Page:The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927).djvu/137

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[THE READING OF THIS THÖDOL]

If the Transference hath been effectually employed, there is no need to read this Thödol; but if the Transference hath not been effectually employed, then this Thödol is to be read, correctly and distinctly, near the dead body.

If there be no corpse, then the bed or the seat to which the deceased had been accustomed should be occupied [by the reader], who ought to expound the power of the Truth. Then, summoning the spirit [of the deceased], imagine it to be present there listening, and read.^[1] During this time no relative or fond mate should be allowed to weep or to wail, as such is not good [for the deceased] ; so restrain them.^[2]

If the body be present, just when the expiration hath ceased, either a lāma [who hath been as a guru to the deceased], or a brother in the Faith whom the deceased trusted, or a friend for whom the deceased had great affection, putting the lips close to the ear [of the body] without actually touching it,^[3] should read this Great Thödol.

to the process, instantaneously, or, as the text explains, automatically, the desired result is achieved.

↑ 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, ‘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-plane 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).
↑ This prohibition is found in Brāhmanism too.
↑ According to Tibetan and lāmaic 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 Brahmanic aperture on the crown of the head, be not interfered with. Otherwise, the departure may be 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.

[2] 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, ‘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-plane 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).

[3] This prohibition is found in Brāhmanism too.

[4] According to Tibetan and lāmaic 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 Brahmanic aperture on the crown of the head, be not interfered with. Otherwise, the departure may be 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.

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