¹ It is probably unnecessary for the editor to remind his friends who profess the Theraväda Buddhism of the Southern School that, in preparing this Introduction, his aim has necessarily been to present Buddhism chiefly from the standpoint of the Northern Buddhism of the Kargyutpa Sect (see page 79), by which the Bardo Thödol is accepted as a sacred book and to which the translator belonged. Although the Southern Buddhist may not agree with the Bardo Thödol teachings in their entirety, he will, nevertheless, be very apt to find them, in most essentials, based upon doctrines common to all Schools and Sects of Buddhism ; and he may even find those of them with which he disagrees interesting and possibly provocative of a reconsideration of certain of his own antagonistic beliefs.

² Måyä, the Sanskrit equivalent of the Tibetan Gyüma (Sgyütna), means a magical or illusory show, with direct reference to the phenomena of Nature. In a higher sense, in Brähmanism, it refers to the Shakti of Brahman (the Supreme Spirit, the Ain Soph of Judaism).

³ The Sanskrit term Sangsära (or Samsåra), Tibetan Khorva (Hkhorva), refers to the phenomenal universe itself, its antithesis being Nirvana (Tib. Myang—hdas) , which is beyond phenomena (cf. pp. 67—8).