Page:The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927).djvu/176

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Wisdoms United, [whence proceeds that] which is called the Inner Path through Vajra-Sattva.[1]

At that time, thou must remember the teachings of the setting-face-to-face which thou hast had from thy guru. If thou hast remembered the purport of the settings-face- to-face, thou wilt have recognized all these lights which have shone upon thee, as being the reflection of thine own inner light, and, having recognized them as intimate friends, thou wilt have believed in them and have understood [them at] the meeting, as a son understandeth his mother.

And believing in the unchanging nature of the pure and holy Truth, thou wilt have had produced in thee the tranquil-flowing Samādhi; and, having merged into the body of the perfectly evolved intellect, thou wilt have obtained Buddhahood in the Sambhoga-Kāya, whence there is no return.

O nobly-born, along with the radiances of Wisdom, the impure illusory lights of the Six Lokas will also come to shine. If it be asked, ‘What are they?’ [they are] a dull white light from the devas, a dull green light from the asuras, a dull yellow light from human beings, a dull blue light from the brutes, a dull reddish light from the pretas, and a dull smoke-coloured light from Hell.[2] These six thus will come to shine, along with the six radiances of Wisdom; whereupon, be not afraid of nor be attracted towards any, but allow thyself to rest in the non-thought condition.

  1. In the transcendental state of the Illumination of Buddhahood, on the Inner, or Secret, Path, into Vajra-Sattva merge, in at-one-ment, all the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the greater manḍala described by our text; in all, one-hundred and ten,—forty-two in the heart-centre, ten in the throat-centre, and fifty-eight in the brain-centre. (Cf. pp. 217-8.)
  2. There are irreconcilable differences between the colours assigned to these light-paths in the Block-Print (25b) and in our MS. The Block-Print gives them as follows: white, from the devas; red, from the asuvas; blue, from human beings; green, from the brutes; yellow, from the pretas; smoke-coloured from Hell. According to the translator, the colours should correspond to the colour of the Buddha of each loka, thus: deva, white; asura, green; human, yellow; brute, blue; preta, red; Hell, smoke-coloured or black. Therefore, the Block-Print is wrong in all save the first and last; and the MS. is wrong in assigning dull blue to the human and black or smoke-coloured to the animal world. On folio 23, the MS. correctly assigns yellow to the human world light-path. The necessary corrections have been made in the translation herein and in the corresponding passages in folio 46 following.