The Tibetan Book of the Dead — ed. W. Y. Evans-Wentz
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But those of the weakest karmic connexions, by not recognizing, fall under the influence of awe and terror. [For them] there are various graded
The Astrology for the Dead—a Tibetan work, in many versions, for determining (by using the moment of death as a basis for astrological calculations) the appropriate time, place, and method for the disposal of the corpse, and the after-death realm to which the deceased is destined and the land and condition in which he will be reborn on earth—prescribes such use of the Tahdol.
1 Text: Chds-spyod-bag-chags-vang-grol (pron. Chi-chod-bag-chah-rang-dot),the title of a metrical version, in brief form, of the Bardo Thédol, which, being easy to memorize and thereafter recite as a matter of habit, is referred to as liberating because of such acquired habit or propensity on the part of the deceased, it being supposed that the deceased knows the ritual by heart and that its reading will remind him of it and thereby bring about his liberation.
2 See pp. 85-6, above.
3 See p. 89°, above.
4 Or ‘narrow passages’, or ‘ambuscades’,
3069 Ccp. 194 teachings for closing the womb-door and for selecting the womb-door; and, at one or other of these, they should have apprehended the method of visualization and [applied | the illimitable virtues [thereof] for exaiting one’s own condition. Even the lowest of them, resembling the brute order, will have been able—in virtue of the application of the Refuge—to turn from entering into misery ; and, [obtaining] the great [boon] of a perfectly endowed and freed human body,! will, in the next birth, meeting with a guru who is a virtuous friend, obtain the [saving] vows.
If this Doctrine arrive [while one is] in the Szdpa Bardo, it will be like the connecting up of good actions, resembling [thus] the placing of a trough in [the break of] a broken drain: such is this Teaching.
Those of heavy evil karma cannot possibly fail to be liberated by hearing this Doctrine [and recognizing]. If it be asked, why? it is because, at that time, all the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities being present to receive [one], and the Maras and the Interrupters likewise coming to receive [one] along with them, the mere hearing of this Doctrine then turneth one’s views, and liberation is obtained; for there it is because, at that time, all the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities being present to receive [one], and the Maras and the Interrupters likewise coming to receive [one] along with them, the mere hearing of this Doctrine then turneth one’s views, and liberation is obtained; for there
1 Text: dal-hbyor-phun-sum-tshogs-paht-mt-liis (pron. tal-jor-phiin-sum-tshopat-mi-lit) : ‘a perfectly endowed and freed human body’; ‘freed’ implying freedom from the eight thraldoms: (1) the ever-recurring round of pleasure concomitant with existence as a deva; (2) the incessant warfare concomitant with existence as an asura; (3) the helplessness and slavery concomitant with existence under conditions like those prevailing in the world of brutes; (4) the torments of hunger and thirst concomitant with existence as a prefa; (5) the extremes of heat and cold concomitant with existence in Hell; (6) the irreligion or perverted religion concomitant with existence amongst certain races of mankind, or (7) the physical or (8) other impediments concomitant with certain sorts of human birth.
To win a perfectly endowed human body, one must inherently possess faith, perseverance, intellect, sincerity, and humility as a religious devotee, and be born at a time when religion prevails (i.e. when an Enlightened One shall be incarnate or when His teachings are the driving force of the world) and meet then a great, spiritually developed guru.
? If a drain be broken, the continuity in the flow of the water is broken. The Teaching is, in its effects, like repairing the drain by insertion of a trough to conduct the water across the break (which is symbolical of the break in the stream of consciousness caused by death). Thereby is the merit of good deeds done in the human world made to carry the deceased forward: the continuity is re-established.
rape) LFRICACY OF THE BARDO THODOL 1095 is no flesh and blood body to depend upon, but a mental body, which is [easily] affected. At whatever distance one may be wandering in the Bardo, one heareth and cometh, for one possesseth the slender sense of supernormal perception and foreknowledge; and, recollecting and apprehending instantaneously, the mind is capable of being changed [or influenced]. Therefore is it [i.e. the Teaching] of great use here. It is like the mechanism of a catapult! It is like the moving of a big wooden beam [or log] which a hundred men cannot carry, but which by being floated upon water can be towed wherever desired in a moment.” It is like the controlling of a horse’s mouth by means of a bridle.*
It is like the mechanism of a catapult! It is like the moving of a big wooden beam [or log] which a hundred men cannot carry, but which by being floated upon water can be towed wherever desired in a moment.” It is like the controlling of a horse’s mouth by means of a bridle.*
Therefore, going near [the body of] one who hath passcd out of this life—if the body be there,—impress this [upon the spirit of the deceased] vividly, again and again, until blood and the yellowish water-secretion begin to issue from the nostrils, At that time the corpse should not be disturbed. The rules to be observed for this [impressing to be efficacious] are: no animal should be slain on account of the deceased ;+* nor should relatives weep or make mournful wailings near the dead body ;° [let the family] perform virtuous deeds as far as possible.®
1 As a catapult enables one to direct a great stone at a definite target or goal, so this Doctrine enables the deceased to direct himself to the Goal of Liberation.
2 As water makes the moving of the beam possible, so this doctrine makes possible the conducting of the deceased to the place or state of existence most appropriate, or even to Buddhahood.
8 As with a bridle, controlling the bit and the course of the horse, so with this Doctrine the deceased can be directed or turned in his after-death progression.
4 This does not refer to animal-sacrifice for the dead, but to the non-Buddhist habit of slaying animals to provide meat for the /amas and the guests at the house of death while the funeral rites are being conducted. Unfortunately, this prohibition is often overlooked ; and, though no killing of animals may take place there, slaughtered animals may be brought from a distance—an observance after the letter, but not in the spirit of this Buddhist precept of non-killing. (See p. 1694.)
5 Wailings and lamentations have been customary amongst Tibetans and related Himalayan peoples, as amongst the peoples of India and of Egypt, since immemorial times ; but Buddhism, like the Islamic Faith, discountenances them.
8 Such deeds are, for example, the feeding of /amas and of the poor, almsgiving, the presentation of religious texts or images to monasteries, and the endowment of monasteries if the deceased left much wealth.
196 BARDO OF SEEKING REBIRTH [BK. It, PT. 11]
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