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

[3]

When the bright radiances of the Five Wisdoms shine upon me now,

Let it come that I, neither awed nor terrified, may recognize them to be of myself;

When the apparitions of the Peaceful and Wrathful forms are dawning upon me here,

Let it come that I, obtaining the assurance of fearlessness, may recognize the Bardo.

[4]

When experiencing miseries, because of the force of evil karma,

Let it come that the Conquerors, the Peaceful and Wrathful, may dispel the miseries ;

p. 206

When the self-existing Sound of Reality reverberates [like] a thousand thunders,

Let it come that they be transmuted into the sounds of the
Mahayana Doctrines.?

[5]

When {I am] unprotected, [and] £armic influences have to be ~ followed here,

I beseech the Conquerors, the Peaceful and the Wrathful, to protect me;

When suffering miseries, because of the Zarmic influence of propensities,

Let it come that the blissful Samadhi of the Clear Light may dawn [upon mel.

[6]
When assuming supernormal rebirth in the Szdpa Bardo,
Let it come that the perverting revelations of Mara occur not
therein;
When I arrive wheresoever I wish to,
Let it come that I experience not the illusory fright and awe
from evil arma.

[7]
When the roarings of savage beasts are uttered,
Let it come that they be changed into the sacred sounds of
the Six Syllables ; ?
When pursued by snow, rain, wind, and darkness,
Let it come that I see with the celestial eyes of bright
Wisdom.
[8]

Let it come that all sentient beings of the same harmonious order in the Bardo,

Without jealousy [towards one another],° obtain birth on the higher planes ;

? That is, into the sounds of the mantra Om-md-ni-pay-mé-Hing! and of other mantras of the Mahayana and Mantraydna Doctrines ; (cf. stanza 9 below; also pp. 1491, 134”).

* These are: Om-md-ni-pay-mé-Hing! (Cf. p. 1491.)

° This may also refer to the jealousy arising when one is taking rebirth either as a male or a female. (See p. 179.)

p. 207

When [destined to] suffering from intense miseries of hunger and thirst,

Let it come that I experience not the pangs of hunger and thirst, heat and cold.!

[9]

When I behold the future parents in union,

Let it come that I behold them as the [Divine] Pair, the Conquerors, the Peaceful and the Wrathful Father and Mother;

Obtaining the power of being born anywhere, for the good of others,

Let it come that I obtain the perfect body, adorned with the signs and the graces,?

[10]
Obtaining for myself the body of a male [which is] the
better,
Let it come that I liberate all who see or hear me;
Allowing not the evil Zarma to follow me,
Let it come that whatever merits [be mine] follow me and be
multiplied.

[10]
Obtaining for myself the body of a male [which is] the
better,
Let it come that I liberate all who see or hear me;
Allowing not the evil Zarma to follow me,
Let it come that whatever merits [be mine] follow me and be
multiplied.

[11]
Wherever I be born, there and then,
Let it come that I meet the Conquerors, the Peaceful and the
Wrathful Deities ;
Being able to walk and to talk as soon as [I am] born,’
Let it come that I obtain the non-forgetting intellect and
remember my past life* [or lives].

1 ‘Hunger and thirst’ refer to the sufferings concomitant with existence as a preta (or unhappy ghost); ‘heat and cold’, to existence in the hot and cold Hells.

2 This refers to the body of a Buddha, in which appear various supernormal signs and powers.

3 This is a reference to the Buddha, Who when born is said to have taken fifty-six steps, seven forwards and seven backwards in each of the four cardinal directions, and to have uttered a divine premonitory sentence at the end of each fourteen steps. After that supernormal performance He, like an ordinary babe, was unable to walk or to talk until normally old enough.

In the Samgiti Satta, Digha Nikaya, of the Pali Canon of Southern

p. 208

[12]
In all the various lores, great, small, and intermediate,
Let it come that I be able to obtain mastery merely upon
hearing, reflecting, and seeing ;
In whatever place I be born, let it be auspicious ;
Let it come that all sentient beings be endowed with happiness.

[33]
Ye Conqucrors, Peaceful and Wrathful, in likeness to your
bodies,
[Number of your] followers, duration of your life-period, limit
of your realms,
And [in likeness to the] goodness of your divine name,
Let it come that I, and others, equal your very selves in all these.

[14]

By the divine grace of the innumerable All-Good Peaceful and Wrathful [Ones],

And by the gift-waves of the wholly pure Reality,

[And] by the gift-waves of the one-pointed devotion of the mystic devotees,

Let it come that whatsoever be wished for be fulfilled here and now.

‘The Path of Good Wishes Affording Protection from Fears in the Bardo’ is finished.

Buddhism, there is the following explanation from the Buddha Himself as to the non-forgetting (and the forgetting) of past incarnations:

‘There are four conditions of entrance of the embryo into the womb:

‘Brethren, in this world, one cometh into existence in the mother’s womb without knowing, remaineth in it without knowing, and cometh out from the mother’s womb without knowing; this is the first.

‘Brethren, one cometh into existence in the mother’s womb knowingly, remaineth in it without knowing, and cometh out from it without knowing ; this is the second.

‘Brethren, one cometh into existence in the mother’s womb knowingly, remaineth in it knowingly, and cometh out from it without knowing ; this is the third,

‘Brethren, one cometh into existence in the mother’s womb knowingly, remaineth in it knowingly, and cometh out from it without knowing ; this is the third,

‘Brethren, in this world, one cometh into existence in the mother’s womb knowingly, remaineth in it knowingly, and cometh out from it knowingly ; this is the fourth,’

(Cf. the method, taught by the Buddha, of remembering past lives, pp. 40-1.)

ibe CONCLUDING SEVEN VERSES 209

[Vs THE COLOPHON]

[The Manuscript concludes with the following seven verses by the dama or scribe who compiled it, but he—faithful to the old /amaic teaching that the human personality should be self-abased and the Scriptures alone exalted before the gaze of sentient creatures—has not recorded his name :]

Through the perfectly pure intention of mine

In the making of this, through the root of the merits thereof,

[May] those protectorless sentient beings, Mothers,

[Be] placed in the State of the Buddha:!

Let the radiant glory of auspiciousness come to illuminate the world ;?

Let this Book be auspicious ; #

Let virtue and goodness be perfected in every way.

[Here endeth the Manuscript of the Bardo Thodol.|

1 In dedicating the whole of the spiritual merit, derived from the task of transcribing our copy of the Bardo Thédol, to mothers, irrespective of race or religion, to the end that they may be helped to attain Buddhahood, the scribe testifies to the position of respect and honour which the democracy of Buddhism has always assigned to woman,

2 Lit. ‘ Jambudvipa’, the proper Sanskrit name given to the realm of human beings,

3 The text of this verse is Mangalam: dGeho (pron. Gewo), the Sanskrit and the Tibetan term (each meaning ‘Let it [i.e. this Book] be auspicious’), in apposition, suggesting that the scribe possessed at least a limited knowledge of Sanskrit.

3069 18; (2

‘Fill up, Punna, the orb of holy life,
E’en as on fifteenth day the full-orb’d moon.
Fill full the perfect knowledge of the Path,
And scatter all the gloom of ignorance.’—
Punna, a Bhikkhuni.
Psalms of the Early Buddhists, 1. iii
(Mrs. Rhys Davids’ Translation),

Oe Dien 1) A

These Addenda consist of seven sections, complementary to our Introduction and Commentary, concerning (1) Yoga, (2) Tantricism, (3) Mantras, or Words of Power, (4) the Gurz and Skiskya (or Chela) and Initiations, (5) Reality, (6) Northern and Southern Buddhism and Christianity, and (7) the Medieval Christian Judgement.

YOGA