Abandon jealousy, and meditate upon the Guru Father- Mother.’
Repeat this, from thine own mouth, distinctly; and re-
1 To obtain results, the accumulated merit, born of good actions done in the earth-life, must be made operative, that is, it must be linked with the Bardo existence of the deceased.
2 Normally, existence in the Bardo ever tends to lead the deceased back to birth ; and this is due to karmic propensities, which are the opposition, the forces opposing the Enlightenment of Buddhahood. Hence the deceased must oppose this innate tendency with every help available.
Part Ii] One-Pointedness of Mind 177
member its meaning vividly, and meditate upon it. The putting of this into practice is essential.
The significance of the above teaching, ‘ When, at this time, the Szdpa Bardo is dawning upon me [or upon oneself |’, is that now thou art wandering in the Szdpa Bardo. As a sign of this, if thou lookest into water, or into mirrors, thou wilt see no reflection of thy face or body; nor doth thy body cast any shadow. Thou hast discarded now thy gross material body of flesh and blood. These are the indications that thou art wandering about in the Sidpa Bardo.
At this time, thou must form, without distraction, one single resolve in thy mind. The forming of one single resolve is very important now. It is like directing the course of a horse by the use of the reins.
Whatever thou desirest will come to pass. Think not upon evil actions which might turn the course [of thy mind]. Remember thy [spiritual] relationship with the Reader of this Bardo Thodol, or with any one from whom thou hast received teachings, initiation, or spiritual authorization for reading religious texts while in the human world; and per- severe in going on with good acts: this is very essential. Be not distracted. The boundary line between going upwards or going downwards is here now. If thou givest way to indecision for even a second, thou wilt have to suffer misery for a long, long time. This is the moment. Hcld fast to one single purpose. Persistently join up the chain of good acts.
Thou hast come now to the time of closing the womb-door. ‘This is a time when earnestness and pure love are necessary’, which implieth that now the time hath come when, first of all, the womb-door should be closed, there being five methods of closing. Bear this well at heart.
[the Second Method of Closing the Womb-Door}
O nobly-born, at this time thou wilt see visions of males
and females in union. When thou seest them, remember to
withhold thyself from going between them. Regarding the
3069 Aa
178 BARDO OF SEEKING REBIRTH [Book II
father and mother as thy Gwrw and the Divine Mother,’
meditate upon them and bow down; humbly exercise thy
faith ; offer up mental worship with great fervency; and
resolve that thou wilt request [of them] religious guidance.
By that resolution alone, the womb ought certainly to be closed ; but if it is not closed even by that, and thou findest thysclf ready to enter into it, meditate upon the Divine Gurz Father-Mother,? as upon any tutelary deity, or upon the Compassionate Tutelary and S#akiz; and meditating upon them, worship them with mental offerings. Resolve earnestly that thou wilt request [of them] a boon. By this, the womb- door ought to be closed.
[the Third Method of Closing the Womb-Door]
Still, if it be not closed even by that, and thou findest thyself ready t6 enter the womb, the third method of re- pelling attachment and repulsion is hereby shown unto thee:
There are four kinds of birth: birth by egg, birth by womb, supernormal birth,® and birth by heat and moisture.* Amongst these four,® birth by egg and birth by womb agree in character.
As above said, the visions of males and females in union will appear. If, at that time, one entereth into the womb through the feelings of attachment and repulsion, one may be born either as a horse, a fowl, a dog, or a human being.®
1 ¢The father and mother’ are the male and female seen in union; the Guru is the celestial or spiritual Guru, not the human guru; and the Divine Mother is the Guru’s Shaktz,
2 That is, the Guru with the Shakh, as above directed.
3 Text : breus-skyes (pron. au-kye): Skt. Svayambhi: ‘supernormal (or mira- culous) birth’, by translation or transference of the consciousness-principle from one Joka to another. (See pp. 85-6.)
4 This refers to the germination of seeds and spores, or the processes of birth in the vegetable kingdom.
® ‘Brahmanism, likewise, recognizes four kinds of birth: svedaja (sweat- born, or moisture-born), andaja (egg-born), araywja (womb-born), and udbhigja (vegetation).’—Sj. Atal Behari Ghosh.
° Esoterically, this passage implies that, in accordance with karma, one may be reborn with the peculiar propensities which the various animals named symbolize, Plato in The Republic has employed animal symbols in the same way. (See p. 179'.)
Part It] Sex At Birth 179
If [about] to be born as a male, the feeling of itself being a male dawneth upon the Knower, and a feeling of intense hatred towards the father and of jealousy and attraction towards the mother is begotten. If [about] to be born as a female, the feeling of itself being a female dawneth upon the Knower, and a feeling of intense hatred towards the mother and of intense attraction and fondness towards the father is be- gotten. Through this secondary cause—[when] entering upon the path of ether, just at the moment when the sperm and the ovum are about to unite—the Knower experienceth the bliss of the simultaneously-born state, during which state it fainteth away into unconsciousness. [Afterwards] it findeth itself encased in oval form, in the embryonic state, and upon emerging from the womb and opening its eyes it may find itself transformed into a young dog. Formerly it had been a human being, but now if it have become a dog it findeth itself under- going sufferings in a dog’s kennel; or [perhaps] as a young pig in a pigsty, or as an ant in an ant-hill, or as an insect, or a grub in a hole, or as a calf, or a kid, or a lamb,! from which shape there is no [immediate] returning. Dumbness, stupidity, and miserable intellectual obscurity are suffered, and a variety of sufferings experienced. In like manner, one may wander into hell, or into the world of unhappy ghosts, or throughout the Six Zokas, and endure inconceivable miseries.
Those who are voraciously inclined towards this [i.e. sazgsavic existence], or those who do not at heart fear it——O dreadful ! O dreadful! Alas !—and those who have not received a curu’s
1 Herein we see the animal symbolism expanded in such manner as quite to parallel the passage in Plato’s Republic describing the choosing of animal bodies for the next incarnation. (See p. 1788; also pp. 49-53.) The popular or exoteric interpretation of such passages in our text as this passage (cf. pp. 126, 129, 156-7 herein) would seem to be as reasonable as it would if applied to similar passages in Plato; and, furthermore, the copyist, and possibly the composer or composers of the Bardo Thédol, may have been exotericists, or at least intended their text to emphasize the exoteric interpretation, holding as priests often have held, and as some hold even nowadays, that fear-producing doctrines (e.g. the Christian doctrine that hell is an eternal condition), although literally untrue, are, nevertheless, like whips to keep the lower mentalities alert and possibly more virtuous. Nevertheless, for our own (more or less corrupted) text, as for Plato’s, there does exist the esoteric key to the real meaning, such as we have given in our Introduction, pp. 55-9.
180 Bardo of Seeking Rebirth [Book Ii
teachings, will fall down into the precipitous depths of the Sangsava in this manner, and suffer interminably and un- bearably. Rather than meet with a like fate, listen thou unto my words and bear these teachings of mine at heart.
Reject the feelings of attraction or repulsion, and remember one method of closing the womb-door which I am going to show to thee. Close the womb-door and remember the opposition. This is the time when earnestness and pure love are necessary. As hath been said, ‘Abandon jealousy, and meditate upon the Guru Father-Mother.’
As above explained, if to be born as a male, attraction
towards the mother and repulsion towards the father, and
if to be born as a female, attraction towards the father and
repulsion towards the mother, together with a feeling of
jealousy [for one or the other] which ariseth, will dawn
upon thee.
For that time there is a profound teaching. O nobly-born, when the attraction and repulsion arise, meditate as follows:
‘Alas! what a being of evil karma am I! That I have wandered in the Sazxgsara hitherto, hath been owing to attraction and repulsion. If I still go on feeling attraction and repulsion, then I shall wander in endless Sangsara and suffer in the Ocean of Misery for a long, long time, by sinking therein. Now I must not act through attraction and repulsion. Alas, for me! Henceforth I will never act through attraction and repulsion.’
Meditating thus, resolve firmly that thou wilt hold on to that [resolution]. It hath been said, in the Tantras, ‘The door of the womb will be closed up by that alone.’
O nobly-born, be not distracted. Hold thy mind one- pointedly upon that resolution.
[the Fourth Method of Closing the Womb-Door]
Again, even if that doth not close the womb, and one
findeth [oneself] ready to enter the womb, then by mcans
of the teaching [called] ‘The Untrue and the Illusory’?
* Text: Bden-ned-sgyu-ma-ltabu (pron. Den-ned-gyu-ma-tabu) : ‘Non-true [and] Illusion-like’, the title of a Tibetan treatisc on the unreality of phenomena,
PART Wm] UNREALITY OF PHENOMENA 181
the womb should be closed. That is to be meditated as follows:
‘QO, the pair, the father and the mother, the black rain, the storm-blasts, the clashing sounds, the terrifying appari- tions, and all the phenomena, are, in their true nature, illusions. Howsoever they may appear, no truth is there [in them]; all substances are unreal and false. Like dreams and like apparitions are they ; they are non-permanent; they have no fixity. What advantage is there in being attached [to them]! What advantage is there in having fear and terror of them! It is the seeing of the non-existent as the existent. All these are hallucinations of one’s own mind. The illusory mind itself doth not exist from eternity; therefore where should these external [phenomena] exist ?
‘I, by not having understood these [things] in that way hitherto, have held the non-existent to be the existent, the unreal to be the real, the illusory to be the actual, and have wandered in the Sangsadra so long. And even now if I do not recognize them to be illusions, then, wandering in the Sangsara for long ages, [I shall be] certain to fall into the morass of various miseries.
‘Indeed, all these are like dreams, like hallucinations, like echoes, like the cities of the Odour-eaters,! like mirage, like mirrored forms, like phantasmagoria, like the moon seen in water—not real even for a moment. In truth, they are unreal; they are false.’
By holding one-pointedly to that train of thought, the belicf that they are real is dissipated ; and, that being impressed upon the inner continuity [of consciousness], one turneth backwards: if the knowledge of the unreality be impressed deeply in that way, the womb-door will be closed.
[THE FIFTH METHOD OF CLOSING THE WOMB-DOOR] Still, even when this is done, if the holding [phenomena] as real remaineth undissolved, the womb-door is not closed ; and, if one be ready to enter into the womb, thereupon one
1 Text: Dri-za (pron. Di-za): ‘Odour-eaters’ ; Skt. Gandharva, the Fairies of Indian and Buddhist mythology. Their cities are fantastically-shaped clouds, which dissolve in rain and vanish. (Cf. p. 1648.)
182 Bardo of Seeking Rebirth [Book Ii
should close the womb-door by meditating upon the Clear
Light, this being the fifth [method]. The meditation is per-
formed as follows:
‘Lo! all substances are mine own mind;! and this mind is vacuousness, is unborn, and unceasing.’
Thus meditating, allow the mind to rest in the uncreated [state|—like, for example, the pouring of water into water. The mind should be allowed its own easy mental posture, in its natural [or unmodified] condition, clear and vibrant. By maintaining this relaxed, uncreated [state of mind], the womb-doors of the four kinds of birth? are sure to be closed. Meditate thus until the closing is successfully accomplished.