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

In the vital-sheath resides the vital-force (Skt. raza) divided into ten vital-airs (vaya, derived from the root va, ‘to breathe’

chief groups of Tatras, one Hindu, the other Buddhist. The Hindu Janira is generally cast in the form of a dialogue between the god Shiva, as the Divine Guru, and his Shaktt Parvati, often in their wrathful forms as Bhairava and Bhairavi. In the Buddhist Tantra, these purely Hindu deities are replaced by Buddhist deitics, Buddhas and their Shakds, or by gods and goddesses. One characteristic of both classes of Tantras is that usually they are based upon the Yoga Philosophy. Which of the two classes is older is a disputed question ; but the oldest Tantras are probably far older than European critics (who have placed their origin well within the Christian era) have thought. Some Tatras are indisputably quite modern. According to orthodox Hindus, the Zan/ras are of Vedic origin, and designed to serve as the chief Scriptures for this age, the Kali Yuga. Some Buddhists claim a purcly Buddhist origin for the Yantras. The Hindu view is, however, the commonly accepted view.

As encyclopaedias of the knowledge of their times, the Zantras are very numerous. Some are concerned with the nature of the cosmos, its evolution and dissolution; the classification of sentient beings and of the various heavens, hells, and worlds; the divinely instituted rules governing human relations and conduct ; the numerous forms of worship and spiritual training, ceremonial rites, meditation, yoga, duties of kings, law, custom, medicine, astrology, astronomy, magic ; and, in short, the whole cycle of the sciences of the East.

In so far as the Bardo Thédol is a ritual based upon Yoga, and has for its chief matter the science of birth, death, and rebirth, interwoven with deseriptions of the various states of existence and beings pcopling the universe, and teaches of the ways of obtaining salvation, it is a Tantric work, although, strictly speaking, not a Tantra.

For detailed knowledge concerning the Tantras, the student is referred to Principles of Tantra, Part 1, by Arthur Avalon (London, 1914).

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For detailed knowledge concerning the Tantras, the student is referred to Principles of Tantra, Part 1, by Arthur Avalon (London, 1914).

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or ‘to blow’, refers to the motive power of praza). As the daemons of Plato’s occultism are said to control the operations of the Cosmic Body, so these vayu, composed of negative praua, control the operations of the human body. Five are fundamental: (1) the praza, controlling inspiration; (2) the udana, controlling the ascending vital-force (or vital-air) ; (3) the apana, controlling the downward vital-force, which expels wind, excrement, urine, and semen; (4) the samdna, as the collective force of the vay, kindles the fire of the body whereby food is digested and then distributed by the blood ; and (5) the vyaua, controlling division and diffusion in all metabolic processes. The five minor airs are the WVaga, kurmma, krikara, deva-datia, and dhananjaya, which produce, respectively, hiccuping, opening and closing of the eyes, assistance to digestion, yawning, and distension.

The Psychic Nerves or Channels (Skt. Nadi).—There are next mentioned in our text the Psychic Nerves. Sanskrit works on Yoga say that there are fourteen principal #@d@z and hundreds of thousands of minor z@dz in the human body, just as Western physiologists say that there are so many chief nerves and minor nerves. But the za@d@z of the East and the nerves of the West, although literally the same in name, are not synonymous. The zddz are invisible channels for the flow of psychic forces whose conducting agents are the vital-airs (vdyz).

Of the fourteen principal 2é@dz, there are three which are of fundamental importance. These are, to follow our text, the median-nerve (Skt. sushumna-nadi), the left nerve (7da-ndadi), and the right nerve (pimgala-ndadi). The sushumua-nadi is the chief or median-nerve, situated in the hollow of the spinal column (Skt. Brahma-danda), the Mt. Meru of the human body, man being regarded as the microcosm of the macrocosm. The ida-nadi, to the left, and the pingala-nadi, to the right, coil round it as the two serpents coil round the caduceus carried by the messenger-god Hermes. It is believed that this ancient herald’s wand symbolizes the sushumna-nddi, and the twining serpents the zda-nadi and the pingala-nadi. If so, we see again how the esoteric symbol-code of the West corresponds to that of the East.

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It is believed that this ancient herald’s wand symbolizes the sushumna-nddi, and the twining serpents the zda-nadi and the pingala-nadi. If so, we see again how the esoteric symbol-code of the West corresponds to that of the East.

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The Psychic-Nerve Centres (Skt. Chakra).—The sushumnanadi forms the great highway for the passage of the psychic forces of the human body. These forces are concentrated in centres, or chakra, like dynamos, ranged along the szsheumnanadi and interconnected by it, wherein are stored the vitalforce or vital-fluid upon which all psycho-physical processes ultimately depend. Of these, six are of fundamental importance. The first is known as the Root-support (A/inladhara) of the sushumnda-nddi, situated in the perineum; and in the Miladharaé is the secret Fountain of Vital-Force, presided over by the Goddess Kundalini. Next above, lies the second chakra, or lotus, called the Svadhishthana, which is the centre of the sex-organs. The navel nerve-centre is above, and called in Sanskrit Waut-pira-chakra. The next is the heart nerve-centre, the Azdhata-chakra. In the throat is located the fifth, called the Vishuddha-chakra. In the Ajua-chakra, which is the sixth, situated between the eyebrows, as depicted by the ‘third eye’ on images of the Buddha and of Hindu deities, the three chief psychic nerves (adi), seushumnd, ida, and pingald, come together and then separate. Above all, in the causal region of psychic man, as the sun of the body, sending its rays downwards over the human-body cosmos, is the Supreme or Seventh Chakra, the thousand-petalled lotus (or chakra) called Sahasrara Padma; through it the sushumnawadi has its exit, the Aperture of Brahma (Skt. Brahkmavandhra) referred to in our text, through which the consciousness-principle normally goes out from the body at death.

The initial aim of the practitioner of Yoga is to awaken what in the Yantras is called the Serpent Power, personified as the Goddess Kundalini. It is in the Wiladhara-chakra, at the base of the spinal column, containing the root of the sushaummnazadi, that this mighty occult power lies coiled, like a serpent asleep. Once the Serpent Power is aroused into activity, it is made to penetrate, one by one, the psychic-nerve centres, until, rising like mercury in a magic tube, it reaches the thousand-petalled lotus in the brain-centre. Spreading out in a fountain-like crest, it falls thence as a shower of heavenly ambrosia to feed all parts of the psychic body. Thus becomp. 217ing filled with supreme spiritual power, the yogi experiences Illumination.