The Tibetan Book of theDead

THE GREAT LIBERATION THROUGHHEARING IN THE BARDO

BY GURU RINPOCHE

ACCORDING TO KARMA LINGPA

Translated with commentary byFrancesca Fremantle &

Chögyam Trungpa

SHAMBHALABoston & London

2010

SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.Horticultural Hall300 Massachusetts AvenueBoston, Massachusetts 02115www.shambhala.com © 1975 by Francesca Fremantle and Diana Mukpo All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced inany form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includingphotocopying, recording, or by any information storage andretrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Library of Congress catalogues the original edition ofthis work as follows:Karma-glin-pa, 14th cent.The Tibetan book of the dead: the great liberation through hearingin the Bardo/by Guru Rinpoche according to Karma Lingpa: anew translation with commentary by Francesca Fremantle andChögyam Trungpa.—Berkeley: Shambhala, 1975.XX,119p.: ill.; 24 cm.—(The Clear light series)Translation of the author’s Bar do thos grol.Bibliography: p. 111–112. / Includes index.eISBN 978-0-8348-2147-7ISBN 978-0-87773-074-3 / ISBN 978-1-57062-747-7ISBN 978-1-59030-059-61. Intermediate state—Buddhism. 2. Funeral rites andceremonies, Buddhist—Tibet. 3. Death (Buddhism). I.Fremantle, Francesca. II. Chögyam Trungpa, Trungpa Tulku,1939–1987. III. Title. BQ4490.K3713 294.3′423 74-29615MARC

DEDICATED TOHis Holiness the XVI Gyalwa Karmapa

Rangjung Rigpi Dorje

CONTENTS

List of IllustrationsForeword, by Chögyam Trungpa, RinpocheIntroduction, by Francesca Fremantle

Commentary The Great Liberation through Hearing in theBardo

Inspiration-PrayersInspiration-Prayer Calling on the Buddhasand Bodhisattvas for RescueThe Main Verses of the Six BardosInspiration-Prayer for Deliverance from theDangerous Pathway of the BardoThe Bardo Prayer which Protects from Fear

Pronunciation of Sanskrit WordsGlossary of Sanskrit WordsBibliographyIndex

ILLUSTRATIONS

SAMANTABHADRA YANTRA This yantra is of a sort known in Tibetan astagdrol, which means “liberated by wearing.”Wearing is one of the “six liberations” alongwith hearing, seeing, remembering, touching andtasting. This yantra is placed on the body of adead person to inspire him in the bardo ofdharmatā. The central figure Samantabhadra isthe supreme dharmakāya buddha and representsthe dharmatā. He is surrounded by the maṇḍalasof the peaceful deities, the vidyādharas and thewrathful deities represented by their mantras. Inthe outermost circle are the mantras of thebuddhas of the six realms. Opening page, “TheGreat Liberation through Hearing in theBardo: Commentary.”

PERNAGCHEN Pernagchen, “the Black-Gowned One,” is thespecial protector of the Karma Kagyü order ofTibetan Buddhism. The Karma Kagyüs inherited

Pernagchen from the family of Karma Pakshi, thesecond Gyalwa Karmapa, whose father was atantric priest. Pernagchen, half of whose body ishead and half of whose head is mouth, hasrepeatedly appeared in visions to holders of theKarma Kagyü lineage. His crescent knifedestroys the perverters of the teaching. His skullcup holds wealth, both spiritual and material, forpractitioners of the teaching. Drawing by GlenEddy. End page.

FOREWORD

THE BARDO THÖTRÖL (Bar-do’i-thos-grol) isone of a series of instructions on six types ofliberation: liberation through hearing, liberationthrough wearing, liberation through seeing,liberation through remembering, liberationthrough tasting, and liberation through touching.They were composed by Padmasaṃbhava andwritten down by his wife, Yeshe Tsogyal, alongwith the sādhana of the two maṇḍalas of forty-two peaceful and fifty-eight wrathful deities.

Padmasaṃbhava buried these texts in theGampo hills in central Tibet, where later thegreat teacher Gampopa established hismonastery. Many other texts and sacred objectswere buried in this way in different placesthroughout Tibet, and are known as terma,“hidden treasures.” Padmasaṃbhava gave thetransmission of power to discover the termas tohis twenty-five chief disciples. The Bardo textswere later discovered by Karma-Lingpa, whowas an incarnation of one of these disciples.

Liberation, in this case, means that whoevercomes into contact with this teaching—even inthe form of doubt, or with an open mind—receives a sudden glimpse of enlightenmentthrough the power of the transmission containedin these treasures.

Karma-Lingpa belonged to the Nyingmatradition but his students were all of the Kagyütradition. He gave the first transmission of thesix liberation teachings to Dödül-Dorje, thethirteenth Karmapa, who in turn gave it toGyurme-Tenphel, the eighth Trungpa. Thistransmission was kept alive in the Surmangmonasteries of the Trungpa lineage, and fromthere it spread back into the Nyingma tradition.

The student of this teaching practices thesādhana and studies the texts so as to becomecompletely familiar with the two maṇḍalas aspart of his own experience.

I received this transmission at the age of eight,and was trained in this teaching by my tutors,who also guided me in dealing with dyingpeople. Consequently I visited dying or deadpeople about four times a week from that timeonwards. Such continual contact with theprocess of death, particularly watching one’sclose friends and relatives, is considered

extremely important for students of this tradition,so that the notion of impermanence becomes aliving experience rather than a philosophicalview.

This book is a further attempt to make thisteaching applicable to students in the West. Ihope that the sādhana may also be translated inthe near future, so that this tradition may be fullycarried out.

CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA, RINPOCHE

INTRODUCTION

BY COINCIDENCE, this introduction was writtenat Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, looking acrossthe valley to Gangtok where, half a century ago,Kazi Dawa-Samdup translated and W. Y. Evans-Wentz edited the first English version of theBardo Thötröl. A further link with them isprovided by the fact that this new translationappeared as part of a series dedicated to Evans-Wentz.

Since their work is so widely known and hasbeen the cause of so much interest in Buddhism,it may be asked why there is any need for a newversion. Evans-Wentz himself gives part of theanswer in his own Introduction, where herecognizes “the pioneer character of the work.”Since then, especially after the flight from Tibetof many of the highest lamas, information aboutTibetan Buddhism and interest in it have greatlyincreased. It is no longer purely a subject ofacademic study, but a living tradition which isnow putting down roots in the West. This makes

possible a new approach to translation, in whichgreat importance is given to the practicalapplication of the text, and to conveying its spiritof vitality and directness.

In the summer of 1971 at the Tail of the TigerContemplative Community in Vermont (nowcalled Karme-Chöling), Chögyam Trungpa,Rinpoche, gave a seminar entitled The TibetanBook of the Dead, which is included here as acommentary. During the seminar he used aTibetan text, while the audience followed in theEvans-Wentz edition. Questions about thetranslation and style of expression continuallycame up, and as a result of these questions it wasdecided to prepare a new version.

In making this translation, the Tibetan editionpublished by E. Kalsang (Varanasi, 1969) wasused, together with three blockprints. A fewminor omissions and errors have been correctedby reference to the blockprints, but there are nodisagreements on any essentials among thesefour texts. Therefore it is rather surprising to findconsiderable disagreement with the earliertranslation. Without going into great detail, thereare a few outstanding points which should bementioned.

Kazi Dawa-Samdup has several times

changed the translation from the originalwording, considering it to be mistaken. In thenotes the editor quotes the Tibetan texts used—one manuscript and one block-print—oftenadding that the translator has corrected certainwords which are in error. Most of thesealterations seem to have been made in order toreconcile the system of correspondences ofdeities, symbolic colors, and so on, with thosefound in other texts. The most striking examplesare the following (references are to thepaperback edition, Oxford University Press,1960):

On page 95, note 3, the feminine Kuntu-Zang-mo (Samantabhadrī) is changed to the masculineKuntu-Zang-po (Samantabhadra), who thusappears twice. But the whole point of thispassage lies in the symbolism of the union of themale and female aspects of mind. As Evans-Wentz himself refers to this in the same note, andagain in note 3 on the following page, it is hardto understand how he, or the translator, couldhave considered the text to be mistaken.

On pages 106 and 109, matter (which wetranslate as “form”) and consciousness arereversed, so as to make them appear on the firstand second days respectively, although in the

blockprint they appear the other way round.Similarly, on pages 108 and 111, the consortsSangyay-Chanma (Buddha-Locanā) andMāmakī are exchanged.

On page 114, the fourth day, the light of thepretas (hungry ghosts) is described as red, andon page 117, the fifth day, the light of the asuras(jealous gods) is given as green, while in thisversion these lights are yellow and redrespectively. The colors of the six realms occuragain on pages 124 and 174, where Evans-Wentznotes the Tibetan and explains the changes madeby the translator to make the colors correspondto the colors of the buddhas.

Buddhist iconography is not absolutelyconsistent, however. Apparent irregularities suchas these occur frequently, always with somereason behind them. In all these cases our fourtexts agree with Evans-Wentz’s blockprint and inmost cases also with his manuscript, so it is mostlikely that such uniformity indicates the correctversion.

Other differences between the two translationswill be found in the treatment of specificallyBuddhist terminology. The original scriptures ofBuddhism were written in Sanskrit or Pali (aclose derivative of Sanskrit) and were translated

into Tibetan from the seventh century onwards.At that time the Tibetan language had not beeninfluenced by any highly developed system ofthought, and therefore it could be adaptedwithout too much difficulty; in effect a newphilosophical language was created to conveythe Buddhist teachings. Translating into atwentieth-century European language presents anentirely different situation. Western thought hasdeveloped along very different lines from that ofthe East, and so if an English word is chosenfrom the vocabulary of philosophy or religion, itwill inevitably contain all kinds of associationsand implications which may be quite alien to theunderlying assumptions of Buddhism.Conversely, the full range of meaning of aSanskrit word may not be found in any singleEnglish word. In such cases an Englishequivalent would need just as much explanationas the original, while the Sanskrit word has theadvantage of being free from possiblymisleading associations in the reader’s mind.

Certain terms are therefore kept in Sanskrit,their original language, although the BardoThötröl was written in Tibetan. The names ofdeities are also given in Sanskrit, as they arebetter known in this form and can be more easily

identified in other sources. This practice wasoften followed by the Tibetan translators,although not consistently in this particular text.

It may seem inconsistent to introduce twoTibetan words: bardo itself and yidam. Onereason is simply that these are the easiest wordsto use, and they have become very familiar tostudents of Buddhism who will be the mainreaders of this book. The possible translation ofbardo as “intermediate state” is awkward whenit is repeated frequently; so is the Sanskritantarābhāva, besides being an unfamiliar term,for this teaching was developed in Tibet ratherthan in India. Yidam, as used in TibetanBuddhism, has rather different implications fromthe Sanskrit iṣṭadevatā, “chosen deity,” familiarin Hinduism. It has been translated as“protective deity” (which should rather be usedto describe the dharmapālas) or “tutelary deity,”but all these terms seem to convey the idea of anexternal being, acting as a personal guardian orhelper, while the real meaning of yidam isentirely internal and psychological; the yidam isthe expression of one’s own basic nature,visualized as a divine form in order to relatewith it and express its full potentiality.

It is noticeable that several of the words

which best express the teachings of Buddhismare part of the language of contemporarypsychology, for the attitudes of certain schools ofWestern psychology often come closer toBuddhism than do those of Western philosophyor religion.

The concept of sin, for instance, is inevitablyassociated with original sin, guilt, andpunishment, which have no place in most Easternteachings. Instead, Buddhism looks for the basiccause of sin and suffering, and discovers this tobe the belief in a self or ego as the center ofexistence. This belief is caused not by innateevil, but by unconsciousness, or ignorance of thetrue nature of existence. Since we experience thewhole of life from this falsely centralizedviewpoint, we cannot know the world as itreally is. This is what is meant by saying that theworld is unreal. The remedy is to see through theillusion, to attain the insight of emptiness—theabsence of what is false. Inseparable fromemptiness is the luminosity—the presence ofwhat is real, the basic ground in which the playof life takes place.

Concepts such as conditioning, neuroticpatterns of thought and unconscious influencesseem more appropriate in this book than

conventional religious terms. In the Commentary,words such as neurosis and paranoia are used todescribe not pathological conditions but thenatural results of this fundamental state of mind.Projections indicates the way in which we seethings, colored by our own attitudes. In the text,it translates a Tibetan word (snang), whichbasically means “light” or “appearance,”whether internal or external, and which KaziDawa-Samdup translated as “thought-form” or“vision.” “Projection” overcomes thisdistinction between the subjective and objective.

A very brief outline of the Buddhistpsychology relevant to this book may be usefulas a basis for the detailed explanations given inthe commentary. The evolution of the ego-centered state of being is analyzed in the systemof the five skandhas. Skandha is literally a heapor group, but its meaning may be better conveyedby “psychological component.”

The first component is form (rūpa), thebeginning of individuality and separateexistence, and the division of experience intosubject and object. Now there is a primitive“self” aware of an external world. As soon asthis happens, the self reacts to its surroundings:this is the second stage, feeling (vedanā). It is

not yet fully developed emotion—just aninstinctive liking, dislike or indifference, butimmediately it grows more complicated as thecentralized entity asserts itself by reacting notonly passively but actively. This is the thirdstage, perception (saṃjñā), in its fullest sense,when the self is aware of stimulus andautomatically responds to it. The fourthcomponent is concept (saṃskāra), covering theintellectual and emotional activity ofinterpretation which follows perception. It iswhat puts things together, and builds up thepatterns of personality and karma. Finally thereis consciousness (vijñāna) which combines allthe sense-perceptions and the mind. The self hasnow become a complete universe of its own;instead of directly perceiving the world as itreally is, it projects its own images all around it.

The fundamental teaching of this book is therecognition of one’s projections and thedissolution of the sense of self in the light ofreality. As soon as this is done, these fivepsychological components of the confused orunenlightened state of mind become insteadfactors of enlightenment. They are transmutedinto their transcendent or purified forms, whichare presented during the first five days in the

bardo of dharmatā.During these visionary experiences, the six

realms of existence also appear. These are thesix main states of the confused mind, and aredescribed in detail in the commentary. Each oneappears together with its alternative, thepossibility of giving up that particular obsession,ceasing to grasp at the security of a centralizedentity, but instead letting oneself dissolve intothe corresponding manifestation of wisdom.

These “wisdoms” are the maṇḍalas of the fivetathāgatas. Tathāgata literally means “thus-gone,”which can be paraphrased as “he who hasbecome one with the essence of what is.” It issynonymous with buddha (“awakened”), andjina (“victorious”). The five tathāgatas, then, arethe five chief modes of energy of buddha-nature,the fully awakened consciousness. The qualitiesthey embody are the five wisdoms, but insaṃsāra—the world or state of mind in whichwe live—these energies appear as five poisonsor confused emotions. Everything in the world,all living beings, places, events and so on,possesses a predominant characteristic whichlinks it with one of the five; therefore they arealso known as the five families.

The first of the tathāgatas, placed in the center

of the maṇḍala, is Vairocana. He represents thebasic poison of confusion, or ignorance whichdeliberately ignores, out of which all the othersevolve. But he is also the wisdom of thedharmadhātu—the limitless, all-pervading spacein which everything exists as it really is. This isthe reversal of ignorance. Since he is the originaland central figure, his family is simply known asthe tathāgata or buddha family, names whichagain represent the opposite of ignorance.

The second tathāgata is Akṣobhya, in theeastern side of the maṇḍala, which, followingIndian tradition, is placed at the bottom. In othertexts Akṣobhya may appear at the center, withVairocana in the east, so there is often somealteration of their attributes; this is why bothwhite and blue colors appear on the first andsecond days and why there is sometimes anapparent confusion in the maṇḍala pattern.Akṣobhya is the ruler of the vajra family, whosepoison is aggression or hatred. This istransmuted into the mirror-like wisdom, whichreflects everything calmly and uncritically.

In the southern side of the maṇḍala, drawn tothe left, is Ratnasaṃbhava, ruler of the ratnafamily. Ratna means “jewel,” and in particularthe wish-fulfilling jewel which grants all

desires. So here the poison is pride, resultingfrom possessing riches of whatever kind. Itsantidote is the wisdom of equality andequanimity.

Above, in the west, comes Amitābha, whosefamily is padma, the lotus. He symbolizespassion and desire, grasping hungrily ateverything. The wisdom which corresponds tothis poison is discrimination, which provides thecoolness and detachment for passion to betransformed into compassion.

Lastly, on the right, the northern side, isAmoghasiddhi of the karma family. Karma heremeans “action” and is symbolized by a sword orby a double vajra. Envy is the poison associatedwith karma, arising from the insatiable ambitionwhich drives this kind of activity, while itsenlightened aspect is the wisdom whichaccomplishes all actions.

The five tathāgatas possess many otherattributes, which are described and explained inthe commentary. They are also accompanied bytheir feminine aspects and by bodhisattvaemanations.

While the buddhas embody the transcendentqualities of enlightenment existing beyond theflux of life, the bodhisattva principle is one of

active engagement for the sake of all beings. Thebodhisattvas could be seen as the activity of thefive wisdoms. The feminine energy provides thefertile element which completes them and allowstheir fullest manifestation. These and all theother deities which appear in the book could bedescribed as expressions of the world in thelight of reality. They embody the variousmanifestations of energy which we experience asour whole physical, mental and emotionalexistence. Although we do not normally perceiveour lives in terms of energies, their effects arewith us all the time. In his commentary, TrungpaRinpoche translates them into a language we canrecognize more easily—emotions, qualities,environment, ways of life, actions and events.

So, although this book is ostensibly written forthe dead, it is in fact about life. The Buddhahimself would not discuss what happens afterdeath, because such questions are not useful inthe search for reality here and now. But thedoctrine of reincarnation, the six kinds ofexistence, and the intermediate bardo statebetween them, refer very much to this life,whether or not they also apply after death. It isoften emphasized that the purpose of reading theBardo Thötröl to a dead person is to remind him

of what he has practiced during his life. ThisBook of the Dead can show us how to live.

FRANCESCA FREMANTLE

The Great Liberationthrough Hearing in the

Bardo

COMMENTARY

CommentaryBY CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA, RINPOCHE

The Message of the Book THERE SEEMS to be a fundamental problem whenwe refer to the subject of The Tibetan Book ofthe Dead. The approach of comparing it withThe Egyptian Book of the Dead in terms ofmythology and lore of the dead person seems tomiss the point, which is the fundamentalprinciple of birth and death recurring constantlyin this life. One could refer to this book as “TheTibetan Book of Birth.” The book is not basedon death as such, but on a completely differentconcept of death. It is a “Book of Space.” Spacecontains birth and death; space creates theenvironment in which to behave, breathe and act,it is the fundamental environment whichprovides the inspiration for this book.

The pre-Buddhist Bön civilization of Tibetcontained very accurate indications on how totreat the psychic force left behind by a deadperson, the footprints or temperature, so tospeak, which is left behind when he is gone. Itseems that both the Bön tradition and theEgyptian are based on that particular type ofexperience, how to relate with the footprints,rather than dealing with the person’sconsciousness. But the basic principle I amtrying to put across now is that of the uncertaintyof sanity and insanity, or confusion andenlightenment, and the possibilities of all sortsof visionary discoveries that happen on the wayto sanity or insanity.

Bardo means gap; it is not only the interval ofsuspension after we die but also suspension inthe living situation; death happens in the livingsituation as well. The bardo experience is partof our basic psychological make-up. There areall kinds of bardo experiences happening to usall the time, experiences of paranoia anduncertainty in everyday life; it is like not beingsure of our ground, not knowing quite what wehave asked for or what we are getting into. Sothis book is not only a message for those who aregoing to die and those who are already dead, but

it is also a message for those who are alreadyborn; birth and death apply to everybodyconstantly, at this very moment.

The bardo experience can be seen in terms ofthe six realms of existence that we go through,the six realms of our psychological states. Thenit can be seen in terms of the different deitieswho approach us, as they are described in thebook. In the first week the peaceful deities, andin the last week the wrathful deities; there are thefive tathāgatas and the herukas, and the gaurīs,who are messengers of the five tathāgatas,presenting themselves in all sorts of terrifyingand revolting fashions. The details presentedhere are very much what happens in our dailyliving situation, they are not just psychedelicexperiences or visions that appear after death.These experiences can be seen purely in terms ofthe living situation; that is what we are trying towork on.

In other words, the whole thing is based onanother way of looking at the psychologicalpicture of ourselves in terms of a practicalmeditative situation. Nobody is going to save us,everything is left purely to the individual, thecommitment to who we are. Gurus or spiritualfriends might instigate that possibility, but

fundamentally they have no function.How do we know that these things actually

happen to people who are dying? Has anyonecome back from the grave and told us theexperiences they went through? Thoseimpressions are so strong that someone recentlyborn should have memories of the periodbetween death and birth; but then as we grow upwe are indoctrinated by our parents and society,and we put ourselves into a different framework,so that the original deep impressions becomefaded except for occasional sudden glimpses.Even then we are so suspicious of suchexperiences, and so afraid of losing any tangibleground in terms of living in this world, that anyintangible kind of experience is treated half-heartedly or dismissed altogether. To look at thisprocess from the point of view of what happenswhen we die seems like the study of a myth; weneed some practical experience of this continualprocess of bardo.

There is the conflict between body andconsciousness, and there is the continualexperience of death and birth. There is also theexperience of the bardo of dharmatā, theluminosity, and of the bardo of becoming, ofpossible future parents or grounding situations.

We also have the visions of the wrathful andpeaceful divinities, which are happeningconstantly, at this very moment. If we are openand realistic enough to look at it in this way, thenthe actual experience of death and the bardo statewill not be either purely a myth or anextraordinary shock, because we have alreadyworked with it and become familiar with thewhole thing.

The Bardo of the Moment beforeDeath The first basic bardo experience is theexperience of uncertainty about whether one isactually going to die, in the sense of losingcontact with the solid world, or whether onecould continue to go on living. This uncertaintyis not seen in terms of leaving the body, butpurely in terms of losing one’s ground; thepossibility of stepping out from the real worldinto an unreal world.

We could say that the real world is that inwhich we experience pleasure and pain, goodand bad. There is some act of intelligence whichprovides the criteria of things as they are, abasic dualistic notion. But if we are completely

in touch with these dualistic feelings, thatabsolute experience of duality is itself theexperience of non-duality. Then there is noproblem at all, because duality is seen from aperfectly open and clear point of view in whichthere is no conflict; there is a tremendousencompassing vision of oneness. Conflict arisesbecause duality is not seen as it is at all. It isseen only in a biased way, a very clumsy way. Infact, we do not perceive anything properly, andwe begin to wonder whether such things asmyself and my projections really exist. So whenwe talk about the dualistic world as confusion,that confusion is not the complete dualisticworld, but only half-hearted, and this causestremendous dissatisfaction and uncertainty; itbuilds up to the point of fear of becoming insane,the point where there are possibilities of leavingthe world of duality and going into a sort ofwoolly, fuzzy emptiness, which is the world ofthe dead, the graveyard that exists in the midst offog.

The book describes the death experience interms of the different elements of the body, goingdeeper and deeper. Physically you feel heavywhen the earth element dissolves into water; andwhen water dissolves into fire you find that the

circulation begins to cease functioning. Whenfire dissolves into air, any feeling of warmth orgrowth begins to dissolve; and when airdissolves into space you lose the last feeling ofcontact with the physical world. Finally, whenspace or consciousness dissolves into the centralnāḍī, there is a sense of internal luminosity, aninner glow, when everything has becomecompletely introverted.

Such experiences happen constantly. Thetangible, logical state dissolves, and one is notquite certain whether one is attainingenlightenment or losing one’s sanity. Wheneverthat experience happens it can be seen in four orfive different stages. First the tangible quality ofphysical, living logic becomes vague; in otherwords, you lose physical contact. Then youautomatically take refuge in a more functionalsituation, which is the water element; youreassure yourself that your mind is stillfunctioning. In the next stage, the mind is notquite sure whether it is functioning properly ornot, something begins to cease operating in itscirculation. The only way to relate is throughemotions, you try to think of someone you loveor hate, something very vivid, because thewatery quality of the circulation does not work

any more, so the fiery temperature of love andhate becomes more important. Even thatgradually dissolves into air, and there is a faintexperience of openness, so that there is atendency to lose your grip on concentrating onlove or trying to remember the person you love.The whole thing seems to be hollow inside.

The next experience is the luminosity. You arewilling to give in because you cannot struggleany more, and a kind of carelessness arises atthat moment. It is as though pain and pleasure areoccurring at the same time, or a powerful showerof icy cold water and boiling hot water ispouring simultaneously over your body. It is anintense experience, very powerful and full, theexperience of oneness where both pain andpleasure are the same. The dualistic struggle oftrying to be something is completely confused bythe two extreme forces of hope for enlightenmentand fear of becoming insane. The two extremesare so concentrated that it allows a certainrelaxation; and when you do not struggle anymore the luminosity presents itself naturally.

The next step is the experience of luminosityin terms of daily life. The luminosity is neutralground or background, a gap when the intensityslackens. Then some intelligence begins to

connect it to the awakened state of mind, leadingto a sudden glimpse of meditative experience orbuddha nature, which could also be called thedharmakāya. But if we have no means ofconnecting with the basic intelligence, andconfused energy still dominates our process ofmind, then the energy builds up blindly andfinally falls down into different levels of dilutedenergy, so to speak, from the absolute energy ofthe luminosity. Some basic tendency of graspingbegins to develop in the state of luminosity, andfrom that the experience of the six realms of theworld develops according to its intensity. Butthat tenseness or tightness cannot just function byitself without an activator of energy; in otherwords, energy is being used in order to grasp.We can now look at the six realms of the worldfrom the point of view of different types ofinstinct.

The Realm of Hell We can begin with the realm of hell, which is themost intense. First there is a build-up ofenergies, of emotions, to a crescendo, so that atsome stage we find it very confusing whether theenergies are controlling us or we are controlling

them. Then suddenly we lose track of this wholerace, and our mind is put into a blank state whichis the luminosity. From that blank state an intensetemptation to fight begins to develop, and thatparanoia also brings terror. Originally theparanoia and terror were supposed to fightagainst something, but one is not quite certainwhom exactly one is fighting; and when thewhole thing has developed, the terror begins toturn against oneself. When one tries to strike out,instead of fighting the projection one is strikinginward.

It is like the story of the hermit who saw a legof lamb in front of him, and wanted to pick it upand cook it. His teacher told him to mark it witha cross, then later he discovered that the crosswas marked on his own chest. It is that kind ofnotion; you think there is something outside toattack or fight or win over. In most cases hatredis like that. You are angry with something and tryto destroy it, but at the same time the processbecomes self-destructive, it turns inward andyou would like to run away from it; but then itseems too late, you are the anger itself, so thereis nowhere to run away. You are hauntingyourself constantly, and that is the developmentof hell.

Very vivid descriptions of hell are found inGampopa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation, andsymbolically each intense torture is apsychological portrait of oneself. In the hellrealm you are not exactly punished, butoverwhelmed by the environment of terror,which is described as fields and mountains ofred-hot iron and space filled with sparks of fire.Even if you decide to run away you have to walkover this burning metal, and if you decide not torun away you are turned into charcoal yourself.There is intense claustrophobia, heat comingfrom all directions; the whole earth is turned intohot metal, whole rivers are turned into meltediron, and the whole sky is permeated with fire.

The other type of hell is the reverse, theexperience of intense cold and snow, an icyworld in which everything is completely frozen.This is another type of aggression, the aggressionwhich refuses to communicate at all. It is a kindof indignation which usually comes from intensepride, and the pride turns into an ice-coldenvironment which reinforced by self-satisfaction begins to get into the system. It doesnot allow us to dance or smile or hear the music.

The Hungry Ghost Realm

Then we have another realm of mind, that of thepretas or hungry ghosts. To begin with, we getinto the luminosity by working up not aggressionthis time but intense greed. There is a sense ofpoverty, yet at the same time a sense of richness,contradictory and yet operating togethersimultaneously.

In the hungry ghost realm there is atremendous feeling of richness, of gathering a lotof possessions; whatever you want you do nothave to look for, but you find yourself possessingit. And this makes us more hungry, moredeprived, because we get satisfaction not frompossessing alone but from searching. But now,since we have everything already, we cannot goout and look for something and possess it. It isvery frustrating, a fundamental insatiable hunger.

It is as though you are completely full, so fullthat you cannot eat any more; but you love to eat,and so you begin to have hallucinations of theflavor of food and the pleasure of eating it,tasting it, chewing it, swallowing it and digestingit. The whole process seems luxurious, and youfeel extremely envious of other people who canreally be hungry and eat.

This is symbolized by the image of a personwith a gigantic belly and extremely thin neck and

tiny mouth. There are different stages of thisexperience, depending on the intensity of hunger.Some people can pick food up, but then itdissolves or they cannot eat it; some people canpick it up and put it in their mouth, but theycannot swallow it; and some people canswallow it but once it gets into their stomach itbegins to burn. There are all sorts of levels ofthat hunger, which constantly happen in everydaylife.

The joy of possessing does not bring uspleasure anymore once we already possesssomething, and we are constantly trying to lookfor more possessions, but it turns out to be thesame process all over again; so there is constantintense hunger which is based not on a sense ofpoverty but on the realization that we alreadyhave everything yet we cannot enjoy it. It is theenergy there, the act of exchange, that seems tobe more exciting; collecting it, holding it, puttingit on, or eating it. That kind of energy is astimulus, but the grasping quality makes it veryawkward. Once you hold something you want topossess it, you no longer have the enjoyment ofholding it, but you do not want to let go. Again itis a kind of love-hate relationship to projections.It is like the analogy that the next door

neighbor’s garden is greener; once it becomesours we realize there is no longer the joy orappreciation of beauty as we saw it at thebeginning; the romantic quality of a love affairbegins to fade away.

The Animal Realm The animal realm is characterized by theabsence of sense of humor. We discover that wecannot remain neutral in the luminosity, so webegin to play deaf and dumb, intelligentlyplaying ignorant, which means that one iscompletely concealing another area, the area ofsense of humor. It is symbolized by animals,which cannot laugh or smile; joy and pain areknown to animals, but somehow the sense ofhumor or irony is not known to them.

One could develop this by believing in acertain religious framework, theological orphilosophical conclusions, or by just simplyremaining secure, practical and solid. Such aperson could be very efficient, very good andconsistent at work, and quite contented. It is likea country farmer who attends to his farmmethodically, with constant awareness andopenness and efficiency; or an executive who

runs a business; or a family man whose life isvery happy, predictable and secure, with noareas of mystery involved at all. If he buys a newgadget there are always directions for using it. Ifthere is any problem he can go to lawyers orpriests or policemen, all sorts of professionalpeople who are also secure and comfortable intheir professions. It is utterly sensible andpredictable, and highly mechanical at the sametime.

What is lacking is that if any unknown,unpredictable situation occurs, there is a feelingof paranoia, of being threatened. If there arepeople who do not work, who look different,whose whole life-style is irregular, then the veryexistence of such people is in itself threatening.Anything unpredictable fundamentally threatensthe basic pattern. So that apparently sane andsolid situation without sense of humor is theanimal realm.

The Human Realm The human realm brings out another kind ofsituation which is not quite the same as theanimal realm of surviving and living life. Thehuman realm is based on passion, the tendency to

explore and enjoy; it is the area of research anddevelopment, constantly trying to enrich. Onecould say that the human realm is closerpsychologically to the hungry ghost quality ofstriving for something, but it also has someelement of the animal realm, of puttingeverything into action predictably. And there issomething extra connected with the human realm,a very strange kind of suspicion which comeswith passion, and which makes human beingsmore cunning, shifty and slippery. They caninvent all sorts of tools and accentuate them inall sorts of sophisticated ways so as to catchanother slippery person, and the other slipperyperson develops his or her own equipment ofanti-tools. So we build up our world withtremendous success and achievement, but thisescalation of building up tools and anti-toolsdevelops constantly, and introduces moresources of passion and intrigue. Finally we areunable to accomplish such a big undertaking. Weare subject to birth and death. The experiencecan be born, but it can also die; our discoveriesmay be impermanent and temporary.

The Realm of the Jealous Gods

The realm of the asuras or jealous gods is thehighest realm as far as communication goes, it isa very intelligent situation. When you aresuddenly separated from the luminosity there is afeeling of bewilderment, as though someone haddropped you in the middle of a wilderness; thereis a tendency to look back and suspect your ownshadow, whether it is a real shadow orsomeone’s strategy. Paranoia is a kind of radarsystem, the most efficient radar system the egocould have. It picks up all sorts of faint and tinyobjects, suspecting each one of them, and everyexperience in life is regarded as somethingthreatening.

This is known as the realm of jealousy orenvy, but it is not envy or jealousy as wegenerally think of them. It is something extremelyfundamental, based on survival and winning.Unlike the human or animal realm, the purpose ofthis realm of the jealous gods is purely tofunction within the realm of intrigue; that is allthere is, it is both occupation and entertainment.It is as if a person were born a diplomat, raisedas a diplomat, and died as a diplomat. Intrigueand relationship are his life-style and his wholelivelihood. This intrigue could be based on anykind of relationship, an emotional relationship,

or the relationship between friends, or therelationship of teacher and student, whateverthere may be.

The Realm of the Gods The final stage is the realm of the gods, deva-loka. Again, when the person awakes from orsteps out of the luminosity, there is some kind ofunexpected pleasure, and one wants to maintainthat pleasure. Instead of completely dissolvinginto neutral ground one suddenly begins torealize one’s individuality, and individualitybrings a sense of responsibility, of maintainingoneself. That maintaining oneself is the state ofsamādhi, perpetually living in a state ofabsorption and peace; it is the realm of the gods,which is known as the realm of pride. Pride inthe sense of building one’s own centralizedbody, preserving one’s own health; in otherwords, it is intoxication with the existence ofego. You begin to feel thankful to have suchconfirmation that you are something after all,instead of the luminosity which is no man’s land.And because you are something, you have tomaintain yourself, which brings a natural state ofcomfort and pleasure, complete absorption into

oneself.These six realms of the world are the source

of the whole theme of living in saṃsāra, and alsoof stepping into the dharmakāya realm. This willhelp us to understand the significance of thevisions described in the book of the bardo ofbecoming, which is another kind of world. Thereis a confrontation of these two worlds: theexperience of the six realms from the point ofview of ego, and from the point of view oftranscending ego. These visions could be seen asexpressions of neutral energy, rather than as godsto save you from saṃsāra or demons to hauntyou.

The Bardo of Dharmatā Along with the six realms, we should have someunderstanding of the basic idea of bardo: barmeans in between, and do means island or mark;a sort of landmark which stands between twothings. It is rather like an island in the midst of alake. The concept of bardo is based on theperiod between sanity and insanity, or the periodbetween confusion and the confusion just aboutto be transformed into wisdom; and of course itcould be said of the experience which stands

between death and birth. The past situation hasjust occurred and the future situation has not yetmanifested itself so there is a gap between thetwo. This is basically the bardo experience.

The dharmatā bardo is the experience ofluminosity. Dharmatā means the essence of thingsas they are, the is-ness quality. So the dharmatābardo is basic, open, neutral ground, and theperception of that ground is dharmakāya, thebody of truth or law.

When the perceiver or activator begins todissolve into basic space, then that basic spacecontains the dharma, contains the truth, but thattruth is transmitted in terms of saṃsāra. So thespace between saṃsāra and the truth, the spacethe dharma comes through, provides the basicground for the details of the five tathāgatas andthe peaceful and wrathful visions.

These expressions of the dharmatā aremanifested not in physical or visual terms but interms of energy, energy which has the quality ofthe elements, earth, water, fire, air, and space.We are not talking about ordinary substances, thegross level of the elements, but of subtleelements. From the perceiver’s point of view,perceiving the five tathāgatas in the visions isnot vision and not perception, not quite

experience. It is not vision, because if you havevision you have to look, and looking is in itselfan extroverted way of separating yourself fromthe vision. You cannot perceive, because onceyou begin to perceive you are introducing thatexperience into your system, which means againa dualistic style of relationship. You cannot evenknow it, because as long as there is a watcher totell you that these are your experiences, you arestill separating those energies away from you. Itis very important to understand this basicprinciple, for it is really the key point of all theiconographical symbolism in tantric art. Thepopular explanation is that these pictures ofdifferent divnities are psychological portraits,but there is something more to it than this.

One of the most highly advanced anddangerous forms of practice is the bardo retreat,which consists of seven weeks of meditation inutter darkness. There are very simplevisualizations, largely based on the principle ofthe five tathāgatas seen as different types of eyes.The central place of the peaceful tathāgatas is inthe heart, so you see the different types of eyes inyour heart; and the principle of the wrathfuldivinities is centralized in the brain, so you seecertain types of eyes gazing at each other within

your brain. These are not ordinaryvisualizations, but they arise out of thepossibility of insanity and of losing groundaltogether to the dharmatā principle.

Then an absolute and definite experience ofluminosity develops. It flashes on and off;sometimes you experience it, and sometimes youdo not experience it but you are in it, so there isa journey between dharmakāya and luminosity.Generally around the fifth week there comes abasic understanding of the five tathāgatas, andthese visions actually happen, not in terms of artat all. One is not exactly aware of their presence,but an abstract quality begins to develop, purelybased on energy. When energy becomesindependent, complete energy, it begins to lookat itself and perceive itself, which transcends theordinary idea of perception. It is as though youwalk because you know you do not need anysupport; you walk unconsciously. It is that kindof independent energy without any self-consciousness, which is not at all fantasy—butthen again, at the same time, one never knows.

The Nature of the Visions The visions that develop in the bardo state, and

the brilliant colors and sounds that come alongwith the visions, are not made out of any kind ofsubstance which needs maintenance from thepoint of view of the perceiver, but they justhappen, as expression of silence and expressionof emptiness. In order to perceive them properly,the perceiver of these visions cannot havefundamental, centralized ego. Fundamental egoin this case is that which causes one to meditateor perceive something.

If there were a definite perceiver, one couldhave a revelation of a god or external entity, andthat perception could extend almost as far as anon-dualistic level. Such perception becomesvery blissful and pleasant, because there is notonly the watcher but also something more subtle,a basic spiritual entity, a subtle concept orimpulse, which looks outward. It begins toperceive a beautiful idea of wideness andopenness and blissfulness, which invites thenotion of oneness with the universe. This feelingof the openness and wideness of the cosmoscould become very easy and comfortable to getinto. It is like returning to the womb, a kind ofsecurity. Because of the inspiration of suchunion, the person becomes loving and kindnaturally, and speaks in beautiful language. Quite

possibly some form of divine vision could beperceived in such a state, or flashes of light ormusic playing, or some presence approaching.

In the case of such a person who relates tohimself and his projections in that way, it ispossible that in the after death period of thebardo state he might be extremely irritated to seethe visions of the tathāgatas, which are notdependent on his perception. The visions of thetathāgatas do not ask for union at all, they areterribly hostile; they are just there, irritatinglythere because they will not react to any attemptsto communicate.

The first vision that appears is the vision ofthe peaceful divinities; not peacefulness in thesense of the love and light experience we havejust been talking about, but of completelyencompassing peace, immovable, invinciblepeace, the peaceful state that cannot bechallenged, that has no age, no end, no beginning.The symbol of peace is represented in the shapeof a circle; it has no entrance, it is eternal.

Not only in the bardo experience after deathalone, but also during our lifetime, similarexperiences occur constantly. When a person isdwelling on that kind of union with the cosmos—everything is beautiful and peaceful and loving

—there is the possibility of some other elementcoming in, exactly the same as the vision of thepeaceful divinities. You discover that there is apossibility of losing your ground, losing thewhole union completely, losing your identity asyourself, and dissolving into an utterly andcompletely harmonious situation, which is, ofcourse, the experience of the luminosity. Thisstate of absolute peacefulness seems to beextremely frightening, and there is often thepossibility that one’s faith might be shaken bysuch a sudden glimpse of another dimension,where even the concept of union is notapplicable any more.

There is also the experience of the wrathfuldivinities. They are another expression ofpeacefulness, the ruthless, unyielding quality, notallowing sidetracks of any kind. If you approachthem and try to reshape the situation they throwyou back. That is the kind of thing thatcontinually happens with emotions in the livingsituation. Somehow the feeling of unity whereeverything is peaceful and harmonious does nothold final truth, because whenever there is asudden eruption of energies in terms of passionor aggression or any conflict, suddenlysomething wakes you up; that is the wrathful

quality of the peacefulness. When you areinvolved in ego-manufactured, comfortingsituations of any kind, the actual reality of thenakedness of mind and the colorful aspect ofemotions will wake you up, possibly in a veryviolent way, as a sudden accident or suddenchaos.

Of course there is always the possibility ofignoring these reminders and continuing tobelieve the original idea. So the concept ofleaving the body and entering the luminosity, thenwaking up from the luminosity and perceivingthese visions in the third bardo state could beseen symbolically as being delivered into thatopen space—space without even a body to relateto, such open space that you cannot have thenotion of union because there is nothing to beunited with or by. But there are flashes of energyfloating, which could be either diverted orchanneled in; that is the definition of mind in thiscase, the gullible energy which could bediverted into another situation or turned into arightful one. The possibility of freeing oneselfinto the sambhogakāya level of the five tathāgatarealms depends on whether or not there is anyattempt to go on playing the same gameconstantly.

At the same time as these vivid and colorfulexperiences, there is also the playing back of thesix realms of the bardo experience. Theperception of the six realms and the perceptionof the five tathāgatas are one state, but they havedifferent styles. It seems that the perceiver of thetathāgatas, this kind of mind, has tremendousability to keep the link between physical bodyand mind, very spontaneously. There is nodivision between the spirituality of the mind andthe spirituality of the body; they are both thesame, so there is no conflict.

The book says that the first time you awakenfrom the unconscious absorption in the body, youhave a visual experience, minute and precise andclear, luminous and terrifying, rather like seeinga mirage in a spring field, and also you hear asound which is like a thousand thunders roaringsimultaneously. In the mental state there is alooseness and detached feeling, while at thesame time overloaded with intelligence, asthough the person had a head without a body, agigantic head floating in space. So the actualvisual experience of this bardo state, thepreparation for perceiving the visions of thetathāgatas, is clear and intelligent and luminous,but at the same time intangible, not knowing

where you are exactly; and that sensualexperience is also happening in the audiblesphere, a deep sound roaring in the background,earth-shaking, but at the same time there isnothing to vibrate. Similar experiences can alsohappen in life, although the absence of a physicalbody makes the bardo experience more clear andmore hallucinatory. In a life situation there is notthe extreme aspect of the mirage, but there is abasically desolate quality, loneliness andflickering, when the person begins to realize thatthere is no background area to relate to as ego.That sudden glimpse of egolessness brings akind of shakiness.

The First Day It says in this book that having woken up, afterfour days of unconsciousness, into the luminositythere is a sudden understanding that this is thebardo state, and at that very moment the reverseof saṃsāric experience occurs. This is theperception of light and images, which are thereverse of body or form; instead of being atangible situation of form it is an intangible stateof quality.

Then you get the dazzling light, which is a link

of communication between body andintelligence. Although one is absorbed into thestate of luminosity, there is still someintelligence operating, sharp and precise, with adazzling quality. So the psychophysical body andalso the intelligence, the intellectual mind, aretransformed into space.

In this case the color of space is blue, and thevision that appears is Vairocana. Vairocana isdescribed as the buddha who has no back andfront; he is panoramic vision, all-pervading withno centralized notion. So Vairocana is oftenpersonified as a meditating figure with fourfaces, simultaneously perceiving all directions.He is white in color, because that perceptiondoes not need any other tinge, it is just theprimordial color, white. He is holding a wheelwith eight spokes, which represents transcendingthe concepts of direction and time. The wholesymbolism of Vairocana is the decentralizednotion of panoramic vision; both center andfringe are everywhere. It is complete opennessof consciousness, transcending the skandha ofconsciousness.

Along with that there is a vision of the realmof the gods. The depth of the blue is terrifyingbecause there is no center to hold on to, but the

glimpse of the white light is like seeing a lampburning in darkness, and one tends to walktowards it.

The realm of the gods also happens in ourdaily life experiences. Whenever we areabsorbed in a spiritual state, a trancelike state ofjoy and pleasure, involved in our own self andits projections, whenever that joy comes there isalso the possibility of its opposite, thecenterless, all-pervading quality of Vairocana. Itis extremely irritating, not at all attractivebecause there is nothing to indulge in, no basicground in which we can enjoy ourselves. It is allvery well to have a panoramic vision ofopenness, but if there is no one to perceive it, itis terrible from the point of view of ego. Thecontract between the realm of the gods andVairocana constantly happens in life, and oftenthe choice is left to us, whether we should clingto a centralized source of spiritual pleasure, orwhether we should let go into pure opennesswithout a center.

This experience comes from aggression,because aggression holds us back and keeps usaway from seeing Vairocana. Aggression is adefinite, solid thing; when we are in a state ofcomplete anger it is like imagining ourselves to

be a porcupine, putting out everything possibleto protect ourselves. There is no room forpanoramic vision; we do not want to have fourfaces at all, we hardly even want to have oneeye. It is very centralized and completelyintroverted, that is why anger might make us runaway from the expansive quality of Vairocana.

The Second Day Transcending the water element, the white lightbegins to dawn, and in the east, the Realm ofComplete Joy, the tathāgata Vajrasattva orAkṣobhya appears.

Akṣobhya means immovable, and Vajrasattvameans vajra being; they both indicate toughness,solidness. In Indian mythology vajra is the mostprecious jewel, or the thunderbolt, whichdestroys all other weapons and jewels, whichcan cut diamond. There was a certain sage whomeditated on Mount Meru for centuries, andwhen he died his bones were transformed intovajra, and Indra, the king of the gods, discoveredthis and made his weapon out of it, a vajra witha hundred points. The vajra has three qualities: itcan never be used frivolously, it always fulfillsits function of destroying the enemy, and it

always returns into your hand. It isindestructible, adamantine.

The tathāgata Vajrasattva-Akṣobhya is holdinga five-pointed vajra—this absolutely solidobject, and he is sitting on an elephant throne—what could be more solid than that? His consortis Buddha-Locanā, the Buddha Eye. In theBuddhist tradition there are five types of eyes:the bodily eye, the buddha eye, the wisdom eye,the heavenly eye and the dharma eye. In this casethe buddha eye refers to awakening. You mayhave a very solid, stable situation, but if youhave no outlet it can stagnate. The feminineprinciple automatically opens out, she providesthe exit or activation of the whole thing, theelement of communication from solidness into aflowing, living situation.

He is accompanied by the bodhisattvaKṣitigarbha, the Essence of Earth, whorepresents any kind of fertility and growth, alsoan expression of that particular buddha. And heis also accompanied by Maitreya, the LovingOne. That firmness, solid and fertile at the sametime, needs emotion as well in order to give lifeto the solidity; it is the emotional, compassionatequality of love, not necessarily selflesscompassion.

Then there are the female bodhisattvas: Lāsyāis the bodhisattva of dance or mudrā, she is moreperformer than dancer, the offering goddess whodisplays the beauty and dignity of the body; sheshows the majesty and seductiveness of thefeminine principle. And Puṣpā is the goddess offlowers, the bodhisattva of vision, sight, thescenery.

Transcending the skandha of form are mirror-like rays, white and glittering, clear and precise,which shine from the heart of Vajrasattva and hisconsort. Along with that there is the light of hell,grey light without brilliance. When the personperceives such a display of the vajra quality itseems too complicated to work with, so there isa possibility of simplifying it into the grey light,associated with hell or a fundamental notion ofparanoia which is always connected with theintellectual vajra quality. In order to haveintellectual understanding you have to see whatis wrong with everything rather than what isright; that is the natural vajra intellectual quality,the critical attitude of the logical mind, whichalso brings solidity. If you have an understandingof something founded on the logic of a criticalattitude, then your wisdom is based on extremelysolid and definite ground; it is unshakable. But

the other aspect of it is the realm of hell, whenthe critical attitude does not relate to solidity orbasic sanity of any kind, but sets off a chainreaction, an alarm clock so to speak, ofparanoia.

The Third Day In the process of this sequence of days, thedharmadhātu quality of Vairocana has providedspace, and the quality of Vajrasattva-Akṣobhyahas provided solidity. Now the vision ofRatnasaṃbhava is described. Ratnasaṃbhava isthe central figure of the ratna family, whichconsists of richness and dignity, the expansion ofwealth into other areas, fundamentally solid, richand expansive. The negative aspect of ratnaquality is taking advantage of richness in orderto march into other territories, expanding intowhatever space exists, over-emphasizinggenerosity to the point where there is a blockageof communication.

Ratnasaṃbhava is yellow in color, whichrepresents the earth; fertility in the sense ofwealth and richness. He is holding the wish-fulfilling gem, which also means the absence ofpoverty. And Māmakī, his consort, represents

water; in order to have rich, fertile soil the earthneeds water.

The bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha is the Essenceof Space. With such rich ground you also needspace to create perspective. And there isSamantabhadra, the All-Good, who is the basicstrength, the organic quality of the wholemaṇḍala of the ratna family. According to thetraditional way of finding appropriate locationsto build a home or a monastery or cultivate anew field (which was quite possibly developedby the Bön tradition of Tibet), you do not build ahouse merely at random, but there arepsychological factors involved. There should bethe open feeling of the east, and the lusciousfeeling of the south with brooks and rivers, andthe fortifying feeling of the west with rocks, andthe protective feeling of the north with itsmountain ranges. There is also a way of waterdivining by looking at the shape of the land, andnext to the spring of water there is usually a spotwhich is not swampy but has a good rockyfoundation to build a house. That particularrocky substance, surrounded by such appropriateshapes and locations, is called Samantabhadra,the soil Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is alsoassociated with aspiration and positive thinking,

a basic confidence and positive way of lookingat the future.

Ratnasaṃbhava is accompanied by the femalebodhisattva Mālā, the goddess who offers allsorts of adornments, garlands, necklaces,bracelets and so on, to bring out the highlights ofthe earthy quality of ratna. The other femalebodhisattva is Dhūpā, the goddess who carriesincense. She represents smell, scent, theenvironmental situation that earth creates; thefresh air, air without pollution, and the room forvegetation to grow and rivers to run.

The light associated with the ratna family isthe yellow light of equanimity, nondiscriminatinglight. But it seems as though all that detail andrichness of the ratna maṇḍala is too elaborate,too majestic, so there is a possibility that onewould rather run into a very simple and self-satisfied little corner, and that little area is pride,the dim light of the human world.

The Fourth Day On the fourth day there is the purified element offire, represented by Amitābha, the padma family.Amitābha means boundless light, and the basicquality of padma is magnetizing, seductive,

invitingly warm, open and compassionate. Thelight is boundless because it just shines naturally,it does not ask for any reward. It has the natureof fire, not in the sense of aggression, but ofconsuming any substance without rejecting oraccepting.

He is holding a lotus in his hand, which meansthe same thing: the lotus opens when the sun orthe moon shines on it, it opens towards the light,so any situation coming from outside is accepted.It also has the quality of complete purity; suchcompassion could grow in mud or dirt but theflower is completely perfect and clean. Sittingon a peacock seat is again openness andacceptance; in mythology the peacock issupposed to be fed on poison, and its beautifulcolors are formed from eating poison. It isopenness which extends so far that it can dealwith any kind of negative situation, in factcompassion is exhilarated by negative situations.

His consort Pāṇḍaravāsinī, the White-cladOne, is associated with the symbolism of anIndian legend of certain clothes woven fromstone, which could only be cleaned by fire. Sherepresents the essence of fire, consumingeverything, and also the result of the consumingprocess, purification, complete compassion.

Then there is the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara,the essence of compassion, he who sees in alldirections, which is the ultimate intelligence ofcompassion. Whenever compassion is needed ithappens naturally, it has a sharp, automaticquality; it is not idiot or blind compassion, butintelligent compassion which always fulfills itsfunction. Mañjuśrī too represents the mechanicalaspect of compassion, but here it is anintellectual rather than a purely impulsivequality. He is also the creator of sound, thecommunication of compassion; he represents thesound of emptiness which is the source of allwords.

Then there is Gītā, the female bodhisattva ofsong, who sings to the music of Mañjuśrī; andalong with her is Ālokā, who holds a lamp ortorch. The whole process of compassion hasrhythm and light, it has the depth of intelligenceand the sharpness of efficiency, and it has thepurifying nature of the whiteclad buddha as wellas the infinite, all-pervading quality ofAmitābha.

That is the complete padma family, whichtranscends the skandha of perception and shineswith the red light of discriminating awarenesswisdom. Compassion is very detailed and

precise, so it is necessary to have discriminatingawareness wisdom, which does not meandiscriminating in terms of acceptance andrejection, but simply seeing things as they are.

In this book it is associated with the realm ofthe hungry ghosts; there is some conflict here,because passion is usually connected with thehuman realm. All these padma qualities,sharpness and precision and depth and majesty,have been found too overwhelming, andsomehow one would like to play a game of deafand dumb; one would like to sneak away fromthat complete picture into the sidetracks ofordinary passions.

The Fifth Day On the fifth day there is the karma family, whichis the pure quality of air or wind. It is a greenlight; the color of envy. From the Realm ofAccumulated Actions the tathāgataAmoghasiddhi appears. The karma family isassociated with action and fulfillment andefficiency. It is powerful and nothing can stand inits way, therefore it is regarded as destructive.Amoghasiddhi means accomplishing all actions,all powers.

He is holding a crossed vajra in his hand. Thevajra is a symbol of fulfilling all actions, toughand indestructible, as we saw in the vajra family.The crossed vajra represents the area of allactivities completely perceived in all directions,panoramic fulfillment; often it is described as amulticolored vajra.

He is sitting on a seat of shang-shang, a kindof garuḍa; this particular type of garuḍa is amusician, he holds two cymbals in his hands andplays them as he carries Amoghasiddhi on hisback. It is again a very powerful image and asymbol of fulfillment, a kind of superbird, atranscendental bird who can fly and cover allareas, encompassing all space.

His consort is Samaya-Tārā, the Savior ofSacred Word or Samaya. There are differentinterpretations of samaya in the tantric teachings,but in this case it is the actual fulfillment of theliving situation at that moment.

Then there is the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, whichmeans the Vajra-holder. Again it symbolizestremendous energy; he is the bodhisattva ofenergy. And also Sarvanivaraṇaviskambhin, thePurifier of all Hindrances. If any hindrancehappens in the process of karmic action, it comesfrom misunderstanding or inability to be in

contact with the actual living situation, so thebodhisattva clears away these hindrances. Inother words, this karma family contains both theabsence of any hindrance, and the power offulfillment.

Then there are the female bodhisattvasGandhā and Naivedyā. Gandhā is the bodhisattvaof perfume, she carries essence made out of allsorts of herbs, which represents the sense-perceptions or feelings; in order to have efficientskillful activity you need developed sense-perception. Naivedyā offers food, the food ofmeditation which nourishes skillful action.

The karma family transcends the skandha ofconcept, and is connected with the realm of thejealous gods. Again, as in any experience ofwisdom as opposed to confusion, they both havethe same quality. In this case they both have thequality of occupation, but wisdom completelycovers the ground of all possibilities, seeing allpossible ways of dealing with the situation interms of subject and object, energy, texture,temperament, speed, space and so on, whereasconfusion has a very limited way of dealing withsituations, because it has never expanded itselfor developed at all. Confusion isunderdeveloped wisdom, primitive wisdom,

while wisdom is completely developed.

The Sixth Day Next there is a crescendo of all the forty-twopeaceful divinities. The five tathāgatas, the fourguardians of the gates, the four goddesses and thesix realms of the world appear simultaneously.We have a situation of basic bewildermentwithin which the five tathāgatas fill up all thespace, all the directions, as well as any cornersof emotional situations; there is no gap, noescape or sidetrack of any kind, because the fourgates are also guarded by the four types ofherukas.

The eastern gatekeeper is known as theVictorious One, which is connected withpacifying, but he appears in a wrathful form toprovide an awe-inspiring situation at the gate, sothat you do not even think of getting out. Herepresents the indestructible, invincible qualityof peace, that is why he is victorious.

Then the second one, in the southern gate, isthe Enemy of Yama the Lord of Death. He isassociated with the karmic activity of increasingwealth. Wealth in terms of time and space is verylimited, rationed, so he who goes beyond that

limitation is the Lord of the Lord of Death.In the western gate is the Horse-headed

Hayagrīva. He is the equivalent of an alarmsystem, as the neigh of the horse can wake youup in any unprepared situations. It is connectedwith magnetizing, which is a kind of intelligentpassion, so that you do not get involved inpassion but it wakes you up.

In the northern gate is Amṛtakuṇḍalī, the Coilof Amṛta or anti-death potion. He is particularlyassociated with death. If there is any suicidalimpulse of giving up hope, the anti-deathmedicine revives you; suicide is not the answerat all. You have the peaceful presence of victory,the increasing one which conquers any extremeconcept of time and space, the magnetizingprinciple which sends out an alarm, and thesuicidal principle which gives you the anti-deathpotion. Fundamentally you are completelylocked in without any sidetracks.

Moreover, there are the female principles ofthe gatekeepers. There is the female principlewith a hook, to catch you like a fish if you try torun away. Or if you try to escape in terms ofpride, to fill up all the space and not allow anyother possibilities, the goddess with a lasso tiesyou from head to toe leaving you without any

chance to expand. Another possibility is to runaway through passion which is based on speed,but then the goddess with the chain chains youdown so that you cannot move your feet and runaway. And if you try to frighten anybody byaggression and make your way out, then thegoddess with a very loud bell subdues your loudscream of aggression and your deep voice ofanger.

Then you are reduced to facing the six realmsof the world: the buddha of the gods, the buddhaof the jealous gods, the buddha of the humanbeings, the buddha of the animals, the buddha ofthe hungry ghosts and the buddha of the hellrealm. All these visions appear from your heartcenter, which is associated with emotion,passion and pleasure.

The Seventh Day Next, the vidyādharas begin to shine out from thethroat center, which is the essence of thecommunication principle. The peacefuldivinities are associated with the heart, and thewrathful divinities with the brain. Speech is thelink of communication between the two, which isthe vidyādharas. Vidyādhara means holder of

knowledge or insight. They are not quitepeaceful and not quite wrathful, butintermediary; they are impressive,overpowering, majestic. They represent thedivine form of the tantric guru, possessing powerover the magical aspects of the universe.

At the same time, the green light of the animalrealm appears, symbolizing ignorance whichneeds the teaching of the guru to enlighten it.

The Wrathful Deities Now the principles of the five tathāgatas aretransformed into the herukas and their consorts.The basic qualities of the families continue, butnow they are expressed in a very dramatic,theatrical way; this is the energy of vajra,padma, and so on, rather than just their basicqualities. The herukas have three heads and sixarms. The symbolical meaning behind this is thepower of transmutation, expressed in themythical story of the subjugation of Rudra.

Rudra is someone who has achieved completeegohood. There were two friends studying undera teacher, and their teacher said that the essenceof his teaching was spontaneous wisdom; even ifa person were to indulge himself in extreme

actions, they would become like clouds in thesky and be freed by fundamental spontaneity. Thetwo disciples understood it entirely differently.One of them went away and began to work on thespontaneous way of relating to his owncharacteristics, positive and negative, andbecame able to free them spontaneously withoutforcing anything, neither encouraging norsuppressing them. The other one went away andbuilt a brothel, and organized a big gang of hisfriends who all acted in a spontaneous way,making raids on the nearby villages, killing themen and carrying off the women.

After some time they met again, and both wereshocked by each other’s kind of spontaneity, sothey decided to go and see their teacher. Theyboth presented their experience to him, and hetold the first that his was the right way, and thesecond that his was the wrong way. But thesecond friend could not bear to see that all hiseffort and energy had been condemned, so hedrew a sword and killed the teacher on the spot.When he himself died he had a succession ofincarnations, five hundred as scorpions, fivehundred as jackals and so on, and eventually hewas born in the realm of the gods as Rudra.

He was born with three heads and six arms,

with fully grown teeth and nails. His mother diedas soon as he was born, and the gods were sohorrified that they took both him and the body ofhis mother to a charnel ground and put them in atomb. The baby survived by sucking his mother’sblood and eating her flesh, so he became veryterrifying and healthy and powerful. He roamedaround the charnel ground, and began to controlall the local ghosts and deities and create hisown kingdom just as before, until he hadconquered the whole threefold universe.

At that time his former teacher and his fellowstudent had already attained enlightenment, andthey thought they should try to subjugate him. SoVajrapāṇi manifested himself as Hayagrīva, awrathful red figure with a horse’s head, anduttered three neighs to proclaim his existence inthe kingdom of Rudra. Then he entered Rudra’sbody by his anus, and Rudra was extremelyhumiliated; he acknowledged his subjugation andoffered his body as a seat or a vehicle. All theattributes of Rudra and the details of his royalcostume, the skull crown, skull cup, boneornaments, tiger-skin shirt, human-skin shawland elephant-skin shawl, armor, pair of wings,crescent moon in his hair, and so on, weretransmuted into the heruka costume.

First there is the Great Heruka who is notassociated with any of the five families, he is thespace between the five families. The GreatHeruka creates the basic energy of all thewrathful herukas, and then come the Buddha-Heruka, Vajra-Heruka, Ratna-Heruka, Padma-Heruka and Karma-Heruka with their respectiveconsorts. They represent the outrageous,exuberant quality of energy which cannot bechallenged. Fundamentally the quality of the fivefamilies is a peaceful state, open and passive,because it is completely stable and nothing candisturb it; the tremendous power of that peacefulstate manifests as wrathful. It is often describedas compassionate anger, anger without hatred.

Then there are the gaurīs, another type ofwrathful energy. The five herukas are theexistence of energy as it is, while the gaurīs areactivating energy. The white gaurī dances on acorpse, her activity is to extinguish thoughtprocesses, therefore she holds a mace of ababy’s corpse. Generally a corpse symbolizesthe fundamental neutral state of being; a bodywithout life is the state without any activethoughts, good or bad, the nondualistic state ofmind. Then the yellow goddess holds a bow andarrow because she has achieved the unity of

skillful means and knowledge; her function is tobring them together. And then there is the redgaurī holding a banner of victory made out of theskin of a sea-monster. The sea-monstersymbolizes the principle of saṃsāra, whichcannot be escaped; the goddess holding it as abanner means that saṃsāra is not rejected butaccepted as it is. Then in the north is Vetālī,black in color, holding a vajra and a skull cupbecause she symbolizes the unchanging quality ofdharmatā. The vajra is indestructible, and theskull cup is another symbol of skillful means. Wedo not have to go through all of them in detail,but just to give a basic idea of these gaurīs andmessengers connected with the wrathfulmaṇḍala, each particular figure has a function infulfilling a particular energy.

The wrathful deities represent hope, and thepeaceful deities represent fear. Fear in the senseof irritation, because the ego cannot manipulatethem in any way; they are utterly invincible, theynever fight back. The hopeful quality of wrathfulenergy is hope in the sense of a perpetualcreative situation, seen as it really is, as basicneutral energy which continues constantly,belonging neither to good nor bad. The situationmay seem overwhelming and beyond your

control, but there is really no question ofcontrolling or being controlled. The tendency isto panic, to think you can keep control; it is likesuddenly realizing that you are driving very fast,so you put the brake on, which causes anaccident. The gaurīs’ function is to comebetween body and mind. Mind in this case is theintelligence, and body is the impulsive quality,like panicking, which is a physical action. Thegaurīs intervene between intelligence and action,they cut the continuity of the self-preservation ofthe ego; that is their wrathful quality. Theytransmute destructive energy into creativeenergy. Just as the body of Rudra wastransformed into the heruka, so the force behindthe impulsive quality of panic or action istransmuted.

The Dying Person It seems that in the Tibetan culture people do notfind death a particularly irritating or difficultsituation, but here in the West we often find itextremely difficult to relate to it. Nobody tells usthe final truth. It is such a terrible rejection, afundamental rejection of love, that nobody isreally willing to help a dying person’s state of

mind.It seems necessary, unless the dying person is

in a coma or cannot communicate, that he shouldbe told he is dying. It may be difficult to actuallytake such a step, but if one is a friend or ahusband or wife, then this is the greatestopportunity of really communicating trust. It is adelightful situation, that at last somebody reallycares about you, somebody is not playing a gameof hypocrisy, is not going to tell you a lie inorder to please you, which is what has beenhappening throughout your whole life. Thiscomes down to the ultimate truth, it isfundamental trust, which is extremely beautiful.We should really try to generate that principle.

Actually relating with the dying person is veryimportant, telling him that death is not a myth atthat point, but that it is actually happening. “It isactually happening, but we are your friends,therefore we are watching your death. We knowthat you are dying and you know that you aredying, we are really meeting together at thispoint.” That is the finest and best demonstrationof friendship and communication, it presentstremendously rich inspiration to the dyingperson.

You should be able to relate with his bodily

situation, and detect the subtle deterioration inhis physical senses, sense of communication,sense of hearing, facial expression and so on.But there are people with tremendously powerfulwill who can always put on a smile up to the lastminute of death, trying to fight off their old age,trying to fight the deterioration of their senses, soone should be aware of that situation also.

Just reading the Bardo Thötröl does not dovery much, except that the dying person knowsthat you are performing a ceremony of some kindfor him. You should have some understanding ofthe whole thing, not just reading out of the bookbut making it like a conversation: “You aredying, you are leaving your friends and family,your favorite surroundings will no longer bethere, you are going to leave us. But at the sametime there is something which continues, there isthe continuity of your positive relationship withyour friends and with the teaching, so work onthat basic continuity, which has nothing to dowith the ego. When you die you will have allsorts of traumatic experiences, of leaving thebody, as well as your old memories coming backto you as hallucinations. Whatever the visionsand hallucinations may be, just relate to what ishappening rather than trying to run away. Keep

there, just relate with that.”While you are doing all this, the intelligence

and consciousness of the dying person aredeteriorating, but at the same time he alsodevelops a higher consciousness of theenvironmental feeling; so if you are able toprovide a basic warmth and a basic confidencethat what you are telling him is the truth ratherthan just what you have been told to tell him, thatis very important.

It should be possible to give some kind ofsimple explanation of the process ofdeterioration from earth into water, water intofire and so on, this gradual deterioration of thebody, finally ending up in the luminosityprinciple. In order to bring the person into a stateof luminosity you need the basic ground to relatewith it, and this basic ground is the solidness ofthe person. “Your friends know you are going todie, but they are not frightened by it, they arereally here, they are telling you that you aregoing to die, there is nothing suspicious going onbehind your back.” Fully being there is veryimportant when a person dies. Just relating withnowness is extremely powerful, because at thatpoint there is uncertainty between the body andthe mind. The body and brain are deteriorating,

but you are relating with that situation, providingsome solid ground.

As far as the visions of the peaceful andwrathful divinities are concerned, it seems to bevery much left to the individual to relate withthem himself. In the book it says that you shouldtry to conjure up the spirit of the dead person andtell him about the images; you may be able to dothat if there is still continuity, but it is very muchguesswork as far as ordinary people areconcerned; there is no real proof that you havenot lost touch with the person. The whole pointis that when you instruct a dying person you arereally talking to yourself. Your stability is part ofthe dying person, so if you are stable thenautomatically the person in the bardo state willbe attracted to that. In other words, present avery sane and solid situation to the person whois going to die. Just relate with him, just open toeach other simultaneously, and develop themeeting of the two minds.

The Great Liberationthrough Hearing in the

Bardo

TRANSLATION

Homage to the Gurus, the three Kāyas:Amitābha, Infinite Light, the Dharmakāya,Peaceful and Wrathful Lotus Deities, theSaṃbhogakāya,Padmasaṃbhava, Protector of Beings, theNirmāṇakāya. 1

THIS “Great Liberation through Hearing,” themeans of liberation in the bardo for yogins ofaverage capacities, is in three parts: theintroduction, the main subject-matter, and theconclusion.

Firstly the introduction, the means ofliberating human beings. First of all one shouldhave studied the instructions, which shouldcertainly liberate those of the highest capacities;but if they do not one should practice the ejectionof consciousness,2 which liberates spontaneouslyas soon as it is thought of, in the bardo of themoment before death. This should certainlyliberate yogins of average capacities, but if itdoes not one should strive in this “GreatLiberation through Hearing” in the bardo ofdharmatā.

Therefore the yogin should first examine thesequence of the signs of death according to the“Spontaneous Liberation of the Signs of Death,”and when they are definitely completed heshould effect the ejection of consciousness,which liberates spontaneously as soon as it isthought of. If ejection is effected there is no needto read the “Liberation through Hearing,” but ifnot it should be read clearly and precisely, closeto the dead body.

If the body is not present, one should sit on thedead person’s bed or seat, and proclaiming thepower of truth call on his consciousness andread, imagining him sitting in front listening. Atthis time sounds of crying and weeping are notgood, so his relatives should be shut out. If thebody is present, then during the interval betweenthe ceasing of the breath and the ceasing ofpulsation in the arteries, his guru or a dharma-brother or a dharma-sister3 whom he loved andtrusted should read this “Great Liberationthrough Hearing” close to his ear.

The teaching of the “Liberation throughHearing.” An elaborate offering should be madeto the Three Jewels4 if the materials areavailable, but if they are not available oneshould set out whatever there is and visualize the

rest without limit. One should say the“Inspiration-Prayer Calling on the Buddhas andBodhisattvas for Rescue” seven or three times,then loudly recite the “Inspiration-Prayer forDeliverance from the Dangerous Pathway of theBardo” and the “Main Verses of the Bardo.”Then read “The Great Liberation throughHearing” seven or three times.

It is in three parts: showing the luminosity inthe bardo of the moment before death, the greatreminder of showing in the bardo of dharmatā,and the instructions for closing the entrance tothe womb in the bardo of becoming.

First, showing the luminosity in the bardo ofthe moment before death. By having this read tothem, all kinds of ordinary people, who havereceived teaching but have not recognizedalthough they are intelligent, or who haverecognized but have practiced little, willrecognize the basic luminosity and bypass thebardo experience to reach the unoriginateddharmakāya.

The method of instruction: it is best if hisprincipal guru from whom he requested teachingcan be present, but otherwise a dharma-brotheror dharma-sister with whom he has taken thesamaya vow, or a spiritual friend in the same

lineage. If none of these are to be found, thensomeone who can read aloud clearly andprecisely should read it several times. This willremind him of what his guru has shown him andhe will immediately recognize the basicluminosity and be liberated, there is no doubt.

The time of instruction: when respiration hasceased, prāṇa is absorbed into the wisdom-dhūtī,and luminosity free from complexities shinesclearly in the consciousness. If prāṇa is reversedand escapes into the right and left nāḍīs, thebardo state appears suddenly, so the readingshould take place before the prāṇa escapes intothe right and left nāḍīs. The length of time duringwhich the inner pulsation remains afterrespiration has ceased is just about the timetaken to eat a meal.

The method of instruction: it is best if ejectionof consciousness is effected when the respirationis just about to stop, but if it has not beeneffected one should say these words:

“O child of noble family, (name), now thetime has come for you to seek a path. As soon asyour breath stops, what is called the basicluminosity of the first bardo, which your guru hasalready shown you, will appear to you. This isthe dharmatā, open and empty like space,

luminous void, pure naked mind without centeror circumference. Recognize then, and rest inthat state, and I too will show you at the sametime.”

This should be firmly implanted in his mindby repeating it many times over in his ear untilhe stops breathing. Then, when the ceasing of thebreath is heard, one should lay him down on theright side in the lion position5 and firmly pressthe two pulsating arteries, which induce sleep,until they have stopped throbbing. Then the prāṇawhich has entered the dhūtī will not be able togo back and will be certain to emerge throughthe brahmarandhra.

Now the showing should be read. At this timethe first bardo, which is called the luminosity ofdharmatā, the undistorted mind of thedharmakāya, arises in the mind of all beings.Ordinary people call this state unconsciousbecause the prāṇa sinks into the avadhūtī duringthe interval between the ceasing of the breathand of the pulsation. The time it lasts isuncertain, depending on the spiritual conditionand the stage of yogic training. It lasts for a longtime in those who have practiced much, weresteady in the meditation practice of tranquillity,and sensitive. In striving to show such a person

one should repeat the instruction until pus comesout from the apertures of his body. In wicked andinsensitive people it does not last longer than asingle snapping of the fingers, but in some it lastsfor the time taken to eat a meal. As most sūtrasand tantras say that this unconscious state lastsfor four and a half days, generally one shouldstrive to show the luminosity for that length oftime.

The method of instruction: If he is able, hewill work with himself from the instructionsalready given. But if he cannot by himself, thenhis guru, or a disciple of his guru, or a dharma-brother or dharma-sister who was a close friend,should stay nearby and read aloud clearly thesequence of the signs of death: “Now the sign ofearth dissolving into water is present, water intofire, fire into air, air into consciousness. . . .”When the sequence is almost completed heshould be encouraged to adopt an attitude likethis, “O child of noble family,” or, if he was aguru, “O Sir,”—“do not let your thoughtswander.” This should be spoken softly in his ear.In the case of a dharma-brother, a dharma-sister,or anyone else, one should call him by name andsay these words:

“O child of noble family, that which is called

death has now arrived, so you should adopt thisattitude: ‘I have arrived at the time of death, sonow, by means of this death, I will adopt only theattitude of the enlightened state of mind,friendliness and compassion, and attain perfectenlightenment for the sake of all sentient beingsas limitless as space. With this attitude, at thisspecial time for the sake of all sentient beings, Iwill recognize the luminosity of death as thedharmakāya, and attaining in that state thesupreme realization of the Great Symbol,6 I willact for the good of all beings. If I do not attainthis, I will recognize the bardo state as it is, andattaining the indivisible Great Symbol form inthe bardo, I will act for the good of all beings aslimitless as space in whatever way willinfluence them.’ Without letting go of this attitudeyou should remember and practice whatevermeditation teaching you have received in thepast.”

These words should be spoken distinctly withthe lips close to his ear, so as to remind him ofhis practice without letting his attention wandereven for a moment. Then, when respiration hascompletely stopped, one should firmly press thearteries of sleep and remind him with thesewords, if he was a guru or spiritual friend higher

than oneself: “Sir, now the basic luminosity is shining

before you; recognize it, and rest in thepractice.”

And one should show all others like this: “O child of noble family, (name), listen. Now

the pure luminosity of the dharmatā is shiningbefore you; recognize it. O child of noble family,at this moment your state of mind is by naturepure emptiness, it does not possess any naturewhatever, neither substance nor quality such ascolor, but it is pure emptiness; this is thedharmatā, the female buddha Samantabhadrī. Butthis state of mind is not just blank emptiness, it isunobstructed, sparkling, pure and vibrant; thismind is the male buddha Samantabhadra.7 Thesetwo, your mind whose nature is emptinesswithout any substance whatever, and your mindwhich is vibrant and luminous, are inseparable:this is the dharmakāya of the buddha. This mindof yours is inseparable luminosity and emptinessin the form of a great mass of light, it has no birthor death, therefore it is the buddha of ImmortalLight. To recognize this is all that is necessary.When you recognize this pure nature of yourmind as the buddha, looking into your own mindis resting in the buddha-mind.”

This should be repeated three or seven times,clearly and precisely. Firstly, it will remind himof what he has previously been shown by hisguru; secondly, he will recognize his own nakedmind as the luminosity; and thirdly, havingrecognized himself, he will become inseparablyunited with the dharmakāya and certainly attainliberation.

If he recognizes the first luminosity he will beliberated. But if it is feared that he has notrecognized the first luminosity, then what iscalled the second luminosity will shine, and thatcomes when a little more than the time taken toeat a meal has passed after the respiration hasceased.

According to good or bad karma, the prāṇaescapes into the right or left nāḍī, and comes outthrough the apertures of the body, and theconsciousness suddenly becomes clear. To saythat this lasts for the time taken to eat a mealdepends on whether he is sensitive or insensitiveand on whether or not he has practiced. Then hisconsciousness emerges and he does not knowwhether he is dead or not. He will see hisrelatives gathered there just as before, and heartheir cries.

During this time, when the violent confused

projections of karma have not yet appeared, andthe terrors of the Lords of Death have not yetcome, the instructions should be given. Herethere is a distinction between the perfectionstage and the generation stage.8 If he wasworking on the perfection stage, one should callhis name three times and repeat the instructionsgiven above for showing the luminosity. If hewas working on the generation stage, one shouldread aloud the sādhana and description of hisyidam,9 and remind him with these words: “Ochild of noble family, meditate on your yidamand do not be distracted. Concentrate intenselyon your yidam. Visualize him as an appearancewithout substance of its own, like the moon inwater; do not visualize him as having a solidform.” If he is an ordinary person, one shouldshow him by saying: “Meditate on the Lord ofGreat Compassion.”

There is no doubt that those who have notrecognized the bardo will grasp it by beingshown in this way. But those who were not adeptin meditation, even if they were shown by theirguru while they were alive, will not be able toclarify the bardo state by themselves, so thattheir guru, a dharma-brother or a dharma-sistermust make it clear. And it is necessary for

someone to instruct those who cannot rememberduring the bardo of the moment before deathbecause they were confused by serious illness,even though they were adept in meditation. It isalso extremely necessary for those who, althoughthey were formerly adept in meditation on thispath, may enter into lower existences becausethey have broken the precepts or because theirsamaya practice has degenerated.

It is best if he understands during the firstbardo, but if he has not understood his insight isawakened by the reminder in the second bardo,and he will be liberated. During the secondbardo, his consciousness, which did not knowwhether he was dead or not, suddenly becomesclear; this is called the pure illusory body. If heunderstands the teaching at this time, the motherand son dharmatās meet, and he is no longerdominated by karma. Just as the light of the sunovercomes darkness, so the power of karma isovercome by the luminosity of the path, andliberation is attained. This, which is called thesecond bardo, flashes before the mental body,and the consciousness is able to hear again justas before. If this instruction is understood at thistime, its purpose is fulfilled, and since theconfused projections of karma have not yet

appeared, he is able to direct himself anywhere.

In this way he is liberated by recognizing theluminosity during the second bardo, even if hedid not recognize the basic luminosity. But if heis not liberated by it, then what is called the thirdbardo, the bardo of dharmatā, arises. Theconfused projections of karma will appear in thethird bardo, so it is most important that the greatshowing of the bardo of dharmatā is read at thistime, for it is very powerful and helpful.

At this time his relatives are crying andweeping, his share of food is stopped, hisclothes are removed, his bed is taken to pieces,and so on. He can see them but they cannot seehim, and he can hear them calling him but theycannot hear him calling them, so he goes away indespair. Three phenomena will appear at thistime: sounds, colored lights and rays of light,and he will grow faint with fear, terror andbewilderment, so at this moment the greatshowing of the bardo of dharmatā should beread. Calling the dead person by name, oneshould say these words very distinctly:

“O child of noble family, listen carefullywithout distraction. There are six bardo states:the bardo of birth, the bardo of dreams, the

bardo of samādhi-meditation, the bardo of themoment before death, the bardo of dharmatā andthe bardo of becoming. O child of noble family,you will experience three bardo states: the bardoof the moment before death, the bardo ofdharmatā and the bardo of becoming. Of thesethree, the luminosity of dharmatā in the bardo ofthe moment before death shone until yesterday,but you did not recognize it, and so you had towander here. Now you will experience thebardo of dharmatā and the bardo of becoming, sorecognize what I will show you withoutdistraction.

“O child of noble family, now what is calleddeath has arrived. You are not alone in leavingthis world, it happens to everyone, so do not feeldesire and yearning for this life. Even if you feeldesire and yearning you cannot stay, you can onlywander in saṃsāra. Do not desire, do not yearn.Remember the Three Jewels. O child of noblefamily, whatever terrifying projections appear inthe bardo of dharmatā, do not forget these words,but go forward remembering their meaning; theessential point is to recognize with them:

Now when the bardo of dharmatā dawnsupon me,

I will abandon all thoughts of fear andterror,I will recognize whatever appears as myprojectionand know it to be a vision of the bardo;now that I have reached this crucial pointI will not fear the peaceful and wrathfulones, my own projections.

“Go forward, saying these words clearly and

distinctly, and remembering their meaning. Donot forget them, for the essential point is torecognize with certainty that whatever appears,however terrifying, is your own projection.

“O child of noble family, when your body andmind separate, the dharmatā will appear, pureand clear yet hard to discern, luminous andbrilliant, with terrifying brightness, shimmeringlike a mirage on a plain in spring. Do not beafraid of it, do not be bewildered. This is thenatural radiance of your own dharmatā, thereforerecognize it.

“A great roar of thunder will come fromwithin the light, the natural sound of dharmatā,like a thousand thunderclaps simultaneously.This is the natural sound of your own dharmatā,so do not be afraid or bewildered. You have

what is called a mental body of unconscioustendencies, you have no physical body of fleshand blood, so whatever sounds, colors and raysof light occur, they cannot hurt you and youcannot die. It is enough simply to recognize themas your projections. Know this to be the bardostate.

“O child of noble family, if you do notrecognize them in this way as your projections,whatever meditation practice you have doneduring your life, if you have not met with thisteaching, the colored lights will frighten you, thesounds will bewilder you and the rays of lightwill terrify you. If you do not understand thisessential point of the teaching you will notrecognize the sounds, lights and rays, and so youwill wander in saṃsāra.

“O child of noble family, after beingunconscious for four and a half days you willmove on, and awakening from your faint you willwonder what has happened to you, so recognizeit as the bardo state. At that time, saṃsāra isreversed, and everything you see appears aslights and images.

“The whole of space will shine with a bluelight, and Blessed Vairocana will appear beforeyou from the central Realm, All-pervading

Circle. His body is white in color, he sits on alion throne, holding an eightspoked wheel in hishand and embracing his consort the Queen ofVajra Space. The blue light of the skandha ofconsciousness in its basic purity, the wisdom ofthe dharmadhātu, luminous, clear, sharp andbrilliant, will come towards you from the heartof Vairocana and his consort, and pierce you sothat your eyes cannot bear it. At the same time,together with it, the soft white light of the godswill also come towards you and pierce you. Atthat time, under the influence of bad karma, youwill be terrified and escape from the wisdom ofthe dharmadhātu with its bright blue light, butyou will feel an emotion of pleasure towards thesoft white light of the gods. At that moment donot be frightened or bewildered by the luminous,brilliant, very sharp and clear blue light ofsupreme wisdom, for it is the light-ray of thebuddha, which is called the wisdom of thedharmadhātu. Be drawn to it with faith anddevotion, and supplicate it, thinking, ‘It is thelight-ray of Blessed Vairocana’s compassion, Itake refuge in it.’ It is Blessed Vairocana comingto invite you in the dangerous pathway of thebardo; it is the light-ray of Vairocana’scompassion.

“Do not take pleasure in the soft white light ofthe gods, do not be attracted to it or yearn for it.If you are attracted to it you will wander into therealm of the gods and circle among the six kindsof existence. It is an obstacle blocking the pathof liberation, so do not look at it, but feel longingfor the bright blue light, and repeat thisinspiration-prayer after me with intenseconcentration on Blessed Vairocana:

When through intense ignorance I wanderin saṃsāra,on the luminous light-path of thedharmadhātu wisdom,may Blessed Vairocana go before me,his consort the Queen of Vajra Spacebehind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerouspathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.”

By saying this inspiration-prayer with deepdevotion, he will dissolve into rainbow light inthe heart of Blessed Vairocana and his consort,and become a saṃbhogakāya buddha in thecentral Realm, the Densely Arrayed.

But if, even after being shown, he is afraid of

the lights and the rays because of his aggressionand neurotic veils, and he escapes, and if he isconfused even after saying the prayer, then on thesecond day Vajrasattva’s circle of deities willcome to invite him, together with his bad karmawhich leads to hell. So, to show him, one shouldcall the dead person by name and say thesewords:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. On the second day, a white light, thepurified element of water, will shine, and at thesame time Blessed Vajrasattva-Akṣobhya willappear before you from the blue eastern Realmof Complete Joy. His body is blue in color, heholds a five-pointed vajra in his hand and sits onan elephant throne, embracing his consortBuddha-Locanā. He is accompanied by the twomale bodhisattvas Kṣitigarbha and Maitreya andthe two female bodhisattvas10 Lāsyā and Puṣpā,so that six buddha forms appear.

“The white light of the skandha of form in itsbasic purity, the mirror-like wisdom, dazzlingwhite, luminous and clear, will come towardsyou from the heart of Vajrasattva and his consortand pierce you so that your eyes cannot bear tolook at it. At the same time, together with thewisdom light, the soft smoky light of hell-beings

will also come towards you and pierce you. Atthat time, under the influence of aggression, youwill be terrified and escape from the brilliantwhite light, but you will feel an emotion ofpleasure towards the soft smoky light of the hell-beings. At that moment do not be afraid of thesharp, brilliant, luminous and clear white light,but recognize it as wisdom. Be drawn to it withfaith and longing, and supplicate it, thinking, ‘Itis the light-ray of Blessed Vajrasattva’scompassion, I take refuge in it.’ It is BlessedVajrasattva coming to invite you in the terrors ofthe bardo; it is the light-ray hook of Vajrasattva’scompassion, so feel longing for it.

“Do not take pleasure in the soft smoky lightof the hell-beings. This is the inviting path of theveils of error, accumulated by your violentaggression. If you are attracted to it you will falldown into hell, and sink into the muddy swampof unbearable suffering from which there isnever any escape. It is an obstacle blocking thepath of liberation, so do not look at it, but giveup aggression. Do not be attracted to it, do notyearn for it. Feel longing for the luminous,brilliant, white light, and say this inspiration-prayer with intense concentration on BlessedVajrasattva:

When through intense aggression I wanderin saṃsāra,on the luminous light-path of the mirror-like wisdom,may Blessed Vajrasattva go before me,his consort Buddha-Locanā behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerouspathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.”

By saying this inspiration-prayer with deep

devotion, he will dissolve into rainbow light inthe heart of Blessed Vajrasattva, and become asaṃbhogakāya buddha in the eastern Realm ofComplete Joy.

Yet even after being shown in this way, somepeople are afraid of the light-ray hook ofcompassion, because of their pride and veils oferror, and they escape. So then on the third dayBlessed Ratnasaṃbhava’s circle of deities willcome to invite them, together with the light-pathto the human realm. So to show him again, oneshould call the dead person by name and saythese words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. On the third day, a yellow light, thepurified element of earth, will shine, and at the

same time Blessed Ratnasaṃbhava will appearbefore you from the yellow southern Realm, TheGlorious. His body is yellow in color, he holds awish-fulfilling jewel in his hand and sits on ahorse throne, embracing his consort Māmakī. Heis accompanied by the two male bodhisattvasĀkāśagarbha and Samantabhadra and the twofemale bodhisattvas Mālā and Dhūpā, so that sixbuddha forms appear out of the space of rainbowlight.

“The yellow light of the skandha of feeling inits basic purity, the wisdom of equality, brilliantyellow, adorned with discs of light, luminousand clear, unbearable to the eyes, will cometowards you from the heart of Ratnasaṃbhavaand his consort and pierce your heart so that youreyes cannot bear to look at it. At the same time,together with the wisdom light, the soft blue lightof human beings will also pierce your heart. Atthat time, under the influence of pride, you willbe terrified and escape from the sharp, clearyellow light, but you will feel an emotion ofpleasure and attraction towards the soft bluelight of human beings. At that moment do not beafraid of the yellow light, luminous and clear,sharp and bright, but recognize it as wisdom. Letyour mind rest in it, relaxed, in a state of

nonaction, and be drawn to it with longing. If yourecognize it as the natural radiance of your ownmind, even though you do not feel devotion anddo not say the inspiration-prayer, all the formsand lights and rays will merge inseparably withyou, and you will attain enlightenment. If youcannot recognize it as the natural radiance ofyour own mind, supplicate it with devotion,thinking, ‘It is the light-ray of BlessedRatnasaṃbhava’s compassion, I take refuge init.’ It is the light-ray hook of BlessedRatnasaṃbhava’s compassion, so feel longingfor it.

“Do not take pleasure in the soft blue light ofhuman beings. That is the inviting light-path ofunconscious tendencies, accumulated by yourintense pride. If you are attracted to it you willfall into the human realm and experience birth,old age, death and suffering, and never escapefrom the muddy swamp of saṃsāra. It is anobstacle blocking the path of liberation, so donot look at it, but give up pride, give up yourunconscious tendencies. Do not be attracted to it,do not yearn for it. Feel longing for the luminous,brilliant yellow light, and say this inspiration-prayer with intense one-pointed concentration onBlessed Ratnasaṃbhava:

When through intense pride I wander insaṃsāra,on the luminous light-path of the wisdomof equality,may Blessed Ratnasaṃbhava go beforeme,his consort Māmakī behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerouspathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.”

By saying this inspiration-prayer with deep

devotion, he will dissolve into rainbow light inthe heart of Blessed Ratnasaṃbhava and hisconsort, and become a saṃbhogakāya buddha inthe southern Realm, The Glorious.

By being shown in this way liberation iscertain, however weak one’s capacities may be.Yet even after being shown like this many times,there are people whose good opportunities haverun out, such as those who have done great evilor let their samaya practice degenerate, who willnot recognize. Disturbed by desire and the veilsof error, they will be afraid of the sounds andlights and will escape, so then on the fourth dayBlessed Amitābha’s circle of deities will cometo invite them, together with the light-path of the

hungry ghosts, built from desire and meanness.To show him again, one should call the deadperson by name and say these words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. On the fourth day, a red light, thepurified element of fire, will shine, and at thesame time Blessed Amitābha will appear beforeyou from the red western Realm, The Blissful.His body is red in color, he holds a lotus in hishand and sits on a peacock throne, embracing hisconsort Pāṇḍaravāsinī. He is accompanied bythe two male bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara andMañjuśrī and the two female bodhisattvas Gītāand Ālokā, so that six buddha forms appear outof the space of rainbow light.

“The red light of the skandha of perception inits basic purity, the wisdom of discrimination,brilliant red, adorned with discs of light,luminous and clear, sharp and bright, will comefrom the heart of Amitābha and his consort andpierce your heart so that your eyes cannot bear tolook at it. Do not be afraid of it. At the sametime, together with the wisdom light, the softyellow light of the hungry ghosts will also shine.Do not take pleasure in it; give up desire andyearning.

“At that time, under the influence of intense

desire, you will be terrified and escape from thesharp, bright red light, but you will feel pleasureand attraction towards the soft yellow light of thehungry ghosts. At that moment do not fear the redlight, sharp and brilliant, luminous and clear, butrecognize it as wisdom. Let your mind rest on it,relaxed, in a state of non-action. Be drawn to itwith faith and longing. If you recognize it as yourown natural radiance, even if you do not feeldevotion and do not say the inspiration-prayer,all the forms and lights and rays will mergeinseparably with you, and you will attainenlightenment. If you cannot recognize it in thisway, supplicate it with devotion, thinking, ‘It isthe light-ray of Blessed Amitābha’s compassion,I take refuge in it.’ It is the light-ray hook ofBlessed Amitābha’s compassion. Feel devotionand do not escape. Even if you escape it willstay with you inseparably.

“Do not be afraid, do not be attracted to thesoft yellow light of the hungry ghosts. That is thelight-path of unconscious tendenciesaccumulated by your intense desire. If you areattracted to it you will fall into the realm ofhungry ghosts, and experience unbearable miseryfrom hunger and thirst. It is an obstacle blockingthe path of liberation, so do not be attracted to it,

but give up your unconscious tendencies. Do notyearn for it. Feel longing for the luminous,brilliant red light, and say this inspiration-prayerwith intense one-pointed concentration onBlessed Amitābha and his consort:

When through intense desire I wander insaṃsāra,on the luminous light-path ofdiscriminating wisdom,may Blessed Amitābha go before me,his consort Pāṇḍaravāsinī behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerouspathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.”

By saying this inspiration-prayer with deep

devotion, he will dissolve into rainbow light inthe heart of Blessed Amitābha, Infinite Light,with his consort, and become a saṃbhogakāyabuddha in the western Realm, The Blissful.

It is impossible not to be liberated by this, yeteven after being shown in this way, sentientbeings cannot give up their unconscioustendencies because of long habituation, andunder the influence of envy and evil karma theyare afraid of the sounds and lights; they are not

caught by the light-ray hook of compassion, butwander downwards to the fifth day of the bardostate. So then Blessed Amoghasiddhi’s circle ofdeities with their light-rays of compassion willcome to invite them, and the light-path of thejealous gods, built from the emotion of envy,will also invite them. Then, to show him again,one should call the dead person by name and saythese words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. On the fifth day, a green light, thepurified element of air, will shine, and at thesame time Blessed Amoghasiddhi, lord of thecircle, will appear before you from the greennorthern Realm, Accumulated Actions. His bodyis green in color, he holds a double vajra in hishand and sits on a throne of shang-shang birdssoaring in the sky, embracing his consortSamaya-Tārā. He is accompanied by the twomale bodhisattvas Vajrapāṇi andSarvanivaraṇaviskambhin and the two femalebodhisattvas Gandhā and Naivedyā, so that sixbuddha forms appear out of the space of rainbowlight.

“The green light of the skandha of concept inits basic purity, the action-accomplishingwisdom, brilliant green, luminous and clear,

sharp and terrifying, adorned with discs of light,will come from the heart of Amoghasiddhi andhis consort and pierce your heart so that youreyes cannot bear to look at it. Do not be afraid ofit. It is the spontaneous play of your own mind,so rest in the supreme state free from activity andcare, in which there is no near or far, love orhate. At the same time, together with the wisdomlight, the soft red light of the jealous gods,caused by envy, will also shine on you. Meditateso that there is no difference between love andhate. But if your intelligence is weak, thensimply do not take pleasure in it.

“At that time, under the influence of intenseenvy, you will be terrified and escape from thesharp, brilliant green light, but you will feelpleasure and attraction towards the soft red lightof the jealous gods. At that moment do not beafraid of the green light, sharp and brilliant,luminous and clear, but recognize it as wisdom.Let your mind rest in it, relaxed, in a state ofnonaction, and supplicate it with devotion,thinking, ‘It is the light-ray of BlessedAmoghasiddhi’s compassion, I take refuge in it.’It is the light-ray hook of BlessedAmoghasiddhi’s compassion, called the action-accomplishing wisdom, so long for it and do not

escape. Even if you escape it will stay with youinseparably.

“Do not be afraid of it, do not be attracted tothe soft red light of the jealous gods. That is theinviting path of karma accumulated by yourintense envy. If you are attracted to it you willfall into the realm of the jealous gods, andexperience unbearable misery from fighting andquarreling. It is an obstacle blocking the path ofliberation, so do not be attracted to it, but giveup your unconscious tendencies. Feel longing forthe luminous, brilliant green light, and say thisinspiration-prayer with intense one-pointedconcentration on Blessed Amoghasiddhi and hisconsort:

When through intense envy I wander insaṃsāra,on the luminous light-path of action-accomplishing wisdom,may Blessed Amoghasiddhi go before me,his consort Samaya-Tārā behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerouspathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.”

By saying this inspiration-prayer with deep

devotion, he will dissolve into rainbow light inthe heart of Blessed Amoghasiddhi and hisconsort, and become a saṃbhogakāya buddha inthe northern Realm, Perfected Actions.

However weak his good karmic results maybe, by being shown like this in many stages, if hedoes not recognize at one he will at another, so itis impossible not to be liberated. But even afterbeing shown in this way many times, those whohave been habituated to many unconscioustendencies for a long time and have neverbecome familiar with the pure visions of the fivewisdoms, are carried backwards by their badtendencies even though they are shown, so thatthey are not caught by the light-ray hook ofcompassion, but become bewildered andfrightened by the lights and rays, and wanderdownwards. So then on the sixth day the buddhasof the five families with their consorts andattendant deities will appear simultaneously, andat the same time the lights of the six realms willalso shine simultaneously.

To show him, one should call the dead personby name and say these words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. Even though you were shown whenthe light of each of the five families appeared

until yesterday, under the influence of badtendencies you were bewildered by them, and soyou have remained here until now. If you hadrecognized the natural radiance of the wisdomsof those five families as your own projection,you would have dissolved into rainbow light inthe body of one of the five families and becomea saṃbhogakāya buddha, but because you did notrecognize you have gone on wandering here untilthis time. So now watch without distraction.

“Now the five families will appear alltogether, and what is called the four wisdomscombined will come to invite you; recognizethem. O child of noble family, the four coloredlights of the four purified elements will shine; atthe same time the buddha Vairocana and hisconsort will appear just as before from thecentral Realm, All-pervading Circle; the buddhaVajrasattva with his consort and attendants willappear from the eastern Realm, Complete Joy;the buddha Ratnasaṃbhava with his consort andattendants will appear from the southern Realm,The Glorious; the buddha Amitābha with hisconsort and attendants will appear from thewestern Blissful Realm of Lotuses; and thebuddha Amoghasiddhi with his consort andattendants will appear from the northern Realm,

Perfected Actions, out of the space of rainbowlight.

“O child of noble family, beyond thosebuddhas of the five families the wrathfulguardians of the gates will also appear: Vijaya,the Victorious; Yamāntaka, Destroyer of Death;Hayagrīva, the Horse-necked; and Amṛtakuṇḍalī,Coil of Nectar; and the female guardians of thegates: Aṅkuśā, the Hook; Pāśā, the Noose;Śṛṅkhalā, the Chain; and Ghaṇṭā, the Bell. Thesix sages, the Blessed Ones, will also appear:Indra of the hundred sacrifices, sage of the gods;Vemacitra, Splendid Robe, sage of the jealousgods; the Lion of the Śākyas, sage of humanbeings; Dhruvasiṅha, Steadfast Lion, sage of theanimals; Jvālamukha, Flaming Mouth, sage of thehungry ghosts; and Dharmarāja, the DharmaKing, sage of the hell-beings. Samantabhadraand Samantabhadrī, the All-Good Father andMother of all the buddhas, will also appear.These forty-two deities of the saṃbhogakāyawill emerge from within your own heart andappear before you; they are the pure form of yourprojections, so recognize them.

“O child of noble family, those realms too donot exist anywhere else, but lie in the fourdirections of your heart with the center as fifth,

and now they emerge from within your heart andappear before you. Those images too do notcome from anywhere else, but are the primordialspontaneous play of your mind, so recognizethem in this way. O child of noble family, thoseimages are neither large nor small, but perfectlyproportioned. They each have their ownadornments, their costume, their color, theirposture, their throne and their symbol. They arespread out in five couples; each of the five isencircled by a halo of the five colored lights.The whole maṇḍala, the male and female deitiesof the families, will appear completely, all atonce. Recognize them, for they are your yidams.

“O child of noble family, from the hearts ofthose buddhas of the five families and theirconsorts, the light-rays of the four wisdoms willeach shine upon your heart, very fine and clear,like sunbeams stretched out.

“First the wisdom of the dharmadhātu, a clothof luminous white light-rays, brilliant andterrifying, will shine upon your heart from theheart of Vairocana. In this cloth of light-rays asparkling white disc will appear, very clear andbright, like a mirror facing downwards, adornedwith five discs like itself, ornamented with discs

and smaller discs, so that it has no center orcircumference.

“From the heart of Vajrasattva, on theluminous blue cloth of the mirror-like wisdom,will appear a blue disc like a turquoise bowlface-downwards, adorned with discs andsmaller discs.

“From the heart of Ratnasaṃbhava, on theluminous yellow cloth of the wisdom of equality,will appear a yellow disc like a golden bowlface-downwards, adorned with discs andsmaller discs.

“From the heart of Amitābha, on the luminousred cloth of the wisdom of discrimination, willappear a sparkling red disc like a coral bowlface-downwards, shining with the deep light ofwisdom, very clear and bright, adorned with fivediscs like itself, ornamented with discs andsmaller discs, so that it has no center orcircumference.

“They too will shine upon your heart. “O child of noble family, these also have

arisen out of the spontaneous play of your ownmind, they have not come from anywhere else; sodo not be attracted to them, do not fear them, butstay relaxed in a state free from thought. In thatstate all the images and light-rays will merge

with you and you will attain enlightenment. “O child of noble family, the green light of

action-accomplishing wisdom does not appear,because the energy of your wisdom is not yetfully matured.

“O child of noble family, this is called theexperience of the four wisdoms combined, thepassageway of Vajrasattva. At this time,remember your guru’s previous teachings on theshowing. If you remember the meaning of theshowing you will have faith in your earlierexperiences, and so you will recognize them,like the meeting of mother and son or like seeingold friends again. As though cutting off doubt,you will recognize your own projections andenter the pure, changeless path of the dharmatā;and through that faith a continuous meditativestate will arise, and you will dissolve into thegreat self-existing form of wisdom and become asaṃbhogakāya buddha who never falls back.

“O child of noble family, together with thewisdom lights, the lights of the impure, illusorysix realms will shine: the soft white light of thegods, the soft red light of the jealous gods, thesoft blue light of human beings, the soft greenlight of the animals, the soft yellow light of thehungry ghosts and the soft smoky light of hell-

beings. These six will shine together with thepure wisdom lights. At that moment do not graspor be attracted to any of them, but stay relaxed ina state free from thought. If you are afraid of thepure wisdom lights and attracted to the impurelights of the six realms, you will take on the bodyof a creature of the six realms, and you willgrow weary, for there is never any escape fromthe great ocean of the misery of saṃsāra.

“O child of noble family, if you have not beenshown by a guru’s instruction you will be afraidof those images and pure wisdom lights, andattracted to the impure lights of saṃsāra; do notdo so, but feel devotion to the pure wisdomlights, sharp and brilliant. Think with devotion,‘The light-rays of the wisdom and compassion ofthe Blessed Ones, the buddhas of the fivefamilies, have come to seize me withcompassion; I take refuge in them.’ Do not beattracted to the lights of the six realms ofillusion, do not yearn for them, but say thisinspiration-prayer with intense one-pointedconcentration on the buddhas of the five familiesand their consorts:

When through the five poisons I wander insaṃsāra,

on the luminous light-path of the fourwisdoms combined,may the conquerors, the five families, gobefore me,the consorts of the five families behindme;save me from the light-paths of the siximpure realms,help me to cross the bardo’s dangerouspathwayand bring me to the five purebuddharealms.”

By saying this inspiration-prayer, the superior

person recognizes his own projections, andmerging with non-duality becomes a buddha; theaverage person recognizes himself throughintense devotion and attains liberation; even theinferior person prevents rebirth in the six realmsby the purifying power of the prayer, andunderstanding the meaning of the four wisdomscombined, attains enlightenment by the passage-way of Vajrasattva. By being shown clearly andprecisely in this way, many sentient beings willrecognize and be liberated.

But some, such as inferior people inuncivilized places, and wicked people who have

no experience of dharma at all, and those whohave let their samaya practice degenerate, areconfused by their karma, and do not recognizeeven when they are shown, but wanderdownwards. So, on the seventh day, thevidyādharas will come from the Pure Realm ofSpace to invite them, and at the same time thelight-path of the animals, produced from theemotion of ignorance, will also meet them. Atthat time, to show him again, one should call thedead person by name and say these words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. On the seventh day a pure, manycolored light will shine in your unconsciousmind, and the vidyādharas will come from thePure Realm of Space to invite you. In the centerof a maṇḍala filled with rainbow light, he who iscalled the Unsurpassable Fully DevelopedVidyādhara, Lotus Lord of Dance, will appear,his body bright with the five colors, embracinghis consort the Red Ḍākinī, dancing with acrescent knife and a skull full of blood, gesturingand gazing at the sky.

“From the east of the maṇḍala he who iscalled the Vidyādhara Established in the Stages11

will appear, white in color, with a radiantsmiling face, embracing his consort the White

Ḍākinī, dancing with a crescent knife and a skullfull of blood, gesturing and gazing at the sky.

“From the south of the maṇḍala he who iscalled the Lord of Life Vidyādhara will appear,yellow in color, with beautiful form, embracinghis consort the Yellow Ḍākinī, dancing with acrescent knife and a skull full of blood, gesturingand gazing at the sky.

“From the west of the maṇḍala he who iscalled the Great Symbol Vidyādhara will appear,red in color, with a radiant smiling face,embracing his consort the Red Ḍākinī, dancingwith a crescent knife and a skull full of blood,gesturing and gazing at the sky.

“From the north of the maṇḍala he who iscalled the Spontaneously Arisen Vidyādhara willappear, green in color, his expression both angryand smiling, embracing his consort the GreenḌākinī, dancing with a crescent knife and a skullfull of blood, gesturing and gazing at the sky.

“Beyond those vidyādharas will appearcountless crowds of ḍākinīs: ḍākinīs of the eightcharnelgrounds, ḍākinīs of the four families,ḍākinīs of the three worlds, ḍākinīs of the tendirections, ḍākinīs of the twenty-four places ofpilgrimage; male and female warriors andservants, and all the male and female protectors

of dharma, wearing the six boneornaments, withdrums, thigh-bone trumpets, skulldrums, bannersmade from the skins of youths, canopies madefrom human skin, ribbons of human skin andincense made from human flesh, with countlessdifferent kinds of musical instruments, filling allthe regions of the universe so that they rock andtremble and shake, making all the instrumentsvibrate with music so as to split one’s head,dancing various dances, they will come to invitethose who have kept the samaya practice and topunish those who have let it degenerate.

“O child of noble family, in the realm of theunconscious, the pure innate wisdom, shiningwith the five colored lights like colored threadstwisted together, flashing, vibrating, shimmering,luminous and clear, sharp and terrifying, willcome from the hearts of the five vidyādharalords and pierce your heart so that the eye cannotbear it. At the same time the soft green light ofthe animals will also shine together with thewisdom light. At that time, under the influence ofconfusion caused by unconscious tendencies, youwill be afraid and escape from the five-coloredlight, but you will be attracted to the soft light ofthe animals. At that moment do not be afraid ofthe bright, sharp, five-colored light; do not fear

it, but recognize it as wisdom. “From within the light all the spontaneous

sounds of the dharma will come like the roar of athousand thunder-claps. It rolls and thunders andresounds with war-cries and the penetratingsound of wrathful mantras. Do not be afraid of it,do not escape, do not fear. Recognize it as theplay of your mind, your own projection. Do notbe attracted to the soft green light of the animals,do not yearn for it; if you are attracted to it youwill fall into the animal realm of ignorance andexperience the extreme suffering of stupidity,dumbness and slavery, from which there is noescape; so do not be attracted to it. Feel longingfor the clear, bright light of the five colors, andconcentrate one-pointedly on the blessedvidyādharas, the divine teachers, thinking,‘These vidyādharas with the warriors anddākinīs have come to invite me to the PureRealm of Space. Please all give thought tosentient beings like me who have not gatheredmerit and have not been caught, although untiltoday the light-rays of compassion of so manydeities of the five families of buddhas of past,present and future reached out. Alas for one likeme! Now all you vidyādharas, do not let me goany lower than this, but grasp me with your

hooks of compassion and pull me up quickly tothe Pure Realm of Space.’

“With intense one-pointed concentration saythis inspiration-prayer:

May the divine vidyādharas think of meand with great love lead me on the path.When through intense tendencies I wanderin saṃsāra,on the luminous light-path of the innatewisdom,may vidyādharas and warriors go beforeme,their consorts the ḍākinīs behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerouspathwayand bring me to the Pure Realm of Space.”

By saying this inspiration-prayer with deep

devotion, he will dissolve into rainbow light inthe heart of the divine vidyādharas, and be bornin the Pure Realm of Space, there is no doubt.All the types of spiritual friends, too, recognizeas a result of this and are all liberated; eventhose with bad unconscious tendencies arecertainly liberated here.

The end of the first part of “The GreatLiberation through Hearing”: showing theluminosity during the bardo of the moment

before death, and showing during thepeaceful bardo of the dharmatā.

iti samaya rgya rgya rgya

NOW IT WILL BE taught how the bardo of thewrathful deities appears.

Up to now there have been seven stages in thedangerous pathway of the bardo of the peacefuldeities, and by being shown at each of the stages,even if he has not recognized at one he will haveat another, and boundless attainments ofliberation occur. But although many are liberatedlike this, sentient beings are great in number, badkarma is very strong, the veils of error are heavyand thick, the unconscious tendencies last for along time, and this cycle of confusion andignorance neither wears out nor increases, sothere are many who are not liberated but wanderdownwards, although they have been shownaccurately in this way.

So then, after the meeting by the peacefuldeities and vidyādharas and ḍākinīs is over, thefifty-eight blazing, blood-drinking wrathfuldeities will appear, transformed from theprevious peaceful deities. But now they are notlike they were before; this is the bardo of thewrathful deities, so one is overpowered by

intense fear and it becomes more difficult torecognize. The mind has no self-control andfeels faint and dizzy, but if there is a littlerecognition liberation is easy, because with thearising of overwhelming fear the mind has notime to be distracted, and so it concentrates one-pointedly.

If one does not meet with this kind of teachingnow, even an ocean of learning will be no use.At this point even teachers who observe themonastic rule and great philosophers areconfused and do not recognize, so they go onwandering in saṃsāra. It is even more so forordinary people; escaping from the intense fearthey fall into the lower realms and suffer misery.But a tantric yogin, even if he is the lowest of thelow, will recognize the blood-drinking deities asyidams as soon as he sees them, like meeting oldfriends, so he will trust them, and merginginseparably with them become a buddha. Thesecret is that in the human world he visualizedthe forms of these blood-drinking deities andworshipped them, and even if he only looked attheir images drawn in pictures or three-dimensional figures and so on, he will recognizethe forms appearing here and attain liberation.

But however much effort the philosophers and

teachers who observe the rule made in religiouspractice, and however clever they were atpreaching the scriptures in the human world,when they die there will not be any signs such asjewel-like relics,12 rainbows, and so on. Whilethey were alive they cast abuse at the tantras andcould not accommodate them in their minds; theydid not know the tantric deities, therefore theycannot recognize them when they appear in thebardo either. Suddenly seeing something theyhave never seen before, they think of it as anenemy and feel aggression towards it, and as aresult they go to the lower realms. That is thereason why, however good those philosophersand observers of the rule were, since they didnot practice the tantras, signs such as variouskinds of jewel-like relics and rainbows do notoccur among them.

A follower of tantra, even if he is the lowestof the low, however coarsely he behaved in thisworld and however uncultured and unrefined hewas, even if he was unable to practice the tantricteachings, just because he had faith in the tantrasand did not have any doubt or disbelief willattain liberation at this point; so although hisbehavior was unconventional in the humanworld, when he dies at least one sign such as

jewel-like relics or rainbows will appear. Thisis because this tantric teaching has very greatpower.

Tantric yogins who are above average, whohave meditated on the generation and perfectionstages and practiced recitation of heart-mantrasand so on, need not wander so far down in thebardo of dharmatā, but as soon as they stopbreathing, the vidyādharas, warriors and ḍākinīswill invite them to the Pure Realm of Space. Asa sign of this the sky clears and they dissolveinto rainbow light, and rain of flowers, fragranceof incense, sounds of musical instruments in theair, light-rays, jewel-like relics and so onappear: these are the signs.

Therefore those philosophers and observersof the rule, followers of tantra who have let theirsamaya practice degenerate, and all ordinarypeople, have no means except this “GreatLiberation through Hearing.” Meditators whohave practiced the Great Symbol and GreatCompletion13 meditations and so on willrecognize the luminosity in the bardo of themoment before death and reach the dharmakāya,so it is absolutely unnecessary to read this“Great Liberation through Hearing.”

If they recognize the luminosity during the

bardo of the moment before death they will reachthe dharmakāya. If they recognize during thebardo of dharmatā when the peaceful andwrathful deities appear they will reach thesaṃbhogakāya. If they recognize during thebardo of becoming they will reach thenirmāṇakāya and be born in a better situationwhere they will meet with this teaching; andsince the results of actions continue in the nextlife, that is why this “Great Liberation throughHearing” is a teaching which enlightens withoutmeditation, a teaching which liberates just bybeing heard, a teaching which leads great sinnerson the secret path, a teaching which seversignorance in one moment, a profound teachingwhich gives perfect instantaneous enlightenment,so that sentient beings whom it has reachedcannot possibly go to lower existences. Both itand the “Liberation through Wearing”14 should beread aloud, for the two combined are like agolden maṇḍala inlaid with turquoise.

Now that the great necessity of the “Liberationthrough Hearing” has been taught in this way, itwill be shown how the bardo of the wrathfuldeities appears. Calling the dead person threetimes by name, one should say these words:

“O child of noble family, listen without

distraction. Although the bardo of the peacefuldeities has already appeared, you did notrecognize, so you have wandered further on tohere. Now on the eighth day the blood-drinkingwrathful deities will appear. Recognize themwithout being distracted.

“O child of noble family, he who is calledGlorious Great Buddha-Heruka15 will emergefrom within your own brain and appear beforeyou actually and clearly: his body is wine-colored, with three heads, six arms, and fourlegs spread wide apart; the right face is white,the left one red, and the center one wine-colored;his body blazes like a mass of light, his nine eyesgaze into yours with a wrathful expression, hiseyebrows are like flashes of lightning, his teethgleam like copper; he laughs aloud with shoutsof “a-la-la!” and “ha-ha!” and sends out loudwhistling noises of “shoo-oo!” His red-gold hairflies upwards blazing, his heads are crownedwith dried skulls and the sun and moon, his bodyis garlanded with black serpents and freshskulls; his six hands hold a wheel in the firsthand on the right, an axe in the middle, and asword in the last, a bell in the first on the left, aplough-share in the middle, and a skull-cup inthe last; his consort Buddha-Krodhīśvarī

embraces his body, with her right hand claspedaround his neck and her left hand holding a skullfull of blood to his mouth; he sends out loudpalatal sounds and roaring sounds like thunder;flames of wisdom shoot out from between theblazing vajra hairs on his body; he stands on athrone supported by garuḍas, with one pair oflegs bent and the other stretched out.

“Do not be afraid of him, do not be terrified,do not be bewildered. Recognize him as the formof your own mind. He is your yidam, so do notbe afraid. He is really Blessed Vairocana withhis consort, so do not fear. Recognition andliberation are simultaneous.”

When this is said, he will recognize theyidam, and merging inseparably with it become abuddha in the saṃbhogakāya.

But if he is afraid of it and escapes, and sodoes not recognize, then on the ninth day theblood-drinking manifestation of the Vajra familywill come to invite him, so to show him againone should call the dead person by name and saythese words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. On the ninth day the blood-drinkingmanifestation of the Vajra family, called BlessedVajra-Heruka, will emerge from the eastern

quarter of your brain and appear before you: hisbody is dark blue in color, with three heads, sixarms, and four legs spread wide apart; the rightface is white, the left one red, and the center oneblue; his six hands hold a vajra in the first on theright, a skull-cup in the middle, and an axe in thelast, a bell in the first on the left, a skull-cup inthe middle, and a plough-share in the last; hisconsort Vajra-Krodhīśvarī embraces his body,with her right hand clasped around his neck andher left hand holding a skull full of blood to hismouth.

“Do not be afraid of him, do not be terrified,do not be bewildered. Recognize him as the formof your own mind. He is your yidam, so do notbe afraid. He is really Blessed Vajrasattva withhis consort, so have devotion. Recognition andliberation are simultaneous.”

When this is said, he will recognize theyidam, and merging inseparably with it become abuddha in the saṃbhogakāya.

But if those whose karmic darkness is greatare afraid of it and escape, and so do notrecognize, then on the tenth day the blood-drinking manifestation of the Ratna family willcome to invite them. So, to show him again, oneshould call the dead person by name and say

these words: “O child of noble family, listen without

distraction. On the tenth day the blood-drinkingmanifestation of the Ratna family, called BlessedRatna-Heruka, will appear before you from thesouthern quarter of your brain: his body is darkyellow in color, with three heads, six arms, andfour legs spread wide apart; the right face iswhite, the left one red, and the center one blazingdark yellow; his six hands hold a jewel in thefirst on the right, a trident bearing three humanheads in the middle, and a club in the last, a bellin the first on the left, a skull-cup in the middle,and a trident in the last; his consort Ratna-Krodhīśvarī embraces his body, with her righthand clasped around his neck and her left handholding a skull full of blood to his mouth.

“Do not be afraid of him, do not be terrified,do not be bewildered. Recognize him as the formof your own mind. He is your yidam, so do notbe afraid. He is really Blessed Ratnasaṃbhavawith his consort, so feel longing. Recognitionand liberation are simultaneous.”

When this is said, he will recognize theyidam, and merging inseparably with it become abuddha.

But if, even after being shown like this, he is

pulled back by evil unconscious tendencies andis afraid and escapes, and so does not recognizethe yidam, if even when he sees Yamāntaka hedoes not recognize him, then on the eleventh daythe blood-drinking manifestation of the Padmafamily will come to invite him. So, to show himagain, one should call the dead person by nameand say these words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. On the eleventh day the blood-drinking manifestation of the Padma family,called Blessed Padma-Heruka, will emerge fromthe western quarter of your brain and appearbefore you clearly in union with his consort. Hisbody is dark red in color, with three heads, sixarms, and four legs spread wide apart; the rightface is white, the left one blue, and the centerone dark red; his six hands hold a lotus in thefirst on the right, a trident bearing three humanheads in the middle, and a rod in the last, a bellin the first on the left, a skull-cup filled withblood in the middle, and a small drum in the last;his consort Padma-Krodhīśvarī embraces hisbody, with her right hand clasped around hisneck and her left hand holding a skull full ofblood to his mouth.

“Do not be afraid of him, do not be terrified,

do not be bewildered. Be joyful, and recognizehim as the form of your own mind. He is youryidam, so do not be afraid, do not be terrified.He is really Blessed Amitābha with his consort,so feel longing. Recognition and liberation aresimultaneous.”

When this is said, he will recognize it to bethe yidam, and merging inseparably with itbecome a buddha.

But if, even after being shown like this, he ispulled back by evil unconscious tendencies andis afraid and escapes, and so cannot recognizethe yidam, then on the twelfth day the blood-drinking manifestation of the Karma family willcome, with the gaurīs, piśācīs and yoginīs,16 toinvite him. If he does not recognize he will beafraid, so to show him again one should call thedead person by name and say these words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. When the twelfth day has come, theblood-drinking manifestation of the Karmafamily, called Blessed Karma-Heruka, willemerge from the northern quarter of your brainand appear before you clearly in union with hisconsort; his body is dark green in color, withthree heads, six arms, and four legs spread wideapart; the right face is white, the left one red, and

the center one majestic dark green; his six handshold a sword in the first on the right, a tridentbearing three human heads in the middle, and arod in the last, a bell in the first on the left, askull-cup in the middle, and a plough-share inthe last; his consort Karma-Krodhīśvarīembraces his body, with her right hand claspedaround his neck and her left hand holding a skullfull of blood to his mouth.

“Do not be afraid of him, do not be terrified,do not be bewildered. Recognize him as the formof your own mind. He is your yidam, so do notbe afraid. He is really Blessed Amoghasiddhiwith his consort, so feel intense devotion.Recognition and liberation are simultaneous.”

When this is said, he will recognize theyidam, and merging inseparably with it become abuddha.

Through the instruction of his guru he willrecognize them as his own projections, the playof the mind, and he will be liberated. It is justlike seeing a stuffed lion, for instance: he feelsvery frightened if he does not know that it isreally only a stuffed lion, but if someone showshim what it is he is astonished and no longerafraid. So here too he feels terrified andbewildered when the blood-drinking deities

appear with their huge bodies and thick limbs,filling the whole of space, but as soon as he isshown he recognizes them as his ownprojections or as yidams; the luminosity onwhich he has meditated before and the self-existing luminosity which arises later, motherand son, merge together, and, like meetingsomeone he used to know very well, the self-liberating luminosity of his own mindspontaneously arises before him, and he is self-liberated.

If he does not receive this showing, even agood person can turn back from here and wanderin saṃsāra. Then the eight wrathful gaurīs andthe piśācīs with various heads will emerge fromwithin his own brain and appear before him, soto show him again one should call the deadperson by name and say these words:

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. The eight gaurīs will emerge fromwithin your own brain and appear before you.Do not be afraid of them.

“From the eastern quarter of your brain whiteGaurī will appear to you, holding a corpse as aclub in her right hand and a skull-cup filled withblood in her left hand. Do not be afraid. Fromthe south yellow Caurī, shooting an arrow from a

bow; from the west red Pramohā, holding a sea-monster banner; from the north black Vetālī,holding a vajra and a skull-cup filled withblood; from the south-east orange Pukkasī,holding entrails in her right hand and eating themwith her left; from the south-west dark greenGhasmarī, drinking from a skull-cup filled withblood, which she holds in her left hand and stirswith a vajra with her right hand; from the north-west pale yellow Caṇḍālī, tearing a head andbody apart, holding the heart in her right handand eating the body with her left; from the north-east dark blue Śmaśānī, tearing a head and bodyapart, and eating; these eight gaurīs of thedirections, surrounding the five blood-drinkingherukas, will emerge from within your own brainand appear before you. Do not be afraid of them.

“O child of noble family, listen withoutdistraction. After them in turn the eight piśācīs ofthe holy places will emerge and appear beforeyou.

“From the east Siṅhamukhā, wine-colored,lion-headed, with her two hands crossed on herbreast, holding a corpse in her mouth and tossingher mane; from the south Vyāghrīmukhā, red,tiger-headed, with her two arms crossed pointing

downwards, her eyes staring and her teethsnarling; from the west Śṛgālamukhā, black, fox-headed, holding a razor in her right hand andentrails in her left, eating them and licking theblood; from the north Śvānamukhā, dark blue,wolf-headed, carrying a corpse to her mouthwith both hands, her eyes staring; from the south-east Gṛdhra-mukhā, pale yellow, vulture-headed,carrying a large human corpse over her shoulderand holding a skeleton in her hand; from thesouth-west Kaṅkamukhā, dark red, hawk-headed,carrying a large flayed skin over her shoulder;from the north-west Kākamukhā, black, raven-headed, holding a skull-cup in her left hand and asword in her right, and eating a heart and lungs;from the north-east Ūlumukhā, dark blue,owlheaded, holding a vajra in her right hand anda sword in her left, and eating: these eightpiśācīs of the holy places, surrounding the fiveblood-drinking herukas, will emerge from withinyour own brain and appear before you. Do notbe afraid of them. Recognize whatever appearsas the play of the mind, your own projections.

“O child of noble family, the four goddessesof the gates will also emerge from within yourbrain and appear before you, so recognize them.

“From the eastern quarter of your brain,Aṅkusā, white, tiger-headed, holding a goad anda skull-cup filled with blood, will emerge andappear before you; from the south Pāśā, yellow,sow-headed, holding a noose; from the westŚṛṅkhalā, red, lion-headed, holding an ironchain; and from the north Ghaṇṭā, green, serpent-headed, holding a bell: these four goddesses ofthe gates will emerge from within your ownbrain and appear before you. Recognize them asyidams.

“O child of noble family, after the thirtywrathful herukas, the twenty-eight yoginīs willemerge in turn from within your brain and appearbefore you, with various heads and bearingvarious symbols. Do not be afraid of them, butrecognize whatever appears as the play of themind, your own projections. At this moment ofreaching the crucial point, remember theinstructions of your guru.

“O child of noble family, from the east, the sixyoginīs of the east will emerge from within yourbrain and appear before you: Rākṣasī,Demoness, wine-colored, with the head of a yak,holding a vajra in her hand; Brāhmī, orange,serpent-headed, holding a lotus in her hand;Mahādevī, Great Goddess, dark green, leopard-

headed, holding a trident in her hand; Lobhā,Greedy, blue, mongoose-headed, holding awheel in her hand; Kumārī, Virgin, red, with thehead of a yellow bear, holding a short spear inher hand; and Indrāṇī, white, with the head of abrown bear, holding a noose of entrails in herhand. Do not be afraid of them.

“O child of noble family, from the south thesix yoginīs of the south will emerge from withinyour brain and appear before you: Vajrā, yellow,with the head of a pig, holding a razor in herhand; Śānti, Peace, red, with the head of a sea-monster, holding a vase in her hand; Amṛtā,Nectar of Immortality, red, scorpionheaded,holding a lotus in her hand; Candrā, Moon,white, hawk-headed, holding a vajra in her hand;Daṇḍā, Club, dark green, fox-headed, holding aclub in her hand; and Rākṣasī, Demoness, darkyellow, tiger-headed, holding a skull full ofblood in her hand. Do not be afraid of them.

“O child of noble family, from the west the sixyoginīs of the west will emerge from within yourbrain and appear before you: Bhakṣiṇī, Eater,dark green, vulture-headed, holding a club in herhand; Rati, Pleasure, red, horse-headed, holdinga large corpse’s trunk in her hand; Mahābalā,Great Strength, white, garuḍa-headed, holding a

club in her hand; Rākṣasī, Demoness, red, dog-headed, cutting with a vajrarazor in her hand;Kāmā, Desire, red, with the head of a hoopoe,shooting an arrow from a bow in her hand; andVasurakṣā, Protectress of Wealth, dark green,with the head of a deer, holding a vase in herhand. Do not be afraid of them.

“O child of noble family, from the north thesix yoginīs of the north will emerge from withinyour brain and appear before you: Vāyudevī,Wind-Goddess, blue, wolf-headed, waving aflag in her hand; Nārī, Woman, red, buffalo-headed, holding a stake in her hand; Vārāhī,Sow, black, with the head of a sow, holding anoose of teeth in her hand; Vajrā, red, with thehead of a crow, holding a child’s skin in herhand; Mahāhastinī, Elephant, dark green,elephant-headed, holding a large corpse in herhand and drinking its blood; and Varuṇadevī,Water-Goddess, blue, serpent-headed, holding anoose of snakes in her hand. Do not be afraid ofthem.

“O child of noble family, the four yoginīs ofthe gates will emerge from within your brain andappear before you: from the east, white Vajrā,cuckoo-headed, holding an iron hook in herhand; from the south, yellow Vajrā, goat-headed,

holding a noose in her hand; from the west, redVajrā, lion-headed, holding an iron chain in herhand; and from the north, dark green Vajrā,serpent-headed, holding a bell in her hand: thesefour yoginīs of the gates will emerge from withinyour brain and appear before you.

“These twenty-eight yoginīs arisespontaneously from the play of the self-existingform of the wrathful herukas, so recognize them.

“O child of noble family, the dharmakāyaappears as the peaceful deities out of part of theemptiness; recognize it. The saṃbhogakāyaappears as the wrathful deities out of part of theluminosity, so recognize it. If at this time whenthe fifty-eight blood-drinking deities emergefrom within your brain and appear before you,you know that whatever appears has arisen outof your own radiant insight, you willimmediately become a buddha inseparable fromthe blood-drinking deities.

“O child of noble family, if you do notrecognize in this way, you will be afraid of themand escape, and so go on to more suffering. Ifyou do not recognize in this way, you will see allthe blood-drinking deities as Lords of Death, andyou will fear them. You will feel terrified and

bewildered and faint. Your own projections willturn into demons and you will wander insaṃsāra. But if you are neither attracted norafraid you will not wander in saṃsāra.

“O child of noble family, the largest bodies ofthese peaceful and wrathful deities are like thewhole sky, the medium ones are like MountMeru, and the smallest ones are like eighteen ofour bodies one on top of the other, so do not beafraid of them. All phenomena appear as lightsand images; by recognizing all these appearancesas the natural radiance of your own mind, yourown radiance will merge inseparably with thelights and images, and you will become abuddha. O child, whatever you see, howeverterrifying it is, recognize it as your ownprojection; recognize it as the luminosity, thenatural radiance of your own mind. If yourecognize in this way, you will become a buddhaat that very moment, there is no doubt. What iscalled perfect instantaneous enlightenment willarise on the spot. Remember!

“O child of noble family, if you do notrecognize now and are still afraid, all thepeaceful deities will appear in the form ofMahākāla, and all the wrathful deities willappear in the form of the Dharma King, the Lord

of Death, and you will wander in saṃsāra withall your projections turned into demons.

“O child of noble family, if you do notrecognize your own projections, even though youhave practiced dharma for an eon and arelearned in all the sūtras and tantras, you will notbecome a buddha. But if you recognize yourprojections, with one secret and one word youwill become a buddha.

“If you do not recognize your projections, theywill appear in the form of the Dharma King, theLord of Death, in the bardo of dharmatā as soonas you are dead. The largest bodies of the Lordsof Death fill the whole sky and the medium onesare like Mount Meru; they will come filling thewhole universe. With teeth biting the lower lip,glassy-eyed, their hair tied on top of their heads,with huge bellies and thin necks, holding therecords of karma in their hands, shouting‘Strike!’ and ‘Kill!,’ licking up brains, tearingheads from bodies, pulling out internal organs: inthis way they will come, filling the wholeuniverse.

“O child of noble family, when projectionsappear like this do not be afraid. You have amental body of unconscious tendencies, so evenif you are killed and cut into pieces you cannot

die. You are really the natural form of emptiness,so there is no need to fear. The Lords of Deathtoo arise out of your own radiant mind, they haveno solid substance. Emptiness cannot be harmedby emptiness. Be certain that the externalpeaceful and wrathful deities, the blood-drinkingherukas, the animal-headed deities, the rainbowlight, the terrifying forms of the Lords of Deathand so on have no substantiality, they only ariseout of the spontaneous play of your mind. If youunderstand this, all fear is naturally liberated,and merging inseparably you will become abuddha. If you recognize in this way, they areyour yidams.

“Think with intense longing, ‘They have cometo invite me in the dangerous pathway of thebardo; I take refuge in them.’ Remember theThree Jewels. Remember your own yidam; callhis name and supplicate him with these words: ‘Iam wandering in the bardo, so be my rescuer,seize me with compassion, O precious yidam.’Call your guru’s name and supplicate him: ‘I amwandering in the bardo, so be my rescuer, withyour compassion do not abandon me.’ Supplicatethe blood-drinking deities with longing, and saythis inspiration-prayer:

When through strong unconscioustendencies I wander in saṃsāra,in the luminosity of abandoning all fear,may the Blessed Ones, peaceful andwrathful, go before me,the wrathful goddesses, Queens of Space,behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerouspathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.When parted from beloved friends,wandering alone,my own projections’ empty forms appear,may the buddhas send out the power oftheir compassionso that the bardo’s terrors do not come.When the five luminous lights of wisdomshine,fearlessly may I recognize myselfwhen the forms of the peaceful andwrathful ones appear,fearless and confident may I recognize thebardo.When I suffer through the power of evilkarma,may my yidam clear away all suffering;when the sound of dharmatā roars like a

thousand thunders,may it all become the sound of the sixsyllables.17

When I follow my karma, without a refuge,may the Lord of Great Compassion be myrefuge;when I suffer the karma of unconscioustendencies,may the samādhi of bliss and luminosityarise.May the five elements not rise up asenemies,may I see the realms of the five buddhas.

“Say this inspiration-prayer with deep

devotion. All fears will disappear and you willcertainly become a buddha in the saṃbhogakāya,so it is very important; do not be distracted.”

These words should be repeated three or up toseven times. However great the sins andhowever bad the remaining karma may be, it isimpossible not to be liberated. But if, whateveris done for them, they do not recognize, then theyhave to wander in the third bardo, the bardo ofbecoming, so its showing will be taught in detailbelow.

Most people, whether they were much or little

adept in meditation, are very confused by fearduring the bardo of the moment before death, andso they have no means except this “Liberationthrough Hearing.” To those who have meditateda lot, the bardo of dharmatā comes suddenlywhen their mind and body separate. Those whohave recognized their own mind and becomeexperienced while they were alive are verystrong when the luminosity appears during thebardo of the moment before death, thereforepractice during life is most important. And thosewho, while they were alive, have meditated onthe generation and perfection stages of the tantricdeities, are very strong when the peaceful andwrathful visions appear during the bardo ofdharmatā. Therefore it is extremely important totrain the mind thoroughly in this “Liberationthrough Hearing in the Bardo,” especially duringone’s life.

It should be grasped, it should be perfected, itshould be read aloud, it should be memorizedproperly, it should be practiced three times a daywithout fail, the meaning of its words should bemade completely clear in the mind, its wordsand meaning should not be forgotten even if ahundred murderers were to appear and chaseone. Since this is called “The Great Liberation

through Hearing,” even people who havecommitted the five deadly sins will certainly beliberated if they only hear it; therefore it shouldbe read aloud among great crowds, and spreadafar.

Even if it has been heard like this only onceand the meaning not understood, in the bardostate the mind becomes nine times more clear, sothen it will be remembered with not even asingle word forgotten. Therefore it should betold to all during their life, it should be read atthe bedside of all the sick, it should be readbeside the bodies of all the dead, it should bespread far and wide.

To meet with it is great good fortune; it is hardto meet with except for those who have clearedaway their darkness and gathered merit. If onehears it, one is liberated simply by notdisbelieving, therefore it should be greatlycherished; it draws out the essence of alldharma.

The end of the showing of the bardo ofdharmatā, called “The Great Liberation

through Hearing,” the bardo teaching whichliberates just by being heard and seen.

sarvamaṅgalam

Respectful homage to the deities:gurus, yidams and ḍākinīs;may they cause liberation in the bardo.In “The Great Liberation throughHearing”the bardo of dharmatā has been taughtabove,now comes the reminder of the bardo ofbecoming.

ALTHOUGH the bardo of dharmatā has beenshown many times before this, apart from thosewho were adept in meditation on dharma andhave good karmic results, because of fear andbad karma recognition is difficult for those whowere not adept or who were very wicked. Sofrom about the tenth day onwards they should bereminded again in these words:

“O child of noble family, listen well andunderstand. Hell-beings, gods and the bardobody are born spontaneously. When the peacefuland wrathful deities appeared in the bardo ofdharmatā you did not recognize them, so youfainted with fear after five and a half days; butwhen you recovered your consciousness grewclear, and a body like your former one rose up. It

is said in the tantra:

With the former and future material bodyof the bardo of becoming,complete with all the senses, wanderingwithout obstruction,possessing the power of miracles resultingfrom karma,seen by the pure eyes of gods with thesame nature.

“Here ‘former’ means that you have a body

like your former one of flesh and blood becauseof your memories of it, but it is also radiant andhas some marks like a body of the golden age.This is the experience of a mental body, so it iscalled the mental body of the bardo experience.At this time, if you are going to be born as a god,you will experience the realm of the gods, andwhatever you are going to be born as, jealousgod, human, animal, hungry ghost or hell-being,you will have that experience. Therefore‘former’ means thinking for up to four and a halfdays that you have a material body of memoriesof your former one, and ‘future’ means that afterthat you will have experiences of wherever youare going to be born later; so they say ‘former

and future.’ “Whatever projections arise at this time, do

not follow them or be attracted to them or yearnfor them. If you are attracted to them or yearn forthem you will wander in the six realms andsuffer misery.

“Although the projections of the bardo ofdharmatā appeared until yesterday, you did notrecognize them, so you had to wander here.Now, if you are able to meditate undistractedly,rest in the pure, naked mind, luminosity-emptiness, which your guru has shown you,relaxed in a state of non-grasping and non-action. You will attain liberation and not enter awomb.

“If you cannot recognize, visualize your yidamor your guru above your head and feel intensedevotion very strongly. This is very important.Again and again, do not be distracted.”

So one should say. If he recognizes this hewill be liberated and not wander in the sixrealms. But under the influence of bad karma it isdifficult to recognize, so one should say thesewords:

“O child of noble family, listen withundistracted mind. ‘Complete with all thesenses’ means that even if you were blind, deaf,

lame and so on when you were alive, now in thebardo state your eyes see forms, your ears hearsounds, and all your senses are clear andfaultless; so it is said, ‘complete with all thesenses.’ This is a sign that you have died and arewandering in the bardo state, so recognize,remember the instruction.

“O child of noble family, ‘without obstruction’means that as you are a mental body and yourmind is separated from its support, you have nomaterial body, so now you can pass back andforth even through Mount Meru, the king ofmountains, or anywhere except your mother’swomb and the vajra seat.18 This is a sign that youare wandering in the bardo of becoming, soremember your guru’s teaching and supplicatethe Lord of Great Compassion.

“O child of noble family, ‘possessing thepower of miracles resulting from karma’ meansthat now you have miraculous powers resultingfrom the force of karma in accordance with youractions, not those which come from meditationor virtues. You can circle the four continents andMount Meru in an instant, and arrive anywhereyou want instantaneously as soon as you think ofit, or in the time it takes a man to stretch out anddraw back his hand. But these various powers

are unsuitable; do not think about them. Now youhave the ability to display them withouthindrance, you can perform everything you thinkof and there is no action you cannot do, sorecognize, and supplicate your guru.

“O child of noble family, ‘seen by the pureeyes of gods with the same nature’ means thatthose who are going to be born with the samenature will see one another in the bardo state, sothose who are going to be born as gods see eachother. In the same way, whichever of the sixrealms they are going to be born in, those of thesame nature will see each other. Do not yearn forthem, but meditate on the Lord of GreatCompassion. ‘Seen by the pure eyes of gods’also means seen by the pure divine eye ofmeditators in real samādhi, and not only thatwhich comes from the merit of the gods. But theydo not always see; if they concentrate on seeingthey will see, but if not, or if their meditation isdisturbed, they do not see.

“O child of noble family, with a body like thisyou will see your home and family as though youwere meeting them in a dream, but although youspeak to them you will get no reply; and you willsee your relatives and family weeping, so youwill think, ‘I am dead, what shall I do?’ and you

will feel intense pain like the pain of a fishrolling in hot sand. But now suffering is no use.If you have a guru, supplicate him, or supplicatethe yidam, the Lord of Great Compassion. Eventhough you are attached to your relatives it is nouse, so do not be attached. Supplicate the Lordof Great Compassion, and there will be nosuffering or fear.

“O child of noble family, blown by the movingwind of karma, your mind, without support,helplessly rides the horse of wind like a feather,swaying and swinging. You will say to themourners, ‘I am here, do not weep,’ but they willnot perceive you, so you will think, ‘I havedied,’ and now you will feel great pain. Do notsuffer like that. All the time there will be a greyhaze like the grey light of an autumn dawn,neither day nor night. This kind of bardo statewill last for one, two, three, four, five, six orseven weeks, up to forty-nine days. It is said thatthe suffering in the bardo of becoming generallylasts for twenty-one days, but this is not quitecertain because of the influence of karma.

“O child of noble family, at this time the greattornado of karma, terrifying, unbearable,whirling fiercely, will drive you from behind.Do not be afraid of it; it is your own confused

projection. Dense darkness, terrifying andunbearable, will go before you, with terriblecries of ‘Strike!’ and ‘Kill!’ Do not be afraid ofthem. In the case of others who have done greatevil, many flesh-eating demons will appear as aresult of their karma, bearing various weapons,yelling war-cries, shouting ‘Kill! Strike!,’ and soon. You will feel that you are being chased byvarious terrifying wild animals and pursued by agreat army in snow, rain, storms and darkness.There will be sounds of mountains crumbling, oflakes flooding, of fire spreading, and of fiercewinds springing up. In fear you will escapewherever you can, but you will be cut off bythree precipices in front of you, white, red andblack, deep and dreadful, and you will be on thepoint of falling down them.

“O child of noble family, they are not reallyprecipices, they are aggression, passion andignorance. Recognize this now to be the bardo ofbecoming, and call the name of the Lord of GreatCompassion: ‘O Lord of Great Compassion, myguru, the Three Jewels, do not let me, (name),fall into hell.’ Supplicate fervently like this; donot forget.

“In the case of others who have gathered meritand were virtuous and practiced dharma

sincerely, all kinds of perfect enjoyment willinvite them, and they will experience all kinds ofperfect bliss and happiness. In the case of thosewho were indifferent and ignorant, who didneither good nor evil, they will not experiencepleasure or pain, but only ignorance andindifference will appear. Whatever arises likethis, O child of noble family, whatever pleasuresand objects of desire, do not be attracted to themor yearn for them. Offer them to the guru and theThree Jewels. Give up attachment and longing inyour heart. And if the experience of indifferencearises without either pleasure or pain, rest yourmind in the Great Symbol state of undistractednon-meditation. This is very important.

“O child of noble family, at this time bridges,shrines and monasteries, huts, stūpas and so onwill shelter you for a moment, but you will notstay there for long. Since your mind is separatedfrom your body you cannot settle down, you feelangry and cold, and consciousness becomes airy,speeding, swaying and impermanent. Then youwill think, ‘Alas, I am dead! What shall I donow?’ and thinking this your heart will suddenlygrow empty and cold, and you will feel intenseand boundless pain. Since you must move onwithout settling in any one place, do not occupy

yourself with all kinds of thoughts, but rest yourmind in its basic state.

“The time comes when you have no foodexcept that which has been dedicated for you toeat, and there is no certainty of friends. Theseare signs of the mental body wandering in thebardo of becoming. At this moment pleasure andpain are determined by your karma. You will seeyour homeland, friends and relatives, and yourown corpse, and you will think, ‘Now I am dead,so what should I do?’ The mental body will be inextreme pain, so you will think, ‘Now why notfind a body?’ and you will experience goingeverywhere to look for a body. Even if you enteryour own corpse up to nine times, winter willhave frozen it or summer made it rot, or elseyour relatives will have burned it or buried it ina grave or given it to the birds and wild animals,for a long time has passed in the bardo ofdharmatā, so you will find nowhere to enter; youwill be in great despair, and have the feeling ofbeing squeezed in between all the rocks andstones. Suffering like this is the bardo ofbecoming, even if you look for a body there isnothing but suffering, so cut off your yearning fora body and rest in the state of non-action,undistracted.”

By being shown in this way, liberation fromthe bardo is attained. But if, in spite of beingshown like this, it is impossible to recognizebecause of the power of bad karma, one shouldcall the dead person by name and say thesewords:

“O child of noble family, (name), listen. It isyour own karma, that you are suffering like this,so you cannot blame anyone else. It is your ownkarma, so now supplicate the Three Jewelsfervently, they will protect you. If you do notsupplicate like this, and do not know the GreatSymbol meditation, and do not meditate on youryidam, then the good conscience within you willcollect all your good actions and count out whitepebbles, and the bad conscience within you willcollect all your evil actions and count out blackpebbles. At this time you will be very frightenedand terrified, and you will tremble and lie,saying, ‘I have not sinned.’ Then the Lord ofDeath will say, ‘I will look in the mirror ofkarma,’ and when he looks in the mirror all yoursins and virtues will suddenly appear in itclearly and distinctly, so although you have liedit is no use. Then the Lord of Death will dragyou by a rope tied round your neck, and cut offyour head, tear out your heart, pull out your

entrails, lick your brains, drink your blood, eatyour flesh and gnaw your bones; but you cannotdie, so even though your body is cut into piecesyou will recover.

“Being cut again and again causes extremepain, so do not be afraid when the white pebblesare being counted, do not lie and do not fear theLord of Death. Since you are a mental body youcannot die even if you are killed and cut up. Youare really the natural form of emptiness, so thereis no need to fear. The Lords of Death are thenatural form of emptiness, your own confusedprojections, and you are emptiness, a mentalbody of unconscious tendencies. Emptinesscannot harm emptiness, the uncharacterizedcannot harm the uncharacterized. External Lordsof Death, gods, evil spirits, the Bullheadeddemon and so on, have no reality apart from yourown confused projections, so recognize this. Atthis moment recognize everything as the bardo.

“Meditate on the samādhi of the GreatSymbol. If you do not know how to meditate,look closely at the nature of what makes youafraid, and you will see emptiness which has nonature whatever: this is called the dharmakāya.But this emptiness is not negation, its nature isfrightening, mind with great awareness and

clarity: this is the mind of the saṃbhogakāya.The emptiness and the luminosity are not twoseparate things, but the nature of emptiness isluminosity and the nature of luminosity isemptiness. Now the indivisible emptiness-luminosity, the naked mind, is stripped bare anddwells in its uncreated state: this is thesvabhāvikakāya. Its own natural energy ariseseverywhere without obstruction: this is thecompassionate nirmāṇakāya.

“O child of noble family, see in this waywithout distraction. As soon as you recognize,you will attain complete enlightenment in thefour kāyas. Do not be distracted. This is thedividing-line where buddhas and sentient beingsare separated. It is said of this moment:

In an instant, they are separated,in an instant, complete enlightenment.

“Until yesterday you were distracted, so

although so much of the bardo state has appearedyou have not recognized, and you have so muchfear. If you are distracted now, the rope ofcompassion will be cut off and you will go to aplace where there is no liberation, so becareful.”

By being shown like this, even though he didnot recognize before, he will recognize here andattain liberation. If he is a layman who does notknow how to meditate like this, one should saythese words:

“O child of noble family, if you do not knowhow to meditate like this, remember the Buddha,the Dharma and the Saṅgha, and the Lord ofGreat Compassion, and supplicate them.Meditate on all the terrifying projections as theLord of Great Compassion or as your yidam.Remember your guru and the secret transmissionname you had in the human world, and tell it tothe Dharma King, the Lord of Death. Even if youfall down the precipice you will not be hurt, sogive up fear and terror.”

By being shown in these words, even thoughhe was not liberated before he will be liberatedhere. But because of the possibility that he maynot recognize and so not be liberated, it is veryimportant to make another effort, so one shouldcall the dead person by name again and say thesewords:

“These present experiences will throw youinto states of joy and sadness alternately at eachmoment, like a catapult, so now do not createany feeling of passion and aggression.

“If you are going to be born in a higher realm,at the time when experiences of the higherrealms occur your relatives in the place you haveleft are sacrificing many animals dedicated forthe sake of the dead, so impure thoughts willarise in you and you will feel violent anger,which will cause you to be born as a hell-being.So whatever is done in the place you have left,do not get angry but meditate on kindness.

“If you are attached to the possessions youhave left behind, or if you feel attached to themthrough knowing that someone else is owningand enjoying your things, you will get angry withthe people you have left behind, and that willcertainly cause you to be born as a hell-being ora hungry ghost, even if you were going to reach ahigher state. In any case, even if you are attachedto the things you have left behind, you cannot getthem; it is no use to you, so give up attachmentand yearning for your possessions; abandonthem, make a firm decision. Whoever is enjoyingyour things, do not be possessive but let them go.With one-pointed concentration think that you areoffering them to your guru and the Three Jewels,and remain in a state of desirelessness.

“When the kaṅkani ritual for the dead isrecited for you and the ‘purification from lower

realms’ and so on are performed for your sake,with the subtle supernatural perception resultingfrom your karma you will see them being doneimpurely, sleepily, inattentively and so on, withcareless behavior without observance of thesamaya vows, and you will be aware of lack offaith and feelings of disbelief, sinful actionsthrough fear, and impurities in the rituals, and soyou will think, ‘Alas, they are deceiving me,surely they are deceiving me!’ Thinking this youwill have great sorrow and despair, and on topof not feeling pure devotion you will disbelieveand lose faith, and that will certainly cause youto go to the lower realms. It is no use but veryharmful, so however impurely the rituals areperformed by the spiritual friends you have leftbehind, think with pure faith and devotion,‘Well! My projections must be impure; how canthere be impurity in Buddha’s words? These arecaused by my own impure projections, likeseeing the faults of my own face reflected in amirror. As for these people, their body is theSaṅgha, their speech is the holy Dharma, andtheir mind is the nature of the Buddha, therefore Itake refuge in them.’ Then whatever is done inthe place you have left will help you, so it isvery important to have pure thoughts in this way;

do not forget. “If you are going to be born in one of the three

lower realms, at the time when experiences ofthem occur your relatives in the place you haveleft are performing virtuous rituals free from sin,and gurus and teachers are practicing holydharma with absolute purity of body, speech andmind, so you will feel great joy on seeing them,and that will immediately cause you to be bornin a higher realm, even if you were going to falldown into the three lower realms, so it is veryhelpful. Therefore it is very important not tohave impure thoughts but to feel pure devotionwithout prejudice, so be careful.

“O child of noble family, to sum up, now yourmind in the bardo state has no support, so it islight and mobile, and whatever thought arises init, good or bad, is very powerful; so do not thinkof any evil actions but remember the practice ofvirtue. If you have no practice, feel devotion andpure thoughts. Supplicate your yidam and theLord of Great Compassion, and say thisinspiration-prayer with intense concentration:

When parted from beloved friends,wandering alone,my own projections’ empty forms appear,

may the buddhas send out the power oftheir compassionso that the bardo’s terrors do not come.When I suffer through the power of evilkarma,may my yidam clear away all suffering;when the sound of dharmatā roars like athousand thunders,may it all become the sound of the sixsyllables.When I follow my karma, without a refuge,may the Lord of Great Compassion be myrefuge;when I suffer the karma of unconscioustendencies,may the samādhi of bliss and luminosityarise.

Say this prayer fervently; it will certainly lead

you on the path. Be absolutely convinced that itis not false, this is very important.”

When this is said, he will remember andrecognize and so attain liberation. But eventhough one does this many times, recognition isdifficult because of the influence of much evilkarma, so it is very helpful to repeat it againmany times. Calling the dead person again by

name one should say these words: “O child of noble family, if you have not

understood what has gone before, from now onthe body you had in your past life will growfainter and your future body will become clearer,so you will feel sad and think, ‘I am sufferinglike this, so now I shall look for whatever kindof body appears,’ and you will move about,backwards and forwards, towards anything thatappears. The six lights of the six realms ofexistence will shine, and the one in which youare going to be born because of your karma willshine most brightly.

“O child of noble family, listen. If you askwhat the six lights are: the soft white light of thegods will shine, and similarly the red light of thejealous gods, the blue light of human beings, thegreen light of the animals, the yellow light of thehungry ghosts, and the smoke-colored light ofhell-beings; these are the six lights. At thatmoment your body will also take on the color ofthe place where you are going to be born.

“O child of noble family, at this time theessential point of the instruction is veryimportant: whatever light shines, meditate on thatas the Lord of Great Compassion. Meditate onthe thought that when the light appears it is the

Lord of Great Compassion. This is the mostprofound essential point, it is extremelyimportant and prevents birth.

“Meditate for a long time on whichever deityis your yidam, as a vision without any real natureof its own, like an illusion. This is called thepure illusory body. Then let the yidam disappearfrom the edges inwards, and rest for a while inthe inconceivable state of emptiness-luminositywhich consists in nothing whatever. Meditateagain on the yidam, then again on the luminosity.Meditate like this alternately, and after that letyour mind too disappear from the edges inwards.Wherever there is space there is mind, andwherever there is mind there is the dharmakāya;rest in the state of simplicity and selflessness ofthe dharmakāya.”

In this state birth is prevented and he willbecome a buddha. But those whose practice waspoor and who were not adept in meditation willnot understand, and still confused will wander tothe entrance of a womb, so the instructions forclosing the womb-entrance are very important.One should call the dead person by name and saythese words:

“O child of noble family, if you have notrecognized what has gone before, now you will

feel that you are moving upwards or across ordownwards by the force of karma, so at thismoment meditate on the Lord of GreatCompassion; remember!

“Then you will have the experience, like thatwhich was described before, of whirlwinds,snowstorms and hailstorms, darkness closinground and many men chasing you, and you willescape from them. Those without merit will feelthat they are escaping to a place of suffering, butthose with merit will feel that they are arrivingin a place of joy.

“At this time, O child of noble family, all thesigns of the country and place where you aregoing to be born will appear; so now listenwithout distraction, for there are many veryprofound essential points of instruction.Although you have not understood these secretsof recognition before, even one whose practicewas very poor will get the point here, so listen.

“At this time it is very important to take greatcare with the method of closing the entrance ofthe womb. There are two methods: stopping theperson who is entering, and closing the womb-entrance which is being entered. This is theinstruction for stopping the person who isentering:

“O child of noble family, (name), clearlyvisualize whichever deity is your yidam, as avision with no real nature of its own, like anillusion or the moon in water. If you have nospecific yidam it is the Lord of GreatCompassion himself; visualize him vividly. Thenlet the yidam disappear from the edges inwards,and meditate on the luminosity-emptinesswithout any object of thought. This is theprofound secret; it is said that by means of it thewomb is not entered, so meditate in this way.

“But if this does not stop you and you are justabout to enter a womb, there are profoundinstructions for closing the womb-entrancewhich is about to be entered, so listen. Repeatafter me these words from “The Main Verses ofthe Bardo”:

Now when the bardo of becoming dawnsupon me,I will concentrate my mind one-pointedlyand strive to prolong the results of goodkarma,close the womb-entrance and think ofresistance;this is the time when perseverance andpure thought are needed,

abandon jealousy, and meditate on theguru with his consort.

Say these words clearly aloud and arouse

your memory; it is very important to meditate ontheir meaning and put it into practice.

“This is the meaning: ‘Now when the bardo ofbecoming dawns upon me’ means that now youare wandering in the bardo of becoming. Assigns of this, if you look into water you will notsee your reflection, and your body has noshadow. Now there is no material body of fleshand blood, but these are signs of the mental bodywandering in the bardo of becoming. So now youmust concentrate your mind one-pointedlywithout distraction; just now that one-pointedconcentration is the most important thing. It islike controlling a horse with a bridle. Whateveryou concentrate on will come about, so do notthink of evil actions, but remember the dharma,the teachings, the transmissions, and theauthorizations for texts such as this “Liberationthrough Hearing” which you received in thehuman world, and strive to prolong the results ofgood karma. It is very important. Do not forget,do not be distracted. Now is the time which isthe dividing-line between going up and going

down; now is the time when by slipping intolaziness even for a moment you will suffer forever; now is the time when by concentrating one-pointedly you will be happy for ever.Concentrate your mind one-pointedly; strive toprolong the results of good karma.

Now the time has come to close the womb-entrance. It is said:

Close the womb entrance and think ofresistance;this is the time when perseverance andpure thought are needed.

Now that time has come. First the womb-entrance should be closed, and there are fivemethods of closing it, so understand them well.

“O child of noble family, at this timeprojections of men and women making love willappear. When you see them, do not enter inbetween them, but remember, and meditate on theman and woman as the guru and his consort.Mentally prostrate yourself and make offeringswith deep devotion, and ask for teachings; assoon as you concentrate intensely on this thoughtthe womb-entrance will certainly be closed.

“But if this does not close it and you are justabout to enter a womb, meditate on the guru andhis consort as your own yidam, or the Lord ofGreat Compassion, with his consort, andmentally make offerings to them. With intensedevotion ask them to bestow spiritualattainments; this will close the womb-entrance.

“But if this does not close it and you are justabout to enter a womb, here is the thirdinstruction on turning away passion andaggression. There are four kinds of birth: birthfrom an egg, birth from a womb, spontaneousbirth and birth from moisture. Of these, birthfrom an egg and birth from a womb are similar.As above, there will be projections of males andfemales in sexual union, and if you enter a wombat this moment through the power of passion andaggression, you will be born as a horse, bird,dog, human being and so on, whatever it may be.If you are going to be born as a male, you willexperience yourself as male, and feel violentaggression toward the father and jealousy anddesire for the mother. If you are going to be bornas a female you will experience yourself asfemale, and feel intense envy and jealousy of themother and intense desire and passion for thefather. This will cause you to enter the path

leading to the womb, and you will experienceself-existing bliss in the midst of the meeting ofthe sperm and ovum. From that blissful state youwill lose consciousness, and the embryo willgrow round and oblong and so on until the bodymatures and comes out from the mother’s womb.You will open your eyes, and you have turnedinto a puppy; from first being a man you havenow become a dog, so you will suffer in a dog-kennel, or similarly in a pigsty or an ant-hill or aworm-hole, or else you may be born as a youngbull or goat or lamb and so on. There is noreturning here; you will endure all kinds ofsuffering from a state of great stupidity andignorance. Circling like this around the sixrealms of existence, of hellbeings, hungry ghostsand so on, you will be tormented by boundlesssuffering. There is nothing more powerful orterrifying than this; alas! alas! Those who do nothave a guru’s sacred teachings will fall down thegreat precipice of saṃsāra in this manner, andendure endless, unbearable suffering; sotherefore listen to my words, and understand thisinstruction of mine.

“Now the instruction for closing the womb-entrance by turning away passion and aggressionis given; listen and understand. It is said:

Close the womb-entrance and think ofresistance;this is the time when perseverance andpure thought are needed,abandon jealousy, and meditate on theguru with his consort.

As above, you will have feelings of jealousy; ifyou are going to be born as a male you will lovethe mother and hate the father, and if you aregoing to be born as a female you will love thefather and hate the mother. So at this time there isa profound instruction.

“O child of noble family, when passion andaggression arise like this, meditate in this way:‘Alas! I am a being with such evil karma that Ihave been wandering like this in saṃsāra untilnow, through clinging to passion and aggression.If I go on feeling passion and aggression likethis, I shall wander in saṃsāra endlessly, andsink into the depths of the ocean of suffering fora long time; so now I will feel no passion oraggression at all. Alas! Now I will never againfeel passion and aggression.’ By concentratingyour mind intensely and one-pointedly on thisthought, that itself will close the womb-entrance,

so the tantras say. O child of noble family, do notbe distracted; concentrate your mind one-pointedly.

“But if, even after doing this, the womb-entrance is not closed and you are about to entera womb, then it should be closed by theinstruction on the unreal and illusory nature ofeverything. Meditate in this way: ‘Alas! Thefather and mother, the great storm, thewhirlwind, the thunder, the terrifying projectionsand all these apparent phenomena are illusory intheir real nature. However they appear, they arenot real. All substances are false and untrue.They are like a mirage, they are not permanent,they are not changeless. What is the use ofdesire? What is the use of fear? It is regardingthe non-existent as existent. All these areprojections of my mind, and since the mind itselfis illusory and nonexistent from the beginning,from where externally do they arise like this? Idid not understand in this way before, and so Ibelieved the nonexistent to exist, the untrue to betrue, the illusion to be real; therefore I havewandered in saṃsāra for so long. And if I do notrealize that they are illusions, I shall still wanderin saṃsāra for a long time and certainly fall intothe muddy swamp of suffering. Now they are all

like dreams, like illusions, like echoes, likecities of the gandharvas, like mirages, likeimages, like optical illusions, like the moon inwater; they are not real, even for a moment.Certainly they are not true, but false!’

“By concentrating one-pointedly on thisconviction, belief in their reality is destroyed,and when one is inwardly convinced in such away, belief in a self is counteracted. If youunderstand unreality like this from the bottom ofyour heart, the womb-entrance will certainly beclosed.

“But if, even after doing this, the belief inreality is not destroyed, and the womb-entranceis not closed, and you are about to enter a womb,there is a profound instruction.

“O child of noble family, if even after doingthis the womb-entrance is not closed, now itshould be closed by the fifth method, meditationon the luminosity, which should be done in thisway: ‘All substances are my own mind, and thismind is emptiness, unarisen and unobstructed.’Thinking this, keep your mind natural andundiluted, self-contained in its own nature likewater poured into water, just as it is, loose, openand relaxed. By letting it rest naturally andloosely you can be sure that the womb-entrance

to all four kinds of birth will certainly beclosed.”

Many true and profound instructions forclosing the womb-entrance have been givenabove; it is impossible for anyone of high,average or low capacities, whichever he may be,not to be liberated by them. Why is this? Firstlybecause consciousness in the bardo statepossesses supernatural perception of worldlythings, so he can hear what I say; secondly, evenif he was deaf and blind, now he has all thesenses complete, so he can hear what is said;thirdly, being continually overcome by fear he isthinking undistractedly what to do, so he listensto what I say; and fourthly, as the consciousnesshas no support it comes directly to wherever theconcentration is directed, so it is easy to guide.The mind is nine times more clear, so even if heis stupid, by force of karma the mind becomes soclear at this time that it can meditate on whateveris taught; essential points such as these are thereason. For the same reason it is also helpful toperform the rituals for the dead.

Therefore it is very important to persevere inreading this “Great Liberation through Hearing”for up to nine days. Even if he is not liberated atone showing he will attain liberation at another.

That is the reason why not one but manyshowings are necessary.

Even then, there are many kinds of peoplewho were not used to doing good actions butwere extremely skilled in doing evil actionsright from the start, and through the influence ofmany powerful veils of error are not liberated,in spite of being shown and given these objectsof meditation so many times above; so now, ifthe womb-entrance has not been closed before, aprofound instruction for choosing the womb-entrance will be taught below. One should callon the buddhas and bodhisattvas for help andrepeat the refuge,19 then call the dead person byname three times and say these words:

“O child of noble family, (name), who isdead, listen. Although you have been shown withthe instructions above so many times, you havenot understood, so now, if the womb-entrancehas not been closed, the time has come to take abody. There are not one but many true andprofound instructions for you to choose a womb-entrance, so understand and do not be distracted.Listen well with intense concentration andunderstand.

“O child of noble family, now the signs andcharacteristics of the continent where you are

going to be born will appear, so recognize them.Examine where you are going to be born andchoose the continent.

“If you are going to be born in the easterncontinent, Noble Body, you will see a lakeadorned with geese and ganders. Think ofresistance and do not go there. Although it is fullof happiness it is a place where dharma does notflourish, so do not enter it.

“If you are going to be born in the southerncontinent, Rose-Apple Island, you will seeluxurious, beautiful dwellings. You should enterit if you can.

“If you are going to be born in the westerncontinent, Enjoyment of Wish-fulfilling Cows,you will see a lake adorned with horses andmares. Do not go there but come back here.Although it has great pleasures it is a placewhere dharma does not flourish, so do not enterit.

“If you are going to be born in the northerncontinent, Unpleasant Sound, you will see a lakeadorned with cattle or with trees. Recognizethem as signs of taking birth, and do not enterthere. Although it has long life and merits,dharma does not flourish there, so do not enter.

“If you are going to be born as a god, you will

see beautiful many-storied temples made ofvarious jewels. If you are fit to enter there youshould enter.

“If you are going to be born as a jealous god,you will see beautiful groves, or what seem tobe revolving wheels of fire. Do not enter there atall, but think of resistance.

“If you are going to be born as an animal, youwill see as if through a mist rock-caves andholes in the ground and straw huts. Do not enterthere.

“If you are going to be born as a hungry ghost,you will see tree-stumps and black shapessticking up, shallow caves and black patches. Ifyou go there you will be born as a hungry ghostand experience all kinds of suffering throughhunger and thirst, so do not go there at all, butthink of resistance and persevere strongly.

“If you are going to be born as a hell-being,you will hear songs sung by those of evil karma,or you will have to enter helplessly, or you willfeel that you have gone into a dark land, withblack and red houses, black pits and black roads.If you go there you will enter hell and experienceunbearable suffering through heat and cold fromwhich you will never get out. So do not go intoits midst, do not enter at all, but be careful. It is

said: ‘Close the womb-entrance and think ofresistance’; this is needed now.

“O child of noble family, even though youwish not to go, you have no power of your own,you are helplessly compelled to go. From behindthe avengers of karma pursue you, and in frontavengers and murderers drag you along;darkness, hurricanes, violent storms, noises,snow and rain, fierce hailstorms and snowstormswill whirl around you, and you will escape fromthem. Then in escaping you will look for arefuge, and you will find safety in the luxurioushouses described before or in rock-shelters orholes in the ground, between trees, or in theround cavities of lotus flowers and so on.Hidden there, you will be afraid to come out,and you will think, ‘I cannot go out of here now,’and through fear of leaving you will becomevery attached to that place. You are afraid ofmeeting those terrors of the bardo if you gooutside, you feel extreme fear of them; and soyou hide inside and take a body, however bad itmay be, and will experience all kinds ofsuffering. That is a sign that demons and evilforces are obstructing you now, and at this timethere is a profound instruction, so listen andunderstand.

“At this time of terror when you are helplesslypursued by the avengers, you should immediatelyvisualize with your whole mind the BlessedSupreme Heruka or Hayagrīva or Vajrapāṇi, oryour yidam if you have one, with a huge bodyand thick limbs, standing in a terrifying attitudeof wrath which crushes all evil forces into dust.Separated from the avengers by his blessing andcompassion, you will have the power to choosethe entrance of a womb. This is the true profoundsecret of the instruction, so understand it.

“O child of noble family, the gods ofmeditation and so on are born through the powerof samādhi. A large class of evil spirits such ashungry ghosts and so on have changed theirattitude while in the bardo state, then they areable to appear in various illusory forms ofhungry ghosts and demons, and are transformedinto that mental body itself. The hungry ghostswho dwell in the depths of the sea and the hungryghosts who fly through space, and all the eightythousand classes of negative forces and so on,have taken on that mental body by changing theirattitude. At this time the best thing is tocontemplate the Great Symbol of emptiness, butif you cannot do that, then take part in the play ofillusion. If you cannot do that either, at least do

not be attached to anything, but meditate on theyidam, the Lord of Great Compassion, and youwill become a saṃbhogakāya buddha in thebardo state.

“O child of noble family, if you have to enter awomb in this way through force of karma, theinstruction for choosing the entrance to a wombwill now be taught. Listen! Do not go intowhatever womb-entrance appears. If theavengers come and you cannot avoid entering,meditate on Hayagrīva. Since you now possesssubtle supernatural perception you will know allthe places in turn, so make a choice. There aretwo instructions; for transference to a purebuddha-realm and for choosing an impuresaṃsāric womb-entrance, so act in this way:

“Transference to the Pure Realm of Space, ofpurified faculties, is directed like this: ‘Ah, howsad it is that I still remain in this muddy swampof saṃsāra even now, after such a long time ofcountless ages without beginning or end, andwhile so many others have already becomebuddhas I have not been liberated. From thismoment on I feel sickened at this saṃsāra, Idread it, I am worn out with it. Now it is time toget ready to escape, so I must bring about aspontaneous birth in a lotus flower at the feet of

the buddha Amitābha in the western BlissfulRealm.’ With this thought concentrate intenselyon the Blissful Realm in the west, it is vital tomake this effort. Or else, if you direct intenseconcentration, one-point-edly and withoutdistraction, toward whichever realm you wish,the Pure Realm, or Complete Joy, or the DenselyFilled, or the Realm of Willow Leaves, or thePalm-tree Mountain, or the Palace of Lotus Lightin Urgyan, you will immediately be born in thatrealm. Or if you wish to go into the presence ofLord Maitreya in the Joyful Realm, concentrateon this thought: ‘At this moment in the bardostate the time has come for me to go into thepresence of the Dharma King Maitreya in theJoyful Realm, so I will go,’ and you will be bornspontaneously in the heart of a lotus in thepresence of Maitreya.

“Otherwise, if you cannot do this and wish toenter a womb, or find you have to enter one,there is an instruction for choosing an impuresaṃsāric womb-entrance, so listen. As before,look at the continent you are going to choosewith supernatural perception, and enter a placewhere dharma flourishes.

“If you are going to be spontaneously born in afilthy dung-heap, you will perceive that fetid

mass as sweet-smelling, and you will feelattracted to it and be born there; so whateverappears, do not trust it, but put an end to thesigns of desire and hatred, and choose a womb-entrance.

“Again, it is very important to concentrate likethis: ‘I will be born as a universal emperor forthe good of all sentient beings, or as a brāhmaṇalike a great sāla tree, or as the son of a siddha,or in a family of a pure lineage of dharma, or ina family where the father and mother have faith;and taking a body with merits which can benefitall sentient beings, I will do good.’Concentrating on this thought, the womb shouldbe entered. At this time you should bless thewomb you are entering as a palace of the gods,and supplicate the buddhas and bodhisattvas ofthe ten directions and the yidams, especially theLord of Great Compassion, and enter the wombwith the longing of a request for transmission.

“It is possible to make a mistake in choosingthe entrance of a womb like this, by seeing agood womb-entrance as bad or a bad one asgood, under the influence of karma, so now againthe essential point of the instruction is veryimportant, so do this: even if a womb-entranceappears good do not trust it, and even if it

appears bad do not feel dislike of it. The true,profound, essential secret is to enter into thesupreme state of equilibrium in which there is nogood or bad, acceptance or rejection, passion oraggression.”

But, except for the few who are experiencedin this, it is hard to get rid of the disease of badunconscious tendencies, so to prevent him takingrefuge among sinners of the poorest capacities,the lowest of the low, like beasts, if he cannotcut off passion and aggression in this way, oneshould call the dead person again by name andsay these words:

“O child of noble family, if you do not knowhow to choose a womb-entrance and cannot getrid of passion and aggression, whatever of theabove experiences may arise, call on the name ofthe Three Jewels and take refuge in them.Supplicate the Lord of Great Compassion. Go onwith your head held high. Give up attachmentand yearning for the relatives and friends, sonsand daughters, you have left behind; they cannothelp you. Enter now into the blue light of humanbeings or the white light of the gods; enter thejewelled palaces and the pleasure-gardens.”

This should be repeated up to seven times.Then one should supplicate the buddhas and

bodhisattvas, and read “The Bardo Prayer whichProtects from Fear,” “The Main Verses of theBardo,” and “Deliverance from the DangerousPathway of the Bardo” up to seven times. Thenone should read “The Liberation throughWearing which Spontaneously Liberates theSkandhas,” and “The Daily Practice whichSpontaneously Liberates the UnconsciousTendencies,” clearly and distinctly.

Thus, by acting rightly, yogins of highestinsight effect the ejection of consciousness in thebardo of the moment before death, and do nothave to wander in the bardo state but bypass itand attain liberation. Below them, a fewexperienced people recognize the luminosity ofthe dharmatā after the bardo of the momentbefore death, and bypass and become buddhas.Those below them are liberated in accordancewith their karmic results at one time or anotherwhen the peaceful and wrathful projectionsappear in the bardo of dharmatā during thefollowing weeks. As there are many stages theywill recognize whichever is appropriate andattain liberation.

But those whose good karmic results are weakand who have many veils of error and very badkarma must wander on down to the bardo of

becoming; but as there are many showings, likethe steps of a ladder, they will recognize at oneor another and be liberated. But if those whosegood karmic results are very weak do notrecognize during the above and are overpoweredby fear, there is a series of instructions in turnfor closing the womb-entrance and for choosinga womb-entrance, so they will recognize at oneor another, and trusting the object of meditationattain the highest state of boundless virtue.

Even the lowest of the low, like beasts, areturned back from the lower realms by the virtueof taking refuge; they will attain a precioushuman body complete with all the freedoms andgood opportunities, and in their next life meet aholy guru, a spiritual friend, so they will getinstruction and be liberated.

If this teaching is received during the bardo ofbecoming, the instruction prolongs one’s goodkarmic results, like putting a pipe into a brokenwater-channel. It is impossible even for all greatsinners not to be liberated when they hear thisteaching. Why is this? Because during the bardoboth the compassionate invitation of all thepeaceful and wrathful buddhas and deities andthe invitation of the tempters and negative forcescome together, so just by hearing the teaching at

this time their attitude is influenced and theyattain liberation. Influence is easy because themental body has no basis of flesh and blood.However far they have wandered in the bardostate, they see and hear with subtle karmicsupernatural perception and they come; this isextremely helpful, for then they understand andtheir mind is instantaneously influenced. It is likethe device of a catapult, or like a huge tree-trunkwhich cannot be moved by a hundred men, butwhen it is put in water can be taken whereverone wants in a moment; it is like controlling ahorse with a bridle.

Therefore one should approach all who havedied, and if the corpse is present a friend shouldread this reminder again and again until bloodand pus come out of the nostrils. Meanwhile thecorpse should remain undisturbed. Theobservances for this are: animals should not besacrificed for dedication to the dead person; inthe presence of the corpse friends and relationsshould not weep and mourn and make a noise,which may be done elsewhere; and as many actsof virtue as possible should be done.

As well as this teaching of “The GreatLiberation through Hearing” it is very good ifany of the other teachings joined to the end of

this instruction are also read. One should readthis continually and learn the word-meanings andterms by heart; then when death is certain and thesigns of death have been recognized, if one’scondition allows one should read it aloudoneself and contemplate it, and if one is not ableto do that it should be given to a dharma-brotheror dharma-sister to read, for this reminder willcertainly liberate, there is no doubt. Thisteaching does not need any practice, it is aprofound instruction which liberates just bybeing seen and heard and read. This profoundinstruction leads great sinners on the secret path.If one does not forget its words and terms evenwhen being chased by seven dogs, the instructionliberates in the bardo of the moment beforedeath. Even if the buddhas of the past, presentand future were to search, they would not find abetter teaching than this.

iti

The bardo instruction which liberateshuman beings, the profound innermost

essence, “The Great Liberation throughHearing.” This treasure was discovered bythe siddha Karma-Lingpa in the mountain of

Gampo-dar. May it benefit the dharma andall sentient beings.

sarvamaṅgalam

1. This mark distinguishes all terma texts (see Foreword) and is asymbol to seal and protect them. It is found throughout the texts inplace of the usual Tibetan punctuation mark—a short vertical line.Since English punctuation is more complicated, terma marks areplaced in the translation only at the end of paragraphs and lines ofverse. 2. Ejection of consciousness (Tib. ’pho-ba) is part of the PureLand practice and one of the Six Yogas of Nāropā. By means ofit the yogin learns how to shoot his consciousness up through thecrown of his head into a visualized image, and at death he is ableto direct it to the dharmakāya realm. Details of this practice canbe found in Herbert Guenther’s The Life and Teaching ofNāropā (Oxford) and in Garma C. C. Chang’s EsotericTeachings of the Tibetan Tantra (Aurora Press). 3. Dharma-brothers and dharma-sisters are disciples of the sameguru. 4. The Three Jewels are the Buddha, or principle ofenlightenment; the Dharma, or teaching which proclaimsenlightenment; and the Sangha, or community which practices theDharma. 5. The position of Gautama Buddha at his death: lying stretchedout on the right side, with the right hand under the head.

6. The Great Symbol (Tib. phyag-rgya-chen-po, Skt. mahāmudrā)is a tantric meditation practice in which the whole of experience istransformed into the deity and the maṇḍala; in this state the greatbliss (mahāsukha) is produced from the union of the male andfemale aspects of practice—skillful means or compassion, andknowledge or emptiness (upāya and prajñā). It is direct perceptionof the sacredness and vividness of life. 7. Samantabhadra and Samantabhadrī (Tib. kun-tu-bzang-po andkun-tu-bzang-mo) symbolize the inseparability of compassion andknowledge, the two coefficients of enlightenment. As theembodiment of the dharmakāya they are the origin of the fivebuddha families, who emanate from them and appear on thesaṃbhogakāya level. In this sense, in the Nyingma tradition,Samantabhadra is known as the adibuddha, or primordial buddha.It is also the name of the bodhisattva, who appears on the thirdday of the bardo. 8. These practices are two complementary styles of meditation intantric yoga. In the generation stage (Tib. bskyed-rim, Skt.utpattikrama) the yogin visualizes the deities and identifies himselfwith them; in the perfection range (Tib. rdzogs-rim, Skt.saṃpannakrama) everything is dissolved into emptiness andformlessness. 9. The yidam is a particular deity which represents the disciple’sinnate enlightened nature, chosen by his guru to correspond to hisown characteristics and the practice he is following. It is said thatAvalokiteśvara, the Lord of Great Compassion, is suitable foreveryone, so “an ordinary person,” one who has not been given aspecific yidam, should meditate on him. 10. Illustrations and descriptions of these eight femalebodhisattvas can be found in many sources, such as the pantheons

published by Lokesh Chandra, W. E. Clark’s Two LamaisticPantheons or B. Bhattacharyya’s The Indian BuddhistIconography, in which they appear as “dance deities” and“goddesses of direction.” Waddell calls them mātṛs or mother-goddesses, in connection with the maṇḍala offering, but they arenot the same as the Hindu mātṛs, as Evans-Wentz suggests. Theyare essentially goddesses of worship, who offer the objects ofsensual pleasure to the principle of enlightenment. 11. The ten stages in the development of a bodhisattva. 12. Three terms are mentioned in the Tibetan: gdung, ring-bsreland sku-gzugs, or in Sanskrit: śarīram. These are all similarremains left behind when the corpse of an accomplished yogin orsiddha has been burned. They are like shining round stones, whiteor greenish in color, and are kept as relics and often eaten justbefore death. 13. For Great Symbol see note 6. The Great Completion (Tib.rdzogs-pa-chenpo, Skt. mahāsampanna) is a stage of meditationequivalent to atiyoga or mahā-ati. It penetrates beyond even theapparently ultimate vision of the Great Symbol into a furtherexperience of openness and formlessness. This practice wastaught by Vimalamitra, a contemporary of Padmasaṃbhava, anddeveloped in the Nyingma tradition. The two practices, GreatSymbol and Great Completion, were unified by Rangjung-Dorje,the third Karmapa. 14. The “Liberation through Wearing” (Tib. btags-grol) is anotherof the six bardo instructions of Padmasaṃbhava. It is a short textconsisting mostly of mantras, which is tied to the corpse as anamulet. 15. The Glorious Great Buddha-Heruka is a combination of the

Buddha-Heruka and the Great Heruka, who is the origin of theherukas of the five families, as described in the Commentary. Inpaintings (thankas) of the wrathful deities, the Great Herukaappears in the center, the counterpart of Samantab-hadra in themaṇḍala of the peaceful deities, while the Buddha-Heruka isplaced below him. 16. The gaurīs, meaning “white,” are a group of eight goddessescollectively named after the first of them, who is the only whiteone. In the Tibetan texts of the Bardo Thötröl, their names arekept in Sanskrit, but most are in a corrupted form with slightdifferences in each blockprint (Evans-Wentz calls them theKeurima, for instance). They appear in many other tantric texts,but two names here, Pramohā and Śmaśānī, are different fromthe usual list. Pramohā or Pramo, meaning “deluder” probablycorresponds to Ḍombī, the low-caste woman who is a symbol ofpassion in tantric poetry; while Śmaśānī, “she who dwells in thecharnel-ground,” seems to be the most reasonable Sanskrit namewhich can be deduced from the Tibetan form, Smeśanī, and wouldcorrespond to Śavarī, the “ascetic” or “mountain-dweller.” It isnot possible to identify these goddesses purely by theirdescriptions, as they appear differently in the various sources.The piśācīs (Tib. phra-men-ma) are flesh-eating goddesses withbird and animal heads. Their name means “striped” or“variegated,” referring to the different colors of their heads andbodies. The yoginīs are also called “powerful lady” (Tib. dbang-phyug-ma, Skt. īśvarī). Most of them were originally Hindugoddesses, absorbed into Buddhism. In the text their names are alltranslated into Tibetan, but Sanskrit versions are given here aswell as the translations since many are well known. 17. The six-syllabled mantra of Avalokiteśvara, oṃ maṇipadmehūṃ.

18. The vajra seat is the seat on which Gautama Buddha satwhen he attained enlightenment at Bodhgayā. 19. The refuge formula of commitment to the Buddhist path: Itake refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I takerefuge in the Sangha.

Inspiration-Prayers

THESE “INSPIRATION-PRAYERS” are taken fromthe collection of terma texts connected withBardo Thötröl. They are all mentioned asdevotional exercises in the Bardo Thötröl itself,and several verses from them are quoted as partof the instructions to the dead person. The wordwhich is often translated simply as prayer meansliterally “wish-path” (Tibetan smon-lam). It isnot a request to an external diety, but a method ofpurifying and directing the mind. It acts asinspiration by arousing the mind’s inherentdesire for good, which attracts the fulfilment ofits aim.

Inspiration-PrayerCalling on the Buddhasand Bodhisattvas forRescue

At the time of one’s death, one should alwayscall on the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for rescue.One should make material and mental offeringsto the Three Jewels, and holding fragrant incensein one’s hand, say these words with intensepower of concentration:

O Buddhas and Bodhisattvas dwelling in the tendirections, compassionate, all-knowing, with thefive kinds of eyes, loving, protectors of allsentient beings, come to this place by the powerof compassion and accept these material andmental offerings.

O Compassionate Ones, you possess

understanding wisdom, loving compassion,effective action, and protecting power beyondthe reach of thought. O Compassionate Ones, thisperson, (name), is going from this world to theother shore, he is leaving this world, he is dyingwithout choice, he has no friends, he is sufferinggreatly, he has no refuge, he has no protector, hehas no allies, the light of this life has set, he isgoing to another world, he is entering densedarkness, he is falling down a deep precipice, heis entering a thick forest, he is pursued by thepower of karma, he is entering a greatwilderness, he is swept away by a great ocean,he is driven on by the wind of karma, he is goingwhere there is no solid ground, he is embarkingon a great battle, he is seized by the great evilspirit, he is terrified by the messengers of theLord of Death, he is entering existence afterexistence because of his karma, he is helpless,the time has come when he must go on alonewithout a friend.

O Compassionate Ones, be a refuge to him,(name), who has no refuge, protect him, defendhim, keep him from the great darkness of thebardo, turn him aside from the great hurricane ofkarma, protect him from the great fear of theLord of Death, deliver him from the long and

dangerous pathway of the bardo. OCompassionate Ones, do not let your compassionbe small, rescue him, do not let him go to thethree lower realms, do not forget your formervows but quickly send out the power of yourcompassion.

O Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, do not let yourcompassion and skillful means for him, (name),be small, seize him with compassion, do not let asentient being fall into the power of evil karma.

May the Three Jewels be a refuge fromsuffering in the bardo.

* * *

This should be said three times with deepdevotion by oneself and all others. Then “TheLiberation through Hearing,” “Deliverance fromthe Dangerous Pathway of the Bardo,” and “TheBardo Prayer which Protects from Fear” shouldbe read.

The Main Verses of theSix Bardos

Now when the bardo of birth is dawning uponme,

I will abandon laziness for which life has notime,

enter the undistracted path of study, reflectionand meditation,

making projections and mind the path, andrealize the three kāyas;

now that I have once attained a human body,there is no time on the path for the mind to

wander.

Now when the bardo of dreams is dawning uponme,

I will abandon the corpse-like sleep of carelessignorance,

and let my thoughts enter their natural statewithout distraction;

controlling and transforming dreams in

luminosity,I will not sleep like any animalbut unify completely sleep and practice.

Now when the bardo of samādhi-meditationdawns upon me,

I will abandon the crowd of distractions andconfusions,

and rest in the boundless state withoutgrasping or disturbance;

firm in the two practices: visualization andcomplete,

at this time of meditation, one-pointed, freefrom activity,

I will not fall into the power of confusedemotions.

Now when the bardo of the moment beforedeath dawns upon me,

I will abandon all grasping, yearning andattachment,

enter undistracted into clear awareness of theteaching,

and eject my consciousness into the space ofunborn mind;

as I leave this compound body of flesh andblood

I will know it to be a transitory illusion.

Now when the bardo of dharmatā dawns uponme,

I will abandon all thoughts of fear and terror,I will recognize whatever appears as my

projectionand know it to be a vision of the bardo;now that I have reached this crucial point,I will not fear the peaceful and wrathful ones,

my own projections.

Now when the bardo of becoming dawns uponme,

I will concentrate my mind one-pointedly,and strive to prolong the results of good karma,close the womb-entrance and think of

resistance;this is the time when perseverance and pure

thought are needed,abandon jealousy, and meditate on the guru

with his consort.

With mind far off, not thinking of death’scoming,

performing these meaningless activities,returning empty-handed now would be

complete confusion;the need is recognition, holy dharma,so why not practise dharma at this very

moment?From the mouths of siddhas come these words:If you do not keep your guru’s teaching in your

heartwill you not become your own deceiver?

Inspiration-Prayer forDeliverance from theDangerous Pathway ofthe Bardo

Homage to the gurus, yidams and ḍākinīs,with their great love may they lead us on the

path.

When through confusion I wander in saṃsāra,on the undistracted light-path of study,

reflection and meditation,may the gurus of the sacred lineage go before

me,their consorts the hosts of ḍākinīs behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.

When through intense ignorance I wander insaṃsāra,

on the luminous light-path of the dharmadhātuwisdom,

may Blessed Vairocana go before me,his consort the Queen of Vajra Space behind

me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.

When through intense aggression I wander insaṃsāra,

on the luminous light-path of the mirror-likewisdom,

may Blessed Vajrasattva go before me,his consort Buddha-Locanā behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.

When through intense pride I wander insaṃsāra,

on the luminous light-path of the wisdom ofequality,

may Blessed Ratnasaṃbhava go before me,his consort Māmakī behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.

When through intense desire I wander in

saṃsāra,on the luminous light-path of discriminating

wisdom,may Blessed Amitābha go before me,his consort Pāṇḍaravāsinī behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.

When through intense envy I wander insaṃsāra,

on the luminous light-path of action-accomplishing wisdom,

may Blessed Amoghasiddhi go before me,his consort Samaya-Tārā behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.

When through strong unconscious tendencies Iwander in saṃsāra,

on the luminous light-path of the innatewisdom,

may the vidyādhara warriors go before me,their consorts the host of ḍākinīs behind me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.

When through fierce confused projections I

wander in saṃsāra,on the light-path of abandoning all fear,may the Blessed Ones, peaceful and wrathful,

go before me,the host of ḍākinīs, Queens of Space, behind

me;help me to cross the bardo’s dangerous pathwayand bring me to the perfect buddha state.

May the element of space not rise up as anenemy,

may I see the Realm of the blue buddha.May the element of water not rise up as enemy,may I see the realm of the white buddha.May the element of earth not rise up as an

enemy,may I see the realm of the yellow buddha.May the element of fire not rise up as an

enemy,may I see the realm of the red buddha.May the element of air not rise up as an enemy.may I see the realm of the green buddha.May the rainbow of the elements not rise up as

enemies,may I see the realms of all the buddhas.May the sounds, lights and rays not rise up as

enemies,

may I see the infinite realms of the Peacefuland Wrathful Ones.

May I know all the sounds as my own sound,may I know all the lights as my own light,may I know all the rays as my own ray.May I spontaneously know the bardo as myself,may I attain the realms of the three kāyas.

The Bardo Prayer whichProtects from Fear

When the journey of my life has reached itsend,

and since no relatives go with me from thisworld

I wander in the bardo state alone,may the peaceful and wrathful buddhas send

out the power of their compassionand clear away the dense darkness of

ignorance.

When parted from beloved friends, wanderingalone,

my own projections’ empty forms appear,may the buddhas send out the power of their

compassionso that the bardo’s terrors do not come.

When the five luminous lights of wisdom shine,fearlessly may I recognize myself;

when the forms of the peaceful and wrathfulones appear,

fearless and confident may I recognize thebardo.

When I suffer through the power of evil karma,may the peaceful and wrathful buddhas clear

away suffering;when the sound of dharmatā roars like a

thousand thunders,may it be transformed into the sound of

mahāyāna teaching.

When I follow my karma, without a refuge,may the peaceful and wrathful buddhas be my

refuge;when I suffer the karma of unconscious

tendencies,may the samādhi of bliss and luminosity arise.

At the moment of spontaneous birth in thebardo of becoming,

may the false teachings of the tempters notarise;

when I arrive wherever I wish by supernaturalpower,

may the illusory terrors of evil karma not arise.

When savage beasts of prey are roaring,may it become the sound of dharma, the six

syllables;when I am chased by snow, rain, wind and

darkness,may I receive the clear, divine eye of wisdom.

May all sentient beings of the same realm inthe bardo,

free from jealousy, be born in a higher state;when great thirst and hunger are caused by

passions,may the pain of thirst and hunger, heat and

cold, not arise.

When I see my future parents in union,may I see the peaceful and wrathful buddhas

with their consorts;with power to choose my birthplace, for the

good of others,may I receive a perfect body adorned with

auspicious signs.

Obtaining for myself a perfect human body,may all who see and hear me at once be

liberated;

may I not follow all my evil karma,but follow and increase what merit I may have.

Wherever I am born, at that very place,may I meet the yidam of this life face to face;knowing how to walk and talk as soon as I am

born,may I attain the power of non-forgetfulness and

remembrance of past lives.

In all the stages of learning, high, middle andlow,

may I understand just by hearing, thinking andseeing;

wherever I am born, may that land be blessed,so that all sentient beings may be happy.

O peaceful and wrathful buddhas, may I andothers

become like you yourselves, just as you are,with your forms and your auspicious marks,your retinues, your long life and your realms.

Samantabhadra, the peaceful and wrathfulones, infinite compassion,

the power of truth of the pure dharmatā,and followers of tantra in one-pointed

meditation:may their blessings fulfill this inspiration-

prayer.

PRONUNCIATION OFSANSKRIT WORDS

VOWELS Vowels are pronounced as in Italian or Spanish,but there is a distinction between short and longvowels; a line over a vowel makes it long:

short a as in siesta, but long ā as in car.short i as in sit, but long ī as in feet.short u as in put, but long ū as in loot.

The following vowels are always long:

e as in day.o as in orient.ai as in pie.au as in how.

ṛ is also a vowel (short), pronounced as a rolledr, rather like ri. A syllable containing a long

vowel is stressed; e.g. yoginī is pronounced yo-gi-nee, not yo-gee-ni.

CONSONANTS c is pronounced ch.g is always pronounced as in go, never as in

gem.ṅ is pronounced in the throat, like ng in hanger.ñ is pronounced like n in lunch, or, before a

vowel, like ny in canyon (cañon).ṭ, ḍ, and ṇ are approximately the English t, d, and

n, pronounced in the middle of the mouth.t, d, and n are pronounced at the teeth, as in

Italian or Spanish.ṣ and ś are approximately the English sh.v is pronounced w when it follows a consonant.h is always pronounced separately when it

follows a consonant, so that ch is ch-h, ph isp-h, th is t-h, etc.

ḥ is a breathing sound, generally at the end of aword.

ṃ is a nasal or humming sound at the end of aword; if it comes before a consonant it isassimilated to it, becoming either n, ñ, ṇ, n orm.

GLOSSARY OFSANSKRIT WORDS

amrta: the nectar of immortality or spiritual life.avadhūtī or dhūtī: the central pthway of energy

(prāṇa) in the human body.bodhisattva: a future buddha who has vowed to

help all sentient beings rather than enjoy thestate of enlightenment for himself alone. Thedivine bodhisattvas represent the enlightenedmind active in life.

brāhmaṇa: a member of the highest Hindu caste.brahmarandhra: the aperture of Brahman; an

opening at the crown of the head at the top ofthe central pathway of energy, through whichconsciousness should emerge after death if itis to be liberated.

buddha: awakened, enlightened. It may refer tothe divine buddhas who are aspects of theprinciple of enlightenment, or to anyenlightened being, and in particular toGautama Buddha, the historical buddha. Also

the name of one of the five families (seeIntroduction and Commentary, “The FirstDay” through “The Fifth Day”).

dākinī: the feminine energy principle, associatedwith knowledge and intelligence, which maybe either destructive or creative.

dharma: truth, religion, law. In the plural, thebasic elements or realities.

dharmadhātu: dhātu is space, sphere, or realm;dharmadhātu expresses the idea of the all-encompassing matrix in which all phenomenaarise and cease.

dharmakāya: “the body of truth,” the absolutebuddha-nature. (See kāya).

dharmatā: totality of the basic elements, theessence of reality.

dhūtī: (See avadhūtī).gandharva: the musicians of the gods,

associated with conception; “city of thegandharvas” is an expression for an illusionor image.

garuḍa: mythical bird, half human and halfeagle. It represents the yogin’s confidenceand power, and devours the serpents ofpoisonous emotions. The shang-shang(Tibetan) is a special type of garuḍa whoplays a pair of cymbals as he flies.

Gaurī: name of a goddess, “the White One,” andof a group of eight goddesses which sheleads, appearing on the twelfth day of thebardo. (See Commentary, “The WrathfulDieties”).

guru: religious teacher, also called the spiritualfriend.

heruka: the masculine energy principle in awrathful form. (See Commentary, “TheWrathful Dieties”).

karma: action. One of the five families (SeeIntroduction and Commentary, “The FifthDay”). The doctrine that actions are followedby an inevitable result; action and reaction,or cause and effect.

kāya: body, used in an abstract sense in theThree Kāyas. The first, dharmakāya, is thebody of dharma or truth, the absolute buddha-nature; the second, saṃbhogakāya, is thebody of enjoyment, the aspect of buddha-nature which communicates the dharma andappears in the form of the peaceful andwrathful deities; the third, nirmāṇakāya, is thebody of creation, in which the buddha-naturemanifests itself on earth. Encompassing andtranscending them is a fourth, thesvabhāvikakāya, the essential body of

intrinsic nature.maṇḍala: the arrangement of deities or their

emblems, usually in the form of a circle,emanating from a center, expressing a patternof energies.

mantra: formula of Sanskrit words or syllables,expressing in sound the essence of aparticular deity, quality, or power.

Meru: a golden mountain at the centre of theuniverse, surrounded by four continents, thecenter of the cosmic maṇḍala.

nāḍī: pathway of energy (prāṇa) in the humanbody; the system of nādīs is the pattern ofresponse to reality.

nirmāṇakāya: “the body of creation,” the earthlyform of the Buddha and other enlightenedbeings. (See kāya).

padma: lotus: one of the five families. (SeeIntroduction and Commentary, “The FourthDay”).

piśācī: a group of goddesses with animal heads,who appear on the twelfth day of the bardo.

prāṇa: energy or life-force, the bearer of mindand consciousness.

ratna: jewel; one of the five families. (SeeIntroduction and Commentary, “The ThirdDay”).

sādhana: a text describing the visualisation andworship of a deity; also the spiritual practiceitself.

samādhi: meditation in which the distinctionbetween subject and object disappears.

samaya: the sacred vow which binds the tantricyogin to his practice.

sambhogakāya: “the body of enjoyment,” thevisionary and communicative aspect ofbuddha-nature. (See kāya).

saṃsāra: the cycle of existence, based onignorance and characterized by suffering.

saṅgha: the community of those who practice thedharma.

siddha: a yogin who has attained spiritualrealization and supernatural powers (siddhi).

skandha: the five psychological components ofhuman personality. (See Introduction).

stūpa: dome-shaped monument containing relicsor religious texts.

sūtra: a discourse of the Buddha on meditationand philosophy.

svabhāvikakāya: “the body of intrinsic nature.”(See kāya).

tantra: a treatise containing the teachings of aparticular spiritual practice which deals withthe transmutation of energy; also the method

itself. Only the main, basic texts are calledtantras, but there are many related workswhich can be described as tantric, includingthe Bardo Thötröl.

tathāgata: synonymous with buddha, usedespecially for the five saṃbhogakāyabuddhas. (See Introduction).

vajra: a tantric ritual object, consisting of aspherical centre from which radiate two setsof curved spokes, generally five or nine innumber. Meaning both thunderbolt anddiamond, it symbolizes all their qualities:power, indestructibility, purity, andsupremacy. Also the name of one of the fivefamilies. (See Introduction and Commentary,“The Second Day”).

vidyādhara: holder of knowledge or insight: theenergy of discovery and communication. (SeeCommentary, “The Seventh Day”).

yoga: a psycho-physical method of spiritualdevelopment, concerned with the direction ofenergy and consciousness.

yogin: a practicer of yoga.yoginī: a female practicer of yoga; here used

only for a group of goddesses who appear onthe twelfth day of the bardo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This list is not intended as a generalbibliography of Tibetan Buddhism, but includesonly books relevant to the Bardo Thötröl, itsiconography or its historical and culturalbackground, and translations of texts containingrelated teachings.

Bhattacharrya, B. The Indian BuddhistIconography. Calcutta: Firma K. L.Mukhopadhyay, 1968.

______, ed. Sādhanamālā. Baroda: G.O.S.XXVI & XLI, 1925–8.

Chang, C. C. Esoteric Teachings of the TibetanTantra. Lausanne: Aurora Press, 1961.

______. Teachings of Tibetan Yoga. Hyde Park:University Books, 1963.

______. The Hundred Thousand Songs ofMilarepa. Hyde Park: University Books,1962.

Clark, W. E. Two Lamaistic Pantheons.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1937.Evans-Wentz, W. E. The Tibetan Book of the

Dead. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1957.

______. The Tibetan Book of the GreatLiberation. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1954.

______. Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967.

______. Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa. Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1969.

Gordon, A. The Iconography of TibetanLamaism. New York: Paragon, 1967.

______. Tibetan Religious Art. New York:Columbia University Press, 1952.

Govinda, A. Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism.London: Rider; New York: Weiser; 1959.

Guenther, H. V. The Life and Teaching ofNāropa. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1963.

Newark Museum. Catalogue of the TibetanCollection. Vol. III. Newark: NewarkMuseum, 1971.

Olschak, B. C. Mystic Art of Ancient Tibet.London: Allen & Unwin; New York:McGraw-Hill, 1973.

Pal, P., and Tseng, H. C. Lamaist Art: The

Aesthetics of Harmony. Boston: Museum ofFine Arts.

Pott, P. H. Introduction to the TibetanCollection. Leiden: Brill, 1951.

______. Art of the World: Burma, Korea, Tibet.(Tibetan section.) London: Methuen; NewYork: Crown; 1964.

Raghuvira and Lokesh Chandra. A New Tibeto-Mongol Pantheon. New Delhi: IAIC, 1961.

Rawson, P. The Art of Tantra. London: Thames& Hudson; Greenwich: New York GraphicSociety, 1973.

Snellgrove, D., and Richardson, H. A CulturalHistory of Tibet. London: Weidenfeld &Nicolson, 1968.

Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center. Sacred Artof Tibet. Berkeley: TNMC, 1972.

Toussaint, G-C. Le Dict de Padma. Paris:Leroux, 1933.

Tucci, G. Il Libro Tibetano dei Morti. Milan:Fratelli Bocca, 1949.

______. Tibetan Painted Scrolls. Rome:ISMEO, 1949.

______. The Theory and Practice of theMandala. London: Rider; New York: Weiser,1961.

______. Tibet: Land of Snows. London: Elek,

1967.Waddell, L. A. The Buddhism of Tibet or

Lamaism. Cambridge: Heffer, 1971.

INDEX

Note: Index entries from the print edition ofthis book have been included for use as searchterms. They can be located by using the searchfeature of your e-book reader.

aggressionpassion and

airĀkāśagarbhaAkṣobhyaĀlokāAmitābhaAmoghasiddhiamṛtaAmṛtāAmṛtakuṇḍalīanimal(s)

-headed deitiesrealm ofsacrifice ofsage (buddha) of

Aṅkuśāasura See jealous godatiyogaavadhūtī

Avalokiteśvara

bardo-bodydangerous pathway offirstmeaning ofof becomingof birthof dharmatāof dreamsof moment before deathof peaceful deitiesof samādhi-meditationof wrathful deities-retreatsecond-textsthird

Bardo ThötrölBhakṣiṇībirth

bardo of, See bardofour kinds ofprevention ofspontaneous

bodhisattvabody

and mindapertures ofbardo-deterioration ofelements offormer

futurehumanleaving thelooking for amaterialmentalpure illusorytaking a

BönbrahmarandhraBrāhmīBuddha, the (Gautama)buddha(s)

and bodhisattvasbecoming a-, dharma, sangha-eye-familiesfemale-formsmale-mind-natureof Immortal Lightof six realmsprimordial-realmssaṃbhogakāya-state

Buddha-HerukaBuddha-KrodhīśvarīBuddha-LocanāBuddhismBull-headed demon

CaṇḍālīCandrāCaurīcompassion

light-ray hook ofrope of

complete practiceconcept, skandha ofconsciousness

after deathawakenedejection ofskandha of

ḍākinīDaṇḍāDawa-Samdup, Kaziday (of the bardo)

firstsecondthirdfourthfifthsixthseventheighthninthtentheleventhtwelfth

deathsigns of

desire(See also passion)

Destroyer of Deathdeva See goddharma

-brother-eyesound of

Dharma Kingdharmadhātu

wisdom of, See wisdomdharmakāyaDharmarājadharmatā

bardo of, See bardoluminosity ofmother and sonsound of

DhruvasiṅhaDhūpādiscriminating awareness wisdom

See wisdom

earthEgyptian Book of the Deadelephant throneemptinessenlightenmentenvyequanimity See wisdomEvans-Wentz, W.Y.

father (future)feeling, skandha offemale (feminine)

aspect of mind

bodhisattvabuddhaenergyfuture birth asprinciple

fireform, skandha of

GampopaGandhāgaruḍa

-headedgate-keepersgates, goddesses of

guardians ofyoginīs of

GaurīgaurīsGhaṇṭāGhasmarīGītāgod(s)

eyes ofpalace ofrealm ofsage (buddha) of

goddess(es)GṛdhramukhāGreat CompletionGreat HerukaGreat SymbolGreen Ḍākinīguru

homage to

tantricteaching of

Hayagrīvahell

-beingssage (buddha) of

herukahorse

-headed-neckedof wind-throne

human being(s)sage (buddha) of

human realm (world)hungry ghost(s)

realm ofsage (buddha) of

ignoranceIndraIndrāṇī

jealous god(s)realm ofsage (buddha) of

Jvālamukha

KākamukhāKāmāKaṅkamukhākarma

avengers of

bad (evil)familygoodmirror ofpath ofrecords of

Karma-HerukaKarma-Krodhīśvarīkarmic action, activity

darknessresults

KṣitigarbhaKumārī

Lāsyāliberation

attainment ofmeaning ofobstacle to-teachings

Liberation through Hearing (Great)reading of

lion-headed-position-throne

Lion of the ŚākyasLobhāLord of DeathLord of Great CompassionLord of Life Vidyādharaluminosity

basicfirst

of deathof dharmatāsecond

Lotus DeitiesLotus Lord of Dance

MahābalāMahādevīMahāhastinīMahākālaMaitreyaMālāmale

aspect of mindbuddhafuture birth as

MāmakīmaṇḍalaMañjuśrīmantrameditation

bardo of samādhi-meditation, See bardoGreat Symbolobjects ofon luminosity

mindand bodybuddha-form of your own

mind (continued)of dharmakāyaof sambhogakāyaplay of theradiance of

resting thestate ofunconscious

miraclemirror of karmamirror-like rays

-wisdom, See wisdommother (future)

-goddessesmeeting of mother and sonmother and son dharmatāmother and son luminosity

Mount Meru

nāḍīNaivedyāNārīnirmāṇakāya

padma-family

Padma-HerukaPadma-KrodhīśvarīPadmasaṃbhavaPāṇḍaravāsinīparents, future

(See also father, mother)Pāśāpassion

(See also desire)and aggression

peacepeaceful deities (divinities)peacock throne

perception, skandha ofpiśācīpoisons, fivePramohāprāṇapreta See hungry ghostprideprojection(s)

confusedmeaning ofof future parentspure form ofrecognition ofterrifying

Pukkasīpure illusory bodyPure Land practicePure Realm of Spacepure visions, projectionsPuṣpā

Queen of Vajra SpaceQueens of Space

RākṣasīRatiratna

-familyRatna-HerukaRatna-KrodhīśvarīRatnasaṃbhavarealms, six (of existence)Red Ḍākinīrelics

ritual for the deadRudra

sādhanasamādhi

bardo of samādhi-meditation, See bardoSamantabhadraSamantabhadrīsamaya

-practice-vow

Samaya-Tārāsambhogakāya

buddha in thesaṃsāraŚāntiSarvanivaraṇaviskambhinself

belief in ashang-shang (bird)SiṅhamukhāskandhaŚmaśānīspaceŚṛgālamukhāŚṛṅkhalāsupernatural perceptionsvabhāvikakāyaŚvānamukhā

tantratantric art

deitiesguru

teachingsyogin

tathāgata-family

terma (texts)Three JewelsTibetTibetan Book of the Dead

Ūlumukhāunconscious

-influences-state-tendencies

unconsciousness

Vairocanavajra (symbol)

double-family-quality-seat

VajrāVajra-HerukaVajra-KrodhīśvarīVajrapāṇiVajrasattvaVārāhīVaruṇadevīVasurakṣāVāyudevīVemacitraVetālīVictorious One See Vijaya

vidyādharaVijayaVimalamitravisualisation practiceVyāghrīmukhā

water-divining

White ḌākinīWhite-clad One

See Pāṇḍaravāsinīwisdom

action-accomplishing-dhūtī-eyeinnatefive wisdomsfour wisdomslight ofmirror-likeof dharmadhātuof discrimination (discriminating awareness)of equality (equanimity)spontaneous

wish-fulfilling jewel (gem)womb

birth fromchoosingclosing entrance toenteringreturning to

wrathful deities (divinities)-energy-mantras

YamaYamāntakaYellow Ḍākinīyidamyoga

six yogas of Nāropātantric

yoginyoginī