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

Each Zoka is characterized by its ‘ poison’ or besetting sin, but, of these, five only are mentioned. The editor has, however, referred to corruption in the Text in some of these matters, and others I have noted on a careful analysis of the translated Text.

The peaceful Devatas follow on the sixth and seventh day, and the wrathful Devatdés on the eighth and subsequent days. The latter are of the terrific type, characteristic both of the Buddhist and Hindu Shakta Tantras, with their Bhatravas, Bhatravis, Dakinis, Yoginis,and so on. Hinduism also makes this distinction in the nature of Divinities and interprets the wrathful orders as representative of the so-called ‘ destructive’ power of the Supreme Lord and of his lesser manifestations ; though, in truth, ‘God never destroys’ (za devo nashakah kvachit), but withdraws the Universe to Himself,

But Power, which thus dissolves the world, is ever terrible to those who are attached to the world. All bad action (Adharima), too, is dissolvent; and, according to the Text, the deceascd’s evil Karma in the Sangsara is reflected in the Nirvauic \ine in its forms as Divinities of the Lower Bardo, who so terrify the deceased that he flees from them and sinks therefore more and more into such a state as will eventually bring him birth in one or other of the Zokas.

The Peaceful Devatds are said to issue from the heart, and the Wrathful from the head. I do not, however, think that this statement necessarily lets in the Yoga doctrine of the ‘Serpent Power’ and the Six Centres, which the editor has shortly set out in Part II of the Addenda, assuming (a matter of which I have no personal knowledge) that the Tibetans both practise this Yoga and teach it in its Indian form. I myself think that the mention of the heart and head does not refer to these places as Yoga-centres, but possibly to the fact that the Peaceful Deities reflect, as stated in the Text, the love of the deceased which springs from his heart.

I make a reservation also as regards the subject of Mantras, dealt with in Part III of the Addenda. No doubt the Tibetans employ Sanskrit Mantras, but such Mantras are often found in

STATE WHEN SEEKING REBIRTH = xxxix

I make a reservation also as regards the subject of Mantras, dealt with in Part III of the Addenda. No doubt the Tibetans employ Sanskrit Mantras, but such Mantras are often found in

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a sadly corrupt form in their books—a fact which suggests that the Tibetans feel little appreciation of the supposed soundvalue of Mantras. But whether their theory on this subject is the same in all respects as that of the Hindus I cannot say.! The Hindu theory, which I have elsewhere endeavoured to elucidate (cf. Garland of Letters), is still on several points obscure; the subject being perhaps the most difficult of any in Hinduism. Even though Tibetan Buddhism may have Mantra-Sadhané, the presentment of it is likely to differ as much as does the general substance of these two Faiths. About the fifteenth day, passage is made into the Third Bardo, in which the deceased, if not previously liberated, seeks ‘Rebirth’. His past life has now become dim. That of the future is indicated by certain premonitory signs which represent the first movements of desire towards fulfilment. The ‘ soul-complex’ takes on the colour of the Zoka in which it is destined to be born. If the deceased’s Karma leads him to Hell, thither he goes after the Judgement, in a subtle body which cannot be injured or destroyed, but in which he may suffer atrocious pain. Or he may go to the Heaven-world or other Zoka, to return at length and in all cases (for neither punishment nor reward are eternal) to earth, whereon only can new Karma be made. Such return takes place after expiation of his sins in Hell, or the expiration of the term of enjoyment in Heaven which his Karma has gained for him. If, however, the lot of the deceased is immediate rebirth on earth, he sees visions of mating men and women. He, at this final stage towards the awakening to earth-life, now knows that he has not a gross

1 Just as the Tibetans took over Zantricism from India, so, as the well-known Tibetan Biography of Jetstin Milarepa (Tibet’s most famous Yogt and Saint), for example, makes clear, they appear also to have derived various systems of Yoga from India, including Laya or Kuudalint Yoga. While it is undoubtedly true that many Mantras likewise derived from India have grown hopelessly corrupt in the Tibetan language itself, the practice of Laya or Kundalint Yoga by Tibetans seems to have been kept fairly pure, largely through oral transmission from guru to guru vather than through written records, except for Tibetanized terminologies and methods of application. Certain Tibetan treatises on Yoga which the editor possesses, both in the original and in English translation, suggest this, -W. Y. E-W.

x FOREWORD body of flesh and blood. He urgently desires to have one, in order that he may again enjoy physical life on the earthworld.

Certain Tibetan treatises on Yoga which the editor possesses, both in the original and in English translation, suggest this, -W. Y. E-W.

x FOREWORD body of flesh and blood. He urgently desires to have one, in order that he may again enjoy physical life on the earthworld.

The Freudian psycho-analyst will find herein a remarkable passage supporting his doctrine of the aversion of the son for the father. The passage says that, if the deceased is to be born as a male, the fecling of its being a male comes upon the knower, and a feeling of intense aversion for the father and attraction for the mother is begotten, and vice versa as regards birth as a female. This is, however, an old Buddhist doctrine found elsewhere. Professor De la Vallée Poussin cites the following passage: ‘L’esprit troublé par désir d’amour, il va au lieu de sa destingée. Méme trés éloigné, il voit, par Poeil né de la force de l’acte, le lieu de sa naissance; voyant la son pere et sa mere unis, il concgoit désir pour la mére quand il est mile, désir pour le pére quand il est femelle, et, inversement, haine’ (Bouddhisme: Etudes et Matériaux, Abhidharmakosha, iii. 15, p. 25). The work cited also contains other interesting details concerning the embryo. (Sce, too, the same author's La Théorie de douze causes.)

At length the deceased passes out of the Bardo dreamworld into a womb of flesh and blood, issuing thence once more into the waking state of carth-experience. This is what in English is called Re-incarnation, or Re-birth in the flesh. The Sanskrit term is Sangsdra, that is, ‘rising and rising again’ (Punarutpatti) in the worlds of birth and death. Nothing is permanent, but all is transitory. In life, the ‘soul-complex’ is never for two consecutive moments the same, but is, like the body, in constant change. ‘There is thus a serics (Sazténa) of successive, and, in one sense, different states, which are in themselves but momentary. There is still a unifying bond in that each momentary state is a present transformation representative of all those which are past, as it will be the generator of all future transformations potentially involved in it.

This process is not interrupted by death. Change continucs in the Skandhas (or constituents of the organism) other than

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