[Instructions to the Officiant]: Many very profound teach- ings for closing the womb-door have been given above. It is impossible that they should not liberate people of the highest, the average, and the lowest intellectual capacity. If it be asked why this should be so, it is because, firstly, the con- sciousness in the Bardo possessing supernormal powcr of perception® of a limited kind, whatever is spoken to one then is apprehended. Secondly, because—although [formerly] deaf or blind—here, at this time, all one’s faculties are perfect, and one can hear whatever is addressed to one. Thirdly, being continually pursued by awe and terror, onc thinketh, ‘What is best?’ and, being alertly conscious, one is always coming to hear whatever may be told to one. Since the consciousness is without a prop,* it immediately goeth to whatever place the mind directeth. Fourthly, it is casy
1 Text: rNam-shes (pron. Nam-she) : ‘consciousness-principle’: Skt. Vijzana Skandha. The translator preferred to follow the context here and rendered this as ‘mind’, as synonymous with ‘consciousness’.
2 As mentioned above, on p. 178.
8 Text: mzngon-shes (pron. ngon-she), referring to certain gifts of supernormal perception (Skt. Abhynd), of which six are commonly enumerated: (1) super- normal vision and (2) hearing ; (3) thought-reading; (4) knowledge of miraculous power ; (5) recollection of former existences; (6) knowledge of the destruction ofthe passions. For the ordinary deceased person such ‘supernormal power of perception’ is limited (or exhaustible), and only operative in the after-dcath state ; whereas for a Buddha, or a devotee perfected in yoga, it is a permanent
and unlimited possession on all planes of consciousness. ‘ That is, without the human-plane body to depend upon.
Parti] Why These Teachings Liberate 183
to direct it? The memory? is ninefold more lucid than before. Even though stupid [before], at this time, by the workings of karma, the intellect becometh exceedingly clear and capable of meditating whatever is taught to it. [Hence the answer is], it is because it [i.e. the Knower] possesseth these virtues.
That the performance of funeral rites should be efficacious, is, likewise, because of that reason. Therefore, the perseverance in the reading of the Great Bardo Thidol for forty-nine days is of the utmost importance. Even if not liberated at onc setting-face-to-face, one ought to be liberated at another: this is why so many different settings-face-to-face are necessary.
[the Choosing of the Womb-Door}]
[Instructions to the Officiant]: There are, nevertheless, many classes of those who—though reminded, and instructed to direct their thoughts one-pointedly—are not liberated, owing to the great force of evil karmic obscurations, and because of being unaccustomed to pious deeds, and of being much accustomed to impious deeds throughout the aeons. Therefore, if the womb-door hath not been closed ere this, a teaching also for the selection of a womb-door is going to be given hereinafter. Now, invoking the aid of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, repeat the Refuge; and, once more catling the deceased by name thrice, speak as follows:
O nobly-born, (so-and-so), listen. Although the above setting-face-to-face teachings have been given one-pointedly, yet thou hast not understood them. Therefore, if the womb- door hath not been closed, it is almost time to assume a body. Make thy selection of the womb [according to] this best teaching. Listen attentively, and hold it in mind.
[THE PREMONITORY VISIONS OF THE PLACE OF REBIRTH] O nobly-born, now the signs and characteristics of the
1 Lit., ‘ Fourthly, turning the mouth [of the consciousness-principle or Knower, as of a horse with a bit] is easy.’
2 Text: dranpa (pron. tanpa), lit. ‘train (or stream) of consciousness’ ; usually meaning ‘ consciousness’, or ‘ recollection’, or ‘memory’: Skt. ssyrst7.
184 Bardo of Seeking Rebirth [Book Ii
place of birth will come. Recognize them. In observing the place of birth, choose the continent too.
If to be born in the Eastern Continent of Liipah, a lake adorned with swans, male and female, [floating thereon], will be seen. Go not there. Recollect the revulsion [against going there].2 If one goeth there, [that] Continent—though endowed with bliss and ease—is one wherein religion doth not predominate. Therefore, enter not therein.
If to be born in the Southern Continent of Jambu, grand
delightful mansions will be seen. Enter therein, if one is to
enter.
If to be born in the Western Continent of Balang-Chod, a lake adorned with horses, male and female, [grazing on its shores], will be seen. Go not even there, but return here. Although wealth and abundance are there, that being a land wherein religion doth not prevail, enter not therein.
If to be born in the Northern Continent of Daminyan, a lake adorned with male and female cattle, [grazing on its shores], or trees, [round about it], will be seen. Although duration of life, and merits are there, yet that Continent, too, is one wherein religion doth not predominate. Therefore enter not.
These are the premonitory signs [or visions] of the taking rebirth in those [Continents]. Recognize them. Enter not.’
If one is to be born as a deva, delightful temples [or
mansions] built of various precious metals also will be seen.*
One may enter therein; so enter therein.
1 In the description of these Continents which follows, Tibetan names are given ; in our Introduction (pp. 64-5) the Sanskrit names are given along with complementary description.
2 Text: rulog: ‘rebellion’ or ‘revulsion’, By recollecting the revulsion, i.e. the mental attitude which will oppose entering there, the deceased is put on his guard.
8 This paragraph is misplaced in the MS., having been copied as coming after ‘will be seen’ in the paragraph immediately above, following our rendering.
* The Christian conception of Heaven, as a definite place, having streets of gold and walls of precious stones, probably owes its origin to pre-Christian beliefs parallel to the Hindu and Buddhist beliefs concerning the Heaven of the Devas. Nirvana misleadingly has been called the Buddhist Heaven: a Heaven implies a place and sangsaric phenomena, whereas Nirvana is non-sangsaric, is beyond all phenomena, being ‘the Unbecome, the Unborn, the Unmade, the
Part It] Signs of Birthplace 185
If to be born as an asura, either a charming forest will
be seen or else circles of fire revolving in opposite directions.
Recollect the revulsion; and do not enter therein by any
means.
If to be born amongst beasts,! rock-caverns and deep holes in the earth and mists will appear. Enter not therein.
If to be born amongst pretas, desolate treeless plains and shallow caverns, jungle glades and forest wastes will be seen. If one goeth there, taking birth as a preta, one will suffer various pangs of hurger and thirst. Recollect the revulsion ; and do not go there by any means. Exert great energy [not to enter therein].
If to be born in Hell, songs [like wailings], due to evil karma, will be heard. [One will be] compelled to enter therein unresistingly. Lands of gloom, black houses and white ~ houses, and black holes in the earth, and black roads along which one hath to go, will appear. If one goeth there, one will enter into Hell; and, suffering unbearable pains of heat and cold, one will be very long in getting out of it.2 Go not there into the midst of that. It hath been said, ‘Exert thine energy to the utmost’: this is needed now.
[the Protection Against the Tormenting Furies]
O nobly-born, although one liketh it not, nevertheless, being pursued from behind by karmic tormenting furies,° one feeleth compelled involuntarily to go on; [and with] tormenting furies in the front, and life-cutters as a vanguard leading one, and darkness and farmic tornadoes, and noises and snow and rain
Unformed’—a concept altogether foreign to popular, or exoteric, Christianity and found only in esoteric Christianity, i.e. Gnosticism, which, very unwisely, the councils of exoteric Christianity have officially repudiated as being ‘heretical’.
1 Or, as in the text on p. 194 (wherein the clue to the esotericism underlying the references to birth ‘amongst beasts’ is given), amongst human beings ‘ re- sembling the brute order’.
2 Lit., ‘there will be no time [soon] when one can get out of it’. Buddhism (and Hinduism, too,) does not postulate eternal condemnation to a state of hell, and is, in this respect, more logical than Christian theology which has in the past postulated it.
8 Text: gshed-ma (pron. shed-ma) : ‘ tormentors’ or ‘life-takers’, used here to mean ‘tormenting furies’, (Cf. p. 167%.)
3069 Bb
186 Bardo of Seeking Rebirth [800k Ii
and terrifying hail-storms and whirlwinds of icy blasts occur- ring, there will arise the thought of fleeing from them.
Thereupon, by going to seek refuge because of fear, [one beholdeth] the aforesaid visions of great mansions, rock- caverns, earth-caverns, jungles, and lotus blossoms which close [on entering them]; and one escapeth by hiding inside [one of such places] and fearing to come out therefrom, and thinking, ‘To go out is not good now’. And fearing to depart therefrom, one will feel greatly attracted to one’s place of refuge [which is the womb]. Fearful lest, by going out, the awe and terror of the Bardo will mect one, and afraid to encounter them, if one hide oneself within [the place or womb chosen], one will thereby assume a very undesirable body and suffer various sufferings.
That [condition] is an indication that evil spirits and rak- shasas [or demons] are interfering with one.’ For this time there is a profound teaching. Listen; and heed it:
At that time—when the tormenting furies will be in pursuit of thee, and when awe and terror will be occurring—instan- taneously [visualize] either the Supreme Heruka, or Haya- griva, or Vajra-Pani,? or [any other] tutelary deity if thou hast such, perfect of form, huge of body, of massive limbs, wrathful and terrifying in appearance, capable of reducing to dust all mischievous spirits. Visualize it instantaneously. The gift-waves and the power of its grace will separate thee from the tormenting furies and thou wilt obtain the power to select the womb-door. This is the vital art of the very profound teaching ; therefore bear it thoroughly well in mind.
O nobly-born, the dhyani and other deities are born of the power of Samadhi [or meditation]. Pvretas [or unhappy spirits or shades] and malignant spirits of certain orders are those who by changing their feeling [or mental attitude] while in the Intermediate State assumed that very shape which they thereafter retained, and became gret¢as, evil spirits, and vrakshasas, possessed of the power of shape-shifting. All
1 That is to say, interfering in such a way as to prevent birth or a good birth. * Each of these three deities, who dawn in the Chényid Bardo (sec pp. 1164, 120‘, 137'), is held to be particularly potent as an exorcizer of evil spirits.
Part It] Bardo-Bound Spirits 187
bretas, who exist in space, who traverse the sky, and the eighty thousand species of mischievous sprites, have become
so by changing their feelings [while] in the mental-body [on the Bardo-plane}.!
1 Owing to having arrived at the false concept that the Intermediate State is a desirable or fixed state of existence, all dwellers therein,—sprites, prefas, demons, and deceased human entities,—becoming thereby habituated to the Bardo, their normal evolution is retarded. According to the most enlightened of the /amas, whenever a spirit is called up, as in such spirit-evocations as are nowadays common throughout the West, that spirit, through contact with this world and the prevailing traditional animistic beliefs concerning the hereafter, being strengthened in the illusion that the Bardo is a state wherein real spiritual progress is possible, makes no attempt to quit it. The spirit called up ordinarily describes the Bardo (which is pre-eminently the realm of illusion), in which it is a dweller, more or less after what it had believed whilst in the fleshly body concerning the hereafter; for just as a dreamer in the human world lives over again in the dream-state the experience of the waking state, so the inhabitant of the Bardo experiences hallucinations in kavmic accord with the content of his consciousness created by the human world. His symbolic visions, as the Bardo Thédol repeatedly emphasizes, are but the psychic reflexes of thought-forms carried over from earth-life as mental deposits or seeds of karma. (See pp. 31-5.) This is said to explain why none but very exceptional spirits when evoked have any rational philosophy to offer concerning the world in which they exist; they are regarded as being merely the playthings of karma, lacking in mental coherence and stability of personality—more often than not, as being senseless ghosts, or psychic ‘shells’ which have been cast off by the consciousness-principle, and which, when coming into rapport with a human ‘medium’, are galvanized into automaton-like life.