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ArH ACh BE TAIN BOOK OF FHE DEAD
Oxford University Press
London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen
New York Toronto Melbourne Capetown
Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai
Humphrey Milford Publisher to the University
THE TRANSLATOR (right) AND THE EDITOR IN GANGTOK, SIKKIM
Described on page xvii
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SW TOGOQHI OGY¥d AHL AO v49 GNy vS£ SOTTO’
THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD
The After-Death Experiences
on the Bardo Plane, according
to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup’s
English Rendering
By
W. Y. EVANS-WENTZ
WEA, D.Lire, Bsc.
Jesus College, Oxford; Author of
“The Fairy-Faith in Celtic
Countries’
With Foreword by Sir John Woodroffe jar
Oxford University Press
London : Humphrey Milford
IN MEMORY OF
MY DECEASED FATHER AND MOTHER
I DEDICATE
THIS BOOK TO MY TEACHERS
BOTH SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS
IN EUROPE AND AMERICA
AND THROUGHOUT
THE ORIENT
‘Thou shalt understand that it is a science most profitable, and passing all other sciences, for to learn to die. Fora man to know that he shall die, that is common to all men; as much as there is no man that may ever live or he hath hope or trust thereof; but thou shalt find full few that have this cunning to learn to die... . I shall give thee the mystery of this doctrine ; the which shall profit thee greatly to the beginning of ghostly health, and to a stable fundament of all virtues.’— Orologtum Saptentiae.
‘ Against his will he dieth that hath not learned to die. Learn to die and thou shalt learn to live, for there shall none learn to live that hath not learned to die.’”—Toure of all Toures: and Teacheth a Man for to Die.
The Book of the Craft of Dying (Comper’s Edition).
“Whatever is here, that is there ; what is there, the same is here. He who seeth here as different, meeteth death after death.
‘By mind alone this is to be realized, and [then] there is no difference here, From death to death he goeth, who seeth as if there is difference here.’—Katha Upantshad, iv, 10-11 (Swami Sharvananda’s Translation).
ieee,
In this book I am seeking—so far as possible—to suppress
my own views and to act simply as the mouthpiece of a Tibetan
sage, of whom I was a recognized disciple.
He was quite willing that I should make known his inter- pretation of the higher /amazc teachings and of the subtle esotericism underlying the Bardo Thédol, following the private and orally transmitted instructions which he as a young man had received when living the life of an ascetic with his late hermit-g¢ru in Bhutan. Being himself a man who possessed a considerable amount of Western learning, he took great trouble to enable me to reproduce Oriental ideas in a form which would be intelligible to the European mind. If, in amplification, I have frequently referred to Occidental parallels of various mystic or occult doctrines current in the Orient, I have done so largely because in my wanderings there, chiefly in the high Himalayas and on the Tibetan frontiers of Kashmir, Garhwal, and Sikkim, I had come across learned philosophers and holy men who have found or thought they had found beliefs and religious practices—some recorded in books, some preserved by oral tradition alone—not only analogous to their own, but so closely akin to those of the Occident as to imply some historical connexion therewith. Whether the supposed influence passed from East to West or from West to East, was not so clear to their minds. A certain similarity does, however, seem to attach to the culture of these geographically divided provinces.
I have spent more than five years in such research, wandering from the palm-wreathed shores of Ceylon, and thence through the wonder-land of the Hindus, to the glacier-clad heights of the Himalayan Ranges, seeking out the Wise Men of the East. Sometimes I lived among city dwellers, sometimes in jungle and mountain solitudes among yogis, sometimes in
x PREFACE
monasteries with monks; sometimes I went on pilgrimages, as one of the salvation-seeking multitude. The Introduction —which in its unusual lengthiness is intended to serve as a very necessary commentary to the translation—and the annotations to the text record the more important results of this research, more especially in relation to Northern or Mahayana Buddhism.
Nevertheless, I have been really little more than a compiler and editor of ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’. To the deceased translator—who combined in himself a greater knowledge of the Occult Sciences of Tibet and of Western Science than any Tibetan scholar of this epoch-—the chict credit for its production very naturally belongs.
In addition to that greatest of all debts which the student ever owes to his preceptor, I acknowledge my indebtedness to each of my many good friends and helpers who have personally aided me herewith. Some of them are of one Faith, some of another; some are far away in Japan and in China, some in the land of my birth, America; many are in Ceylon and in India; a few are in Tibet.
Here in England I think first of all of Dr. R. R. Marett, Reader in Social Anthropology in the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Exeter College, who ever since I first came up to Oxford, in the year 1907, has faithfully guided my anthro- pological research. Sir John Woodroffe, late a Judge of the High Court, Calcutta, now Reader in Indian Law in the University of Oxford, and the foremost authority in the West on the Yantras, has read through our translation, chiefly in relation to the character of the work as a ritual more or less Tantric, and offered important advice. I am also very grateful to him for the Foreword.
To Sj. Atal Bihari Ghosh, of Calcutta, Joint Honorary Secretary with Sir John Woodroffe of the Agamanusandhana Samiti, as to Sir E. Denison Ross, Director of the School of Oriental Studies, London Institution, and to Dr. F. W. Thomas, Librarian of the India Office, London, I am under a special
PREFACE xi
obligation for important constructive criticism on the book as a whole. To Major W. L. Campbell, British Political Representative in Tibet, Bhutan, and Sikkim during my sojourn in Gangtok, Iam indebted for much encouragement and scholarly aid, and for the gift of two valuable paintings prepared by his orders in the chief monastery of Gyantse, Tibet, to illustrate the symbolism of the Bardo Thédol text, and herein reproduced. To his predecessor and successor in the same post, Sir Charles Bell, I am also a debtor for important advice at the outset of my Tibetan research, when in Darjeeling. To Mr. E. S. Bouchier, M.A. (Oxon.), F. R. Hist. S., author of Syria as a Roman Province, A Short flistory of Antioch, &c., my heartiest thanks are due for the assistance which he has so kindly rendered in reading the whole of this book when in proof.
Sardar Bahadur S.W. Laden La, Chief of Police, Darjeeling, who sent me to Gangtok with a Ictter of introduction to the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, the translator of the Bardo Thodol; Dr. Johan Van Manen, Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, who lent me Tibetan books which proved very helpful while the translation was taking shape, and who afterwards contributed advice concerning transla- tions; and Dr. Cassius A. Pereira, of Colombo, Ceylon, who criticized parts of the Introduction in the light of Theravada Buddhism, are among many others to whom my thanks are due.
Thus, under the best of auspices, this book is sent forth to the world, in the hope that it may contribute something to the sum total of Right Knowledge, and serve as one more spiritual strand in an unbreakable bond of good will and universal peace, binding East and West together in mutual respect and under- standing, and in love such as overleaps every barrier of creed
and caste and race. W. Y. E-W.
Jesus Cottece, OxForp, Easter, 1927.
I. Renunciation
“Get thee away from life-lust, from conceit,
From ignorance, and from distraction’s craze ;
Sunder the bonds; so only shalt thou come
To utter end of Ill. Throw off the Chain
Of birth and death—thou knowest what they mean.
So, free from craving, in this life on earth,
Thou shalt go on thy way calm and serene.’—The Buddha. Psalms of the Early Buddhists, 1. Wi
(Mrs. Rhys Davids’ Translation).
Hl. VICTORY
‘But anguish crept upon me, even me,
Whenas I pondered in my little cell:
Ah me! how have I come into this evil road.
Into the power of Craving have I strayed!
Brief is the span of life yet left to me;
Old age, disease, hang imminent to crush.
Now ere this body perish and dissolve,
Swift let me be; no time have I for sloth.
And contemplating, as they really are,
The Aggregates of Life that come and go,
I rose and stood with mind emancipate!
For me the Buddha’s words had come to pass’.— Mittakali, a Brahmin Bhikbhuni.
Psalms of the Early Buddhists, I, xliii (Mrs. Rhys Davids’ Translation).
Come Nts
PREFACE ILLUSTRATIONS
FOREWORD: The Science of Death, by Sir John Woodroffe .
Introduction
II. iF
The Importance of the ee Thodol . < ae fs
The Symbolism
The Esoteric Significance of the — Nine — of the
Bardo .
. The Esoteric Significance of the Five Elements . The Wisdom Teachings
. The Death Ceremonies
. The Bardo, or After-Death State
. The Psychology of the Bardo Visions
. The Judgement
. The Rebirth Doctrine .
. The Cosmography
. The Fundamental Teachings Summarized
. The Manuscript
. The Origin of the Bardo Thédol . . The Translating and the Editing .
BOOK ad
THE CAlkaAl BARDO AND THE CHONYID BARDO
The Obeisances
The Introduction
The Transference of the Censsneneess pees The Reading of this Thédol .
The Practical Application of this Thodol By the Omsen .
xiV CONTENTS
Pak ol
The Bardo of the Moments of Death
INSTRUCTIONS ON THE SYMPTOMS OF DEATH, OR
THE FIRST STAGE OF THE CH/IKHAI BARDO: THE
PRIMARY CLEAR LIGHT SEEN AT THE MOMENT
OF DEATH
INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING THE SECOND , STAGE
OF THE CHIKHAI BARDO: THE SECONDARY
CLEAR LIGHT SEEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH
Peo vL
THE BARDO OF THE EXPERIENCING OF GREATLY
INTRODUCTORY INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING THE
EXPERIENCING OF REALITY DURING THE THIRD
STAGE OF THE BARDO, CALLED THE CHONYID
BARDO, WHEN THE KARMIC APPARITIONS AP-
PEAR . .
THE DAWNING OF THE PEACEFUL DEITIES, FROM
THE FIRST TO THE SEVENTH DAY : :
The First Day
The Second Day .
The Third Day
The Fourth Day
The Fifth Day
The Sixth Day
The Seventh Day .
THE DAWNING OF TIIE WRATHFUL DEITIES, FROM
THE EIGHTH TO THE FOURTEENTH DAY .
Introduction .
The Eighth Day
The Ninth Day
The Tenth Day
The Eleventh Day
The Twelfth Day .
The Thirteenth Day
The Fourteenth Day
THE CONCLUSION, SHOWING THE FUNDAMENTAL IMPORTANCE OF THE BARDO TEACHINGS
oF
IolI
Le Fs)
Contents
Book Ii
Pae S/Dpa Bardo
. THE OBEISANCES INTRODUCTORY VERSES
Pari a
The After-Death World
nt LBAKDO BODY: ITS BIRTH AND ITS SUPER- NORMAL FACULTIES : :
GUARACTERISIMICS OF EXISTENCE IN THE INTER- MEDIATE STATE 5 > ae fe ee :
The Judgement
THE ALL-DETERMINING INFLUENCE OF THOUGHT .
THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHTS OF THE SIX ZOKAS.
Pak 1!
The Process of Rebirth
THE CLOSING OF THE DOOR OF THE WOMB
Method of Preventing Entry into a Womb
The First Method of Closing the Womb-Door .
The Second Method of Closing the Womb-Door
The Third Method of Closing the Womb-Door .
The Fourth Method of Closing the Womb-Door
The Fifth Method of Closing the Womb-Door ,
THE CHOOSING OF THE WOMB-DOOR
The Premonitory Visions of the Place of Rebirth
The Protection against the Tormenting Furies .
THE ALTERNATIVE CHOOSING: SUPERNORMAL
BIRTH; OR WOMB-BIRTH .
Supernormal Birth by Transference to a patie oe
Womb-Birth: the Return to the Human World
The General Conclusion
Esd
TY 18x
Igo
xvi CONTENTS
THE APEEMiirs.
I. THE INVOCATION OF THE BUDDHAS AND
BODHISATTVAS
Il. ‘THE PATH OF GOOD WISHES FOR SAVING FROM
THE DANGEROUS NARROW PASSAGE-WAY OF
THE SAKRDO : , . ‘
Ill. “THE ROOT VERSES OF THE SIX 2ARnDCS:
IV. ‘THE PATH OF GOOD WISHES WHICH PROTECT- ETH FROM FEAR IN THE BARDO’
V. the Colophon
Addenda
I YOGA
II. TANTRICISM
HI. MANTRAS, OR WORDS OF POWER
IV. THE GURU AND SHISHYA il ae" AND INITIATIONS :
V. Reality
VI. NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY ee :
Vil. the Medieval Christian "Judgement
Web vstkATIONS
I. THE TRANSLATOR AND THE EDITOR . preceding Plate II
From a photograph of the Translator and the Editor in Tibetan dress, taken in Gangtok, Sikkim, during the year 1919.
II. FOLIOS 35a AND 672 OF THE BARDO THODOL MS. Frontispiece
A photographic reproduction (about two-thirds of the original size). In the original the illuminations are in colour (now much faded) painted on the folios (cf. p. 68).