¹ The lāma or reader, stationed in the house of the deceased as directed, whether the corpse be there or not, is to summon the departed one in the name of Truth, saying, ⁴ As the Trinity is true, and as the Truth proclaimed by the Trinity is true, by the power of that Truth I summon thee\ Although no corpse be at hand (as there would not be when a person had met a violent or accidental death entailing loss or destruction of the human—plane body; or when, to accord with astrological calculations, the body had been removed or disposed of immediately after death, a not uncommon event in Tibet), the spirit of the deceased, in the invisible Bardo—p]ane body, must, nevertheless, be present at the reading, in order to be given the necessary guidance through the Other—world—as the Egyptian Book of the Dead also directs (see p. 19).

² This prohibition is found in Brähmanism too.

³ According to Tibetan and lámate belief, the body of a dying person should not be touched, that the normal departure of the consciousness—principle, which should take place through the Brähmanic aperture on the crown of the head, be not interfered with. Otherwise, the departure maybe brought about through some other bodily aperture and lead to birth in one of the non—human states. For example, it is held that if the departure is through the aperture of the ear the deceased will be obliged—ere he can return to human birth—to be born in the world of the Gandharvas (fairy—like celestial musicians), wherein sound, as in song and music, is the prevailing quality of existence.