Page:The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927).djvu/117

Rh the mental-content of the percipient, happy and heaven-like if the karma be good, miserable and hell-like if the karma be bad;

9. That, unless Enlightenment be won, rebirth in the human world, directly from the Bardo-world or from any other world or from any paradise or hell to which karma has led, is inevitable;

10. That Enlightenment results from realizing the unreality of the sangsāra, of existence;

11. That such realizing is possible in the human world, or at the important moment of death in the human world, or during the whole of the after-death or Bardo-state, or in certain of the non-human realms;

12. That training in yoga, i.e. in control of the thinking processes so as to be able to concentrate the mind in an effort to reach Right Knowledge, is essential;

13. That such training can best be had under a human guru, or teacher;

14. That the Greatest of Gurus known to mankind in this cycle of time is Gautama the Buddha;

15. That His Doctrine is not unique, but is the same Doctrine which has been proclaimed in the human world for the gaining of Salvation, for the Deliverance from the Circle of Rebirth and Death, for the Crossing of the Ocean of Sangsāra, for the Realization of Nirvāṇa, since immemorial time, by a long and illustrious Dynasty of Buddhas, who were Gautama’s Predecessors;

16. That lesser spiritually enlightened beings, Bodhisattvas and gurus, in this world or in other worlds, though still not freed from the Net of Illusion, can, nevertheless, bestow divine grace and power upon the shiṣḥya (i.e. the chela, or disciple) who is less advanced upon the Path than themselves;

17. That the Goal is and can only be Emancipation from the Sangsāra;

18. That such Emancipation comes from the Realization of Nirvāṇa;

19. That Nirvāṇa is non-sangsāric, being beyond all paradises, heavens, hells, and worlds;