The Tibetan Book of the Dead quotes

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The phenomena of life may be likened unto a dream, a phantasm, a bubble, a shadow, the glistening dew, or lightning flash; and thus they ought to be contemplated.

’—The Buddha, in The Immutable Sutra.

the most enlightened of yogīs may escape all of the Bardo, passing into a paradise realm, or else reincarnating in this world as soon as the human body has been discarded, maintaining all the while unbroken continuity of consciousness.

As men think, so are they, both here and hereafter, thoughts being things, the parents of all actions, good and bad alike; and, as the sowing has been, so will the harvest be.

If escape from the Intermediate State is not achieved, through rebirth into some other state—that of Hell being possible for the very exceptional evil-doer, though not for the ordinary person, who expiates normal moral delinquencies upon being reborn as a human being—within the symbolic period …

‘For that which clingeth to another thing there is a fall; but unto that which clingeth not no fall can come.

Where no fall cometh, there is rest, and where rest is, there is no keen desire.

Where keen desire is not, naught cometh or goeth; and where naught cometh or goeth there is no death, no birth. Where there is neither death nor birth, there neither is this world nor that, nor in between—it is the ending of sorrow.

Not knowing whether [he be] dead or not, [a state of] lucidity cometh [to the deceased]. If the instructions be successfully applied to the deceased while he is in that state, then, by the meeting of the Mother-Reality and the Offspring-Reality, karma controlleth not.

Like the sun's rays, for example, dispelling the darkness, the Clear Light on the Path dispelleth the power of karma.

That which is called the second stage of the Bardo dawneth upon the thought-body. The Knower hovereth within those places to which its activities had been limited. If at this time this special teaching be applied efficiently, then the purpose will be fulfilled;

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 Sangsāra. Be not attached [to this world]; be not weak.

From the midst of that radiance, the natural sound of Reality, reverberating like a thousand thunders simultaneously sounding, will come.

That is the natural sound of thine own real self.

Be not daunted thereby, nor terrified, nor awed.

O nobly-born, these realms are not come from somewhere outside [thyself]. They come from within the four divisions of thy heart, which, including its centre, make the five directions. They issue from within there, and shine upon thee.

The deities, too, are not come from somewhere else: they exist from eternity within the faculties of thine own intellect.

Know them to be of that nature.

The saying, 'Buddhahood will be obtained in a moment [of time]' is that which applieth now. Bearing this in mind, one will obtain Buddhahood by merging, in at-one-ment, into the Radiances and the Kāyas.

O nobly-born, whatever fearful and terrifying visions thou mayst see, recognize them to be thine own thought-forms.

O nobly-born, if thou recognize not, and be frightened, then all the Peaceful Deities will shine forth in the shape of Mahā-Kāla; and all the Wrathful Deities will shine [forth] in the form of Dharma-Rāja, the Lord of Death;

O nobly-born, the possessor of that sort of body will see places [familiarly known on the earth-plane] and relatives [there] as one seeth another in dreams.

Thou seest thy relatives and connexions and speakest to them, but receivest no reply.

Then, seeing them and thy family weeping, thou thinkest, 'I am dead! What shall I do?' and feelest great misery, just like a fish cast out [of water] on red-hot embers. Such misery thou wilt be experiencing at present.

But the way will be obstructed by three awful precipices—white, and black, and red. They will be terror-inspiring and deep, and one will feel as if one were about to fall down them.

O nobly-born, they are not really precipices; they are Anger, Lust, and Stupidity.

Know at that time that it is the Sidpa Bardo [in which thou art]. Invoking, by name, the Compassionate One, pray earnestly, thus:

Lords of Death are thine own hallucinations. Thy desire-body is a body of propensities, and void.

Voidness cannot injure voidness; the qualityless cannot injure the qualityless.

Apart from one's own hallucinations, in reality there are no such things existing outside oneself as Lord of Death, or god, or demon, or the Bull-headed Spirit of Death. Act so as to recognize this.

A saying, the truth of which is applicable, is:

'In a moment of time, a marked differentiation is created; In a moment of time, Perfect Enlightenment is obtained.'

Till the moment which hath just passed, all this Bardo hath been dawning upon thee and yet thou hast not re- cognized, because of being distracted. On this account, thou hast experienced all the fear and terror.

The significance of the above teaching, 'When, at this time, the Sidpa Bardo is dawning upon me [or upon oneself]', is that now thou art wandering in the Sidpa Bardo.

As a sign of this, if thou lookest into water, or into mirrors, thou wilt see no reflection of thy face or body; nor doth thy body cast any shadow.

Thou hast discarded now thy gross material body of flesh and blood. These are the indications that thou art wandering about in the Sidpa Bardo.

At this time, thou must form, without distraction, one single resolve in thy mind. The forming of one single resolve is very important now.

It is like directing the course of a horse by the use of the reins.

Whatever thou desirest will come to pass. Think not upon evil actions which might turn the course [of thy mind].

and, in its realization, there dawns IIlumination, 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.

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;

The Veil of Māyā has been lifted, and the Clear Light shines into the heart of the shiṣḥya 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 shiṣḥya.

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 disem- bodied state.