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Tibetan Book of the Dead - Visualising rebirth 2
Identifier
010708
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
This is the second part of a very long description which constitutes an exercise in understanding what rebirth can entail. It has been interpreted by some I think as a description of what happens on death, but the only way the sages would have known this was to have assumed that what happens on rebirth happens on death and I am afraid that logically we cannot assume this. So this is not death, it is a description of a rebirth experience.
A description of the experience
Amidst an expanse of light in the outer eastern channel branch of one's skull,
[Stands] lion-headed Simhamukhi, brown-black in colour, carrying a corpse in her mouth;
Amidst an expanse of light in the outer southern channel branch of one's skull,
[Stands] tiger-headed Vyaghrimukhr, red in colour, with her two arms crossed;
Amidst an expanse of light in the outer western channel branch of one's skull,
[Stands] fox-headed Srgalamukhi, black in colour, eating entrails;
Amidst an expanse of light in the outer northern channel branch of one's skull,
[Stands] wolf-headed Svanamukht, blue-black in colour, tearing apart a bloated corpse;
Amidst an expanse of light in the outer south-eastern channel branch of one's skull,
[Stands] vulture-headed Grdhramukhi, white-yellow in colour, carrying a human corpse draped over her shoulder;
Amidst an expanse of light in the outer south-western channel branch of one's skull,
[Stands] kite-headed Kankamukhl, red-black in colour, carrying a large human corpse;
Amidst an expanse of light in the outer north-western channel branch of one's skull,
[Stands] crow-headed Kakamukhl, black in colour, brandishing a skull and a sword;
Amidst an expanse of light in the outer north-eastern channel branch of one's skull,
[Stands] owl-headed Ulukamukhl, dark blue in colour, holding a vajra.
OM AH HUM
To you, the Eight Pisaci, beginning with Simhamukhi,
[Who are embodiments] of the [eight] sensory objects,
I bow down, make offerings, take refuge, and pray
As soon as we die and begin to transmigrate,
At that very moment, when the visions of the intermediate state of reality dawn,
And we roam [alone] in cyclic existence [driven] by deep-seated confused perceptions,
May the four Pisaci, starting with Simbamukhi, draw us forward,
Leading us on the path of pure [radiant] light,
Which is the purity of the naturally manifesting eight objects [of consciousness].
May the four Pisaci, starting witb Grdhramukht, support us from behind,
And thus [encircled] rnay we be rescued
From the fearsome passageway of the intermediate state,
And be escorted to tbe level of an utterly perfected buddha.