All misery have they overcome.’
Anguttara-Nikaya, iii. 35° (Warren's Translation),
Book 1] Infkoductory Sections 85
[the Obeisances]
To the Divine Body of Truth,! the Incomprehensible, Bound- less Light ;
To the Divine Body of Perfect Endowment,? Who are the Lotus and the Peaceful and the Wrathful Deities ; 3
To the Lotus-born Incarnation, Padma Sambhava,* Who is the Protector of all sentient beings ;
To the Gurus, the Three Bodies,’ obeisance.
[the Introduction]
This Great Doctrine of Liberation by Hearing, which con- ferreth spiritual freedom on devotees of ordinary wit while in the Intermediate State, hath three divisions: the preliminaries, the subject-matter, and the conclusion.
At first, the preliminaries, Te Guide Series,’ for emanci- pating beings, should be mastered by practice.
[the Transference of the Consciousness-Principle7™]
By The Guide, the highest intellects ought most certainly to be liberated ; but should they not be liberated, then while
1,2 See pp. 10-15.
5 ‘These Deities are in ourselves. They are not something apart from us. We are one with all that is, in every state of sentient existence, from the lowest worlds of suffering to the highest states of bliss and Perfect Fnlighten- ment. In this esoteric sense, the Lotus Order of Deities represent the deified principles of the vocal functions in ourselves; the Peaceful represent the deified principles of the heart or functions of feeling; the Wrathful represent, in the same way, the functions of our mentality—such as thinking or reasoning, and imagination or memory—centred in the brain.—-Lama Kazi Dawa Samdup. See p. 1311.
4 Padma Sambhava (Tib, Pédma Jungné), i.e. ‘The Lotus-Born’, referring to birth under pure, or holy, conditions, commonly called by the Tibetans Guru Rin-po-ch’e (‘The Precious Guru’), or simply Guru (the Sanskrit for ‘Teacher’), is regarded by his followers as an incarnation of the essence of the Buddha Shakya Muni in its Tantric, or deeply esoteric, aspect.
5 See pp. Io-15.
6 ‘ The Guide Series’ refers to various treatises offering practical guidance to devotees on the Bodhi Path through the human world and thence through Bardo, the After-Death State, and onward to rebirth or else to Nirvana.
7 The Text contains merely the Tibetan word Hpho (pron. Pho), meaning
86 TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD [BooK!
in the Intermediate State of the Moments of Death they
should practise the Transference, which giveth automatic libera-
tion by one’s merely remembering it.
Devotees of ordinary wit ought most certainly to be freed thereby; but should they not be freed, then, while in the Intermediate State [during the experiencing] of Reality, they should persevere in the listening to this Great Doctrine of Liberation by Hearing.
Accordingly, the devotee should at first examine the symptoms of death as they gradually appear [in his dying body], following Self-Liberation [by Observing the| Charac- teristics [of the| Symptoms of Death.’ Then, when all the symptoms of death are complete [he should] apply the Trans- ference, which conferreth liberation by mercly remembering [the process ].’
‘transference’ (of the sum-total, or aggregate, of karmic propensities, com- posing, or bound up with, personality and consciousness). The use of the term ‘soul’ being objectionable, since Buddhism, as a whole, denies the existence of a permanent, unchanging personal-consciousness entity such as the Semitic Faiths and animistic creeds in general understand thereby, the translator has avoided using it. But wherever any similar or equivalent term occurs herein it should be taken to imply something akin to ‘consciousness-principle’ or ‘com- pound of consciousness’ as implied by the Tibetan Hpho, or else as synonymous with the term ‘life-flux’ as used chiefly by Southern Buddhists.
1 A Tibetan work of the Bardo cycle, commonly used by /a4mas as supple- mentary to the Bardo Thédol (see part 9 of Note 1, p. 71). It treats of the symptoms of death in particular, scientifically and in very great detail. The late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup had planned its translation into English.
2 Liberation in this context does not necessarily imply, especially in the case of the average devotee, the Liberation of Mixvaxa, but chiefly a liberation of the ‘life-flux’ from the dying body, in such manner as will afford the greatest possible after-death consciousness and consequent happy rebirth. Yet for the very exceptional and very highly efficient yogt, or saint, the same esoteric process of Transference can be, according to the /ama-gurus, so employed as to prevent any break in the flow of the stream of consciousness, from the moment of a conscious death to the moment of a conscious rebirth. Judging from a translation, made by the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, of an old Tibetan manuscript containing practical directions for performing the Trausference, which the editor possesses, the process is essentially yogic, and could be em- ployed only by a person trained in mental concentration, or one-pointedness of mind, to such a high degree of proficiency as to have gained control over all the mental and bodily functions, Merely remembering the process at the all- important moment of death—as the text implies—is, for a yog?7, equivalent to performing the Transference itself; for once the yogi’s trained mind is directed
Book 1] Introductory Sections 87
[the Reading of This Thodol]
If the Transference hath been effectually employed, there is no need to read this 7ddol; but if the Transference hath not been effectually employed, then this 7ddol is to be read, correctly and distinctly, near the dead body.
If there be no corpse, then the bed or the seat to which the deceased had been accustomed should be occupied [by the reader], who ought to expound the power of the Truth. Then, summoning the spirit [of the deceased], imagine it to be present there listening, and read.1 During this time no relative or fond mate should be allowed to weep or to wail, as such is not good [for the deceased]; so restrain them.?
If the body be present, just when the expiration hath ceased, either a /ama [who hath been as a guru to the deceased], or a brother in the Faith whom the deceased trusted, or a friend for whom the deceased had great affection, putting the lips close to the ear [of the body] without actually touching it,? should read this Great Thédol.
to ihe process, instantaneously, or, as the text explains, automatically, the desired result is achieved.
1 The /@ma, or reader, stationed in the house of the deceased as directed, whether the corpse be there or not, is to summon the departed one in the name of Truth, saying, ‘As the Trinity is true, and as the Truth proclaimed by the Trinity is true, by the power of that Truth I summon thee’. Although no corpse be at hand (as there would not be when a person had met a violent or accidental death entailing loss or destruction of the human-plane body; or when, to accord with astrological calculations, the body had been removed or disposed of immediately after death, a not uncommon event in Tibet), the spirit of the deceased, in the invisible Bardo-plane body, must, nevertheless, be present at the reading, in order to be given the necessary guidance through the Other- world—as the Egyptian Book of the Dead also directs (see p. 19).
3 This prohibition is found in Brahmanism too.
3 According to Tibetan and /amarc belief, the body of a dying person should not be touched, that the normal departure of the consciousness-principle, which should take place through the Brahmanic aperture on the crown of the head, be not interfered with. Otherwise, the departure may be brought about through some other bodily aperture and lead to birth in one of the non-human states. For example, it is held that if the departure is through the aperture of the ear the deceased will be obliged—ere he can return to human birth—to be born in the world of the Gandharvas (fairy-like celestial musicians), wherein sound, as in song and music, is the prevailing quality of existence,
88 TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD [Book 1
(THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THIS THODOL BY THE OFFICIANT]
Now for the explaining of the 7/édo/ itself :
If thou canst gather together a grand offering, offer it in worship of the Trinity. If such cannot be done, then arrange whatever can be gathered together as objects on which thou canst concentrate thy thoughts and mentally create as illimit- able an offering as possible and worship.
Then the ‘Path of Good Wishes Invoking the Aid of the
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas’! should be recited seven times
or thrice.
After that, the ‘Path of Good Wishes Giving Protection from Fear in the Bardo’! and the ‘Path of Good Wishes for Safe Delivery from the Dangerous Pitfalls of the Bardo’, together with the ‘Root Words of the Bardo’, are to be read distinctly and with the proper intonation.?
Then this Great 7/ddol is to be read either seven times or thrice,> according to the occasion. [First cometh] the setting- face-to-face [to the symptoms of death] as they occur during the moments of death ; [second] the application of the great vivid reminder, the setting-face-to-face to Reality while in the
1 See the Appendix, pp. 197-208, where each of these chief Bardo prayers (or ‘Paths of Good Wishes’) is translated.
2 Cf. the two following passages, the first from The Book of the Craft of Dying, chap. VI, in Bodleian MS. 423 (arca fifteenth century), Comper’s ed. (p. 39), the second from The Craft to Know Well to Die (fifteenth century), chap, IV, Comper’s ed. (p. 74):
‘Last of all, it is to be known that the prayers that follow may be conveniently said upon a sick man that laboureth to his end. And if it is a religious person, then when the covent [i. e. convent} is gathered together with smiting of the table, as the manner is, then shall be said first the litany, with the psalms and orisons that he used therewith. Afterward, if he live yet, let some man that is about him say the orisons that follow hereafter, as the time and opportunity will suffer. And they may be often rehearsed again to excite the devotion of the sick man—if he have reason and understanding with him.’
‘And if the sick man or woman may, nor can not, say the orisons and prayers beforesaid, some of the assistants [i. e. bystanders] ought to say them before him with a loud voice, in changing the words there as they ought to be changed.”
3 Cf. the following from The Craft to Know Well to Die, chap. 1V, Comper’s ed. (p. 73): ‘After all these things he (the person dying] ought to say three times, if he may, these words that follow.’
Part J] Bardo of the Dying 89
Intermediate State; and third, the methods of closing the
doors of the womb while in the Intermediate State when
seeking rebirth.1
[Part I]
[THE BARDO OF THE MOMENTS OF DEATH]
(INSTRUCTIONS ON THE SYMPTOMS OF DEATH,
Or THE BIRST SEAGE OF THE CAIKAAT
PaO: THE PRIMARY CLEAR LIGHT SEEN
AT THE MOMENT OF DEATH]
The first, the setting-face-to-face with the Clear Light, during the Intermediate State of the Moments of Death, is:
Here [some there may be] who have listened much [to religious instructions] yet not recognized ; and [some] who, though recognizing, are, nevertheless, weak in familiarity. But all classes of individuals who have received the practical teachings [called] Guzdes? will, if this be applied to them, be set face to face with the fundamental Clear Light ; and, without any Intermediate State, they will obtain the Unborn Dharma-K aya, by the Great Perpendicular Path.®
1 The first Bardo is the Chikhat Bardo ; the second, the Chényid Berdo; the third, the Sidpa Bardo. (See p. 102* 6.)
2 See p. 85°.
3 Text: Yar-gyi-zang-thal-chen-po: the ‘Great Straight Upward Path’. One of the Doctrines peculiar to Northern Buddhism is that spiritual emancipation, even Buddahood, may be won instantaneously, without entering upon the Bardo Plane and without further suffering on the age-long pathway of normal evolution which traverses the various worlds of sangsdric existence. The doctrine underlies the whole of the Bardo Thédol, Faith is the first step on the Secret Pathway. Then comes Illumination; and, with it, Certainty; and, when the Goal is won, Emancipation, But here again success implies very unusual proficiency in yoga, as well as much accumulated merit, or good karma, on the part of the devotee. If the disciple can be made to see and to grasp the Truth as soon as the gurz reveals it, that is to say, if he has the power to die consciously, and at the supreme moment of quitting the body can recognize the Clear Light which will dawn upon him then, and become one with it, all sangsaric bonds of illusion are broken asunder immediately: the
go BARDO OF THE DYING [BOOK I
The manner of application is: