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

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].’

4 Friends may or may not exist in the Intermediate State, as on earth; but even if they do, they are powerless to counteract any bad karma of the deceased. He must follow his own path, as marked out by harma.,

PART I] ToS DESIRE FOR A BODY 165 will occur to thee, ‘O what would I not give to possess a body!’ And so thinking, thou wilt be wandering hither and thither seeking a body.

Even though thou couldst enter thy dead body nine times over—owing to the long interval which thou hast passed in the Chonyid Bardo—it will have been frozen if in winter, been decomposed if in summer, or, otherwise, thy relatives will have cremated it, or interred it, or thrown it into the water, or given it to the birds and beasts of prey.! Wherefore finding no place for thyself to enter into, thou wilt be dissatisfied and have the sensation of being squeezed into cracks and crevices amidst rocks and boulders.?, The experiencing of this sort of misery occurs in the Intermediate State when seeking rebirth. Even though thou seekest a body, thou wilt gain nothing but trouble. Put aside the desire for a body; and permit thy mind to abide in the state of resignation, and act so as to abide therein.

By thus being set face to face, one obtaincth liberation from the Bardo.

[THE JUDGEMENT]

[Instructions to the Officiant]: Yet, again, it may be possible that because of the influence of bad karma one will not recognize even thus. Therefore, call the deceased by name, and speak as follows:

O nobly-born, (so-and-so), listen. That thou art suffering so cometh from thine own karma; it is not due to any one else’s: it is by thine own karma. Accordingly, pray earnestly to the Precious Trinity; that will protect thee. If thou neither prayest nor knowest how to meditate upon the Great Symbol nor upon any tutelary deity, the Good Genius,’ who

1 All known forms of disposal of a corpse are practised in Tibet, including mummification. (See pp. 25-8.)

2 This symbolizes the getting into undesirable wombs, such as those of human beings of animal-like nature.

8 Text: Lhan-chig-skyes-pahi-lha (pron. Lhan-chig-kye-pai-lha) = ‘simultaneously-born god (or good spirit, or genius)’, the personification of a human being’s higher, or divine, nature; popularly known in Sikkimese as Lha-kar-chung, ‘Little white god’,p. 166 was born simultaneously with thee, will come now and count out thy good deeds [with] white pebbles, and the Evil Genius,' who was born simultaneously with thee, will come and count out thy evil deeds [with] black pebbles. Thereupon, thou wilt be greatly frightened, awed, and terrified, and wilt tremble; and thou wilt attempt to tell lies, saying, ‘I have not committed any evil deed’.

Thereupon, thou wilt be greatly frightened, awed, and terrified, and wilt tremble; and thou wilt attempt to tell lies, saying, ‘I have not committed any evil deed’.

Then the Lord of Death will say, ‘I will consult the Mirror of Karma’.

So saying, he will look in the Mirror, wherein every good and evil act is vividly reflected. Lying will be of no avail.

Then [one of the Executive Furies of] the Lord of Death will place round thy neck a rope and drag thee along; he will cut off thy head, extract thy heart, pull out thy intestines, lick up thy brain, drink thy blood, eat thy flesh, and gnaw thy bones ;? but thou wilt be incapable of dying. Although thy body be hacked to pieces, it will revive again. ‘The repeated hacking will cause intense pain and torture.

Even at the time that the pebbles are being counted out,
be not frightened, nor terrified ; tell no lies; and fear not the
Lord of Death.

Thy body being a mental body is incapable of dying even though beheaded and quartcred. In reality, thy body is of the nature of voidness;? thou needst not be afraid. The

1 Text: Lhan-chig-skyes-paht-hdve (pron. Lhan-chig-kye-pat-de) = ‘simultaneously-born demon (or evil spirit, or genius)’, the personification of a human being’s lower, or carnal, nature; popularly known in Sikkimese as Bdud-nag-chung (pron. Diid-nag-chung), ‘ Little black mara (or demon)’,

2 These tortures symbolize the pangs of the deceased’s conscience; for the Judgement, as hercin described, symbolizes the rising up of the Good Genius in judgement against the Evil Genius, the Judge being the conscience itself in its stern aspect of:impartiality and love of righteousness; the Mirror is memory. One element—the purely human clement—of the consciousness-content of the deceased, comes forward, and, by offering lame excuses, tries to meet accusations against it, saying, ‘ Owing to such-and-such circumstances I had to do so-andso’, Another element of the consciousness-content comes forward and says, ‘You were guided by such-and-such motives; your deeds partake of the black colour’, Then some more friendly one of such clements arises and protests,

‘But I have such-and-such justification; and the deceased deserves pardon on these grounds’. And so—as the lamas explain—the Judgement proceeds.

(Cf. pp. 35-7.) 3 Meaning that the ‘astral’ or desire-body is incapable ot ordinary physical

THE JUDGEMENT

Described on pages *%-#x111, 35-8, 165-7, 240

THE MANTRA OF CHENRAZEE

Fanaad

“OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUM

Described on page xxiv

PART 1] NATURE OF THE VOIDNESS 167

Lords of Death! are thine own hallucinations. Thy desirebody is a body of propensities, and void. Voidness cannot injure voidness ; the qualityless cannot injure the qualityless.

Apart from one’s own hallucinations, in reality there are no such things existing outside oneself as Lord of Death, or god, or demon, or the Bull-headed Spirit of Dcath.? Act so as to recognize this.

Voidness cannot injure voidness ; the qualityless cannot injure the qualityless.

Apart from one’s own hallucinations, in reality there are no such things existing outside oneself as Lord of Death, or god, or demon, or the Bull-headed Spirit of Dcath.? Act so as to recognize this.

At this time, act so as to recognize that thou art in the
Bardo. Meditate upon the Samadhi of the Great Symbol.
If thou dost not know how to meditate, then merely analyse
with care the real nature of that which is frightening thee.
In reality it is not formed into anything, but is a Voidness
which is the Dharma-K aya?

That Voidness is not of the nature of the voidness of nothingness, but a Voidness at the true nature of which thou feelest awed, and before which thine intellect shineth clearly and more lucidly: that is the [state of] mind of the Sambhoga-K aya.

In that state wherein thou art existing, there is being experienced by thee, in an unbearable intensity, Voidness and Brightness inseparable,—the Voidness bright by nature and the Brightness by nature void, and the Brightness inseparable from the Voidness,—a state of the primordial [or unmodified] intellect, which is the Adi-Kaya.t And the injury. ‘As through a cloud, a sword can be plunged through the Bardo-body without harming it’—the /a@mas explain; or it is like the forms seen in materializing seances of necromancers and spirit-mediums.

1 These Lords of Death are Yama-Raja and his Court of Associates, including, perhaps, the Executive Furies, These last are, as Tormenting Furies, comparable to the Eumenides of Aeschylus’ great drama—elements of one’s own consciousness-content. Following the Abhidhamma, of Southern Buddhism, there are mind (Skt. chit, Tib. sevzs—pron. sem) and impulses of mind (Skt. chittavritti, Tib. sems-hbyung—pron. sem-jung) ; and the impulses of mind are the Furies. (Cf. pp. 147-8.)

2 Text: Ragsha-glang-mgo (pron. Ragsha-lang-go): ‘Bull-headed Spirit of Death’, commonly depicted as having a buffalo-head. The chief tutelary deity of the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat Sect, called Jampal Shinjeshed (Tib. Hjam-dpal Gshin-vje-gshed), meaning ‘ Jampal (Skt. Matjusrhi), the Destroyer of the Lord of Death (Skt. Yamdntaka)’, is often represented as a blue buffalo-headed deity.

3 See pp. 10-15.

4 Tib. Gowo-nyidku: Skt. Adi-Kaya (‘First Body’), which is synonymous with the Dharma-Kaya.

p. 168

power of this, shining unobstructedly, will radiate everywhere; it is the Mirmana-K aya.

O nobly-born, listen unto me undistractedly. By merely recognizing the Four Kayas, thou art certain to obtain perfect Emancipation in any of Them. Be not distracted. The line of demarcation between Buddhas and sentient beings lieth herein.! This moment is one of great importance; if thou shouldst be distracted now, it will require innumerable aeons of time for thee to come out? of the Quagmire of Misery.