The Tibetan Book of the Dead or the After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane

682 Pages·2000·3.05 MB·English

by  Padmasambhava

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD
(reading left to right)
THE TRANSLATOR AND THE EDITOR IN GANGTOK, SIKKIM
Described on page xxvii
FOLIOS 35A AND 67a OF THE BARDO THODOL MS.
Described on page xxvii
THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD
OR
The After—Death Experiences
on the Bardo Plane, according
to LāMa Kazi Dawa—Samdup’s
English Rendering
Compiled and edited by
W. Y. Evans-Wentz
with a new
Foreword and Afterword by
Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
Oxford New York
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1960, 2000 by W. Y. Evans—Wentz First
published by Oxford University Press, London, 1927
Second Edition, 1949
Third Edition, 1957
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1960
New Foreword and Afterword copyright © 2000 by
Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press 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 Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging—in—Publication Data Karma—glin—pa,
Library of Congress Cataloging—in—Publication Data Karma—glin—pa,
14th cent.
[Bar do thos grol. English]
The Tibetan book of the dead; or, The after—death experiences
on the Bardo plane, according to LāMa Kazi Dawa—Samdup’s
English rendering / compiled and edited by W.Y. Evans—Wentz;
with a new foreword and afterword by Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
p. cm.
Includes Index.
ISBN 0—19—513311—0 —ISBN 0—19—513312—9 (pbk.) 1.
Intermediate state—Buddhism—Early works to 1800. 2. Death—
Religious aspects—Buddhism—Early works to 1800. 3. Funeral
rites and ceremonies, Buddhist—China—Tibet—Early works to
1800. I. Title.
BQ4490.K3713 2000
294.3’423—dc21
00—022529
13 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid free paper
IN MEMORY OF
MY DECEASED FATHER AND MOTHER
I DEDICATE
THIS BOOK TO MY TEACHERS
BOTH SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS
IN EUROPE AND AMERICA
AND THROUGHOUT
THE ORIENT
‘Thou shalt understand that it is a science most profitable, and
passing all other sciences, for to learn to die. For a man to know
that he shall die, that is common to all men ; as much as there is no
man that may ever live or he hath hope or trust thereof; but thou
shalt find full few that have this cunning to learn to die. . . . I shall
give tliec the mystery of this doctrine; the which shall profit thec
greatly to the beginning of ghostly health, and to a stable
fundament of all virtues.’— Orologium Sapnenliae.
‘Against his will he dieth that hath not learned to die. Learn to
die and thou shalt learn to live, for there shall none learn to live
that hath not learned to die.’— Toure of all Toures: and Teacheth a
Man for to Die.
The Book of the Craft of Dying (Compcr’s Edition).
‘Whatever is here, that is there ; what is there, the same is here.
He who seeth here as different, mectcth death after death.
‘By mind alone this is to be realized, and [then] there is no
difference here. From death to death he goeth, who seeth as if there
is difference here.’— Katha Upunish ad, iv. io—n (Swami
Sharvananda7 Translation).
FOREWORD
Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
A certain trepidation attends the decision to accept an invitation to
write a foreword to new editions, published in 2000, of the four
books of W. Y. Evans—Wentz: The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Tibet’s
Great Yogi Milarepa, Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines,and The
Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation.The four books in their old
editions are already burdened with numerous prefaces,
commentaries, and introductions, causing one to wonder what
another preface could possibly add. It seems inevitable that the four
books of Evans—Wentz will continue to outlive yet another
generation of commentators, such that anything that a scholar
might add today will only serve as material for a scholar some fifty
years from now, who will demonstrate the biases and
misunderstandings of a preface written fifty years ago, a preface
that merely offers evidence of the fin de siécle Zeitgeist of those
who once called themselves postmoderns.
The four books of Evans—Wentz are surely ground—breaking
works, the first to bring translations of Tibetan Buddhist texts to the
English—speaking public. Evans—Wentz was equally avant garde in
his method, collaborating closely with Tibetan scholars, a practice
that would not become common for another four decades, after the
Tibetan diaspora began in 1959. Yet, for the scholar of the present
day, looking back now more than seventy years to the publication of