° As the gross physical atoms of a life-deserted human-plane body gradually separate and go to their appropriate places, some as gases, some as fluids, some as solids, so on the after-death plane there comes about a gradual dispersion of the psychic or mental atoms of the Bardo thought-body, each propensity—— directed by karmic affinity—inevitably going to that environment most congenial to it. Hence, as our text suggests, the brute-passion stupidity has a natural tendency to gravitate to the brute kingdom and become embodied therein as a disintegrated part of the mentality of the deceased. (See pp. 44 ff.)
Part Ii] Knowledge-Holding Deities 549)
O nobly-born, listen undistractedly. On the Seventh Day the vari-coloured radiance of the purified propensities will come to shine. Simultaneously, the Knowledge-Holding Deities,) from the holy paradise realms, will come to receive one.
From the centre of the Circle [or Mandala], enhaloed in radiance of rainbow light, the supreme Knowledge-Holding [Deity], the Lotus Lord of Dance, the Supreme Knowledge- Holder Whe Ripens Karmic Fruits, radiant with all the five colours, embraced by the [Divine] Mother, the Red Dékini, [he] holding a crescent knife and a skull [filled] with blood,’ dancing and making the mudra of fascination,* [with his right hand held] aloft, will come to shine.
To the east of that Circle, the deity called the Earth-Abid- ing Knowledge-Holder, white of colour, with radiant smiling countenance, embraced by the White Dékini, the [Divine] Mother, [he] holding a crescent knife and a skull [filled] with blood, dancing and making the maudra of fascination, [with his right hand held] aloft, will come to shine.
To the south of that Circle, the Knowledge-Holding Deity called [He] Having Power Over Duration of Life, yellow in colour, smiling and radiant, embraced by the Yellow Dékinz, the [Divine] Mother, [he] holding a crescent knife and a skull
1 Text: Rig-hdzin (pron. Rig-ein): ‘possessing (or holding) knowledge’. These deities are purely Tantric. (See p. 731.)
2 The Dakinis (Tib. Mkhah-hgro-ma [or ‘Sky-goer’]: Skt. Da@kint), fairy-like goddesses possessing peculiar occult powers for good or for evil, are, also, purely Tantric; and, as such, they are invoked in most of the chief rituals of Northern Buddhism, (See p. 1223.)
3 Esoterically, the skull (which is human), and the blood (also human) filling it, signify, in one sense, renunciation of human life, the giving up of the Sangsara, self-immolation on the cross of the world ; and in the mass-ritual of Lamaism there are resemblances between the blood (symbolized by a red fluid) in the skull and the wine (as blood) in the chalice of the Christian Communion,
4 A mudra is a mystic sign made by posturing the hand and fingers or the body. Some mudras are used as signs of recognition by members of occult fraternities, after the manner of the Masonic hand-clasp. Others, chiefly employed by yogis as bodily postures, short-circuit or otherwise change the magnetic currents of the body. Placing the tip of one finger against the tip of another in mudra controls, likewise, the bodily forces, or life-currents. The mudra of fascination is of this last sort, being made (with the right hand) by the second finger touching the thumb, the index-finger and the little finger held upright, and the third finger folded in the palm of the hand.
128 BARDO OF KARMIC ILLUSIONS [Book !
[filled] with blood, dancing and making the sudrd of fascina- tion, [with his right hand held] aloft, will come to shine.
To the west of that Circle, the deity called the Knowledge- Holding Deity of the Great Symbol,' red of colour, smiling and radiant, embraced by the Red Dékini, the [Divine] Mother, [he] holding a crescent-knife and a skull [filled] with blood, dancing and making the mudré@ of fascination, [with his right hand held] aloft, will come to shine.
To the north of that Circle, the deity called the Self- Evolved Knowledge-Holder, green of colour, with a half- angry, half-smiling radiant countenance, embraced by the Green Dakini, the [Divine] Mother, [he] holding a crescent- knife and a skull [filled] with blood, dancing and making the mudra of fascination, [with his right hand held] aloft, will come to shine.
In the Outer Circle, round about these Knowledge-Holders, innumerable bands of dakinis,—dakinis of the eight places of cremation, @akinis of the four classes, da@kinis of the three abodes, @akinis of the thirty holy-places and of the twenty- four places of pilgrimage,*—heroes, heroines, celestial warriors, and faith-protecting deities, male and female, each bedecked with the six bone-ornaments, having drums and thigh-bone trumpets, skull-timbrels, banners of gigantic human|[-like] hides,? human-hide canopies, human-hide bannerettes, fumes of human-fat incense, and innumerable [other] kinds of musical instruments, filling [with music] the whole world-systems and causing them to vibrate, to quake and tremble with sounds so mighty as to daze one’s brain, and dancing various measures, will come to receive the faithful and punish the unfaithful.+
1 See p. 135°.
? Herein the dakinis are represented like various orders of fairy-like beings, some dwelling in one place, some in another. The eight places of cremation are the eight known to Hindu mythology ; the three abodes are the heart-centre, the throat-centre, and the brain-centre, over which, esoterically speaking, certain dakinis (as the personification of the psychic forces resident in each centre) preside, just as other ¢akints preside over the holy-places and places of pilgrimage,
8 That is, hides of ra@kshasas, an order of giant demoniacal beings having human form and possessed of certain s¢ddhis (i. e. supernormal powers).
* Tibetan /amas, in chanting their rituals, employ seven (or eight) sorts of
Part It] Wisdom Radiances 129
O nobly-born, five-coloured radiances, of the Wisdom of the Simultaneously-Born,! which are the purified propensities,
vibrating and dazzling like coloured threads, flashing, radiant,
and transparent, glorious and awe-inspiring, will issue from the hearts of the five chief Knowledge-Holding Deities and strike against thy heart, so bright that the eye cannot bear to look upon them.
At the same time, a dull blue light from the brute world will come to shine along with the Radiances of Wisdom. Then, through the influence of the illusions of thy propensities, thou wilt feel afraid of the radiance of the five colours; and [wishing to] flee from it, thou wilt feel attracted towards the dull light from the brute-world. Thereupon, be not afraid of that brilliant radiance of five colours, nor terrified; but know the Wisdom to be thine own.
Within those radiances, the natural sound of the Truth will reverberate like a thousand thunders. The sound will come with a rolling reverberation, [amidst which] will be heard, ‘Slay! Slay!’ and awe-inspiring mantras? Fear not. Flee not. Be not terrified. Know them [i.e. these sounds] to be [of] the intellectual faculties of thine own [inner] light.
musical instruments: big drums, cymbals (commonly of brass), conch-shells, bells (like the handbells used in the Christian Mass Service), timbrels, small clarionets (sounding like Highland bagpipes), big trumpets, and human thigh- bone trumpets. Although the combined sounds of these instruments are far from being melodious, the /@mas maintain that they psychically produce in the devotee an attitude of deep veneration and faith, because they are the counter- parts of the natural sounds which one’s own body is heard producing when the fingers are put in the ears to shut out external sounds. Stopping the ears thus, there are heard a thudding sound, like that of a big drum being beaten; a clashing sound, as of cymbals; a soughing sound, as of a wind moving through a forest—as when a conch-shell is blown; a ringing as of bells; a sharp tapping sound, as when a timbrel is used; a moaning sound, like that of a clarionet ; a bass moaning sound, as if made with a big trumpet; and a shriller sound, as of a thigh-bone trumpet.
Not only is this interesting as a theory of Tibetan sacred music, but it gives the clue to the esoteric interpretation of the symbolical natural sounds of Truth (referred to in the second paragraph following, and elsewhere in our text), which are said to be, or to proceed from, the intellectual faculties within the human mentality.
1 That is, the Wisdom which is born simultaneously with the achievement of Recognition; the Simultaneously-Born Wisdom,
2 See Addenda, pp. 220-2.
3069 tS}
130 BARDO OF KARMIC ILLUSIONS [Book I
Be not attracted towards the dull blue light of the brute- world; be not weak. If thou art attracted, thou wilt fall into the brute-world, wherein stupidity predominates, and suffer the illimitable miseries of slavery and dumbness and stupidness ;* and it will be a very long time ere thou canst get out. Be not attracted towards it. Put thy faith in the bright, dazzling, five-coloured radiance. Direct thy mind one-pointedly towards the deities, the Knowledge-Holding Conquerors. Think, one- pointedly, thus: ‘These Knowledge-Holding Deities, the Heroes, and the Dakinis have come from the holy paradise realms to receive me; I supplicate them all: up to this day, although the Five Orders of the Buddhas of the Three Times have all exerted the rays of their grace and compassion, yet have I not been rescued by them. Alas, for a being like me! May the Knowledge- Holding Deities not let me go downwards further than this, but hold me with the hook of their com- passion, and lead me to the holy paradises.’
Thinking in that manner, one-pointedly, pray thus:
‘O ye Knowledge-Holding Deities, pray hearken unto me ;
Lead me on the Path, out of your great love.
When [I am] wandering in the Sangsdara, because of intensi- fied propensities,
On the bright light-path of the Simultaneously-born Wisdom
May the bands of Heroes, the Knowledge-Holders, lead me;
May the bands of the Mothers, the Dakinis, be [my] rear- guard ;
May they save me from the fearful ambuscades of the Bardo,
And place me in the pure Paradise Realms.’
Praying thus, in deep faith and humility, there is no doubt that one will be born within the pure Paradise Realms, after
} Ch py r26::
? The deceased, having by now fallen to lower and lower stages of the Bardo, looks to the heaven-worlds (which are worlds of embodiment within the Sangsara) rather than to Nirvana (which is non-Sangsaric) asa place of refuge. Although, theoretically, Mirvdva is ever realizable from any stage of the Bardo, practically, for the ordinary devotee, it is not, meritorious karma being inadequate ; hence the /dma or reader officiating aims at making the best of the situation in which, it is assumed, the deceased inevitably finds himself,
Part It] the Wrathful Deities 131
being merged, in rainbow-light, into the heart of the Know- ledge-Holding Deities.
All the pandit classes, too, coming to recognize at this
stage, obtain liberation ; even those of evil propensities being
sure to be liberated here.
Here endeth the part of the Great 7Aédol concerned with the setting-face-to-face of the Peaceful [Deities] of the Chinyid Bardo and the setting-face-to-face of the Clear Light of the Chikhai Bardo.
att DAWNING OF THE WRATHFUL DEITIES,
PROM THE EIGHTH TO THE FOURTEENTH
DAY]
[INTRODUCTION]
Now the manner of the dawning of the Wrathful Deities is to be shown.
In the above Bardo of the Peaceful [Dcities] there were seven stages of ambuscade. The setting-face-to-face at cach stage should have [caused the deceased] to recognize either at one or another [stage] and to have been liberated.
Multitudes will be liberated by that recognition; [and] although multitudes obtain liberation in that manner, the number of sentient beings being great, evil karma power- ful, obscurations dense, propensities of too long standing, the Wheel of Ignorance and Illusion becometh neither ex- hausted nor accelerated. Although [all be] set face-to-face in such detail, there is a vast preponderance of those who wander downwards unliberated.
Therefore, after the cessation [of the dawning] of the Peace- ful and the Knowledge-Holding Deities, who come to welcome one, the fifty-eight flame-enhaloed, wrathful, blood-drinking deities come to dawn, who are only the former Peaceful Deities in changed aspect—according to the place [or psychic- centre of the Bardo-body of the deceased whence they proceed]; nevertheless, they will not resemble them."
1 Up to this time, the fifty-two Peaceful and Knowledge-Holding Deities,
emanations from the heart and throat psychic-centres of the Bardo-body of the deceased, have dawned. The Wrathful Deities now about to dawn issue from
2 BARDO OF KARMIC ILLUSIONS [Book t
This is the Bardo of the Wrathful Deities; and, they being influenced by fear, terror, and awe,! recognition becometh more difficult. The intellect, gaining not in independence, passcth from one fainting state to a round of fainting states. [Yet], if one but recognize a little, it is easier to be liberated [at this stage]. Ifit be asked why? [the answer is]: Because of the dawning of the radiances—[which produce] fear, terror, and awe—the intellect is undistractedly alert in one-pointedness ; that is why.?