(41) In other ways, too, this Great Doctrine of the Bardo Thodol, as well as any other religious texts, may be expounded [to the dead or dying]. If this [Doctrine] be joined to the end of The Guide and recited [along with The Guide] it becometh very efficacious. In yet other ways it should be recited as often as possible. The words and meanings should be committed to memory [by every one]; and, when death is inevitable and the death-symptoms are recognized — strength permitting — one should recite it oneself, and reflect upon the meanings. If strength doth not permit, then a friend should read the Book and impress it vividly. There is no doubt as to its liberating.

(3) About this time [the deceased] can see that the share of food is being set aside, that the body is being stripped of its garments, that the place of the sleeping-rug is being swept; can hear all the weeping and wailing of his friends and relatives, and, although he can see them and can hear them calling upon him, they cannot hear him calling upon them, so he goeth away displeased.

(3) 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 Sangsara. Be not attached [to this world]; be not weak. Remember the Precious Trinity.

(5) It seems that you can see, if I hear rightly, Beforehand whatsoe'er time brings with it, And in the present have another mode." "We see, like those who have imperfect sight, The things," he said, "that distant are from us; So much still shines on us the Sovereign Ruler. When they draw near, or are, is wholly vain Our intellect, and if none brings it to us, Not anything know we of your human state. Hence thou canst understand, that wholly dead Will be our knowledge from the moment when The portal of the future shall be closed." Then I, as if compunctious for my fault, Said: "Now, then, you will tell that fallen one, That still his son is with the living joined. And if just now, in answering, I was dumb, Tell him I did it because I was thinking Already of the error you have solved me." And now my Master was recalling me, Wherefore more eagerly I prayed the spirit That he would tell me who was with him there. He said: "With more than a thousand here I lie; Within here is the second Frederick, And the Cardinal, and of the rest I speak not."

(9) Seeing therefore that this is the weightiest Article, and cannot be apprehended in such a Way, we will describe the Dying of Man, and the Departure of the Soul from a Body, and try if it might so be brought to Knowledge, that the Reader may comprehend the [true] Meaning of it.

(24) O nobly-born, at that time, at bridge-heads, in temples, by stiipas of eight kinds, thou wilt rest a little while, but thou wilt not be able to remain there very long, for thine intellect hath been separated from thine [earth-plane] body. Because of this inability to loiter, thou oft-times wilt feel perturbed and vexed and panic-stricken. At times, thy Knower will be dim; at times, fleeting and incoherent. Thereupon this thought will occur to thee, 'Alas! I am dead! What shall I do?' and because of such thought the Knower will become saddened and the heart chilled, and thou wilt experience infinite misery of sorrow. Since thou canst not rest in any one place, and feel impelled to go on, think not of various things, but allow the intellect to abide in its own [unmodified] state.

(45) With veils drawn over their faces, and asleep; But when the morn shall burst forth and the sun arise Every creature will raise its head from its couch; To the unconscious God will restore consciousness; They will stand in rings as slaves with rings in ears; Dancing and clapping hands with songs of praise, Singing with joy, "Our Lord hath restored us to life!" Shedding their old skins and bones, All pressing on from Not-being to Being, On the last day, as well the thankful as the unthankful.

(10) On the Seventh Day, the Knowledge-Holding Deities, from the holy paradise realms, come to receive on. Simultaneously, the pathway to the brute world, produced by the obscuring passion, stupidity, also cometh to receive one. The setting-face-to-face at that time is, calling the deceased by name, thus: O nobly-born, listen undistractedly. On the Seventh Day the vari-coloured radiance of the purified propensities will come to shine. Simultaneously, the Knowledge-Holding Deities, from the holy paradise realms, will come to receive one.

(1) Upon the margin of a lofty bank Which great rocks broken in a circle made, We came upon a still more cruel throng; And there, by reason of the horrible Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out, We drew ourselves aside behind the cover Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing, Which said: "Pope Anastasius I hold, Whom out of the right way Photinus drew." "Slow it behoveth our descent to be, So that the sense be first a little used To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it." The Master thus; and unto him I said, "Some compensation find, that the time pass not Idly;" and he: "Thou seest I think of that. My son, upon the inside of these rocks," Began he then to say, "are three small circles, From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving. They all are full of spirits maledict; But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee, Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint. Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven, Injury is the end; and all such end Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.

(684) 2051 To say: N. ascended at thy ascension, Osiris; 2051 N. has spoken (with) his ka in heaven. 2051 The bones of N. are firm (or, copper), and the limbs of N. 2051 are like the stars, the imperishable stars. 2052 Given that N. be encompassed, then a great one falls into the hands of N. 2052 The mother of N. is Nut; 2053 the father of N. is Shu; the mother of N. is Tefnut. 2053 They take N. to heaven, to heaven-on the smoke of incense. 2054. N. is purified; N. lives; N. makes his seat like Osiris; 2055 N. sits at thy side (lit. shoulder), Osiris; N. spits on thy hair, Osiris; 2055 he will not let him become diseased; N. will not permit him to be bald, 2055 at the mouth of N. daily, at the beginnings (of the feast) of the half months, at the beginnings (of the feast) of the months. 2056 N. sits at thy side (lit. shoulder), Horus; N. spits on thy hair, Horus; 2056 he will not let it become diseased; N. will not permit himself to be bald, 2056 at the mouth of N. daily, at the beginnings (of the feast) of the half months, at the beginnings (or the feast) of the months. 2057. N. is one of these four beings, sons of Atum, sons of Nut, 2058 who do not rot; N. does not rot; 2058 who do not decay; N. does not decay; 2058 who do not fall upon earth from heaven; 2058 N. does not fall upon the earth from heaven. 2059 N. was sought; N. is found with them; 2059 N. is one of them, praised by the bull of heaven. 2060. N. makes his ka arise; N. returns (?); N. strides- 2061 the good companion makes his ka arise, returns (?), strides. 2061 N. rests at home, on the under (side) of the body of the sky, like a nfr.t-star, 2061 at the meanderings of the Winding Watercourse. 2062 When N. ascends to heaven, give him this formula: "R` is good each day." 2062 N. put himself on thy way, Horus of Ssm.t, on which thou leadest the gods 2062 to the beautiful ways of heaven and of the Marsh of Offerings. 56. TEXTS OF MISCELLANEOUS CONTENTS,

(26) Thy living relatives may — by way of dedication for the benefit of thee deceased — be sacrificing many animals, and performing religious ceremonies, and giving alms. Thou, because of thy vision not being purified, mayst be inclined to grow very angry at their actions and bring about, at this moment, thy birth in Hell: whatever those left behind thee may be doing, act thou so that no angry thought can arise in thee, and meditate upon love for them.

(1) Having read this, repeat it many times in the ear of the person dying, even before the expiration hath ceased, so as to impress it on the mind [of the dying one].

(5) 'Now (if one who knows this, dies), whether people perform obsequies for him or no, he goes to light (arkis) , from light to day, from day to the light half of the moon, from the light half of the moon to the six months during which the sun goes to the north, from the months to the year, from the year to the sun, from the sun to the moon, from the moon to the lightning. There is a person not human,

(19) Whatever the religious practices of any one may have been — whether extensive or limited — during the moments of death various misleading illusions occur; and hence this Thodol is indispensable. To those who have meditated much, the real Truth dawneth as soon as the body and consciousness- principle part. The acquiring of experience while living is important: they who have [then] recognized [the true nature of] their own being, and thus have had some experience, obtain great power during the Bardo of the Moments of Death, when the Clear Light dawneth.

(6) Now if thou trainest thy mind's eye along From light to light pursuant of my praise, With thirst already of the eighth thou waitest. By seeing every good therein exults The sainted soul, which the fallacious world Makes manifest to him who listeneth well; The body whence 'twas hunted forth is lying Down in Cieldauro, and from martyrdom And banishment it came unto this peace. See farther onward flame the burning breath Of Isidore, of Beda, and of Richard Who was in contemplation more than man. This, whence to me returneth thy regard, The light is of a spirit unto whom In his grave meditations death seemed slow.

(119) Thus thou seest how the power or virtue of the Word and eternal life in the earth, and in its children, lies hidden in the centre in death, and springeth up through death, incomprehensibly as to the death, and continually travaileth in anguish to the birth of the light, and yet cannot flourish or bud, till the death be severed from it.

(6) Again, calling the deceased by name, the setting-face-to-face is thus: O nobly-born, listen undistractedly. On the Third Day the primal form of the element earth will shine forth as a yellow light. At that time, from the Southern Realm Endowed with Glory, the Bhagavan Ratna-Sambhava, yellow in colour bearing a jewel in his hand, seated upon a horse-throne and embraced by the Divine Mother Sangyay-Chanma, will shine upon thee.

(12) When the Hierarch has finished these things, he places the body in an honourable chamber, with other holy bodies of the same rank. For if, in soul and body, the man fallen asleep passed a life dear to God, there will be honoured, with the devout soul, the body also, which contended with it throughout the devout struggles. Hence the Divine justice gives to it, together with its own body, the retributive inheritances, as companion and participator in the devout, or the contrary, life. Wherefore, the Divine institution of sacred rites bequeaths the supremely Divine participations to them both--to the soul, indeed, in pure contemplation and in science of the things being done, and to the body, by sanctifying the whole man, as in a figure with the most Divine Muron, and the most holy symbols of the supremely Divine Communion, sanctifying the whole man, and announcing, by purifications of the whole man, that his resurrection will be most complete.

(7) Again, the setting-face-to-face is, calling the deceased by name, thus: O nobly-born, listen undistractedly. On the Fourth Day the red light, which is the primal form of the element fire, will shine. At that time, from the Red Western Realm of Happiness, the Bhagavan Buddha Amitabha, red in colour, bearing a lotus in his hand, seated upon a peacock-throne and embraced by the Divine Mother Gokarmo, will shine upon thee, [together with] the Bodhisattvas Chenrazee and Jampal, attended by the female Bodhisattvas Ghirdhima and Aloke. The six bodies of Enlightenment will shine upon thee from amidst a halo of rainbow light.

(15) (20) Thus far we have offered the considerations appropriate to those asking for demonstration: those whose need is conviction by evidence of the more material order are best met from the abundant records relevant to the subject: there are also the oracles of the Gods ordering the appeasing of wronged souls and the honouring of the dead as still sentient, a practice common to all mankind: and again, not a few souls, once among men, have continued to serve them after quitting the body and by revelations, practically helpful, make clear, as well, that the other souls, too, have not ceased to be.