Page:The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1927).djvu/168

 'Alas! when wandering in the Sangsāra because of the power of intense jealousy,

On the radiant light-path of the All-Performing Wisdom

May [I] be led by the Bhagavān Amogha-Siddhi;

May the Divine Mother, the Faithful Tārā, be [my] rear-guard;

May [I] be led safely across the dangerous ambush of the Bardo;

And may [I] be placed in the state of the All-Perfect Buddhahood.'

By praying thus with intense faith and humility, thou wilt merge into the heart of the Divine Father-Mother, the Bhagavān Amogha-Siddhi, in halo of rainbow light, and attain Buddhahood in the Sambhoga-Kāya, in the Northern Realm of Heaped-up Good Deeds.

Being thus set face to face at various stages, however weak one's karmic connexions may be, one should have recognized in one or the other of them; and where one has recognized in any of them it is impossible not to be liberated. Yet, although set face to face so very often in that manner, one long habituated to strong propensities and lacking in familiarity with, and pure affection for, Wisdom, may be led backwards by the power of one's own evil inclinations despite these many introductions. The hook-rays of the light of grace may not be able to catch hold of one: one may still wander downwards because of one's begetting the feeling of awe and terror of the lights and rays.

Thereupon all the Divine Fathers-Mothers of the Five Orders [of Dhyānī Buddhas] with their attendants will come to shine upon one simultaneously. At the same time, the lights proceeding from the Six Lokas will likewise come to shine upon one simultaneously.

The setting-face-to-face for that is, calling the deceased by name, thus:

O nobly-born, until yesterday each of the Five Orders of