wandering about on the Sidpa Bardo of the mental-body. At the time, happiness and misery will depend upon karma.

Thou wilt see thine own home, the attendants, relatives, and the corpse, and think, ‘Now I am dead! What shall I do?’ and being oppressed with intense sorrow, the thought

1 Like a person travelling alone at night along a highway, having his attention arrested by prominent landmarks, great isolated trees, houses, bridge-heads, temples, sftpas, and so on, the dead, in their own way, have similar experiences when earth-wandering. They are attracted, by karmic propensities, to familiar haunts in the human world, but being possessed of a mental or desire body cannot remain long at any one place. As our text explains, they are driven hither and thither by the winds of karmic desires—like a feather before a gale.

2 It should be remembered here that all the terrifying phenomena and the unhappiness are entirely karmic. Had the deceased been developed spiritually, his Bardo existence would have been peaceful and happy from the first, and he would not have wandered down so far as this. The Bardo Thédol is concerned chiefly with the normal individual, and not with highly developed human beings whom death sets free into Reality.

5 Like fairies and spirits of the dead according to Celtic belief, or the daemons of ancient Greek belief, the dwellers in the Bardo are said to live on invisible ethereal essences, which they extract either from food offered to them on the human plane or else from the general store-house of nature. In Zhe Six Doctrines, already referred to above (p. 1627), there is this reference to the inhabitants of the Bardo: ‘They live on odours [or the spiritual essences of material things].’