The Bardo Thidol being itself a work more or less Tantric, and consequently largely based upon the Yoga Philosophy, some general acquaintance with Tantricism, as with Yoga, is
desirable for all readers of this book. So we record here—in mere outline, and, therefore, more often than not undetailed and incomplete—the following complementary matter con- cerning Tantricism.
In the preliminary instructions, the Bardo Thédol makes reference to the vital-force or vital-airs, which, following the Tantras, may be described as follows:
The Vital-Force (Skt. Praua)—The human principle of consciousness, the Knower, clothes itself, when incarnate, in five sheaths (Skt. Kosha), which are: (1) the physical-sheath (Anna-maya-kosha) ; (2) the vital-sheath (Praua-maya-kosha) ; (3) the sheath in which resides the ordinary human conscious- ness (MJano-maya-kosha); (4) that of the subconsciousness (Vijndna-maya-kosha); and (5) that of the all-transcending blissful consciousness of Reality (Anxanda-maya-kosha).
In the vital-sheath resides the vital-force (Skt. praza) divided into ten vital-airs (vay, derived from the root va, ‘to breathe’
chief groups of Tantras, one Hindu, the other Buddhist. The Hindu Tantra is generally cast in the form of a dialogue between the god Shiva, as the Divine Guru, and his Shakti Parvati, often in their wrathful forms as Bhairava and Bhairavi. In the Buddhist Tantra, these purely Hindu deities are replaced by Buddhist deities, Buddhas and their Shakiis, or by gods and goddesses. One characteristic of both classes of Yantras is that usually they are based upon the Yoga Philosophy. Which of the two classes is older is a disputed question ; but the oldest Tantras are probably far older than European critics (who have placed their origin well within the Christian era) have thought. Some Zantras are indis- putably quite modern. According to orthodox Hindus, the Taniras are of Vedic origin, and designed to serve as the chief Scriptures for this age, the Kali Yuga. Some Buddhists claim a purely Buddhist origin for the Tantras. The Hindu view is, however, the commonly accepted view.
As encyclopaedias of the knowledge of their times, the Zantras are very humerous. Some are concerned with the nature of the cosmos, its evolution and dissolution; the classification of sentient beings and of the various heavens, hells, and worlds ; the divinely instituted rules governing human relations and conduct ; the numerous forms of worship and spiritual training, ceremonial rites, meditation, yoga, duties of kings, law, custom, medicine, astrology, astronomy, magic ; and, in short, the whole cycle of the sciences of the East.
In so far as the Bardo Thédol is a ritual based upon Yoga, and has for its chief matter the science of birth, death, and rebirth, interwoven with descrip- tions of the various states of existence and beings pcopling the universe, and teaches of the ways of obtaining salvation, it is a Tantric work, although, strictly speaking, not a Tantra.
For detailed knowledge concerning the Tantras, the student is referred to Principles of Tantra, Part 1, by Arthur Avalon (London, 1914).
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or ‘to blow’, refers to the motive power of praza). As the daemons of Plato’s occultism are said to control the operations of the Cosmic Body, so these vayuw, composed of negative pranua, control the operations of the human body. Five are ‘fundamental: (1) the pramua, controlling inspiration; (2) the udana, controlling the ascending vital-force (or vital-air) ; (3) the apana, controlling the downward vital-force, which expels wind, excrement, urine, and semen; (4) the samdna, as the collective force of the vay, kindles the fire of the body whereby food is digested and then distributed by the blood ; and (5) the vyaza, controlling division and diffusion in all metabolic processes. The five minor airs are the WVaga, kirmma, krikara, deva-datta, and dhananjaya, which produce, respectively, hiccuping, opening and closing of the eyes, assistance to digestion, yawning, and distension.
The Psychic Nerves or Channels (Skt. Nadi).—There are next mentioned in our text the Psychic Nerves. Sanskrit works on Yoga say that there are fourteen principal #@d¢ and hun- dreds of thousands of minor z@dz in the human body, just as Western physiologists say that there are so many chief nerves and minor nerves. But the za@dz of the East and the nerves of the West, although literally the same in name, are not syn- onymous. The zda@d@z are invisible channels for the flow of psychic forces whose conducting agents are the vital-airs (vay).
Of the fourteen principal dd, there are three which are of fundamental importance. These are, to follow our text, the median-nerve (Skt. sushumna-nadi), the left nerve (7¢a-nadz), and the right nerve (fingala-nadi). The sushumna-nadi is the chief or median-nerve, situated in the hollow of the spinal column (Skt. Brahma-danda), the Mt. Meru of the human body, man being regarded as the microcosm of the macrocosm. The ida-nadi, to the left, and the pimgala-nadi, to the right, coil round it as the two serpents coil round the caduceus carried by the messenger-god Hermes. It is believed that this ancient herald’s wand symbolizes the suskumna-nadi, and the twining serpents the 7@@-nadi and the pingala-nadi. If so, we see again how the esoteric symbol-code of the West corre- sponds to that of the East.
The Psychic-Nerve Centres (Skt. Chakra).—The sushumna- nadi forms the great highway for the passage of the psychic forces of the human body. These forces are concentrated in centres, or chakra, like dynamos, ranged along the sushumna- nadi and interconnected by it, wherein are stored the vital- force or vital-fluid upon which all psycho-physical processes ultimately depend. Of these, six are of fundamental impor- tance. The first is known as the Root-support (Wiladhara) of the sushumna-nadi, situated in the perineum; and in the Miuladhaéraé is the secret Fountain of Vital-Force, presided over by the Goddess Kundalini. Next above, lies the second chakra, or lotus, called the Svadhishthana, which is the centre of the sex-organs. The navel nerve-centre is above, and called in Sanskrit MZani-piira-chakra. The next is the heart nerve-centre, the Axzdhata-chakra, In the throat is located the fifth, called the Vishuddha-chakra. In the Ajna-chakra, which is the sixth, situated between the eyebrows, as depicted by the ‘third eye’ on images of the Buddha and of Hindu deities, the three chief psychic nerves (adi), sushumna, ida, and pingalad, come together and then separate. Above all, in the causal region of psychic man, as the sun of the body, sending its rays downwards over the human-body cosmos, is the Supreme or Seventh Chakra, the thousand-petalled lotus (or chakra) called Sahasrara Padma; through it the sushumna- nadt has its exit, the Aperture of Brahma (Skt. Bra&hkma- randhra) referred to in our text, through which the conscious- ness-principle normally goes out from the body at death.
The initial aim of the practitioner of Yoga is to awaken what in the Zantras is called the Serpent Power, personified as the Goddess Kundalini. It is in the Wi#ladhara-chakra, at the base of the spinal column, containing the root of the sushummna- nadi, that this mighty occult power lies coiled, like a serpent asleep. Once the Serpent Power is aroused into activity, it is made to penetrate, one by one, the psychic-nerve centres, until, rising like mercury in a magic tube, it reaches the thousand-petalled lotus in the brain-centre. Spreading out in a fountain-like crest, it falls thence as a shower of heavenly ambrosia to feed all parts of the psychic body. Thus becom-
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ing filled with supreme spiritual power, the yogz experiences Illumination.
Mandalas.—Of the Psychic-Centres, or Chakra, the Bardo Thodol is concerned chiefly with three: (1) the Heart-centre _ (Andahata-chakra) ; (%) the Throat-centre (Vishuddha-chakra); and (3) the Brain-centre (Sakasrara Padma). Of these, two are of chief importance: the Brain-centre, sometimes called the Northern Centre, and the Heart-centre, or Southern Centre. These two constitute the two poles of the human organism. They are said to be the first centres to form in the embryo, and the terrestrial pra@za, derived from the central pramuic reservoir in the sun of our planetary system, is said to direct their formation.
Related to these three principal chakra, there are three chief mandalas or mystic groupings of deities divided into fourteen subsidiary mandalas corresponding to the first Fourteen (7 +7) Days of the Bardo as described in our text.
The first of these three chief saudalas contains 42 deities, distributed in six subordinate mandalas corresponding to the first Six Days of the Chonyid Bardo ; and they emanate from the Heart-centre. The second mandala contains 10 principal deities, which dawn on the Seventh Day; and these emanate from the Throat-centre. The third mandala contains 58 principal deities, distributed in seven subordinate mandalas, corresponding to the last Seven Days of the Chonyid Bardo, and emanating from the Brain-centre. The first 42 and the last 58 comprise the Great Mandala of the 100 superior deities, the 42 being called peaceful and the 58 wrathful deities. The other 10 deities, related to the Throat-centre, which dawn intermediately between the 42 of the Heart- centre and the 58 of the Brain-centre, are classed with the 42 peaceful deities. Thus, when united in the Greater Mandala of the whole of the Chonyid Bardo, there are 110 principal deities.
It will be observed, too, that there is definite orientation in all the mandalas.
The Five Dhyani Buddhas with their shakizs' are the chief
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deities dawning on the first Five Days. On the First Day, Vairochana and his skakti alone dawn. Then on each of the four succeeding days, along with one of the remaining four of the Dhyani Buddhas and the skakiz, there dawn two Bodhisattvas and their shaktzs. Then, on the Sixth Day, all of these deities, dawning in one mandala, are joined by 16 additional deities: 8 Door-keepers, the 6 Buddhas of the Six Lokas, and the Adi-Buddha and shakti; and all these deities together compose the 42 deities of the Heart-centre. Then, after the dawning of the 10 Knowledge-Holding Deities (called, in the Obeisances, p. 85, the Lotus Deities) of the Throat-centre, on the intervening Seventh Day, there dawn during the remaining Seven Days the 58 deities of the Brain- centre, as follows: on each of the first five days, or from the Eighth to the Twelfth Day, one of the Herukas with his shakii, in all 10 deities; on the Thirteenth Day, the 8 Kerima and the 8 Htamenma; on the Fourteenth Day, 4 Door-keepers and the 28 animal-headed Deities. Behind the symbolism of deities and szandalas and psychic-centres there lies the rational explanation, namely, that each deity, as it dawns from its appropriate psychic-centre, represents the coming into after- death karmic activity of some corresponding impulse or
or negative, phase of that divine force or power concentrated in or personified by the consort of a god, the god representing the positive phase; the Tantric worshipper of Shaki (Power), or divine universal forces, personified as a Mother-Goddess, being called a sha@kta. The Tantrics—like the ancient Egyptians—exalt right knowledge of the reproductive processes, as no doubt it should be exalted, to the level of a religious science ; and in this science, as illustrated in the Bardo Thédol, the union of the male and female principles of nature, in what is called in Tibetan the yab (Skt. deva) -yum (Skt. shakti) attitude, symbolizes completeness, or at-one-ment. Power, symbolized by the male (yab, or deva), and Wisdom, symbolized by the female (yum, or shakti), are said, esoterically, to be ever in union.
It is much to be regretted that actual abuse of Tantric doctrine, due either to wilful perversion or, as is commonly the case, to misunderstanding, resulting in practices (like those of certain decadent sects or individuals in India) improperly called Tantric, by non-initiates in America and in Europe, in some instances under the aegis of organized societies, has brought upon Tantricism undeserved odium. Such unfortunate outcome of lack of guidance under properly trained gurus tends to justify the high initiate of Oriental occultism in his stern refusal to divulge the inner teachings of his cult to any save carefully prepared pupils who have been long on probation and found worthy; this was the view both of the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup and of his late guru in Bhutan.
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passion of the complex consciousness. As though in an initiatory mystery-play, the actors for each day of the Bardo come on the mind-stage of the deceased, who is their sole spectator; and their director is Karma. The higher or more divine elements of the consciousness-principle of the deceased dawn first in the full glory of the primal Clear Light; and then, in ever diminishing glory, the visions grow less and less happy—the Peaceful Deities of the Heart-centre, and then of the Throat-centre, merge into the Wrathful Deities of the Brain-centre. Finally, as the purely human and brutish pro- pensities, personified, in the fiercest of the Wrathful Deities, as horror-producing and threatening spectral hallucinations, come into the field of mental vision, the percipient flees in dismay from them—his own thought-forms—to the refuge of the womb, thereby making himself to be the plaything of Maya and the slave of Ignorance. In other words, in a manner similar to that in which the earth-plane body grows to maturity and then withers and after its death disintegrates, the after-death body, called the mental-body, grows from the heavenly days of its Bardo childhood to the less idealist days of its Bardo maturity, then fades and dies in the Intermediate State, as the Knower, abandoning it, is reborn.
Some clue to the separable elements of consciousness as they manifest themselves in the Intermediate State is gained from the significance of the Tantric divisions into petals of the lotuses, or chakras. For example, the Heart-centre Lotus, or Anahata-chakra, is described as a red-coloured lotus of twelve petals, each petal representing one of the chief elements of personality (vrittz) as follows: (1) hope (@shd) ; (2) care or anxiety (china) ; (3) endeavour (cheshia) ; (4) feeling of mineness (mamata) ; (5) arrogance or hypocrisy (dambha) ; (6) languor (vikalata) ; (7) conceit (akangkara); (8) discrimina- tion (viveka) ; (9) covetousness (/olaza) ; (10) duplicity (kapa- tata) ; (11) indecision (vitarka); (12) regret (anutapa).
The Throat-centre Lotus, or Vishuddha-chakra, also called
Bharatisthana, consists of sixteen petals. The first seven symbolize the seven Sanskrit musical notes. The eighth symbolizes the ‘venom’ of mortality. The next seven re- present the seven seed mantras, and the sixteenth is the symbol for the nectar of immortality (amrz¢d).
To each of the thousand petals of the Brain-centre Lotus variously coloured letters of the Sanskrit or Tibetan alphabet, and other symbols, are esoterically assigned ; and this chakra is said to contain in potential state all that exists in the other chakras (of which it is the originator) or in the universe.
Each of the Dhyani Buddhas, likewise, as elsewhere ex- plained from a different view-point, symbolizes definite spiritual attributes of the cosmos. Thus, Vairochana is appealed to by the Tantrics of Northern Buddhism as the universal force producing or giving form to everything both physical and spiritual; Vajra-Sattva (as the reflex of Akshobhya) is the universal force invoked for neutralizing by merit evil karma; Ratna-Sambhava, for the reproduction of all things desired ; Amitabha, for long life and wisdom; Amogha-Siddhi, for success in arts and crafts. In Vajra-Sattva, in his purely esoteric aspect, all the other Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the Mandala of the Bardo Thodol are said to merge or be contained.