The Tibetan book of the dead English title : the great liberation by hearing in the intermediate states Tibetan title

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Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)

THE

TIBETAN BOOK. OF

THE DEAD [English Title]

THE GREAT LIBERATION BY HEARING IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATES [Tibetan Title]

Composed by

Padmasambhava Revealed by

Terton Karma Lingpa Translated by

Gyurme Dorje Edited by

Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa Introductory Commentary by

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

VIKING

VIKING Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England Penguin Irelo.md, 25 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pry Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), Cor Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England First American edition Published in 2006 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Translation copyright© The Orient Foundation (UK) and Gyurme Dorje, 2005 Editorial apparatus copyright ©The Orient Foundation (UK), Graham Coleman, and Thupten Jinpa, 2005 Introductory commentary copyright © His Holiness The Dalai Lama, 2005 All rights reserved Thangkas painted by the late Shawu Tsering of Repkong and photographed by Jill Morley Smith are from the private collection of Gyurme Dorje. ISBN 0-6 70-85 886-2 Printed in the United States of America Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

May all sentient beings, children of buddha nature, realise the ultimate nature of mind: insight and compassion, in blissful union.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Vlll

Acknowledgements

lX

Acknowledgements for the Illustrations Introductory Commentary by His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama Editor's Introduction A Brief Literary History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Gyurme Dorje

Xll

Xlll XXlX

XXXVl

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD

1

Appendix One: Peaceful and Wrathful Deities and the Tibetan Book of the Dead

381

Appendix Two: Symbolism of the MaQQala of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities Notes Bibliography Glossary of Key Terms Thematic Index by Chapter

387 403 436 443 529

List of Illustrations

Guru Padmasambhava Karma Lingpa The Mantra Circle of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities

u xliv 346

Colour Plates 1. The assembly of the Forty-two Peaceful Deities 2. Samantabhadra with Samantabhadrr, and the Peaceful Deities of the Buddha Family 3· Peaceful Deities of the Vajra Family 4· Peaceful Deities of the Ratna Family 5. Peaceful Deities of the Padma Family 6. Peaceful Deities of the Karma Family 7. The Six Sages 8. The Eight Gatekeepers 9· The Assembly of the Fifty-eight Wrathful Deities 10. Mahottara Heruka with Krodhesvari I 1. Wrathful Deities of the Buddha Family 12. Wrathful Deities of the Vajra Family 13. Wrathful Deities of the Rarna Family I 4· Wrathful Deities of the Padma Family 15. Wrathful Deities of the Karma Family 16. The Eight Mataral) and the Eight Pisacl

Acknowledgements

Our project began in 1988 when HH the Dalai Lama kindly offered to request HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the late head of the Nyingma school, to give an oral commentary to me on key sections of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Dalai Lama knew that various translations had been made of 'The Great Liberation by Hearing', our Chapter 11, but that so far no one had translated the entire Tibetan Book of the Dead. HH Dilgo Khyentse graciously agreed to the Dalai Lama's request and over a period of four weeks gave the empowcrments and an incisive and illuminating oral commentary to the core elements of the text, which was eloquently translated each day by Sogyal Rinpoche. While in Kathmandu, receiving the oral commentary from HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, I had the good fortune to meet Dr Gyurme Dorje, who had previously translated Longchen Rabjampa's commentary to the Guhygarbha Tantra, the root text on which the Tibetan Book of the Dead is based. During our first meeting, Gyurme agreed to make a new annotated translation of the entire Tibetan Book of the Dead, a task he undertook with exceptional care and dedication over the years that followed. While Gyurmc was working on the translation he was also employed at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London as a research fellow, translating into English the Greater Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary (Bod-rgya tshig-mdzod chen-mo). During this time, Gyurme worked closely with the highly regarded Nyingma master Zenkar Rinpoche, who is one of the foremost contemporary lincage holders of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Zenkar Rinpoche kindly advised Gyurme throughout the translation of our text and also gave an extensive oral commentary to us on Chapter 4, 'The Introduction to Awareness'. At various stages of the project, the Dalai Lama answered my

X

ACKr.:OW l.EDGl-.M ENTS

questions about difficult points, and he also dictated to me the lucid and succinct Introductory Commentary. At the Dalai Lama's request, Khamtrul Rinpoche, an adviser to the Dalai Lama on Nyingma studies, also gave a beautiful oral commentary to key sections of Chapter 8 and dictated the introduction to Chapter I 1. Throughout the editing process I had the happy good fortune of working with Geshe Thupten jinpa, senior translator to the Dalai Lama, whom I had first met in 1 977 and who has been a close friend since he came to England to study philosophy at Cambridge in 1989. Jinpa translated the Dalai Lama's Introductory Commentary and reviewed every line and word of all fourteen chapters of the edited translation with me twice, in the course of \vhich he made countless important and inspiring suggestions. Everyone who knows Jinpa's work is aware of his special talent and skill both as a translator and writer and these have played an invaluable role in this project. finally, the individual introductions to each of the chapters, except Chapter I I, were written by Dasho Sangay Dorji, a Bhutanese scholar, who comes from a family whose paternal line has been lineage holders of the Tibetan Book of the Dead for several generations and who throughout his childhood accompanied his father every time he was called to a household to carry out these practices. Needless to say it has been a wonderful privilege for us to work with all those who helped to make this project possible. Our insights and skills as writers would not even register on the most sensitive of detectors compared to those of the composers of the original cycle of teachings or the lineage holders who gave the commentarial explanation that guided us. Throughout this endeavour therefore we have tried to substitute hard work and attention to detail for our lack of ability and to let the original magnificence of the text shine through the clouds of our shortcomings as much as we were able . .My work on this project would not have been possible without the life-long friendship of the Orient foundation's chairman David Lascelles. It is difficult to thank him enough for all that he has made possible, beginning with our work together on the making of our films Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy, in the I 970s, and ever since. Two other special friends, Elinore Detiger and Elsie Walker made it possible fur this project to be initiated, and their kindness and confidence, together with that of .Michael Baldwin, will never

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The Fifty-eight Wrathful Deities The six peaceful male buddhas: Samantabhadra, Vairocana, Ak~obhya-Vajrasattva, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha and Amoghasiddhi are in their wrathful aspects respectively: Mahottara Heruka, Buddha Heruka, Vajra Hcruka, Ratna Hcruka, Padma Heruka and Karma Hcruka, who represent the natural transformation of the six dissonant mental states

Location

Colour

Symbolising

Mahottara Heruka In the central channel branch che-mchog he-ru-ka of the skull within the brain, embracing Krodhdvari

Dark brown

The natural transformation of fundamental ignorance into pure awareness

Buddha Heruka buddha he-ru-ka

Dark brown

The natural transformation of delusion into the pristine cognition of reality's expanse

In the central channel branch of the skull within the brain, embracing Buddhakrodhdvari

Enlightened family

Buddha

~

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Enlightened family

Location

Colour

V ajra Heruka b,zdzru he-ru-ka

In the eastern channel branch of the skull within the brain, embracing Vajrakrodhisvari

Dark blue The natural transformation of aversion into the mirrorlike pristine cognition

Ratna Heruka ratna he-ru-ka

In the southern channel branch of the skull within the brain, embracing RatnakrodhiSvari

Dark yellow

The natural transformation of pride into the pristine cog- Ratna nition of sameness

Padma Heruka padma he-ru-ka

In the western channel branch of the skull within the brain, embracing Padmakrodhisvari

Dark red

The natural transformation of attachment into the pristine cognition of discernment

Padma

Karma Heruka ka-rma he-ru-ka

In the northern channel branch of the skull within the brain, embracing Karmakrodhisvari

Dark green

The natural transformation of envy into the pristine cognition of accomplishment

Karma

Symbolising

Vajra

....... \C)

a-.

The six peaceful female buddhas: Samantabhadrl, AkasadhatviSvari, Buddhalocana, Mamaki, Pal)~aravasini and Samayatara in their wrathful aspects respectively are Krodhe5vari, Buddhakrodhc5vari, Vajrakrodhe5vari, Ratnakrodhc5vari, Padmakrodhe5vari and Karmakrodhc5vari, who represent the natural transformation of mental constructs associated with the six objects of consciousness

Krodhesvari kru-ti-sva-ri

Location

Colour

In the central channel branch of the skull within the brain, embracing Mahottara Heruka

Dark blue The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with the sensory spectrum of pht·nomena

Buddhakrodhdvari In the central channel branch bde-gshegs dbyings- of the skull within the brain, phyug-mal b~ddha embracing Buddha Heruka kro-ti-svarri

Symbolising

Enlightened family ;lo "':1 "':

I'T1

z

0

Redbrown

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with physical objects [of sight]

Buddha

)(

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Vajrakrodhesvari

)'lt1n b.1-dzra kro-tiSl/u-ri Ratnakrodhdvari

yum r,ltlla kro-tisva-ri Padmakrodhdvari

yum pudma kro-tisua-ri Karmakrodhesvari

k,zrma yum kro-tisua-ri

In tht· eastern ~.:hanncl branch of the skull within the brain, embra~ing Vajra Heruka

Pale blue

In the southern channel branch of the skull within the brain, embr.King Ratna Hcruka

Pale

The natural transformation of llll'IHal constructs associated with objc~ts of sound

Vajra

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c:;

yellow

Thl· natural transformation of mental~.:onstructs associated with objects of smell

Ratna

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c

In the we~tern ch;mncl branch oi tht· skull within the brain, embr.tcing Padma Heruka

Pale red

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with objects of taste

Padma

In the northern channel bran~.:h of the ~kull within the brain, embracing Karma Hcruka

Palt· green The natural transformation of mental constructs associa ted with objc~.:ts of touch

Karma

The eight Matara~: Gauri, Cauri, Pramoha, Vetali, Pukkasi, Ghasmari, Cal)~ali and Smasani, represent the natural transformation of mental constructs associated with the eight classes of consciousness

Gauri

ke'u-ri Cauri

tsa 'u-ri Pramoha

pra-mo-hii

Location

Colour

Symbolising

In the eastern channel branch of the skull within the brain

White

The natural transformation of mental constructs associatcc.l with visual consciousness, and the action of destroying the conceptual landscape of cyclic existence

In the southern channel branch of the skull within the brain

Yellow

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with auditory consciousness, and the action of propelling the six classes of beings into higher rebirth

In the we~tern channel branch of the skull within the brain

Rec.l

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with olfactory consciousness, and the action of resisting lthe seductions ofJ cyclic existence

~

\0 '-I

...... Location

Colour

Symbolising

Vetali vetali

In the northern channel branch of the skull within the brain

Greenblack

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with gustatory consciousness, and the action of [susraining recognition ofJ the unchanging reality

Pukkasi pu-kka-si

In the south-eastern channel branch of the skull within the brain

Redyellow

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with tactile consciou!>ness, and the action of drawing [sentient beings] free from the dissonant realms

Ghasmari ghasmari

In the south-western channel branch of the skull within the brain

Greenblack

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with the mental consciousness, and the action of consuming [the turning circle of] cyclic existence

Ca~ ..., ..., fTI

Simhamukhi

se1~g-gdong-1'ha

z

Location

Colour

Symbolising

0

In the outer eastern channel branch of the skull within the brain

Brownblack

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with visual objects, and the action of stirring cyclic existence to its depths

>< --l

~

0

Vyaghrlmukhl stag-gdmzg-ma

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with sounds, and the action of overwhelming attachment to cyclic existence

In the outer southern channel branch of the skull within the brain

Red

Srgalamukhi sri-/a gdong-ma

In the outer western channel branch of the skull within the brain

Black

Svanamukhi shva-na gdonK-ma

In the outer northern channel branch of the skull within the brain

Blueblack

Grdhramukhi rgod-gdonK-ma

In the outer south-eastern chan- Whitenel hranch of the skull within yellow the brain

Kankamukhi kang-ka gdong-ma

In the outer south-western channel branch of the skull within the brain

Red-black The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with mental phenomena, anJ the action of extracting [beings] from the pit of cyclic existence

Kakamukhi kha-kha gdong-ma

In the outer north-western channel branch of the skull within the brain

Black

Ulokamukhi hu-hl Kdong-ma

In the outer norrh-eastern chan- Dark blue The natural transformation of mental constructs associnel branch of the skull within ated with objects of the deluded consciousness, and the anion of drawing [beings] free from the false mentality the brain of cyclic existence

The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with smells, and the action of purifying dissonant mental states in their basic nature

> '":l

t':'1

z 0

>< --1

~ 0

The natural tram-formation of mental constructs associated with tastes, and the action of stirring the pit of cyclic existence The natural transformation of mental constructs associated with touch, and the action of severing the three poisons from their roots

The natural tramformation of mental constructs associated with objects of the 'ground-of-all' consciousness, and the action of consuming and liberating dissonant mental states

\;.>

\D \D

~

The four Female Gatekeepers manifest as Vajratejasl, Vajramogha, Vajraloka and Vajravetalt, respectively representing the closing of the doors to the four types of birth and the force of the four immeasurable aspirations Enlightened family

Location

Colour

Symbolising

In the channel branch at the eastern gate of the skull within the brain

White

The force of immeasurable compassion and the closing of the door to miraculous birth

Vajra

In the channel branch at the southern gate of the skull within the brain

Yellow

The force of immeasurable loving kindness and the closing of the door to womb birth

Ratna

Vajraloka [Sphota] lcags-sgrogs-ma

In the channel branch at the western gate of the skull within the brain

Red

The force of immeasurable empathetic joy and the closing of the door to egg birth

Padma

Vajravetali

In the channel branch at the northern gate of the skull within the brain

Green

The force of immeasurable equanimity and the closing of the door to birth through heat and moisture

Karma

Vajratejasi

[Ankusa] lcagskyu-ma Vajramogha [Pasa]

zhags-pa-ma

[Gha~!ii]

dril-bu-ma

0 0

--

> "':: "'::

fTl

z 0

>< o-j

~

0

>

Twenty-eight lsvari, represent the purification of the aggregates of bewildered mental constructs and the enactment of enlightened activity

"'0 -; !Tl

z

0

Location The six yogini of the east:

In the minor channels of the eastern outer courtyard of the skull

Manurak~asi

Raudri Vai~t;tavi

Kaumari lndrat;ti

Vajra Santi

Am!ta Saumi Dat;t~i Rak~asi

Symbolising

Enlightened family

-l

The activities of pacification

Vajra

0

>
...., ....,

("rl

z

0

kumbhakar~;ti

Vajra Lambodara

~

bluish green reddish green blackish green reddish green blackish green bluish green

Vayudevi Agnayi Varahi

Vajrll Mahakali Vajra Mahachagala Vajra Maha-

The activities of subjugation

greenish red red pale red red red greenish red

Manoharika Siddhikari

The four yogini gatekeepers:

Enlightened family

In the minor channels of the western outer courtyard of the skull

Rati Rudhiramadi

The six yogini of the north:

Symbolising

Colour

dark green

Karma

:>