On the Seventh Day, the Knowledge-Holding Deities, from the holy paradise realms, come to receive one. Simultaneously, the pathway to the brute world, produced by the obscuring passion, stupidity, also cometh to receive one.? The setting- face-to-face at that time is, calling the deceased by name, thus:
aim of the Bardo Thédol teaching is to awaken the Dreamer to Reality—to a supramundane state of consciousness, to an annihilation of all bonds of sangsaric existence, to Perfect Enlightenment, Buddhahood.
O nobly-born, listen undistractedly. On the Seventh Day the vari-coloured radiance of the purified propensities will come to shine. Simultaneously, the Knowledge-Holding Deities,! from the holy paradise realms, will come to receive one.
From the centre of the Circle [or Mandala], enhaloed in radiance of rainbow light, the supreme Knowledge-Holding [Deity], the Lotus Lord of Dance, the Supreme Knowledge- Holder Whe Ripens Karmic Fruits, radiant with all the five
dancing and making the mudra@ of fascination,* [with his right
To the east of that Circle, the deity called the Earth-Abid- ing Knowledge-Holder, white of colour, with radiant smiling countenance, embraced by the White Dékinz, the [Divine]
blood, dancing and making the mudra of fascination, [with his
To the south of that Circle, the Knowledge-Holding Deity
colour, smiling and radiant, embraced by the Yellow Déakini,
To the west of that Circle, the deity called the Knowledge- Holding Deity of the Great Symbol,! red of colour, smiling and radiant, embraced by the Red Dékini, the [Divine]
blood, dancing and making the mudra of fascination, [with his
To the north of that Circle, the deity called the Self- Evolved Knowledge-Holder, green of colour, with a_half- angry, half-smiling radiant countenance, embraced by the
come to shine.
In the Outer Circle, round about these Knowledge-Holders, innumerable bands of dakinis,—dakinis of the eight places of cremation, @a@kinis of the four classes, dakinis of the three abodes, d@kinis of the thirty holy-places and of the twenty- four places of pilgrimage,?—heroes, heroines, celestial warriors, and faith-protecting deities, male and female, each bedecked with the six bone-ornaments, having drums and thigh-bone trumpets, skull-timbrels, banners of gigantic human[-like] hides,? human-hide canopies, human-hide bannerettes, fumes
causing them to vibrate, to quake and tremble with sounds so mighty as to daze one’s brain, and dancing various measures, will come to receive the faithful and punish the unfaithful.4
* Herein the dakinis are represented like various orders of fairy-like beings, some dwelling in one place, some in another. The eight places of cremation are the eight known to Hindu mythology ; the three abodes are the heart-centre, the throat-centre, and the brain-centre, over which, esoterically speaking, certain dakinis (as the personification of the psychic forces resident in each centre) preside, just as other ¢akinis preside over the holy-places and places of pilgrimage,
§ That is, hides of rakshasas, an order of giant demoniacal beings having human form and possessed of certain stddhts (i. e. supernormal powers).
* Tibetan /amas, in chanting their rituals, employ seven (or eight) sorts of
O nobly-born, five-coloured radiances, of the Wisdom of the Simultaneously-Born,! which are the purified propensities, vibrating and dazzling like coloured threads, flashing, radiant, and transparent, glorious and awe-inspiring, will issue from the hearts of the five chief Knowledge-Holding Deities and strike against thy heart, so bright that the eye cannot bear to look upon them.
At the same time, a dull blue light from the brute world will come to shine along with the Radiances of Wisdom. Then, through the influence of the illusions of thy propensities, thou wilt feel afraid of the radiance of the five colours; and
dull light from the brute-world. Thereupon, be not afraid of that brilliant radiance of five colours, nor terrified; but know the Wisdom to be thine own.
Within those radiances, the natural sound of the Truth will reverberate like a thousand thunders. The sound will come
‘Slay! Slay!’ and awe-inspiring mantras.2 Fear not. Flee
musical instruments: big drums, cymbals (commonly of brass), conch-shells, bells (like the handbells used in the Christian Mass Service), timbrels, small clarionets (sounding like Highland bagpipes), big trumpets, and human thigh- bone trumpets. Although the combined sounds of these instruments are far from being melodious, the /a@mas maintain that they psychically produce in the devotee an attitude of deep veneration and faith, because they are the counter- parts of the natural sounds which one’s own body is heard producing when the fingers are put in the ears to shut out externalsounds. Stopping the ears thus, there are heard a thudding sound, like that of a big drum being beaten; a clashing sound, as of cymbals; a soughing sound, as of a wind moving through a forest—as when a conch-shell is blown; a ringing as of bells ; a sharp tapping sound, as when a timbrel is used; a moaning sound, like that of a clarionet ; a bass moaning sound, as if made with a big trumpet; and a shriller sound, as of a thigh-bone trumpet.
Not only is this interesting as a theory of Tibetan sacred music, but it gives the clue to the esoteric interpretation of the symbolical natural sounds of Truth (referred to in the second paragraph following, and elsewhere in our text), which are said to be, or to proceed from, the intellectual faculties within the human mentality.
Be not attracted towards the dull blue light of the brute- world; be not weak. If thou art attracted, thou wilt fall into the brute-world, wherein stupidity predominates, and suffer the illimitable miseries of slavery and dumbness and stupidness ;* and it will be a very long time ere thou canst get out. Be not attracted towards it. Put thy faith in the bright, dazzling, five-coloured radiance. Direct thy mind one-pointedly towards the deities, the Knowledge-Holding Conquerors. Think, one- pointedly, thus: ‘These Knowledge-Holding Deities, the Heroes, and the Dakinis have come from the holy paradise realms to receive me; I supplicate them all: up to this day, although the Five Orders of the Buddhas of the Three Times have all exerted the rays of their grace and compassion, yet have I not been rescued by them. Alas, for a being like me! May the Knowledge-Holding Deities not let me go downwards further than this, but hold me with the hook of their com- passion, and lead me to the holy paradises.’
Thinking in that manner, one-pointedly, pray thus:
‘O ye Knowledge-Holding Deities, pray hearken unto me ;
Lead me on the Path, out of your great love.
fied propensities,
On the bright light-path of the Simultaneously-born Wisdom
May the bands of Heroes, the Knowledge-Holders, lead me;
guard ;
May they save me from the fearful ambuscades of the Bardo,
And place me in the pure Paradise Realms.’
Praying thus, in deep faith and humility, there is no doubt that one will be born within the pure Paradise Realms,’ after
* The deceased, having by now fallen to lower and lower stages of the Bardo, looks to the heaven-worlds (which are worlds of embodiment within the Sangsdra) rather than to Nirvana (which is non-Sangsdric) as a place of refuge. Although, theoretically, Nirvdza is ever realizable from any stage of the Bardo, practically, for the ordinary devotee, it is not, meritorious karma being inadequate ; hence the /ama or reader officiating aims at making the best of the situation in which, it is assumed, the deceased inevitably finds himself.
being merged, in rainbow-light, into the heart of the Know- ledge-Holding Deities.
All the pandit classes, too, coming to recognize at this stage, obtain liberation ; even those of evil propensities being sure to be liberated here.
Here endeth the part of the Great 7ddol concerned with
Bardo and the setting-face-to-face of the Clear Light of the Chikhai Bardo.