ebook img

Sacred Tibetan Teachings: Death and Liberation PDF

172 Pages·1990·5.555 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Sacred Tibetan Teachings: Death and Liberation

PRISM UNITY SACRED TIBETAN TEACHINGS ON DEATH AND LIBERATION G I A C O M E L L A O R O F I N O SACRED TIBETAN TEACHINGS ON DEATH AND LIBERATION TEXTS FROM THE MOST ANCIENT TRADITIONS OF TIBET Preface by NAMKHAI NORBU Translation and commentary by GIACOMELLA OROFINO PRISM • UNITY To my mother SACRED TIBETAN TEACHINGS On Death and Liberation Published in Great Britain in 1990 by: PRISM PRESS 2 South Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3NQ^ and distributed in the USA by: AVERY PUBLISHING GROUP INC., 120 Old Broadway, Garden City Park, New York 11040 and published in Australia 1990 by: UNITY PRESS 6a Ortona Road, Lindfield, NSW 2070 ISBN 1 85327 049 0 © Original Italian Edition Edizion Mediterranee Roma 1985 © English Language Edition Prism Press 1990 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Printed and bound in the Channel Islands by The Guernsey Press Limited. Contents Preface (Namkhai Norbu) 1 Introduction 9 I. The Religious Traditions and Literary Origins of the Texts 17 The sNyirtg-thig scriptures of the rNying-ma-pa tradition 17 The Nyi-zla kha-sbyor Tantra 20 The Transmission of the rDzogs-pa chen-po zhang-zhung snyan-rgyud 21 The sGron-ma drug-gi gdams-pa text 24 Notes to Part I 26 II. The Tantra of the Great Secret Union of the Sun and Moon 31 The bar-do of the moment of death 31 The bar-do of essential reality and of existence 45 Notes to Part II 55 III. The Doctrine of the Six Lights 61 The doctrine of the six lights 61 The ornament of sunlight: commentary on the text ‘The doctrine of the six lights’ 67 Notes to Part III 81 Appendix: The Lamp which makes clear the Signs of Death 85 Introductory Note 85 The lamp which makes clear the signs of death 89 Notes to the Appendix 101 Critical Edition of the Tibetan Texts 105 Bibliography 152 Index 157 Acknowledgements This text was first published in 1985 in Italy as a result of my research at the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples. The English version is not a mere translation from the Italian as, rewriting it in English, I took the opportunity of improving the translation, rechecking it against the Tibetan texts. For this new edition I must express my gratitude to Professor Per Kvaerne of Oslo University who very kindly read this version and gave invaluable suggestions. I also wish to acknowledge my debt to Des Barry who helped me in the work of translating the work into English, and to Professor Alison Duguid for her help with stylistic problems. Giacomella Orofino Preface In the western world a great interest has arisen in the translations of a Tibetan book dedicated to the after-death state. The title given to this book — The Tibetan Book of the Dead — invariably applied to all translated versions, has no corres­ pondence whatsoever with the original ude of the text: Self liberation through hearing, during the intermediate period that follows death (Bar-do thos-grol). Probably this choice was made to make an analogy with the Egyptian Book of the Dead, already known to a wide public, and thus providing these particular Tibetan texts with an easily understandable context.1 The doctrine of the Bar-do thos-grol belongs to the collection of esoteric teachings known as Zhi-khro dgongs-pa rang-grol, or ‘Self-liberation through the understanding of the peaceful and wrathful deities’. According to tradition the compilation of this series of teachings had its origin in the 8 th century A.D. when the master Padmasambhava arrived in Tibet from Uddiyana. Later the texts were buried as treasures (gter-ma)2 on Mount Gampodar and rediscovered by Kar-ma gling-pa in 1326 A.D. This text has never ceased to be of great benefit to those who were interested in it from the time of its discovery until the present, and especially now, thanks to the many translations that are available in the West. According to the doctrines of Bar-do thos-grol the nature of any living being is unchanging and is called Dharmadhatu. It is similar to the spaciousness of the sky in that it is emptiness. The wisdom of the naturally perfected state arises in this condition like the bright light and rays that shine out in their luminosity without any obstruction when the sun rises high in the sky. If illusion manifests because one has not understood or recog­ nised this state, then, in the impure condition, there arise the 1 Sacred Tibetan Teachings illusory visions which manifest in the apparition of the lights of the six realms of existence: the paradise of the gods, the realms of the demi-gods, men, animals, ‘hungry ghosts’ and ‘hell beings’. The light of the gods shines an opaque white, that of the demi-gods a dark blue, a motded green for the animals, an opaque yellow for the hungry ghosts, and a dark smoky colour for the hell beings. If one feels attachment and one is attracted by those lights, one obtains the five aggregates which constitute the human personality: form, sensory perception, conceptualisation, karmic impulses and consciousness; and the five elements: space, earth, water, fire and wind. Following the five passions: attachment, pride, anger, jealousy and egoism one wanders without interruption or limitation in samsara. On the other hand, if one recognises the pure condition, the vision of the uncontaminated nature shines freely, and from the light of the naturally manifest state which is blue, white, yellow, red and green, there arise from the dimension of the sambhogakaya as a living symbol of vision, the five father divinities: Vairocana, Vajrasattva, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha and Amoghasiddhi, and as symbols of the void the five mother divinities: Dhatu Isvari, Buddha Locana, Mamaki, Pandaravasim and Samaya Tara. Each one of the father divinities is united inseparably to his own paxedra, the symbol of energy, representing a quality of wisdom: the wisdom of essential space, the mirror-like wisdom, the wisdom of equanimity, the discriminating wisdom and the all-accomplishing wisdom. From one’s own state of consciousness there manifest the forty-two peaceful divinities of the sambhogakaya dimension as a symbol of the quintessential void. In the moment in which one recognises that they are none other than one’s own pure vision, one obtains complete liberation. If liberation does not occur, however, then from the nature of one’s own being, which is in itself clear, one projects the fifty- eight terrifying divinities, which are manifestations of limitless energy. 2 Preface On the other hand, if these pure visions are recognised as manifestations of internal energy of one’s own state of consciousness one obtains definitive liberation in one’s own condition in a moment. When one recognises that the peaceful and terrifying divinities are external manifestations of one’s own state of consciousness, one realises the supreme teaching of the profound and direct path of total liberation. This will take place for those beings with the superior qualifications and also for those who do not possess them if they remain in a state of real stability during the moment of the bar-do of essential reality when the visions of the spontaneous manifest state appear. If one does not obtain liberation, however, not having stability in the knowledge of one’s own original state, one is introduced to the profound essential doctrines during the following time of the bar-do of existence. At this time the teaching on the profound method which brings liberation through the pronouncing of the names of the peaceful and terrifying divinities are given, or through the hearing of secret mantra. If one still does not obtain liberation because of past negative actions, one intervenes with the rituals and ceremonies to ensure that rebirth takes place where there is a manifestation of the Buddha. Such rituals, using the magical formulas of the peaceful and terrifying divinities, as well as hand gestures and meditation, purify negative actions. In the tradition that we are studying the concept of ‘self­ liberation’ has a great value: this is the supreme understanding which all completely realised Buddhas embody and there is nothing which is superior to it. It is the spontaneously arisen state of self-perfection. The method to reach it is described in the principal text of the Zhi-khro dgongs-pa rang-groL An invaluable clarification of the meaning of the term ‘self­ liberation’ is given in the Tantra of self-liberation by the introduction to the state of pure awareness which appears nakedly from the collection 3 Sacred Tibetan Teachings of the Zhi-khro dgongs-pa rang-grol2 where we read: The mind of all beings, is inseparable from sarnsara and nirvana They wander in samsara, conditioned by desire and refusal The whole of the essence is in going beyond actions. This is how it is taught to liberate oneself: through the naked vision of the state ofpure awareness so that one really obtains the great self liberation, and all this is completed in the state of the great perfection (rdzogs-pa chen-po). This profound natural state is the basis of the understanding of all the illuminates of the past, present and future. When this sacred understanding really manifests, the necessity for any action or judgement ceases and one obtains liberation in one’s own dimension. Let us now consider the general features of the doctrine of the Zhi-khro dgongs-pa rang-grol. In the text it is stated that there are six different bar-do states: the bar-do of nature, which begins at the moment of birth, the bar-do of dreams, the bar-do of the state of samadhi, the bar-do of the moment of death, the bar-do of quintessential reality, the bar-do of arising existence The origin of this sub-division of the bar-do states is particularly derived from the Tantra of the Great Secret Union of the Sun and the Moon from the collection of the rNying-ma’i rgyud bcu bdun3. In this text it states concerning the bar-do of nature: 4

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.