attempt to triumph over, during the first seven days, wherein dawn the Peaceful Deities, are next explained to him in detail; the first day, judging from the text, being reckoned from the time in which normally he would be expected to wake up to the fact that he is dead and on the way back to rebirth, or about three and one-half to four days after death.]
[The First Day]
O nobly-born, thou hast been in a swoon during the last three and one-half days. As soon as thou art recovered from this swoon, thou wilt have the thought, 'What hath happened!'
Act so that thou wilt recognize the Bardo. At that time, all the Sangsāra will be in revolution;[1] and the phenomenal appearances that thou wilt see then will be the radiances and deities.[2] The whole heavens will appear deep blue.
Then, from the Central Realm, called the Spreading Forth of the Seed,[3] the Bhagavān Vairochana,[4] white in colour, and
- ↑ That is to say, phenomena, or phenomenal experiences as experienced when in the human world, will be experienced in quite another way in the Bardo world, so that to one just dead they will seem to be in revolution or confusion; hence the warning to the deceased, who must accustom himself to the after-death state as a babe must accustom itself after birth to our world.
- ↑ At this point, where the marvellous Bardo visions begin to dawn, the student in attempting to rationalize them should ever keep in mind that this treatise is essentially esoteric, being in most parts, especially from here onwards, allegorical and symbolical of psychic experiences in the after-death state.
- ↑ Text: Thiglé-Brdalva (pron. Thigle-Dalwa): 'Spreading forth the Seed [of all Things].' Esoterically, this is the Dharma-Dhātu.
- ↑ Text: Rnam-par-Snang-mzad (pron. Nam-par-Nang-zad); Skt. Vairochana, the Dhyānī Buddha of the Centre (or Central Realm), Vairochana literally means, 'in shapes making visible'; hence he is the Manifester of Phenomena, or the Noumena. The wheel he holds symbolizes sovereign power. His title Bhagavān (applied to many other of the deities to follow hereinafter), meaning 'One Possessed of Dominion' (or 'of the Six Powers'), or 'The Victorious', qualifies him as being a Buddha, i.e. One who has conquered, or has dominion over, sangsāric, or worldly, existence.
As the Central Dhyānī Buddha, Vairochana is the highest path to Enlightenment of the Esoteric School. Like a Central Sun, surrounded by the four Dhyānī Buddhas of the four cardinal directions, who dawn on the four succeeding days, he symbolizes the One Truth surrounded by its four constituents or elements. As the source of all organic life, in him all things visible and invisible have their consummation and absorption.
For general references to the deities of the Bardo Thödol, see L. A. Waddell, The Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism (London, 1895); and A, Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism (Oxford, 1914).
