These Addenda consist of seven sections, complementary to our Introduction and Commentary, concerning (i) Yoga, (%) Tantricism, (3) Mantras, or Words of Power, (4) the Guru and Shiskya (or Chela) and Initiations, (5) Reality, (6) Northern and Southern Buddhism and Christianity, and (7) the Medieval Christian Judgement.
The word Yoga (frequently appearing in our annotations to the Bardo Thödol text), derived from the Sanskrit root yuj meaning ‘to join’, closely allied with the English verb to yoke implies a joining or yoking of the lower human nature to the higher or divine nature in such manner as to allow the higher to direct the lower; and this condition—essential to the successful application of the Bardo doctrines—is to be brought about by control of the mental process. So long as the field of the mind is occupied by such thought—forms and thought—processes as arise from the false concept, universally dominating mankind, that phenomena and phenomenal appearances are real, a state of mental obscuration called ignorance, which prevents true knowledge, exists. It is only when all obscuring and erroneous concepts are totally inhibited and the field of the mind is swept clean of them that the primordial or unmodified condition of mind, which is ever devoid of these thought—formations and thought—processes arising from ignorance, is realizable; and, in its realization, there dawns Illumination, symbolized in the Bardo Thödol as the Primal Clear Light of the Dharma—Kāya.
A mirror covered with a thick deposit of dust, or a crystal vase filled with muddied water, symbolize the mind of the normal human being darkened with the nescience arising from heresies and false knowledge. Yoga is a scientific method of removing the dust from the mirror and the earthy particles from the water. It is only when the mind is thus made clear and limpid that it can reflect the Light of Reality and man can come to know himself. Māyā, or Illusion, is the Veil of Isis hiding from man the Unsullied and Unsulliable Reality; the piercing of this Veil and the seeing of that which it hides is accomplished through methods as definite and certain in psychical results as those employed in a European or American chemical laboratory are in physical results. As gold can be separated from impurities by methods of chemistry, so can Truth be divorced from Error by methods of Yoga.
Like the root teachings of Buddhism, the root teachings of the Bardo Thödol are incapable of being practically applied without Right Knowledge; Right Knowledge to be at all effective in a devotee’s life should not depend merely upon belief or theory, but upon realization ; and realization of Right Knowledge is impossible without such mind control as Yoga implies. That this is so, the canonical scriptures of all schools of Buddhism confirm.1
It is not our purpose to discuss here the intricacies of the various aspects and schools of Yoga ; for, though technical terms and some of the purely philosophical or theoretical parts of the Hindu, Buddhist, and other systems of the science of mind—control often differ widely, we are convinced, after much research carried on while living among yogis of various schools, that the goal for all yogis is, in the last analysis of esotericism, identical, namely, emancipation from the thraldom of sangsārtC) or phenomenal, existence, the Hindus calling it Mukti and the Buddhists Nirvana?2
Intellectual understanding of much of the Bardo Th’ódol is, therefore, obviously dependent upon at least some elementary explanation of Yoga, such as we have herein given. The Clear Light, so often referred to in our text—to take but one of the outstanding yogic doctrines—is best interpreted from the standpoint of the devotee of Yoga, though for all mankind alike it dawns at the all—determining moment of death. As such, the Clear Light symbolizes the visual condition in which one finds oneself at the moment of death and afterwards in the Intermediate State. If the vision be unclouded by karntic propensities, which are the source of all phenomena and appari—tional appearances in the Bardo, the deceased sees Reality as the Primordial Clear Light, and, if he so wills, can renounce the Sangsāra and pass into Nirvana, beyond the Circle of Death and Rebirth.
Such clarity of spiritual insight is, of course, extremely rare, being the fruit of innumerable lifetimes of right living; nevertheless, the aim of the Bardo Thödol teachings is to attempt to place every one, when dying or deceased, in the Path leading to its realization. Unless, through the practice of mental—concentration, complete control over the thinking process be achieved, so as to arrive at Right Knowledge ere death, in virtue of having experienced Illumination (i.e. recognition of the Clear Light in an ecstatic condition while still in the human body), the lāmas maintain that comprehension of the nature of the Clear Light is quite impossible for the unilluminated.
The Bardo Thódol being itself a work more or less Tantric,2and consequently largely based upon the Yoga Philosophy, some general acquaintance with Tantricism, as with Yoga, is desirable for all readers of this book. So we record here—in mere outline, and, therefore, more often than not undetailed and incomplete—the following complementary matter concerning Tantricism.
In the preliminary instructions, the Bardo Th’ódol makes reference to the vital—force or vital—airs, which, following the TantraS) may be described as follows:
The Vital—Force (Skt. Prānā).— The human principle of consciousness, the Knower, clothes itself, when incarnate, in five sheaths (Skt. Kos/ia), which are: (i) the physical—sheath (Anna—tnaya—kosha) ; {%) the vital—sheath (Pr ana—may a—kos/ia) ; (3) the sheath in which resides the ordinary human consciousness {Mano—tnaya—koshci) ; (4) that of the subconsciousness (Vijnāna—maya—koska) ; and (5) that of the all—transcending blissful consciousness of Reality {ānanda—maya—kosha).
In the vital—sheath resides the vital—force (Skt.prāna) divided into ten vital—airs (vāyu, derived from the root va, ‘to breathe’ or ‘to blow’ refers to the motive power of prāna). As the daemons of Plato’s occultism are said to control the operations of the Cosmic Body, so these vayu, composed of negative prāna, control the operations of the human body. Five are fundamental: (1) the prāna, controlling inspiration; {%) the udāna, controlling the ascending vital—force (or vital—air); (3) the apāna, controlling the downward vital—force, which expels wind, excrement, urine, and semen; (4) the s amana, as the collective force of the vāyu> kindles the fire of the body whereby food is digested and then distributed by the blood; and (5) the vyāna> controlling division and diffusion in all metabolic processes. The five minor airs are the Naga, kürtntna> krikara, deva—datta, and dhananjaya, which produce, respectively, hiccuping, opening and closing of the eyes, assistance to digestion, yawning, and distension.
The Psychic Nerves or Channels (Skt. Nādt).— There are next mentioned in our text the Psychic Nerves. Sanskrit works on Yoga say that there are fourteen principal nādt and hundreds of thousands of minor nādt in the human body, just as Western physiologists say that there are so many chief nerves and minor nerves. But the nādt of the East and the nerves of the West, although literally the same in name, are not synonymous. The nādt are invisible channels for the flow of psychic forces whose conducting agents are the vital—airs (vāyu).
Of the fourteen principal nādt, there are three which are of fundamental importance. These are, to follow our text, the median—nerve (Skt. sushumnā—nādi the left nerve (tdā—nādt), and the right nerve (pingalā—nādi). The sushiimnā—nādl is the chief or median—nerve, situated in the hollow of the spinal column (Skt. Brāhma—danda), the Mt. Meru of the human body, man being regarded as the microcosm of the macrocosm. The idā—nādi, to the left, and the pingalā—nādt, to the right, coil round it as the two serpents coil round the caduceus carried by the messenger—god Hermes. It is believed that this ancient herald’s wand symbolizes the sufhumnā—nādi, and the twining serpents the idā—nādi and the pingalā—nādi. If so, we see again how the esoteric symbol—code of the West corresponds to that of the East.
The Psychic—Nerve Centres (Skt. Chakra). —The sushutnnā—nādl forms the great highway for the passage of the psychic forces of the human body. These forces are concentrated in centres, or chakra, like dynamos, ranged along the sushumnā—nādi and interconnected by it, wherein are stored the vital—force or vital—fluid upon which all psycho—physical processes ultimately depend. Of these, six are of fundamental importance. The first is known as the Root—support (Mulādhārā) of the sushumnā—nādty situated in the perineum; and in the Mfdādkārā is the secret Fountain of Vital—Force, presided over by the Goddess Kundalinu Next above, lies the second chakra, or lotus, called the Svādhiskthāna, which is the centre of the sex—organs. The navel nerve—centre is above, and called in Sanskrit Mani—püra—chakra. The next is the heart nerve—centre, the Anāhata—chakra. In the throat is located the fifth, called the Viskuddka—chakra. In the ājnā—chakra, which is the sixth, situated between the eyebrows, as depicted by the ‘third eye ‘on images of the Buddha and of Hindu deities, the three chief psychic nerves (nādz) suskumnā, ida, and píngala, come together and then separate. Above all, in the causal region of psychic man, as the sun of the body, sending its rays downwards over the human—body cosmos, is the Supreme or Seventh Chakra, the thousand—petalled lotus (or chakra) called Sahasrāra Padma through it the sushumnā—nādl has its exit, the Aperture of Brāhma (Skt. Brahma—randhra) referred to in our text, through which the consciousness—principle normally goes out from the body at death.
The initial aim of the practitioner of Yoga is to awaken what in the Tantras is called the Serpent Power, personified as the Goddess Kundalinl. It is in the Mulādhāra—chakra, at the base of the spinal column, containing the root of the sufhutnnā—nādi, that this mighty occult power lies coiled, like a serpent asleep. Once the Serpent Power is aroused into activity, it is made to penetrate, one by one, the psychic—nerve centres, until, rising like mercury in a magic tube, it reaches the thousand—petalled lotus in the brain—centre. Spreading out in a fountain—like crest, it falls thence as a shower of heavenly ambrosia to feed all parts of the psychic body. Thus becoming filled with supreme spiritual power, the yogi experiences Illumination.
Mandalas. —Of the Psychic—Centres, or Ckakra, the Bardo Tködol is concerned chiefly with three: (1) the Heart—centre {Anāhata—chakra)\ (%) the Throat—centre (Vishuddha—chakra) and (3) the Brain—centre (Sahasrāra Padma). Of these, two are of chief importance: the Brain—centre, sometimes called the Northern Centre, and the Heart—centre, or Southern Centre. These two constitute the two poles of the human organism. They are said to be the first centres to form in the embryo, and the terrestrial prāna> derived from the central prānic reservoir in the sun of our planetary system, is said to direct their formation.
Related to these three principal chakra, there are three chief mándalas or mystic groupings of deities divided into fourteen subsidiary mándalas corresponding to the first Fourteen (7 + 7) Days of the Bardo as described in our text.
The first of these three chief mándalas contains 4% deities, distributed in six subordinate mándalas corresponding to the first Six Days of the Chönyid Bardo ; and they emanate from the Heart—centre. The second mándala contains 10 principal deities, which dawn on the Seventh Day; and these emanate from the Throat—centre. The third mándala contains 58 principal deities, distributed in seven subordinate mándalas corresponding to the last Seven Days of the Chönyid Bardo and emanating from the Brain—centre. The first 4% and the last 58 comprise the Great Mándala of the 100 superior deities, the 4% being called peaceful and the 58 wrathful deities. The other 10 deities, related to the Throat—centre, which dawn intermediately between the 4% of the Heart—centre and the 58 of the Brain—centre, are classed with the 4% peaceful deities. Thus, when united in the Greater Mángala of the whole of the Chönyid Bardo, there are no principal deities.
It will be observed, too, that there is definite orientation in all the mándalas.
The Five Dhyāni Buddhas with their shaktis1 are the chief deities dawning on the first Five Days. On the First Day, Vairochana and his shakti alone dawn. Then on each of the four succeeding days, along with one of the remaining four of the Dhyānī Buddhas and the shakti there dawn two Bodhisattvas and their shaktis. Then, on the Sixth Day, all of these deities, dawning in one mándala, are joined by 16 additional deities: 8 Door—keepers, the 6 Buddhas of the Six Lokas, and the ādi—Buddha and shakti ; and all these deities together compose the 42 deities of the Heart—centre.
Then, after the dawning of the 10 Knowledge—Holding Deities (called, in the Obeisances, p. 85, the Lotus Deities) of the Throat—centre, on the intervening Seventh Day, there dawn during the remaining Seven Days the 58 deities of the Brain—centre, as follows: on each of the first five days, or from the Eighth to the Twelfth Day, one of the Herukas with his shakti in all 10 deities; on the Thirteenth Day, the 8 Kerima and the 8 Htamenma; on the Fourteenth Day, 4 Door—keepers and the 28 animal—headed Deities. Behind the symbolism of deities and mándalas and psychic—centres there lies the rational explanation, namely, that each deity, as it dawns from its appropriate psychic—centre, represents the coming into after—death karmic activity of some corresponding impulse or passion of the complex consciousness. As though in an initiatoiy mystery—play, the actors for each day of the Bardo come on the mind—stage of the deceased, who is their sole spectator; and their director is Karma. The higher or more divine elements of the consciousness—principle of the deceased dawn first in the full glory of the primal Clear Light; and then, in ever diminishing glory, the visions grow less and less happy—the Peaceful Deities of the Heart—centre, and then of the Throat—centre, merge into the Wrathful Deities of the Brain—centre. Finally, as the purely human and brutish propensities, personified, in the fiercest of the Wrathful Deities,1as horror—producing and threatening spectral hallucinations, come into the field of mental vision, the percipient flees in dismay from them—his own thought—forms—to the refuge of the womb, thereby making himself to be the plaything of Māyā and the slave of Ignorance. In other words, in a manner similar to that in which the earth—plane body grows to maturity and then withers and after its death disintegrates, the after—death body, called the mental—body, grows from the heavenly days of its Bardo childhood to the less idealist days of its Bardo maturity, then fades and dies in the Intermediate State, as the Knower, abandoning it, is reborn.
Some clue to the separable elements of consciousness as they manifest themselves in the Intermediate State is gained from the significance of the Tantric divisions into petals of the lotuses, or chakras. For example, the Heart—centre Lotus, or Anāhata—chakra is described as a red—coloured lotus of twelve petals, each petal representing one of the chief elements of personality (yritti) as follows: (1) hope (āshā) ; (2) care or anxiety (chiutā) ; (3) endeavour (cheshta) ; (4) feeling of mineness (mamatā) ; (5) arrogance or hypocrisy (dambhd) ; (6) languor (vikalata) ; (7) conceit (ahangkāra) ; (8) discrimination (viveka)) (9) covetousness (Mata); (10) duplicity (kapa—fatā); (11) indecision (vitarfca) ; (12) regret {anutāpā).
The Throat—centre Lotus, or Vishuddka—c/iakra also called Bhāratlsthāna, consists of sixteen petals. The first seven symbolize the seven Sanskrit musical notes. The eighth symbolizes the ‘venom’ of mortality. The next seven represent the seven seed mantras and the sixteenth is the symbol for the nectar of immortality (atnrita).
To each of the thousand petals of the Brain—centre Lotus variously coloured letters of the Sanskrit or Tibetan alphabet, and other symbols, are esoterically assigned ; and this chaira is said to contain in potential state all that exists in the other chairas (of which it is the originator) or in the universe.
Each of the Dhyānī Buddhas, likewise, as elsewhere explained from a different view—point, symbolizes definite spiritual attributes of the cosmos. Thus, Vairochana is appealed to by the Tantrics of Northern Buddhism as the universal force producing or giving form to everything both physical and spiritual; Vajra—Sattva (as the reflex of Akshobhya) is the universal force invoked for neutralizing by merit evil iarma; Ratna—Sambhava, for the reproduction of all things desired; Amitābha, for long life and wisdom; Amogha—Siddhi, for success in arts and crafts. In Vajra—Sattva, in his purely esoteric aspect, all the other Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the Mándala of the Bardo Thödol are said to merge or be contained.
A clue to the power of mantras, as referred to throughout the Bardo Thödol, lies in the ancient Greek theory of music; namely, that, if the key—note of any particular body or substance be known, by its use the particular body or substance can be disintegrated. Scientifically, the whole problem may be understood through understanding the law of vibration. Each organism exhibits its own vibratory rate, and so does every inanimate object from the grain of sand to the mountain and even to each planet and sun. When this røte of vibration is known, the organism or form can, by occult use of it, be disintegrated.
For the adept in occultism, to know the mantra of any deity is to know how to set up psychic or gift—wave communication similar to, but transcending, wireless or telepathic communication with that deity. For example, if the adept be of the left—hand path, that is to say, a black magician, he can, by mantras call up and command elementals and inferior orders of spiritual beings, because to each belongs a particular rate of vibration, and this being known and formulated as sound in a mantra gives the magician power even to annihilate by dissolution the particular elemental or spirit to whom it belongs. As a highwayman at the point of a gun compels a traveller to give up money, so a black magician with a mantra compels a spirit to act as he wills.
On account of this supreme power of sound, when formulated in mantras corresponding to the particular rate of vibration of spiritual beings and of spiritual and physical forces, the mantras are jealously guarded. And, for the purpose of maintaining this guardianship, lines oí gurus (i.e. religious teachers) are established in whose keeping the words of power are placed. Candidates for initiation into this Brotherhood of Guardians of the Mysteries must necessarily be well tested before the Treasures can be entrusted to them, and they themselves* in turn, be made Guardians.
Unto the shishya after he has been well tested, the mantra which confers power over the sleeping Goddess KundalinI is transmitted; and when he utters it the Goddess awakens and comes to him to be commanded. Then is the need of the guru great; for the awakened Goddess can destroy as well as save—according as the mantra is wisely or unwisely used.
As the outer air vibrates to gross sounds, the inner vital—airs (prāna vāyu) are set in motion and utilized by the use of the sounds of mantras : the Goddess first catches up the subtle occult sound, and, in tones of divine music, she causes it to ascend from her throne in the Root—Support Psychic—Centre to one after another of the Centres above, until its music fills the Lotus of a Thousand Petals and is there heard and responded to by the Supreme Guru,
The visualization of a deity, as frequently directed in our text, is often but another way of thinking of the essential characteristics of that deity. A like yoglc effect comes from visualizing or else audibly pronouncing the mantra corresponding to that deity; for, by speaking forth as sound the mantra of any deity, that deity is made to appear.
Unless the mantras are properly intoned they are without effect; and when printed and seen by the eye of the uninitiated they appear utterly meaningless—and so they are without the guidance of the human guru.
Furthermore, the correct pronunciation of the mantra of a deity depends upon bodily purity as well as upon knowledge of its proper intonation. Therefore it is necessary for the devotee first to purify, by purificatory mantras, the mouth, the tongue, and then the mantra itself, by a process called giving life to or awakening the sleeping power of the mantra.
The occult ability to employ a mantra properly confers supernormal powers called Siddhi,1 and these can be used, according to the character of the adept, either as white magic for good ends or as black magic for evil ends: the right— and left—hand paths being the same up to this point of practical application of the fruits obtained through psychic development. One path leads upward to Emancipation, the other downward to Enslavement.
Very frequently the Bardo Thódol directs the dying or the deceased to concentrate mentally upon, or to visualize, his tutelary deity or else his spiritual guru, and, at other times, to recollect the teachings conveyed to him by his human guru, more especially at the time of the mystic initiation. Yogis and Tantrics ordinarily comment upon such ritualistic directions by saying that there exist three lines of gurus to whom reverence and worship are to be paid. The first and highest is purely superhuman, called in Sanskrit divyangha, meaning ‘heavenly (or “divine”) line’; the second is of the most highly developed human beings, possessed of supernormal or siddhic powers, and hence called siddhaugha; the third is of ordinary religious teachers and hence called mānavaugha, ‘human line’.1
Women as well as men, if qualified, may be gurus. The shishya is, as a rule, put on probation for one year before receiving the first initiation. If at the end of that time he proves to be an unworthy receptacle for the higher teachings, he is rejected. Otherwise, he is taken in hand by the guru and carefully prepared for psychical development. A shishya when on probation is merely commanded to perform such and such exercises as are deemed suitable to his or her particular needs. Then, when the probation ends, the shishya is told by the guru the why of the exercises, and the final results which are certain to come from the exercises when successfully carried out. Ordinarily, once a guru is chosen, the shishya has no right to disobey the guru, or to take another guru until it is proven that the first guru can guide the shishya no further. If the shishya develops rapidly, because of good karma, and arrives at a stage of development equal to that of the guru, the guru, if unable to guide the shishya further, will probably himself direct the shishya to a more advanced guru.
For initiating a shishya, the guru must first prepare himself, usually during a course of special ritual exercises occupying several days, whereby the guru, by invoking the gift—waves of the divine line of gurus , sets up direct communication with the spiritual plane on which the divine gurus exist. If the human guru be possessed of siddhic powers, this communion is believed to be as real as wireless or telepathic communication between two human beings on the earth—plane.
The actual initiation, which follows, consists of giving to the shishya the secret mantra, or Word of Power, whereby at—one—ment is brought about between the shishya as the new member of the secret brotherhood, and the Supreme Guru who stands to all gurus and shi$hyas under him as the Divine Father. The vital—force, or vital—airs {prāna—vāyii) serve as a psycho—physical link uniting the human with the divine; and the vital—force, having been centred in the Seventh Psychic—Centre, or Thousand—petalled Lotus, by exercise of the awakened Serpent—Power, through that Centre, as through a wireless receiving station, are received the spiritual gift—waves of the Supreme Guru. Thus is the divine grace received into the human organism and made to glow, as electricity is made to glow when conducted to the vacuum of an electric bulb; and the true initiation is thereby conferred and the shishya Illuminated.
In the occult language of the Indian and Tibetan Mysteries, the Supreme Guru sits enthroned in the pericarp of the Thousand—petalled Lotus. Thither, by the power of the Serpent Power of the awakened Goddess Kuncjalin!, the skifkya, guided by the human guru, is led, and bows down at the feet of the Divine Father, and receive the blessing and the benediction. The Veil of Māyā has been lifted, and the Clear Light shines into the heart of the shishya unobstructedly. As one Lamp is lit by the Flame of another Lamp, so the Divine Power is communicated from the Divine Father, the Supreme Guru to the newly—born one, the human shifhya.
The secret mantra conferred at the initiation, like the Egyptian Word of Power, is the Password necessary for a conscious passing from the embodied state into the disembodied state. If the initiate is sufficiently developed spiritually before the time comes for the giving up of the gross physical body at death, and can at the moment of quitting the earth—plane remember the mystic mantra, or Word of Power, the change will take place without loss of consciousness; nor will the shishya of full development suffer any break in the continuity of consciousness from incarnation to incarnation.
In denying the soul hypothesis, Buddhism of all Schools maintains that personal immortality is impossible, because all personal existence is but a mere flux of instability and continual change karmically dependent upon the false concept that phenomena, or phenomenal appearances, or phenomenal states and beings, are real. In other words, Buddhism holds that individualized mind or consciousness cannot realize Reality.
The essence of the Bardo Thödol teachings is, likewise, that so long as the mind is human, so long as it is individualized, so long as it regards itself as separate and apart from all other minds, it is but the plaything of Māyā> of Ignorance, which causes it to look upon the hallucinatory panorama of existences within the Sangsāra as real, and thence leads it to lose itself in the Quagmire of Phenomena.
Followers of the Semitic Faiths are hereditarily so completely dominated by the theory of soul and of personal immortality after death, in a phenomenal paradise or hell, that in their view there can be no alternative; and to them the Buddhist denial of the theory erroneously appears to imply a doctrine of the absolute negation of being.
The realization of Reality, according to the Bardo Thödol, is wholly dependent upon expurgating from the mind all error, all false belief, and arriving at a state in which Māyā no longer controls. Once the mind becomes freed from all karmic obscurations, from the supreme heresy that phenomenal appearances—in heavens, hells, or worlds—are real, then there dawns Right Knowledge; all forms merge into that which is non—form, all phenomena into that which is beyond phenomena, all Ignorance is dissipated by the Light of Truth, personality ceases, individualized being and sorrow are at an end, mind and matter are known to be identical, the mundane consciousness becomes the supramundane, and, one with the Dharma—Kāya> the pilgrim reaches the Goal.
The great Patriarch Ashvaghosha, who set down in writing during the first century A.D.1 the essential teachings of Mahāyāna Buddhism as at first handed down orally by initiates direct from the time of the Buddha, has otherwise stated the doctrines touching Reality as follows, in his remarkable treatise called The Awakening of Faith: 1
Of Ignorance: ‘The True Reality is originally only one, but the degrees of ignorance are infinite; therefore the natures of men differ in character accordingly. There are unruly thoughts more numerous than the sands of the Ganges, some arising from ignorant conceptions and others arising from ignorance of senses and desires. Thus all kinds of wild thoughts arise from ignorance and have first and last infinite differences which Ju Lai [i. e. the Tathāgata] alone knows.’2
‘As from the True Reality man knows that there is no objective world, then the various means of following and obeying this True Reality arise spontaneously [i.e. without thought and without action], and, when influenced by this power for a long time, ignorance disappears. As ignorance disappears, then false ideas cease to arise. As these false ideas do not arise, the former objective world also ends. As the forces cease to exist, then the false powers of the finite mind cease to exist, and this is called Nirvana, when the natural forces of the True Reality alone work.’3
Of Pftenomena : * All phenomena are originally in the mind and have really no outward form; therefore, as there is no form, it is an error to think that anything is there. All phenomena merely arise from false notions in the mind If the mind is independent of these false ideas, then all phenomena disappear. . . .’1
1 Therefore the phenomena of the three worlds [of desire, of form, and of non—form] are mind—made. Without mind, then, there is practically no objective existence. Thus alt existence arises from imperfect notions in our mind. All differences are differences of the mind. But the mind cannot see itself, for it has no form. We should know that all phenomena are created by the imperfect notions in the finite mind; therefore all existence is like a reflection in a mirror, without substance, only a phantom of the mind. When the finite mind acts, then all kinds of things arise; when the finite mind ceases to act, then all kinds of things cease.’2
Of Space:1 ‘Men are to understand that space is nothing. It has no existence and is not a reality. It is a term in opposition to reality. We only say this or that is visible in order that we might distinguish between things.’ 1
Of Mind and Matter: ‘Mind and matter are eternally the same. As the essence of matter is wisdom, the essence of matter is without form and is called the embodiment of wisdom. As the manifested essence of wisdom is matter, it is called the all—pervading embodiment of wisdom. The unmanifested matter is without magnitude ; according to the will it can show itself throughout all the universe as the immeasurable Pnsas [i. e. intelligent devout men, or Bodhisattvas], immeasurable inspired spirits, immeasurable glories, all different without magnitude and without interference with one another, This is what ordinary senses cannot comprehend, as it is the work of Absolute Reality. . . .’2
‘According to the Absolute Reality there is no distinction between mind and matter; it is on account of the defilement of the finite in the round of life and death that these distinctions appear.. . .’1
‘As to the defilements of the world, they are all false; they have no reality behind them.. . .’
‘Finally, to leave false concepts, one should know that purity and defilement are both relative terms, and have no independent existence. Although all things from eternity are neither mind nor matter, neither infinite wisdom nor finite knowledge, neither existing nor non—existing, but are after all inexpressible, we nevertheless use words, yet should know that the Buddha’s skilful use of words to lead men aright lay in this—to get men to cease conjecturing and to return to the Absolute Reality, for the best human thought of all things is only temporary and is not Truth Absolute.3
Of the Nature of the Primordial Mind: * The mind from the beginning is of a pure nature, but since there is the finite aspect of it which is sullied by finite views, there is the sullied aspect of it. Although there is this defilement, yet the original pure nature is eternally unchanged. This mystery the Enlightened One alone understands.’4
‘If there were no True Real Nature of the mind, then all existence would not exist; there would be nothing to show it. If the True Real Nature of the mind remains, then finite mind continues. Only when the madness of finite mind ceases will the finite mind cease. It is not the wisdom of the True Reality that ceases.’1
‘Just as a man having lost his way calls the east west, although the east and west have not really changed, so is mankind lost in ignorance, calling the mind of the universe his thoughts ! But the Mind is what it ever was, all unchanged by men’s thought. When men consider and realize that the Absolute Mind has no need of thoughts like men’s, they will be following the right way to reach the Boundless.’2
Of the Nature of the Absolute: ‘It is neither that which had an origin some time, nor that which will end at some time; it is really eternal. In its nature it is always full of ail possibilities, and is described as of great light and wisdom, giving light to all things, real and knowing. Its true nature is that of a pure mind, eternally joyful, the true being of things, pure, quiet, unchanged; therefore free, with fullness of virtues and Bodhic attributes more numerous than
the sands of the Ganges, divine, unending, unchanged and unspeakable
*As the nature behind all experience has no beginning, soit has no end—this is the true Nirvana. . . .”
‘Behind all existence there is naturally the Supreme Nirvana [or Supreme Rest].’3
Thus does Ashvaghosha bear witness to the soundness of the supreme philosophy of the Maháyána School underlying the Bardo Tlwdol and, as an independent commentator, confirms our own interpretations.
Very much matter might also be incorporated herein to show the differences which exist between the two great Schools of Buddhism, the Northern and the Southern School, sometimes known as the Mahay ana (meaning the ‘Greater Path’) and the Hinayana (meaning the ‘Lesser Path*—a rather belittling name never used by Southern Buddhists of themselves).1
Northern Buddhism is chiefly distinguished by its hierarchical and more highly organized priesthood, its emphasis upon rituals, its elaborate doctrine of divine emanations, its Christian—like worships and masses, its Tantricism, its Dhyāni Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and extensive pantheon, its belief in a Primordial Buddha, its greater insistence on Yoga, its subtle philosophy, and its transcendental teachings concerning the Tri—Kāya.
In Southern Buddhism, on the contrary, there is a very loosely organized priesthood with no recognized heads like the Dalai LāMa, who is the God—King, and the Tashi LāMa, who is the Higher Spiritual Head of Lāmaism. There are no recognized rituals comparable to the rituals of the Northern School, little or nothing clearly Tantric, and no worship of Dhyāni Buddhas or of a Primordial Buddha, but a limited belief in devas and demons. The only Bodhisattva appealed to and imaged in temples is the coming Buddha, Maitreya. Although theoretically Yoga is insisted upon, it appears to have been but little practised among Southern Buddhists since the times of Buddhagosa and his immediate successors, when Buddhist Ceylon is said to have been famous— as Buddhist Tibet is now—for its great saints, or yogis* That there exists a transcendental Buddhism, based chiefly upon Tantric teachings and applied Yoga, such as” the lāmas claim to possess through oral transmission direct from the time of the Buddha, Southern Buddhism denies, for it holds that the Buddha taught no higher or other doctrines than those recorded in the Tri—Pitaka or Pali Canon. Similarly, the doctrine of the Esoteric Trinity, or Tri—Kāya Southern Buddhism does not propound, although there are clear references to the Dharma—Kāya in the Aggañña SiUtānta of the Digha NiKāya, wherein the Buddha speaks of the Dharma—Kāya to a Brahmin priest named Vasetta (Skt. Vashishtha); and the Sinhalese work known as the Dharma—Pradipikā contains elaborated expositions of Rüpa—Káya and Dharma—Kāya}
The hypothesis of Christian apologists that Northern Buddhism in its differentiation from Southern Buddhism was primarily affected by early Christian missionaries seems to be disproved—in so far as really fundamental doctrines are concerned—by the far—reaching fact (but recently made known to Western scholars through the recovery of some of the writings of the greatest of the Fathers of the Northern Buddhist Church, namely, the Patriarch Ashvagosha) that Northern Buddhism was fundamentally the same in the first century A. D. as it is now and was prior to the Christian era. If there were Christian influences, as claimed, brought in by the Nestorians, or St.Thomas, or later missionaries, it appears that they could only have been superficial at most.2 In our own view—which is, of course, merely hypothetical, seeing how little is at present known of the interdependent influences of Hinduism, Buddhism, and other Oriental religions and Christianity—it is Christianity which probably has been shaped, not only in its pre—Christian symbolology and in its rituals, but in its beliefs, by the Faiths preceding it, and out of which it evolved. For example, Christian monasticism, as best studied in the first centuries of the Christian era in Egypt, with its yoga—\\kz practices, has had, apparently, direct relationship with the more ancient monastic systems such as those of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Taoism. The two great doctrines of Christianity, namely, those of the Trinity and of the Incarnation, are not, as formerly believed, unique; not only did both develop in pre—Christian times in India, but were principal doctrines in the Osirian Faith of Egypt at least six thousand years ago. The primitive Christian Gnostic Church, as the exponent of an esoteric Christianity,1 was also in general accord with the old Oriental teachings touching Rebirth and Kartna> which the later or exoteric Christian Church eventually repudiated, the Second Council of Constantinople, in A.D. 553, decreeing that * Whosoever shall support the mythical doctrine of the pre—existence of the soul and the consequent wonderful opinion of its return, let him be anathema \ The Sermon on the Mount itself, as a study of the pre—Christian Pali Canon indicates, might very well be regarded, as many Buddhist scholars do regard it, as a Christian restating of doctrines which the Buddha, too, formulated as an inheritance from prehistoric Buddhas,1 It is chiefly the doctrines of the modern Christian Churches that pride themselves in having no esoteric teachings, and not those of primitive, or Gnostic, Christianity,that did propound an elaborate esotericism, which differ widely from the doctrines of Buddhism and other Oriental religions ; and among these doctrines the more outstanding are: (1) the doctrine of the one life on earth to be followed by a never—ending paradise or else an eternal hell; (%) of the forgiveness of sins through the blood sacrifice of a Saviour; and (3) of the uniqueness of the Divine Incarnation as exemplified in the Founder of Christianity.
For the student of the West, whose outlook has been more or less affected by this theology of Church—council Christianity, rather than by primitive, or Gnostic, Christianity, there is need to realize exactly how Buddhism differs in fundamentals from modern Christianity,
Thus, unlike modern, or Church—council, Christianity which teaches dependence upon an outside power or Saviour, Buddhism teaches dependence on self—exertion alone if one is to gain salvation. In practice, and to a limited degree in theory, this fundamental doctrine of self—dependence is modified in Lāmaism—as illustrated in the Bardo Thödol — and direct appeal is made by the devotee to the Dhyāni Buddhas and tutelary deities, very much as to Jesus and saints and angels by Christians. Similarly, Northern Buddhism and Church—council Christianity, unlike Southern Buddhism, have their masses and their eucharistical ceremonies.
Secondly, as pointed out above, Church—council Christianity condemns the doctrines of Rebirth and Karma (which primitive, or Gnostic, Christianity upheld), and Buddhism champions them.
Thirdly, the two Faiths hold divergent views concerning the existence or non—existence of a Supreme Deity. ‘The Fatherhood of God’ as a personal and anthropomorphic deity is the corner—stone of Christian Theology, but in Buddhism— although the Buddha neither denied nor affirmed the existence of a Supreme Deity—it has no place, because, as the Buddha maintained, neither believing nor not believing in a Supreme God, but self—exertion in right—doing, is essential to comprehending the true nature of life.
The Buddha * argued not that Ishvara was cause, nor did He advocate some cause heretical, nor yet again did He affirm there was no cause for the beginning of the world ‘. He argued: ‘If the world was made by Ishvara deva,. . . there should be no such thing as sorrow or calamity, nor doing wrong nor doing right; for all, both pure and impure deeds, these must come from Ishvara deva. . . . Again, if Ishvara be the maker, all living things should silently submit, patient beneath the maker’s power, and then what use to practise virtue ? ‘Twere equal, then, the doing right or wrong, . . . Thus, you see, the thought of Ishvara is overthrown in this discussion (shástra)’1
Although the Great Teacher has set aside, as being non—essential to mankind’s spiritual enlightenment, the belief and the non—belief in a Supreme Deity—more especially in an anthropomorphic Supreme Deity—He has, however, made the corner—stone of Buddhism (as it is of Hinduism) the belief in a Supreme Power or Universal Law, called the Law of Cause and Effect by the Science of the West and, by the Science of the East, Karma. ‘What ye sow, that shall ye reap \ saith the Buddha; even as St. Paul wrote long afterward, ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap’.
Again, as elsewhere stated, Buddhism denies that there can be a permanent, unchanging, personal entity such as Christian Theology calls’soul’. It also denies the possibility of reaching a state of eternal felicity within the Sangsāra (i. e. the universe of phenomena); for Reality, or Nirvana, is for all Schools of Buddhism non—sangsāric. being beyond all heavens, hells, and worlds, in a state only capable of being understood through personal realization of it.
The Buddha has, therefore, not taught of any Father in Heaven, nor of any Only Begotten Son, nor of any method of salvation for mankind save that won by self—exertion leading to Right Knowledge. He, as all Buddhists believe, found the way as a result of innumerable lifetimes of spiritual evolution, and became the Fully Awakened, the Enlightened One, exhausting completely the Sangsāra of Impcrmanency and of Sorrow. Through His own exertions alone He reached the Goal of all existence—Supramundancness. Buddhists venerate Him, not as Christians do a Saviour, but as a Guide, in whose footsteps each must tread if Truth is to be realized and Salvation attained.
Although, as in the Bardo Thödol there arc prayers addressed to higher than human powers, and although all Buddhists pay what is really a sort of worship to the Buddha, the doctrine of Right Knowledge through self—development is never quite lost sight of; there is never that almost complete dependence upon outside forces which Christianity inculcates, nor is there anywhere a parallel to the Christian belief in the forgiveness of sins through repentance, or faith in a Saviour, or through vicarious atonement. Some of the rituals of Northern Buddhism may seem to suggest a Christianlikc theory of the forgiveness or absolution of sins, which, more than any other subsidiary doctrine peculiar to Northern Buddhism, may possibly yet be shown to have been shaped— if any of the Mahāyāna doctrines have been—by Christianity. But in their last analysis these rituals really imply,—setting aside any possible transformation due to Christianity,—as the whole of Southern Buddhism more clearly teaches, that it is only merit, or an equal amount of good kanna which can neutralize the same amount of evil karma as, in physics, two equally balanced opposing forces neutralize one another.
But as in all religions, so in Buddhism, there is apt to be very wide divergency between original teachings and actual doctrines and practices; and, accordingly, the Dardo Th’ódol as a ritual treatise is no exception. Nevertheless, underneath the symbolism of the Bardo Thödol there are to be discovered, by those that have eyes to see, the essential teachings of Northern Buddhism, sometimes called, in contrast with Southern Buddhism, the Higher Buddhism.
In connexion with the difficult problem of origins, referred to in that part of our Introduction concerning the Judgement (pp. 35—9), and of the probable influences of Buddhism and other Oriental Faiths, including the Osirian Faith, on Christianity, it is interesting to compare with the Bardo Thödol version of the Judgement (pp. 165—9) the similar version in the medieval treatise entitled The Lamentation of the Dying Creature (date uncertain, but probably of 14th to 15th cent.) contained in the British Museum MS. Harl. 1706 (fol. 96), Comper’s ed. (pp. 137—68):
‘The Dying Creature enset with Sickness incurable sorrowfully Complaineth him thus : “ Alas that ever I sinned in my life. To me is come this day the dreadfullest tidings that ever I heard. Here hath been with me a sergeant of arms whose name is Cruelty, from the King of all Kings, Lord of all Lords, and Judge of all Judges; laying on me the mace of His office, saying unto me: ‘I arrest thee and warn thee to make ready. . . . The Judge that shall sit upon thee, He will not be partial, nor He will not be corrupt with goods, but He will minister to thee justice and equity. …”
‘The Lamentation of the Dying Creature: “Alas! alas! Excuse me I can not, and whom I might desire to speak for me I wot (i. e. know) not. The day and time is so dreadful; the Judge is so rightful; mine enimies be so evil; my kin, my neighbours, my friends, my servants, be not favourable to me; and I wot well they shall not be heard there.”
’ The Complaint of the Dying Creature to the Good Angel: “O my Good Angel, to whom our Lord took me to keep, where be thee now? Me thinketh ye should be here, and answer for me; for the dread of death distroubleth me, so that I cannot answer for myself. Here is my bad angel ready, and is one of my chief accusers, with legions of fiends with him. I have no creature to answer for me. Alas it is an heavy case!"
1 The Answer of the Good Angel to the Dying Creature: “ As to your bad deeds, I was never consenting. I saw your natural inclination more disposed to be ruled by your bad angel than by me. Howbeit, ye cannot excuse you, but when ye were purposed to do anything that was contrary to the commandments of God I failed not to remember (i.e. remind) you that it was not well; and counselled thee to flee the place of peril, and the company that should stir or move you thereto. Can ye say nay thereto ? How can you think that I should answer for you ? “’
Though the Dying Creature appeals for assistance to Reason, to Dread, to Conscience, and to the Five Wits—very much after the manner of Everyman, probably the best known of the medieval Christian mystery plays (which seem to be the outcome of the spread of Orientalism into Europe)—none can succour him. Thence, in his final appeal to the Virgin, through Faith, Hope, and Charity as mediators, and in the Virgin’s resulting appeal to the Son, there is introduced the Christian doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, in opposition to the doctrine of karma as expounded by the Bardo Tködol. Such introduction suggests that this curious Christian version of the Judgement may possibly have had a pre—Christian and non—Jewish Oriental source, wherein the doctrine oí karma (and the correlated doctrine of rebirth) remained unmodified by the European medievalism which shaped The Lamentation of the Dying Creature (see p. 32). The ancient doctrine of karma (to which the primitive, or Gnostic, Christians adhered, ere Church—council Christianity took shape), being taught in the following answers to the Dying Creature, gives some plausibility, even from internal evidence, to this purely tentative view:
Conscience: ‘Ye must sorrowfully and meekly suffer the judgements that ye have deserved.’
The Five Wits: ‘ Therefore of your necessity your defaults must be laid upon you. .. . Wherefore of right the peril must be yours.’
Also compare the similar account of the Judgement in the Orologium Sapicnti (14th cent.), chap. V, in Douce MS. 322 (fol. 20), Comper’s ed., from which the following passage (p. 118) is taken:
‘O thou most righteous Doomsman, how strait and hard be thy dooms; charging [i. e. accusing] and hard deeming me, wretched, in those things the which few folk charge or dread, forasmuch as they seem small and little. O the dreadful sight of the righteous Justice, that is now present to me by dread, and suddenly to come in deed.’
Reference might also be made to the wall—painting of the Judgement in Chaldon Church, Surrey, England, dating from about A.D. 1200 and discovered in 1870, which parallels in a very striking manner our Tibetan painting of the Judgement,1Thus, in both paintings there is the judging of the dead in an intermediate or bardo state, the heaven—world being above and the hell—world below. In the Chaldon Christianized version, St. Michael, in place of Shinje, holds the scales; instead of karmic actions, souls are being weighed; the Six Karmic Pathways leading to the Six Lokas have become a single ladder leading to a single heaven; at the top of the ladder, in place of the Six Buddhas of the Six Lokas, there is the Christ waiting to welcome the righteous, the sun being shown on His right hand and the moon on His left—as though He were a Buddha. In the Hell—world, in both versions, there is the cauldron in which evil—doers are being cooked under the supervision of demons; and, in the Christianized version, the ‘Hill of Spikes’ of the Buddhist version is represented by a ‘Bridge of Spikes’, which the condemned souls are compelled to traverse.
All such parallels as these tend to strengthen our opinion that the greater part of the symbolism nowadays regarded as being peculiarly Christian or Jewish seems to be due to adaptations from Egyptian and Eastern religions. They suggest, too, that the thought—forms and thought—processes of Orient and of Occident are, fundamentally, much alike—that, despite differences of race and creed and of physical and social environment, the nations of mankind are, and have been since time immemorial, mentally and spiritually one.