Creator and Creatress of Buddhas

Himalayan Art 52849431

“Pre-Islamic Central Asia was a melting pot in which religious interactions afforded multiple reversible influences[1]”

“Syncretism” is essential for the life of a religion. My intuition about a link between “Gnostic” (early Christian) in the Middle East and Nyingma Great Perfection and Bardo teachings in the Tibetan perimeter is growing stronger, finding many, let’s call them for the moment, fortuitous coincidences.

Samten Karmay wrote[2]:

“The use of the terms byed pa po and bya ba mo is a semantic puzzle in the tantras, especially in the Mahāyoga tantras of the rNying ma pa tradition. In chapter II of [the gSang ba snying po[3]] ( p. 1– 4 –2) dharmakāya in order to pronounce the tantra comes forth as Kun-tu bzang-po in the form of saṃbhogakāya and then enters into union with his consort Kun-tu bzang-mo.

He is the embodiment of the mind of all Buddhas characterised as the creator (byed pa po), hence the one who is active whereas his feminine partner is the one who is passive (bya ba mo). The male partner is further conceived as the mind (yid) which perceives (yul can) and the feminine partner as the object (chos), that which is perceived (yul).”

It is a “semantic puzzle” as long as we remain in the context of Buddhist tantras. Someone with a fresh candid look who reads up on “Gnostic” writings and then turns to Mahāyoga tantras and Bardo revelations, will probably be less puzzled. Kuntuzangpo (Noûs, Father) and Kuntuzangmo (Mother-Father) as a Creator and a Creatress would then look quite familiar. In the same book Samten Karmay quotes a passage from Longchen Rabjam’s Nyi zla sprin gyi snang ba, where rDo-rje gzi-brjid (alias Longchen Rabjam) mentions the same idea but omits the reference to a Creator and a Creatress, as noted by Karmay[4]. It is followed by another passage from a Tun-huang manuscript (IOL 437), “no doubt related to Mahāyoga tantras”, which Karmay translates as follows:

“The external object—being that which is perceived—is the passive Kun-tu bzang-mo who has neither top nor bottom, nor middle nor end. The internal subject, that which perceives, is the mind, the active Kun-tu bzang-po who is the Yab. The thought of the couple is bodhicitta.[5]”

Karmay sees a dichotomic pattern here:

“subject: byed pa po [creator], yid, yul can, Kun-tu bzang po, yab.
object: bya ba mo [creatress], chos, yul, Kun-tu bzang mo, yum.”

Nicholas Roerich's Mother of the World 1924 (wikimedia)

In the Bön tradition[6], the union of the Father and the Mother produces “the universal Grand Father of all beings” (sems can thams cad kyi spyi mes). Also known as “Bon (nyid)”, Adamas[7]… ? In Buddhist terms this “universal Grand Father” would be bodhicitta embodied. The Mother is the Thought of the Father[8], and Bodhicitta is the self-arisen Thought (rang byung dgongs pa) of the Couple (Autogene). This triad constitutes the level of the perfect creation[9] (t. dag pa s. śuddha). The Father is the invisible God (dharmakāya), whose Thought is the Mother, inseparable from Himself. Their union (Mother-Father, sambhogkāya) produces the Bodhicitta-Thought (nirmāṇakāya) and its associated pure creations. The gift that the Autogene receives from the Father is Goodness/Messianity (Bonté/Messianité[10]). These three Bodies (kāya), authentic Buddhahood, are present in the Heart of all pure creation entities of the Mother[11]. Pure creation is not what we mortal earthlings experience though. So what went wrong? Depending on specific traditions there are many different versions, including those stating that nothing actually went wrong and that everything went as planned by the Divine Triad’s Thought (dgongs pa).

We can speak of a sort of leak (intentional or not) in the intelligible world of Pure creation, that developed and concretised into an impure sensible creation with flawed mortal creatures, with both an intelligible and a sensible core : mind and matter. Their intelligible part is clouded by their sensible parts (rigidity, passions, etc.), yet “Authentic Buddhahood” abides within them. Within the center of their hearts primordially abide the “Three Bodies of Buddhahood”[12].

Madonna Oriflamma, Roerich (1932) 

As above so below, this cosmogonic and theogonic discourse can also be applied on the level of every human being, whose Awareness or soul is imprisoned (rig pa btson rar gzhug pa). “The body is the prison of the soul” (Phaedo). But there is a way out, and Platonism, Neoplatonism, religions, spiritual paths and esoteric Tibetan Buddhism teach how Awareness can leave the sensible world, ascend to the Intelligible world of Ideas and how the soul can journey back to its Creator(s) or Source. The real prison down here is not a physical one, a specific body, but it’s one made of delusion, ignorance, not-knowing (avidyā), veils, sin etc. and it can only be destroyed through knowing (gnosis, jñāna-ye shes, vidyā-rig pa…). This knowing or Wisdom (gnosis) is what is revealed and transmitted and needs to be actualised by each individual.

I will leave out for now the very important concept of eons (kalpas), gods as eternal and temporal containers of all the various generations. Temporal “tunnels” that prevent those born in the same place, but not at the same time, from meeting. Concrete births have a spatial and a temporal dimension. Metempsychosis (“mixture”[13] t. bsre ba) was known in Sethian circles and souls could travel downwards, upwards and downwards again until they managed to go all the way back up. Once up there, both Sethians[14] and adepts of Pure Land Buddhism allow for the possibility to return to Earth and help others to Liberate themselves.

In Tibetan Buddhism, The Vajra Verses on the Oral Tradition (Kaṇatantravajrapada) attributed to Nāropa describe briefly the reunion between the “clear light” of “Mother” and “Child”.

“In the three types of bardo, unrealized embodied beings should blend the generation stage, illusory body, and clear light as the reality body [dharmakāya]. The elements--earth, water, fire, and air--dissolve gradually. After the eighty [conceptual minds] have ceased, three visions pass. White, red, and mind are combined within the lotus. Recognize the clear light and mix inseparably Mother and Child.[15]” [emphasis added]

In the 15-16th century and in particular in the Bardo literature, the number of Bardos was increased (six) and a very “Gnostic” Bardo of Reality was added, which became a platform for a whole range of complex practices and rituals around dying and death (Tibetan Book of the Dead). Once systematised, it contained among others “Five methods that lead to liberation without the need for meditation (ma sgom sangs rgyas chos lnga)[16]” to make the ascent accessible for all. For this blog I will look into the “Liberation by touch”, through wearing an amulet (btags grol)[17] so as to “self-liberate the Aggregates (of Body and Mind)”. In Sethian terms “the slave form has to be stripped off and the celestial garment needs to be robed”[18] to set free the “enslaved spark”. The ritual of the amulet seems to reproduce the process of pure creation. The deceased is prepared for his final “birth”.

Amulet (btags grol) or used as a "shroud" (Tibetan Spirit) 

The mantras of the amulet are used during the ritual, which starts, as a reminder, with the so called Vajra Song[19], the “self-arisen Ati verses” in “the language of Oḍḍiyāna”, expressing the Thought (t. dgongs pa) of the Creatress Samantabhadrī. This Vajra Song is said (Chögyal Namkhai Norbu) to contain all the seed syllables of the Vajra Body. It is followed by “self-arisen Ati verses” representing a mantra in 25 verses regarding the three Bodies. Then the gradual stripping off through mantras starts.

The mantras to subjugate the four Māras (daimons/archons) : passions, psychophysical constituents (skandha), Eros, Thanatos. The appearance of a rainbow in a different color marks every shedding instance. The final white rainbow confirms the success of the operation. This is the cleansing of the “lower soul”.

The “higher soul” (rig pa) is then stripped off from its psychic cosmic framework. The conceiving of itself as a continuum (saṃtāna), the conceiving of a 3-staged cosmos, the conceiving of six destinies, and in particular of the three lower destinies. At every stage, physical relics (śarīra) are left behind as a sign of the effective stripping off of parts of the earthly garment. After this its only refuge left is the authentic reality (yang dag don). Various rainbows appear to confirm success.

The chains of attachment to the objects of the lower world are naturally freed. The “chains” (lug rgyud) of the higher world are first to appear, the visions are to follow and are finally perfected into divine forms. Yet again a white rainbow confirms success. The “higher soul” can now start its instantaneous ascension through the five paths and the ten bhūmis and enter Absolute reality (dharmatā). First the empty sounds of the Absolute reality (chos nyid rang sgra) are heard, then lights (‘od) as empty visions, and finally rays (zer) as the dynamism of the gnosis of one’s “higher soul” (rang rig ye shes kyi rtsal).[20]” The ”higher soul” is now endowed with the three Bodies (of the path) for its further journey. The mantras will help it to accomplish the final steps towards Buddhahood. Attachment (zhen pa) to visions, sounds, etc. is stripped off through mantras. Once speech has been left behind (tshig las grol nas su) in the sphere of the inexpressible (brjod med), five colored lights multiply beyond numbers and a mantra is uttered in order to be able to maintain concentration. Inconceivable rainbow-like visions appear and awakened activity (phrin las) is brought to its end, resulting in direct access to Essence, Nature and Compassion or Father, Mother and Son, Samantabhadra, Samantabhadrī and the Self-arisen One. 

For those, present at the ritual and following the surface-to-air proceedings from below, numerous subtle relic pearls of various colors are produced as proof of manifest Buddhahood. Just to be sure, a last mantra is uttered to prevent attachment to this highest of realisations. SANG TRI MAMA KARMĀTA. The fully awakened “higher soul” can now join the other Jinaputtas in their “pneumatic” abodes. This is a full and complete 16th-century Buddhahood and not the Buddhist nirvāṇa of yore, which is like “an inferior abide for noetics”[21].

The ritual is a last resort or an extra security for those who did not practice, or not sufficiently, during their lives.

“If one fails to recognize the nature of the lights and Wisdom that appear during the Bardo, then one will powerlessly be drawn by one’s own karma to a rebirth in the six destinies. This is the reason why it is crucial to train in the practice of thod rgal during one’s lifetime, in order to generate a sufficient form of familiarization which will be the actual cause of one’s recognition of the nature of the vision arising after death. When this is not recognized, then the manifestations of the six destinies appear naturally and for five days one wanders in the path of the five poisons. Visions of gods, semi-gods, humans, animal, hungry ghosts and denizens of hells arise and if one’s consciousness engages in one of these, one will assuredly take rebirth accordingly.[22]” [emphasis added]

“Quoting the [Tantra of the Three Stanzas on Contemplation] again, the text concludes that merely recognizing that one’s luminous Awareness abides as the Buddha is sufficient in itself.” 

But Jean-Luc Achard adds as a footnote :

“This means that it is sufficient for understanding the purpose of the direct introduction, not for reaching Liberation (of which there is no mention in this context). In general, unqualified vessels who receive the direct introduction prematurely deviate into nihilistic views, imagining that there is nothing to do to reach Buddhahood. This is a definite negation of the Path which propels these vessels out of the Buddha’s teachings.[23]” [emphasis added]

“Nihilistic views” are of course views that don’t give enough weight to theories and practices in which cosmogonic, theogonic, anthropogenic, royal-genealogic and theocratic thinking and re-enacting are crucial. In Tibetan Buddhism, such as generally practiced nowadays, and in the eyes of traditionalists, awakening, knowing the nature of one’s mind, sapience (prajñā), so-called “Sūtra-Mahāmudrā” (Kagyupa), Cutting through Rigidity (khregs chod, Nyingmapa) are not sufficient to reach “Liberation”, or salvation, in a more Gnostic sense. Only the Passing-over-the-Crest (thod rgal, full Dzogchen) or similar methods can make that happen, according to their apologists. Or having one’s body incinerated with the proper amulet/shroud for that matter… The only mantra that seems to be missing in the “Liberation by touch” text is one that would purify attachment (zhen pa) to the view of 6-world transmigrationalism. Or perhaps the associated mantras[24] ought to be printed in bold or recited three times to be more effective.

Moreover, in order to have the right motivation and necessary energy to go all the way, belief in transmigration and the six destinies is thought to be crucial. In his French translation of the main texts of the Tibetan Book of the Death, Philippe Cornu warns against various sorts of interpretations that tend to water down the reality of the Bardo experience. Including "psychologised" interpretations by Chögyam Trungpa and Francesca Fremantle, that were meant to facilitate the understanding of a Western audience that was not ready yet to adopt the idea of transmigration. It would even be “dangerous” for an unprepared Western audience to imagine that this was all there is to the Tibetan Book of the Death[25]. Letting the Western audience off the transmigrational hook, so to speak, would almost be like an offense of non-assistance to anyone in danger (duty to rescue), if there were any Intercosmic Transmigrational Court to treat such a case…

To practise Dzogchen Lite (khregs chod) during one’s whole lifetime and to follow the Buddha’s precepts, without practising thod brgal and Bardo teaching is simply not enough for Liberation with a capital L.

"Every conditioned life has an end, however, and what dies then is precisely the gangue of karmic conditioning and false identifications - the five aggregates of appropriation. And, for all beings without exception, the clear light, the primordial basis of the mind, is revealed at this moment. The moment of death is indeed the moment of truth at the crossroads between Awakening and the return to the alienation of the cycle of painful existences. However, the choice itself depends on previous practice, because we can only recognise what we already know. So glimpses, if not a reliable experience of the Clear Light during life, are the necessary condition for recognising it and absorbing oneself in it at the end of the dying process. The aim of Tantric and Dzogchen practices is therefore to offer a whole panoply of methods or skilful means giving access to this primary experience." 

"The main texts of the Bardo Thödröl are presented precisely as a guide to the path of Awakening at these crucial moments.” (P. Cornu, pp 973-974[26]) [emphasis added]

As always, I approach (Tibetan) Buddhism from a personal rather “historicist” Western bias, fed by my own experience with traditionalist Tibetan Buddhism in the West (France). My pet Indo-Tibetan view is “Apratiṣṭhāna-Madhyamaka” (tib. dbu ma rab tu mi gnas pa), which may be judged “nihilistic” by some. Since the days I was involved in it, and after a short “honeymoon period”, there has been a split between Mindfulness(™) and an increasingly conservative traditionalist Tibetan Buddhism in the West, where the former was clearly the more successful one. I don’t think that Tibetan Buddhism in Asia went through a real change, although, like anywhere else, there will be more progressive and conservative forces at play.

One could quite easily imagine a “nihilism-eternalism” (or emptiness-luminosity) spectrum in Buddhism, in which Tibetan Buddhism and the Nyingma school in particular, would be rather at the eternalist end of the spectrum. Ideally, when “eternalist” ideas and methods are genuinely used as “skilful means” (upāya), “empty”, there could be a useful alliance of “emptiness and luminosity”. But when these ideas and methods are presented as necessary, indispensable, and as the only path to Liberation (or salvation), considering other paths as incomplete or dangerous, then they may well be characterized as "eternalist” and even triumphalist. 

Tintin (1962)

Space Odyssey (1968)

Twin Peaks S3-E8

Space Odyssey (1968)

***  

[1] Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, iv. BUDDHIST ELEMENTS IN MANICHEISM

[2] Karmay, Samten Gyaltsen, The Great Perfection Rdzogs Chen: A Philosophical and Meditative Teaching in Tibetan Buddhism, Brill Academic Pub, 2007, p. 156-157

[3] gSang ba snying po, K Vol. 10, No. 455 ( Kaneko No. 187).

[4] “In his NYP (f. 33b), Klong-chen rab-’byams explains the problem in the following ways: “The [Dharmakāya] teacher [chos sku’i ston pa yab yum nyid], the Yab with his partner appears in the form of saṃbhogakāya. His mind is then called the “Awareness that is born from within oneself ”. When it perceives an object, it is called the Yab Kun-tu bzang-po and its object, the passive Yum Kun-tu bzang-mo” (chos sku’i ston pa yab yum nyid longs skur snang ba’i thugs rang byung gi ye shes bya ba’i (bas) yul gtan la ’bebs pa na/ ’bebs byed rig pa ni/ yid rdo rje kun tu bzang po yab tu brjod la/ yul shes bya ba ni bya ba mo kun tu bzang mo ste yum du btags so/). The term byed pa po in this commentary seems to have been missed out or avoided, but is clearly mentioned in [dKon mchog ’grel by Chos-kyi bzang-po, Rong-zom] (f. 193)." Samten Karmay, The Great Perfection

“In the Secret Union of Sun and Moon, and other Nyingthik scriptures, the brief moment of the clear light encounter was extended so that it came to span an entirely new conceptual space. This amplified experience of luminosity was described in terms of a separate transitional period distinct from the other bardo states commonly expounded in the Kagyu instructional advice traditions that I examined in the preceding section.” Bian Cuevas, The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, 2003

[5] phyi’i yul chos bya ba mo kun tu bzang mo mkha’ lding (kha gting) dbus mtha’ med pa la bya/ nang gyi (gi) yul rtogs(rtog) pas tshus(tshur) bcad pa yid yid (sic) byed (pa po) kun tu bzang po la bya ste yab/ yab yum rnams gnyis kyi dgongs pa byang chub kyi sems/

[6] Sems lung gab pa dgu bskor gyi ’grel ba rgya cher bshad pa ( Karmay 1977, No. 53)

Sems can thams cad kyi spyi mes bya ba ni/ bon nyid bya ba byed pa mo kun tu bzang mo dang sems nyid bya ba byed pa po kun tu bzang po gnyis kyi thugs rje byin gyis brlabs pa las/

[7] “The Gnostic Anthrôpos, therefore, or Adamas, as it is sometimes called, is a cosmogonic element, pure mind as distinct from matter, mind conceived hypostatically as emanating from God and not yet darkened by contact with matter. This mind is considered as the reason of humanity, or humanity itself, as a personified idea, a category without corporeality, the human reason conceived as the World-Soul. The same idea, somewhat modified, occurs in Hermetic literature, especially the Poimandres.”

“According to the Naassenes, the Protanthropos is the first element; the fundamental being before its differentiation into individuals. "The Son of Man" is the same being after it has been individualized into existing things and thus sunk into matter.” Adam Kadmon, Wikipedia

[8] She contains the hidden Father, the perfect image of the Father.
“Since, then, the Father himself, having advanced from himself, manifested to himself his own Thought, so also Thought who appeared did not make him. But when she saw him, she hid the Father in herself—that is, his power—an androgynous power and thought. Thus they correspond to each other. This is because power does not at all differ from thought; they are one. Power is discovered from things above, while thought is discovered from things below. (Ref. 6.18.6)”

“Although separated from each other, Mind and Thought correspond closely. Both retain a measure of androgynous power. Both remain, as it were, two modulations of the same reality. Heaven (Mind) and Earth (Thought) are separated, but they remain united in holy matrimony. In reality, Mind and Thought, the male and the female, are one and inseparable. Only when looked at from two different angles (above, and below) are they distinguished (Ref. 6.18.7).” M. David Litwa, Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking, 2016

[9] Barbelo receives three gifts from the Father: Foreknowledge, Incorruptibility and Life (préscience, incorruptibilité et la vie éternelle), Apocryphon of John, IV, Pléiade, p. 224. In Zoastrianos: Existence, Blessedness and Life (Être, Vie et Pensée/Béatitude).

[10] The Apocryphon of John (30,9-31,4). Pléiade, p. 226

[11] “2. L'éon de Barbélő est la Pensée première de l'Esprit invisible, la seule entité à émaner directement de lui. En tant qu'intellect universel, contenant les archétypes de toutes choses, elle est un être pur et déterminé. Un-en-plusieurs, elle est un intellect complètement unifié, bien qu'elle comporte trois niveaux ontologiques habituelle- ment appelés Kalyptos (le “Caché”), Protophanes (le “Premier manifeste”) et Autogène (“Celui qui s'est engendré lui-même”). Ces noms représentent les trois phases du déploiement de l'être déterminé à l'intérieur de l'éon de Barbélô: la latence primordiale ou l'existence en puissance, la manifestation initiale et l'actualisation déterminée et autoengendrée.” Zostrien, Notice, John D. Turner, Écrits gnostiques, Pléiade, p. 1251.

[12] Jean-Luc Achard. The Heart Drops of Samantabhadra (Kun bzang snying thig) as revealed by mNga’ris paṇ chen (Padma dbang rgyal, 1487-1542). Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, 2022, 62, pp.132-163.
“gsang ba'i bdag po khyod nyon cig: rang gi snying gi dkyil na sangs rgyas sku gsum ye nas bzhugs pa yin no”

[13] Hippolytus of Rome, The Refutation of All Heresies, Chapter XVI.—The Sethian Theory Concerning “Mixture” And “Composition;” Application of It to Christ.

[14] “Certains descendants de Seth accèdent directement à la connaissance” tandis que “d'autres choisissent de se laisser enfermer dans le monde archontique pour venir en aide aux âmes des psychiques qui s'y trouvent enfermées”. Livre des secrets de Jean, Notice de Bernard Barc, Ecrits gnostiques, Pléiade, p. 210

[15] Bian Cuevas, The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, 2003

[16] “Liberation through seeing (chakras) (Tib. tongdrol, Wyl. mthong grol);
liberation on hearing (mantras and dharanis) (Tib. tödrol, Wyl. thos grol);
liberation by tasting (amrita) (Tib. nyongdrol, Wyl. myong grol);
liberation by touch[1] (mudra) (Tib. takdrol, Wyl. btags grol); and
liberation by recollection or thinking (which includes the practice of phowa) (Tib. drendrol)”

There is no liberation through smelling, but there is no lack of incense during the funeral rituals.

[17] “This shroud should be placed on a dying person or as soon as possible after a person has passed away. It should be left covering the body and be buried or cremated together with the body. The mantras printed on this shroud are the mantras that “Self-Liberate the Aggregates (of Body and Mind)” (Tib: Phungpo Rangdol). Tibetan Spirit website

[18]M. David Litwa, Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies, SBL Press (2016), p. 321

[19] “Another way to study the Song of Vajra is to understand all of the seed syllables. E MA KI RI KI RI, etc, governs our Vajra Body. The Song of Vajra represents our Vajra Body; the principle of the Song of Vajra is very important for understanding the Vajra Dance. When we learn the Vajra Dance, and when I learned this Vajra Dance in my dreams in the beginning, I understood and also introduced that we need to dance on a Mandala.” Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, Teaching on the Vajra Dance, The Mirror,

[20] “O son of noble clan! As soon as the breath stops, the pure visions (of the natural state) arise. At that time, the three attendants will come, namely lights, sounds, and rays. The lights are the natural light of the Blissful Ones. They are subtle and wide, luminous and radiant. Their nature is resplendent and equal, like a mirage pulsating on a summer prairie, filling all world-systems to the brim. Do not be afraid by them! The sounds will come from within all these lights, as the sounds of Reality rattling in the manner violent and booming sounds, like the roar of one thousand dragons. Do not be terrified by them! Within the lights will come rays, falling like a shower of blades, streaming up in multiple forms of weapons. Do not fear them! Do not be afraid and terrified by these three (attendants)! Do not fear them!” The Heart Drops of Samantabhadra (Kun bzang snying tig), Jean-Luc Achard, ret_62_06.pdf

[21] “ La race issue de la racine de lumière s'y trouve promise à une remontée vers sa racine — donc au salut parfait —, et celle qui vient de l'Intellect-foi à un repos inférieur, précisément dans le lieu que les pneumatiques auront quitté lors de leur remontée. Quant à la race dite psychique, celle-là se verra dissoute dans la matière, c'est-à-dire dans «l'Obscur», exclue par conséquent de toute forme de repos.” Laval théologique et philosophique, Volume 50, numéro 2, juin 1994, Les textes de Nag Hammadi et le problème de leur classification. Chronique d’un colloque, Catherine Barry.

[22] The Heart Drops of Samantabhadra (Kun bzang snying tig), Jean-Luc Achard, ret_62_06.pdf

[23] The Heart Drops of Samantabhadra (Kun bzang snying tig), Jean-Luc Achard, ret_62_06.pdf

[24] EKARANA BHECAKṢA, YA RI MU TRA SAGHULI, YA SI RAṂ RLUNG PALAYA, MA MO KO LING SAMANTA. See Ph. Cornu, Livre des Morts Tibétains, p. 465

[25] Ph. Cornu, Livre des Morts Tibétains, p. 966

[26] “ Chaque vie conditionnée a cependant une fin, et ce qui meurt alors est précisément la gangue des conditionnements karmiques et des fausses identifications - les cinq agrégats d'appropriation. Et, pour tous les êtres sans exception, la claire lumière, la base primordiale de l'esprit, se dévoile à cet instant. Le moment de la mort est bien le moment de vérité à la croisée des chemins entre l'Éveil et le retour vers l'aliénation du cycle des existences douloureuses. Toutefois, le choix lui-même dépend de la pratique antérieure, car on ne peut reconnaître que ce que l'on connaît déjà. Ainsi des aperçus, sinon une expérience fiable de la claire lumière pendant la vie, sont-ils la condition nécessaire pour la reconnaître et s'y absorber à la fin du processus de la mort. L'objectif des pratiques tantriques et dzogchen est donc de proposer toute une panoplie de méthodes ou de moyens habiles donnant accès à cette expérience première.”
“Les textes principaux du Bardo Thödröl se présentent précisément comme un guide la voie de l’Éveil en ces moments cruciaux. (P. Cornu, pp 973-974)