Thou wilt pay undistracted attention to that with which I am about to set thee face to face, and hold on:
O nobly-born, that which is called death hath now come. Thou art departing from this world, but thou art not the only one; [death] cometh to all. Do not cling, in fondness and weakness, to this life. Even though thou clingest out of weakness, thou hast not the power to remain here. Thou wilt gain nothing more than wandering in this Sangsāra.[1] Be not attached [to this world]; be not weak. Remember the Precious Trinity.[2]
O nobly-born, whatever fear and terror may come to thee in the Chönyid Bardo, forget not these words; and, bearing their meaning at heart, go forwards: in them lieth the vital secret of recognition:
'Alas! when the Uncertain Experiencing of Reality is dawning upon me here,[3]
With every thought of fear or terror or awe for all [apparitional appearances] set aside,
May I recognize whatever [visions] appear, as the reflections of mine own consciousness;
May I know them to be of the nature of apparitions in the Bardo:
When at this all-important moment [of opportunity] of achieving a great end,
May I not fear the bands of Peaceful and Wrathful [ Deities], mine own thought-forms.[4]'
Repeat thou these [verses] clearly, and remembering their significance as thou repeatest them, go forwards, [O nobly-born]. Thereby, whatever visions of awe or terror appear,
- ↑ Text: Hkhor-va (pron. Khor-wa): 'a thing whirling round'; ' whirligig': Skt. Sangsāra (or Saṁsāra).
- ↑ That is, the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha.
- ↑ Reality is experienced or glimpsed in a state of uncertainty, because the Knower experiences it through the Bardo counterpart of the illusory perceptive faculties of the earth-plane body and not through the unobscured supramundane consciousness of the pure Dharma-Kāya state, wherein there can be no Bardo (i.e 'Uncertain', or ' Intermediate State').
- ↑ Text: rang-snang (pron. rang-nang): 'one's own [mental] visions (or thought-forms).'
