Now, when the subtle mind is completely pure, the body or energy aspect of the combination of subtle mind and subtle body arises as the five different coloured luminosities (white, blue, red, yellow and green) and in the form of buddha-bodies. All the different maṇḍalas, of the hundred deities, or the thousand deities, or whatever number, are all expressions of the five enlightened families, which are related to the purity of the five psycho-physical aggregates, the five elements and the five pristine cognitions. These relationships form the core of the practices presented in Highest Yoga Tantra, as does the experiential cultivation of the nature of these deities through the daily practice.
So, in summary, by following in our practice the process of the natural dissolution of our gross forms of consciousness, and the natural arising from this state of the luminosities and bodies of the deities, first the actualisation of inner radiance is refined and this serves as the substantive cause for the arising of the Buddha-body of Perfect Resource and the Buddha-body of Emanation respectively. Thus the three bodies of a buddha are perfected, which is the fruition of the path of tantra.
Now, as for the forms of the meditational deity, which are generated in the practice of tantra, there are two principal types: peaceful deities and wrathful deities. In general terms, these are concerned with the transformation of the cognitive and emotional states associated with attachment and aversion respectively. The peaceful deities are quiescent and are expressions of the natural purity of attraction, that is the mind resting in its natural pristine state. The wrathful deities are the dynamic aspect of the peaceful deities and are expressions of the natural transformation of aversion. That is they represent the mind’s active transformation of delusion into pristine cognition.g
As we now see, the path of Highest Yoga Tantra involves taking dissonant cognitive states, such as attachment and aversion, on to the path. In the path followed by pious attendants (śrāvaka) dissonant cognitive states are categorically perceived as something to be renounced. In the Mahāyāna path, however, there are two approaches which contrast with that of the pious attendants. According to the Mahāyāna sūtras, if a certain situation suggests a positive outcome in terms of benefiting others the voluntary use of desire or attachment is allowable. However, in the tantras it is not merely that desire or attachment is permissible when beneficial, here one deliberately utilises their energies as the path to purifying or consuming the dissonant states themselves.
Given that the practices of the tantras include the disciplined engagement of subtle physiological processes and the transformation of the energies associated with attraction and aversion, before a practitioner can embark on the practices of tantra, he or she must find a spiritual teacher who meets the qualifications as set out in the authoritative literature and must receive empowerments and graduated instruction from that master. In addition, the practitioner should complete the preliminary practices and achieve a thorough grounding in the foundational paths of the sūtras, which includes the development of the altruistic intention to attain enlightenment (bodhicitta), the development of calm abiding - the stabilisation of attention on an internal object of meditation - and the development of penetrative insight - an analytical meditative state that dissects the nature of its object, its relationships, characteristics and function. The development of calm abiding and penetrative insight are the means by which the practitioner can cultivate his or her understanding of emptiness, which is an appreciation of the total absence of inherent existence and self-identity with respect to all phenomena. It is an essential prerequisite for beginning on the path of tantra that the practitioner achieve a profound appreciation of both non-substantiality and its interdependent relationship with phenomenal reality. The tantras presuppose this understanding, so it is in the sūtras therefore that we find the extensive elucidation of the methods for developing a complete understanding of emptiness.
Now, as to the nature of the understanding of emptiness presupposed by the tantras, the majority of masters of the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug schools agree that this is the view of the Middle Way (madhyamapratipad) propounded in the sūtras and elucidated by Nāgārjuna in his works. In the Dzogchen view, however, there is also a unique method of explaining emptiness, which emphasises the inseparability of emptiness and inner radiance, but nonetheless, principally, this designation does refer to emptiness as presented in Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way.
As far as the concept of emptiness or the ultimate nature of reality is concerned this is one area where there is an emerging convergence between the Buddhist understanding of the ultimate nature of existence and the evolving contemporary scientific view. This convergence relates to the unfindability of entities when these are analytically sought. In modern science the methods of analysis are principally applied to investigating the nature of material entities. Thus, the ultimate nature of matter is sought through a reductive process and the macroscopic world is reduced to the microscopic world of particles. Yet, when the nature of these particles is further examined, we find that ultimately their very existence as objects is called into question. This interface between non-substantiality and phenomena is a fundamental focus of Buddhist philosophical analysis and of experiential analysis through meditation on the nature of mind. As is now becoming more commonly known in the contemporary scientific field, a subtle understanding of the nature of the arising and dissolution of both individual thoughts and the cycles of existence lies at the heart of Buddhist literature and practice.
In summary, therefore, even though the stages of preparation for engaging in the practices of Highest Yoga Tantra are extensive, it is said that, since the mode of procedure in Highest Yoga Tantra follows a very close correspondence to the nature of existence, human beings of this world are regarded as having the perfect gross and subtle physiological basis for undertaking these practices successfully.
Normally in our lives, if we know that we are going to be confronted by a difficult or unfamiliar situation, we prepare and train ourselves for such a circumstance in advance, so that when this event actually happens we are fully prepared. As I have outlined, the rehearsal of the processes of death, and those of the intermediate state, and the emergence into a future existence, lies at the very heart of the path in Highest Yoga Tantra. These practices are part of my daily practice also and because of this I somehow feel a sense of excitement when I think about the experience of death. At the same time, though, sometimes I do wonder whether or not I will really be able to fully utilise my own preparatory practices when the actual moment of death comes!
A sense of uncertainty, and often fear, is a natural human feeling when thinking about the nature of death and the relationship between living and dying. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that the Bar-do Thos-grol Chen-mo, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a treasure-text which focuses on this important subject, has become one of the best-known works of Tibetan literature in the West. Carrying out the first complete translation of this cycle of teachings has been an extraordinary accomplishment undertaken with great care over many years.
I hope that the profound insights contained in this work will be a source of inspiration and support to many interested people around the world, as they have been in my own culture.
Editor’s Introduction
The Tibetan Book of the Dead includes one of the most detailed and compelling descriptions of the after-death state in world literature. It is not surprising therefore that when Chapter 11 of our text, ‘The Great Liberation by Hearing’, first appeared in English, in 1927, it caused a considerable stir and has remained one of the most well known of Tibet’s literary works ever since. In our work, for the first time, we are presenting a complete translation of all twelve chapters of the compilation of texts known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which includes nine chapters not translated in W. Y. Evans-Wentz’s original publication.
Our intention in carrying out this work was twofold. One was to present the entire original work, and the second was to compose
the translation with the close support and participation of the contemporary masters and lineage holders of this tradition.
The complete Tibetan Book of the Dead is a comprehensive guide to both living and dying as originally taught by the great master from Oḍḍiyāna, Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava, along with Sāntarakṣita and King Trisong Detsen, formally established Buddhism in Tibet, during the eighth century, and most Tibetans revere him as a ‘second Buddha’. The story of how this teaching was first given by Padmasambhava to King Trisong Detsen is presented in Gyurme Dorje’s ‘Brief Literary History’, which follows.
The compendium of texts known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead contains exquisitely written guidance and practices related to transforming our experience in daily life, on how to address the processes of dying and the after-death state, and on how to help those who are dying. These teachings include: methods for investigating and cultivating our experience of the ultimate nature of mind in our daily practice (Chapters 2-7), guidance on the recognition of the signs of impending death and a detailed description of the mental and physical processes of dying (Chapter 8), rituals for the avoidance of premature death (Chapter 9), the now famous guide ‘The Great Liberation by Hearing’ that is read to the dying and the dead (Chapter 11), aspirational prayers that are read at the time of death (Chapter 12), an allegorical masked play that light-heartedly dramatises the journey through the intermediate state (Chapter 13), and a translation of the sacred mantras that are attached to the body after death and are said to bring ‘Liberation by Wearing’ (Chapter 14).
In addition, and at the advice of the late HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, we have also included two additional texts that are not usually included, namely Chapter 1, which poetically sets out the preliminary meditations and practices related to this cycle of teachings, and indeed to tantric practice in general, and Chapter 10, the instructions on methods for transferring consciousness at the point of death into an enlightened state, which are referred to in Chapter 11 and are an essential aspect of the practices related to dying.
Our second intention was to present the entire work in a way that, as honestly as we could, reflects the insights and intentions of the masters of the lineage and gives a sense of the elegance and moving, poetic beauty of the original work. In order to do this, as is described in the Acknowledgements, the translation has been based on the oral commentarial explanation of contemporary lineage holders and was carried out with the continuous advice of contemporary masters.
Given the above, there is very little to say with respect to offering further introduction to the meaning of the texts. It is our hope that with the help of HH the Dalai Lama’s Introductory Commentary, the short introductions to each chapter, the notes and the glossary, the meaning will shine through as directly as was intended.
As I have been asked to do so, I will just say a few words about the psychological context of this material. It may seem somewhat woolly to many if it is said that the insights that are presented here come from those who have realised the ultimate nature of mind and thereby have experiential understanding of the processes of the mind in deep sleep, dreams, the waking state and throughout the processes of dying and beyond. But, as described by the Dalai Lama in the Introductory Commentary, the process of imagining and then actualising the stages of dissolution of consciousness that will occur naturally at the time of death lies at the heart of higher Tibetan Buddhist meditative practices, as do practices related to maintaining awareness during deep sleep and while dreaming.
As Gyurme Dorje describes in ‘A Brief Literary History’, this cycle of teachings is based on the Guhyagarbha Tantra. This text is described as having been received in a revelation from the primordial buddha Samantabhadra, transmitted through the agency of the meditational deities Vajrasattva and Guhyapati Vajrapāṇi. In other words, the source is Samantabhadra, who is the resonance of pure awareness, the natural purity of mental consciousness, transmitted through an embodiment of the insight, compassion and communicative skills (skilful means) of all the buddhas, that is to say of all those who abide in an unmoving realisation of the ultimate nature of mind.
As in all the major Buddhist tantric systems, the Guhyagarbha Tantra describes a maṇḍala, which is a visual representation of the components of the enlightened mind. Our chart of the maṇḍala of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities (Appendix Two) sets out the core aspects of the symbolism of the maṇḍala associated with our text. As is always the case, this symbolism is based on the classical understanding of the nature of a person’s psycho-physical components, as described in the Abhidharma literature, which is common to all forms of Buddhism. This analysis of the components of our being can be undertaken with our normal conceptual mind.
The actual experience of the luminosities which are said to underlie the maṇḍala is however only possible as a result of the accomplishment of very subtle meditative states, which are fruitional aspects of the path of Highest Yoga Tantra. As the Dalai Lama relates in his commentary, these luminosities only become apparent to the meditator once realisation of the ultimate nature of mind is achieved. This occurs during the processes of meditations, which are simulacra of the processes of dying and the re-emergence of consciousness from a non-conceptual inner radiance, the mind’s ultimate nature. The processes of the dissolution of the coarse forms of consciousness into inner radiance and the emergence of consciousness from inner radiance also occur naturally at the time of death. In other words, according to Buddhist tradition, experiential access to the processes, which mirror those of dying and the re-emergence of consciousness after death, is achievable in the waking state.
When HH Dilgo Khyenste Rinpoche gave his commentary to the text he explained that the ‘Introduction to the Intermediate State of Reality’, the central section of ‘The Great Liberation by Hearing’, is an expression of the esoteric Thodgal practices of Dzogchen, the ‘Great Perfection’ teachings. Thodgal is the pinnacle of meditative practice according to the Nyingma school and it results in the direct experience during meditation of the luminosities and the maṇḍala of meditational deities that are described in Chapter 11. This arising of the five-coloured luminosities as a result of actualising the ultimate nature of mind is a phenomenon that has been described by all the great meditators of the four major Buddhist schools of Tibet and the pre-Buddhist Bon tradition. The point I am leading up to here is that the experiences described in our text relate to the modalities of our awareness from moment to moment, in our waking state, in deep sleep, in our dreams and also during the transition from life to death and beyond.
In this sense ‘The Great Liberation by Hearing’ can be read as a wonderful metaphorical narrative illustrating the processes of our cognitive state, whether in our waking state or in death.
Carl Jung in his commentary to Evans-Wentz’s 1927 edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead spoke about how compelling he found it to look at ‘The Great Liberation by Hearing’ backwards. From a psychoanalytical point of view this is indeed interesting, as our text can then be seen as providing a guide for tracing our confused and deluded states, back through our conditioned attraction and aversion to selected aspects of our experience, back through the weave of our habitual tendencies and mental constructs and a relentless series of voluntary or involuntary mental choices, back through the illusory comfort generated by our sense of ego, right back to a pure original cognitive event. This is something that we can explore during our own waking experience by analysing how our thoughts originate in the mind, interact with our mental constructs and guide our emotions and subsequent actions.
Chapter 4 of our text, ‘The Introduction to Awareness’, addresses this process of exploration directly. Here we find guidance for the meditator on how to recognise the mind’s ultimate nature, the underlying, mirror-like pure awareness, free from dualistic elaboration, from which all our thoughts and perceptions arise and into which they always again dissolve. Chapter 11 then gives a symbolic description of how the pure radiances
of our awareness, the ultimate nature of our pure psycho-physical components and elemental properties, arise as luminosities and meditational deities. At this critical point, either we recognise these luminosities and meditational deities as the embodiments of our own actual nature, and thereby remain in a state of pure perception, or, having failed to recognise their appearance as being a natural expression of the ultimate nature of all phenomena, we are then inexorably drawn into the clouded, dull impulses of dualistic experience. Once this occurs, the matrix of our habitual tendencies and mental constructs is activated and this generates our sense of independent, individual identity. By now our ego, which cannot accept the openness and clarity of the pristine perceptual state, is established and the mind functions purely on the basis of wanting to satisfy its conditioned expectations and impulses, from moment to moment.
In this ego-bound state our thoughts, speech and actions are then modulated by a process of inner judgement. As the text describes, death holds up an all-seeing mirror, ‘the mirror of past actions’, to our eyes, in which the consequences of all our negative and positive actions are clearly seen and there is a weighing of our past actions in the light of their consequences, the balance of which will determine the kind of existence or mental state we are being driven to enter. The ‘life-review’ aspect of this process, metaphorically described in our text as the weighing of white pebbles, representing our positive actions, against the weight of black pebbles, representing our negative actions, is wonderfully illustrated by the poet Heathcote Williams’ phrase ‘death develops life’s photographs’, which succinctly evokes the notion of our day-to-day obliviousness to the consequences of our actions being developed or processed in death so that we can experience them face to face.
Following the expansive process of the ‘life-review’, the mind is then driven into a new equilibrium, avoiding the chaos of dissociation. This twofold process of inner judgement, the ‘life-review’ followed by the coalescence of the mind into a new modality, is symbolically represented in our text by the actions of Yama, who is the embodiment of the infallible laws of cause and effect. In our waking state, this weighing and modulation of the momentum of our past thoughts, speech and actions is of course largely hidden, but we do experience this in our sense of ‘conscience’ at the time of thinking, speaking or acting. In death, as in life, the process of inner judgement is not of course a judgement by an external being but it is the result of our own mind’s innate dynamic of manifesting the natural fruition of our own mental constructs and coalescing this ripening into a new equilibrium. At this stage, in particular, just as we are about to enter a changed emotive state, it is absolutely critical that we recognise the fundamental reality that we are experiencing the results of the mental states which we ourselves have generated and that we use this understanding to recognise the actual nature of our experience. In our day-to-day life we know that if we begin to feel angry, for example, this immediately creates an internal disturbance and this disturbance creates a shift in the way we perceive both others and our environment, which in turn affects the way in which others react to us, which then reinforces our initial anger and we feel confirmed in that new state. This is the cycle of experiencing the results of the mental states that we ourselves have generated, which can occur from moment to moment or according to our text from lifetime to lifetime.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead Page 3