The Therapeutic Psychology of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" Author(s): Robert Wicks Source: East and West, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 479-494 Published by: University of Hawai'i Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1400299 Accessed: 20/05/2009 16:36

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http://www.jstor.org THE THERAPEUTIC PSYCHOLOGY OF RobertWicks THE TIBETANBOOK OF THE DEAD

Althoughwe usuallyconceive of death as the endpointof life, there is an Universityof Auckland importantsense in which death, as an aspect of change and renewal, is ever presentthroughout life: each passing moment "dies" as it becomes past experience; a new moment is constantly "born" as the future be- comes present. Frommoment to moment, beginnings and endings per- petually coincide. At a more mundane level, we also frequentlymeet with another form of death-a counterpartto our familiarconception: our habitualpatterns of expectation and reactionto circumstancesoften lead to a deathlike stagnationand unanimatedredundancy within our experience. This narrowingof horizons, though certainly problematic, does not preclude the permanentpossibility of experiencinga liberating transformationof characterand a ""of personality.The implicit and explicit means to achieve such a personaltransformation within our present lives, as described in The TibetanBook for the Dead,1 is the subject of this essay. My aim is to recall and reemphasize some of the affinitiesbetween the text's therapeuticintentions and the goals of psy- chotherapy, in recognition of its practical, socially all-encompassing message. In the course of this inquiry,I will discuss how some author- itativecommentators on the text, namely CarlJung and LamaAnagarika Govinda, have drawnour attentionaway fromthe text's more pragmatic and existential value as a handbook for more insightfuland liberated living. In ordinarypractice, The TibetanBook for the Dead is read aloud as partof a TibetanBuddhist funeral ceremony: it speaksto the dead person who, as a disembodied spirit, is believed to persistwithin hearing dis- tance in an after-deathrealm of transition,or .This is a transitional realm through which a disembodied spirit passes between reincarna- tions.2 The text's manifestpurpose is to offer the dead person repeated opportunitiesfor enlightenmentduring the bardo experience, such as to avoid rebirth into a renewed condition of suffering.This transitional experience, most importantly,presents itself as a period of decision making:the dead person can choose either to become enlightened by giving up his or her "unconscioustendencies" that inevitablyled to suf- or the can choose to remainbonded to those fering, person dispositions PhilosophyEast & West and become fated to circle once more throughthe patternsof his or her Volume 47, Number4 formerexistence. The text's guidingwords are intendedto help the dead October 1997 person choose the path toward enlightenment.On the face of things, 479-494 then, the text articulatesthe mechanismsthat cause a disembodied soul ? 1997 to gravitatetoward reincarnation,and be directedtoward the avoidance by Universityof of sufferingthrough an enlighteningpersonality transformation. Hawai'i Press

479 The after-death experiences described in The Tibetan Book for the Dead begin with those immediately following bodily death, and end with experiences that occur just before the disembodied person is reborn into a new physical body. The initial after-death experiences are moments of perfect clarity and insight. These are short-lived, however, and soon fall off into partially enlightened modes of consciousness, which themselves eventually degenerate into increasingly hellish and horrific experiences of bewilderment, selfishness, and animal aggression. The latter, absolutely terrifying,states of consciousness arise as the disembodied consciousness, after having failed to forsake its unconscious tendencies time and time again in its descent through the stages of the bardo, approaches the moment of being reborn into a new physical body and the world of ordinary life. Though couched in religious terms, the text's underlying message is familiar and commonsensical: people who do not change their ways are fated painfully to repeat themselves. Since the after-death states of consciousness range from the heavenly to the hellish, individuals of different personality types will see them- selves reflected in one or another of the bardo states. If one is a relatively enlightened person, then one will feel akin to the visions within the more peaceful ; if one is a more violent and selfish person, then one will easily recognize the visions within the more hellish after-death states. The text assumes that no one to whom it speaks is a perfectly enlightened personality, so at each stage of the after-death experience, the dead per- son receives therapeutic advice on how to overcome his or her "uncon- scious tendencies," whether the tendencies involve ignorance in general, overwhelming desire, envy, jealousy, or aggression. At whatever level of mentality the dead person is at home, the text aims to release the person from the confines and sufferings that characterize that individual's par- ticular psychological condition. The manifest contents of the after-death states of consciousness are visions of various Tibetan gods and demons. These deities appear to be as "real" as life within the after-death experience, but the text instructs the disembodied consciousness to regard them as merely the dream-like reflections of its own inner self. The gods and demons can thereby be viewed as symbolic forms expressive of the disembodied consciousness' basic psychic tendencies. In this respect, The Tibetan Book for the Dead is a psychological document that characterizes basic personality styles and presents the principles of those personalities in a symbolic and condensed, yet fantastically realistic, manner. The key instruction that, if acted upon, generates a liberating person- ality transformation is repeated at each level of after-death consciousness: whatever the contents of the particular bardo phase happen to be, the disembodied consciousness is instructed to regard the objects experi- PhilosophyEast & West enced within that phase as nothing more than its own psychological

480 projections.The assumption is that upon seeing one's own godlike or demonic reflectionas having no more substance than the moon's shim- mering image in a pool of water, the naturalattachment to one's ego- centered personalitywill soften. By interpretingthe godlike and demonic objectificationsof one's personalityas illusory,one will be able to see one's own individualityitself as illusory.In this way, forsakingone's ego- centered self-conception leads to enlightenment. With this issues an eliminationof personalsuffering, since sufferingis believed to be caused by egocentricforces such as ignorance,pride, jealousy, envy, and desire- forces that are objectively embodied by the godlike and demonic visions. Regardingthese deities as "empty" entails a recognition that the psychological forces that generate personal sufferinghave no sub- stantialreality.3 The exposition above broadly characterizesthe manifest purpose and meaning of the text-a meaning that recognizes after-deathstates of consciousness, images of gods and demons, and rebirthinto a new materialbody either as a human or as some other form of sentient crea- ture. Complementaryto this manifestmeaning, however, is a more sym- bolic meaning-one that reveals how The TibetanBook for the Dead is pragmaticallyand existentiallydirected towardthe "dead" who are still living, and not especially toward those who are clinically dead. To reveal this less obvious meaning, we need to examine more closely some of the key featuresof the manifestmeaning, for these indicate that both the existence of gods and the existence of an after-deathbardo realm are questionable. With respect to the realityof the gods and demons that are experi- enced in the after-deathstate, we have noted that the text informsthe disembodied consciousness that these deities have no substantialreality of their own. Indeed, this is the central illuminatingprinciple of the text. Two memorableexcerpts are as follows:

Throughthe instruci;-rof hisguru he will recognizethem [the visionary dei- ties]as hisown projections,the playof the mind,and he willbe liberated.It is just like seeing a stuffedlion, for instance:he feels very frightenedif he does not know that it is reallyonly a stuffedlion, but if someone shows him what it is he is astonished and no longer afraid. So here too he feels terrifiedand bewildered when the blood-drinkingdeities appear with their huge bodies and thick limbs, filling the whole of space, but as soon as he is shown he recognises them as his own projections or as yidams; the luminositythat arises later,mother and son, mergetogether, and, like meetinga man he used to know very well, the self-liberatingluminosity of his own mind sponta- neously arises before him, and he is self-liberated.4

[W]hateveryou see, however terrifyingit is, recognise it as your own projec- tion; recognise it as the luminosity,the naturalradiance of your own mind. If RobertWicks

481 you recognise it in this way, you will become a buddhaat that very moment, there is no doubt. What is called perfect instantaneousenlightenment will arise on the spot. Remember!5

These excerptsconfirm that the gods and demons experienced in the after-deathstate, althoughthey appear with a realityequal to the mate- rial objects in the world of the living, are indeed believed to be nothing more than manifestations of the dead person's own psychological states.6They are merely symbolic formsthat express conditions of either psychological liberationor psychological bondage and suffering.This suggests that the path to enlightenmentin no way depends upon favors or obstructions issued from the realm of the gods and demons that populatethe after-deathstate; the pathdepends upon initiallyrecognizing the images of the gods as manifestationsof oneself in various possible and actual forms. Self-recognitionalone initiatesthe path to more satis- factorylevels of consciousness. Althoughemotionally powerful in its employmentof metaphorslike the image of the moon and the recognitionof a fearsomelion as merelya stuffedanimal, the text's key instructionfor enlightenmentrests upon a questionable line of reasoning.To see this, we can distinguishbetween the form and the content of the visions of gods and demons within the bardo.Their form is to "look real";their content is the disembodiedcon- sciousness' individual personalitystructure. With regardto the decep- tively realistic form of the visions, although the dead person might feel vaguely at home within one of the bardos, it is not initiallyobvious to the dead person that what is being experienced is simply a projection of himselfor herself,and not some objective realmof gods and demons. The situation is comparableto a person, who asleep in the midst of a vivid dream, remainsunaware that he or she is only dreaming.What the key instructionsdo is wake up the dead person to the true natureof the experience, such as the dissolving of the objective form of the experi- ence. When the visions are seen as they truly are, they are appreciated as having no independent reality and hence no power over the dead person, as would be the case if they existed independently. Revealingthat the realisticappearance of the bardovisions is decep- tive, however, does not entail that the psychological content expressed by these visions is itself illusory.If the objects in a dream, for example, are shown to the dreamerto be none other than a figmentof his or her imagination(e.g., as when one teaches a child to see that the objects of a nightmareare simply imaginary),it does not follow that the psycho- logical structurethat that dream objectively presents is also a figment of the imagination.For example, an imaginarymonster within a young child's nightmarecould very well express the child's inner anxiety. So PhilosophyEast & West fromthe recognitionthat the objects of the bardoexperience are illusory,

482 we cannot also conclude that the individual self that projects these objects is itself illusory. Such an individualself may indeed be illusory upon furtherreflection and in consequence of furtherargument, but this does not itself follow from the recognition that the dream-likevisions have no substantialreality of their own. These considerationslead us to examine anotheraspect of the dead person's dispositionsof characteror "unconscious tendencies" that the gods and demons symbolically express. Representativeof the more enlightened states are buddha formsthat embody the fusion of compas- sion and knowledge; representativeof the more animalistic states are flesh-eating demons, who, screaming "strike"and "kill," tear corpses limb from limb. With respect to interpretingthe text in a practicaland existential manner, it is importantto determine whether there is good reason to interpretthese representedstates of consciousness literally,as after-deathstates occurringin an actual, after-deathbardo, or whether it makes more sense to regardthe after-deathbardo itself as another pro- jection of consciousness. If the latter is the case, then the after-death bardo would indeed representa transitionalcondition, but one that can occur only within living experience. It would also follow that the con- sciousness that projectsthe after-deathbardo could be none other than that of a living, flesh-and-bonesperson. It might be thought that a definitive interpretationof the after-death bardo realm, either as a literal or as a purely symbolic realm, would depend upon how the text characterizesthe essence of consciousness. We shall see, however, that the descriptionof the essence of conscious- ness within the text is logically independentof whether or not there are actual after-deathstates of consciousness. In view of this independence, it remainswell within the text's overall spiritto interpretits referencesto the after-deathbardo as purelysymbolic and, hence, as potentiallyquite meaningfulto those who cannot recognize an afterlife.This, as we shall see, characterizesLama Govinda's view, although he arrivesat this per- spective through a different line of reasoning. Before considering his interpretation,though, we should brieflyexamine how the text describes the essence of consciousness, and note that this description neither implies nor precludesthe existence of after-deathstates of consciousness. In its description of the experiences immediatelyfollowing death, The TibetanBook for the Dead characterizesconsciousness as it is in itself. This is the condition of consciousness that is regarded as the ground of all experience. We can consider three alternativetranslations (1927, 1975, and 1994, respectively)of a central passage:

Thybreathing is aboutto cease. Thyguru hath set thee face to face before withthe ClearLight; and now thouart about to experienceit in its Realityin the Bardostate, wherein all thingsare like the voidand cloudless sky, and the RobertWicks

483 naked, spotless intellect is like unto a transparentvacuum without circum- ference or centre.7

As soon as your breathstops, what is called the basic luminosityof the first bardo,which your guruhas alreadyshown you, will appearto you. This is the dharmata,open and empty like space, luminous void, pure naked mind withoutcentre or circumference.8

Just as your breath stops, the objective clear light of the first between will dawn as previouslydescribed to you by your teacher.Your outer breathstops and you experience realitystark and void like space, your immaculatenaked awarenessdawning clear and void withouthorizon or center.9

These passages assert that at the point of death, the dead person initiallyexperiences the true, "clearand void" natureof consciousness- a "luminous emptiness" or "shining void." Soon thereafter,the dead person loses contact with this, the person's own universalnature, and begins to experience more idiosyncraticobjectifications of himself or herselfin the formof godlike and demonic projections-projections that reflectthe unconscious tendencies of his or her personality.The experi- ential movementof the book, understoodliterally, is thus from a univer- sal and liberatedconsciousness that appearsto presentreality in itself,to more and more particularizedand restrictedforms of consciousness, which representthe limited reality of the dead person's egocentricity. These latterforms do not representconsciousness in its purity,but con- sciousness as "karmicallyobscured" in its more familiar,benighted, and bewildered forms-ones that we can recognize as typical of ordinary consciousness. Althoughthe text statesthat the gods and demons experienced in the after-deathstates are the projectionsof the dead person'sconsciousness, the excerpts above still leave indeterminatethe status of consciousness as a "luminousvoid." It could be that, although the gods and demons are illusory,that the experience of the "luminousvoid" is not. On the other hand, it could be that the experience of the "luminousvoid" as representativeof an actual after-deathstate of consciousness is also an illusion. There are thus two questions to be distinguished:(1) should a reasonable reading of the text recognize any after-deathstates of con- sciousness at all? (2) if it is reasonableto recognize after-deathstates of consciousness, which, if any, reveal either consciousness as it is in itself or realityas it is in itself?The manifestmeaning of the text suggests that there are after-deathstates of consciousness, and that only the experi- ence of consciousness as "clear and void" is truly revelatory.It remains unclear whether what is revealed is the natureof consciousness inde- pendent of the natureof realityor the natureof consciousness as nature PhilosophyEast & West of reality,but the spiritof the passages suggeststhe latter.

484 Consistent with the key passages cited above are two alternative positions: (1) reality is consciousness, and this is immediately known when consciousness is in the state of luminousemptiness during this life and/or duringthe initial after-deathbardo state; (2) reality in general is indeterminateor indeterminable,but the reality of consciousness in itself, whatever its relationto realityin general happens to be, is a lumi- nous emptiness. Both of these alternativesare consistent with the exis- tence of after-deathstates of consciousness;both are also consistentwith the nonexistence of after-deathstates of consciousness. With regard to the second of the alternativeviews above, some furtherexplanation may be appropriate,since one might believe that the claim that "all reality is consciousness" entails the existence of after-deathstates of individualconsciousness. This, however, would not follow. There need not be after-deathstates of an individual's con- sciousness (i.e., a dead person or "ego" who has after-deathexpe- riences), since at the moment of actual bodily death it is possible that every individual consciousness completely, and without a moment of personal reflection,dissolves into the universalconsciousness, just as a raindropdissolves into the ocean. From an analysis of the text's explicit claims about the nature of consciousness, then, we are left without a definitive position regarding the actualityof after-deathstates of consciousness that a dead person, as such, might experience. That is, if we accept that consciousness is essentially a luminous void, this alone does not imply the existence of after-deathstates of consciousness. We must subsequentlyapproach the latterissue froma differentangle, for example throughan inquiryinto the universalityof the states of consciousness described in the after-death realm. It is safe to assume that anyone who lives and dies in a place com- municationally dissociated from Tibet in either time or space (e.g., ancient Peru) is not likely to experience Tibetan Buddhistgods in an after-deathstate of consciousness. Even supposing, quite remotely,that such a person had after-deathexperiences of the kind described by The TibetanBook for the Dead, the entire symbolic meaning of the gods-a meaning revealed to the dead person by exposure to The TibetanBook for the Dead-would be virtuallymeaningless.10 This fact alone goes very far in leading us to questionthe universality,not to mentionthe very reality, of the after-deathvisions of gods and demons described in the text. If, however, we were to acknowledge the existence of after-death states of the very general kind that the text describes, then perhaps a plausible position would be to maintainthat afterone dies, one experi- ences a series of basic human personalitystructures in some symbolic form or other.11Without some guide to the experiences, though, there would still be little possibilityfor salvationor enlightenment.The possi- RobertWicks

485 bilities for the dead person'senlightenment depend so heavily upon the instructionsgiven in The Tibetan Book for the Dead, or upon some comparable text or person who can fully communicate these instruc- tions, that without such guidance, the person will regardthe symbolic forms as realities, and not as projections of his/her own personality. Moreover,there remainsthe issue of whether there is indeed any com- municational interface at all between the world of the living and the world of the dead, let alone one that can be crossed simply by means of inspiredvocalization or mental concentration. Such complications suggest that it is more reasonable to interpret the text as directed more toward the living than toward the dead, and directed more toward psychological realitiesthan toward metaphysical ones. This leads us to regardthe text mainly from a psychological and therapeuticperspective. Quite consistentwith this is the essentialspirit of Buddhismas a practice-centered,and not speculation-centered,outlook. ChandradharSharma describes this well:

[Buddha]repeatedly told his disciples:"Two things only, my disciples,do I teach-miseryand the cessationof misery."Human existence is fullof misery andpain. Our immediate duty, therefore, is to get ridof thismisery and pain. If insteadwe botherabout barren metaphysical speculations, we behavelike that foolishman whose heartis piercedby a poisonousarrow and who, insteadof takingit out whilesaway his time on idle speculationabout the origin,the size, the metal,the makerand the shooterof the arrow.12

Buddhismin general issues from the perception and experience of sufferingin this world of the living, and is grounded upon fundamental prescriptionsto alleviate this suffering.Given this pragmaticemphasis at the core of Buddhist insight, it would be consistent to interpretThe TibetanBook for the Dead as predominantlywritten for the "dead" of this world-those whose lives are tangled within cycles of desire, jeal- ousy, envy, hatred,and aggressionthat generatecontinual suffering. This would include everyone at one time or another during their lives. The existence of sufferingwithin this life is an absolute certainty;the exis- tence of after-deathstates of consciousness is a matterof speculationand interpretation.13It is commonly said that The TibetanBook for the Dead is a book for both the dead and the living. The present interpretation suggeststhat it is certainlya book for the living, and perhapsone for the dead. Ifwe consider The TibetanBook for the Dead as certainlya book for the livingand maybe one for disembodiedsouls, then CarlJung's author- itative and respected psychological commentaryon the text stands in need of reevaluation.14This is not because Jungacknowledges the exis- tence of an afterlife;it is because his psychological interpretationdraws PhilosophyEast & West the readeraway fromthose very partsof the text thataddress living people

486 who now suffer.This, as we shall see in a moment, is partlythe resultof Jung'sinterest in showing how his own psychological theory fits the text more comprehensivelythan Freud's. Beforeconsidering the details of Jung'spsychological commentary, it is importantto note why either Jungianor Freudianpsychology is com- patible at all with the spirit and meaning of the text. This has been alluded to above, and arises from the very close affinitybetween the characterof ordinarydream consciousness and the after-deathexperi- ences described in The TibetanBook for the Dead. It is well known that both Freudand Jung interpretdreams as symbolic of fundamental psychic contents. According to Freud,these contents are basic sexual tensions; according to Jung, they are universal thought structures,or "archetypes."Independently of the accuracy of Freud'sor Jung'sviews on the specific natureof dream contents, both believe that althoughthe items experienced within any particulardream have no objective reality of their own, they nonetheless symbolically reveal the psychic natureof the person who dreams. Similarly,with the possible exception of the initialexperiences of the "luminousvoid," the after-deathstates of con- sciousness described in The TibetanBook for the Dead are understood to represent symbolically the nature of the dead person's individual personality, as representedby deity-like objectificationsof his or her "unconscious tendencies"-tendencies that lead the person into cycles upon cycles of rebirthand suffering. This affinitybetween ordinarydream states and the after-deathstates of consciousness described in The TibetanBook for the Dead establishes a close connection between the Westernpractice of psychoanalysisand the TibetanBuddhist concept of rebirth:successful psychotherapyentails a rebirthof personality.The goal of psychoanalysis is to improve an individual's psychological health by revealing to the individual that individual'sbasic psychic structureand constellationsof inner conflict. Within Freudianand Jungiananalysis, this structureis discernedthrough an examination of the person's dreams (among other methods), since dreams are regardedas the symbolic manifestationsof the person's psy- chic energy. The TibetanBook for the Dead comparablyaims to bringan individual into a condition of increased psychic health (i.e., enlighten- ment) by displayingthe individual's"unconscious tendencies" symboli- cally and objectively, such as to allow the individualsubsequently to renderthese forms ineffectualwithin his or her psyche. Forexample, if an individualis angryand violent, the text powerfully and shockingly illustratesthe world of angry and violent people for the individualto contemplate, and then urges the individualto reinterpret that world as akin to no more than a reflectionin a pool of water (i.e., as illusory).The procedureaims to dissolve the meaning and realityof the individual'sformer world by detaching the individualfrom involvement RobertWicks

487 in that world, and by allowing the person thereby to become "reborn" into a more enlightened condition as a new personality.In these basic ways, both the psychoanalyticmethod of dream interpretationand the modes of visionaryinterpretation and liberationexpressed in The Tibetan Book for the Deadaim to alleviatepsychic sufferingand to restoremental health. Both are fundamentallytherapeutic in their inspirationand aims. In his psychological commentaryto The TibetanBook for the Dead, CarlJung points out how the text firstdescribes the higheststage of con- sciousness in the experiences immediatelyafter death, and then goes on to describe more and more animalisticforms of consciousness. Address- ing the Westernreader, and intendingto offera more familiarorientation towardthe text, Jungoffers a "reverse"reading that begins with the more common states of consciousness and gradually progressestoward the more enlightened states. Reconceptualized in this way, the series of bardo experiences formsan ascending path reminiscentof the Christian conception of spiritualdevelopment-a path that begins with imperfect and finite humanity and extends toward a perfect and infinite God. Dante's Divine Comedy would clearly exemplify this conception, as it begins with a descriptionof hell and then progressesto descriptionsof purgatoryand heaven.15 Complementaryto his intentionto provide the Western readerwith a more familiarorientation toward the text, Jung urges a "backwards" reading for the purpose of contrastinghis psychological theory with Freud's. Near the very end of the after-deathexperience (which Jung reads as the "beginning"),the text most intriguinglydescribes the psy- chological effects of assuminga specifically male or female identity:the assumptionof a male identitygenerates love for one's motherand aver- sion toward one's father;the assumptionof a female identitygenerates love for one's fatherand aversiontoward one's mother.Since The Tibe- tan Book for the Dead was composed as early as the eighth centuryA.D., quite independentlyof the developmentof Westernpsychoanalysis, these observationsoffer some startlingconfirmation of Freud'score insights into the developmentof sexual identity. Ratherthan wholeheartedlyacknowledging that The TibetanBook for the Dead confirms Freud'sinsights, Jung points out that the sexual attitudesnoted by Freudoriginate and operate only within what the text describesas the most primitiveand unenlightenedform of consciousness (i.e., in ordinary,day-to-day consciousness). Jung takes this as evidence that, with its strong emphasis upon sexuality, Freud's psychological theory penetratesonly into the elementarylayers of the psyche. He adds that when we progressto the less instinctual,and more enlightened, conditions of consciousness, we reach levels that are better compre- hended by Jung'sown theory of archetypes. PhilosophyEast & West Due to Jung'sorientation toward higher levels of consciousness and

488 his interestin criticizing Freud'spsychological theory, his commentary on The TibetanBook for the Dead has the subtle effect of leading the readeraway fromthe text'svivid descriptionsof the less enlightenedforms of consciousness. The problemwith this approach,however, is that it fails to recognize that almost everyone, at one time or another, lives within these more animalisticstages of sensual pleasures,sexuality, and desire, and that by downplayingthe text's prescriptionsfor overcoming psychic bondage within such conditions, one underminesthe potentiallywide- spread effectivenessof the text's practicalapplication. As a handbook whose intention is to reveal the path to enlighten- ment to the great majorityof those who are now alive, The TibetanBook for the Dead speaks to the large audience of individualswho must start along this path from one of the lower realms. The text itself acknowl- edges that only a mere handful of people-those who have practiced meditationtheir entire lives-end their life in a highly refined and illu- minated psychological condition. Since most people do not live with a consciousness of this sort, there is an importantsense in which the basic orientationof Jung'sinterpretation is implicitlycounterproductive: it draws our attentionaway fromthat partof the text that speaks to most people. This suggests that reading the text from its natural beginning is the most appropriateway to experience the work: the reader begins with a descriptionof the ideal, enlightened state of mind, and gradually descends into more and more hellish conditions until-if one is a typical person whose daily consciousness is informedwith reports,and perhaps experiences, of wars, sickness, poverty, and crime-one encounters a reflectionof one's daily world of ignorance,envy, jealousy, and violence mirrorednear the end of the book. The experience of readingthe text in this way indicatesto the readerexactly how far he or she actually is from an enlightened condition, and allows the readerto interprethis or her presentcondition (assumingthat the person is in a condition of ordinary consciousness) as the culminationof many levels of spiritualloss. Such an experience of self-recognition is exactly what the text intends to generate in its readers. Similarto Jung, LamaAnagarika Govinda offers a psychologically centered interpretationof the text. The following excerpt summarizeshis view:

Thedifferent bardos, therefore, represent different states of consciousnessof our life:the stateof wakingconsciousness, the normalconsciousness of a beingborn into our human world, known in Tibetanas the skyes-nasbardo; the stateof dream-consciousness(rmi-lam bar-do); the stateof dhyana,or trance-consciousness,in profound meditation (bsam-gtan bar-do); the stateof the experiencingof death (hchhi-khabar-do); the stateof experiencingof Reality (chhos-nyid bar-do);the state of rebirth-consciousness(srid-pa bar- do). RobertWicks

489 All this is clearly described in The Root-Versesof the Six Bardos,which together with The Paths of Good Wishes, from the authentic and original nucleus of the Bardo Thodol, is that source around which the prose parts crystallizedas commentaries.This proves that we have to do here with life itselfand not merelywith a mass for the dead, to which the BardoThodol was reduced in latertimes.16

LamaGovinda interpretsthe text as referringprimarily to "different states of consciousness of our life," and in this respect his account is directed toward the living, and less toward disembodied spirits. At the same time, though, we can ask how many of the living are taken into considerationwithin his view. This question arises because Govinda's attitudetoward the text's essential meaning is clearly aristo- cratic:he refersto the text's true meaningas accessible only to "initiated disciples" in Tibetanmeditative practice. Although he regardsthe text as a psychological document-as "a key to the innermostrecesses of the human mind"-he maintainsthat this "key" is far from accessible to everyone: Only he who has ears to hear, i.e., who has preparedhimself in life for the call of liberationand has made himself receptive for it by traininghis inner organ of hearing, can respond to the call and follow it. Only he who has opened his inner eye can see the redeemingvisions. Those, however, who have neitherdeveloped the faculty of inner hearingnor that of inner vision, cannot be benefitedby merely listeningto the recitalof the BardoThddol.17 As does Jung, Lama Govinda interpretsThe TibetanBook for the Dead in a way that draws our attentionaway from its generally appli- cable therapeutic aspects. He directs our attention toward the more enlightened states of consciousness, but precludes the experience of these states to all but the properlyinitiated. Insofar as only a small group of people practice Tibetan meditation,the true meaning of The Tibetan Book for the Dead will, in his opinion, remaina "secret"doctrine.18 The TibetanBook for the Dead may indeed contain subtleties of meaning that are accessible only to those who have practiced Tibetan meditation for decades. To privilege this level of knowledge as the essential meaning of the text, however, leads one's focus away from the less enlightened states of consciousness-those states of consciousness that are typical of the majorityof the human population. Just as Jung downplays the more instinctualand bewildered states of consciousness due to his interestin revealing the limit of Freudianpsychology, Lama Govinda, due to his keen interest in the meditational experience of higher states of consciousness, similarly focuses our attention on the more elevated and more inaccessible states of human awareness.19 The prevailing spirit of The TibetanBook for the Dead, however, PhilosophyEast & West opposes aristocracyand elitism. It is clearly a book addressedto every-

490 one, independently of the reader's capacity for profound insight or abstraction.The book offers a series of opportunitiesand proceduresfor achieving enlightenment,such that if one fails to comprehendthe path to enlightenmentat one level, then one receives anotherchance at another level. The book begins by addressingthe most receptivepeople, and tells them simply to consider their experiences in a certain way (namely to regardtheir experiences as the resultof their own psychological projec- tions). Ifthey can do so, then enlightenmentfollows. Ifthe text's instruc- tions are impossibleto follow with such ease, then the readermoves into a less enlightenedcondition and receives the same instructionsas before, with some added incentive. Sometimes more gods appear to assist the person, with the hope that the increasedsocial presence of the gods will cause the person to adhere to the text's directives. If this effort to enlighten the person again fails, then the same message is introduced once more, except that it is accompanied by more and more terrifying imagery.At some level of consciousness, it is hoped that the person will finally achieve the awareness to interprethis or her world in a more enlightened way. At every level of consciousness, then, there is a pre- scriptionfor enlightenment.At every level of consciousness it remains possible-if only the correctmode of interpretationwere to be adopted- to spring instantaneouslyinto an enlightened condition.20The following passage unequivocallydisplays this socially all-encompassinginterest of the text:

Up to now therehave been seven stagesin the dangerouspathway of the bardoof the peacefuldeities, and by beingshown at each of the stages,even if he has not recognisedat one he will have at another,and boundless attainmentsof liberationoccur. But although many are liberated like this, sentient beings are great in number,bad karmais very strong,the neurotic veils are heavy and thick, the unconscioustendencies lastfor a long time, and this cycle of confusion and ignorance neither wears out nor increases, so there are many who are not liberatedbut wander downwards,although they have been shown accuratelyin this way.21

Addressed here is a far more widespread audience for The Tibetan Book for the Dead than is emphasized by eitherJung or LamaGovinda. Both interpretthe text convincingly in their efforts to understand its profound psychological import, but in terms of the text's function as a therapeutictool to lead any person to enlightenment,independently of whether that person is intrinsicallycloser or furtherfrom an enlightened condition, Jung and LamaGovinda offer interpretationsthat leave most sufferingpeople behind. The Tibetan Book for the Dead is a book written especially for benighted and bewildered souls. It acknowledges that enlightenmentis difficult,and that it takes many repetitionsof the key message for there to RobertWicks

491 be any significantspiritual effect. It repeatsits message that we, and only we, are the source of our desires,our interpretations,our evaluations,our pleasures,and our fears,and that we can rendersuch sources of suffering ineffectual, if we were only to interpretthe apparent seriousness and significanceof the world as the play of our own creation. In this respect, The TibetanBook for the Dead is a book of practicalwisdom comparable to Epictetus'Handbook; it offers a set of advisories intended to reduce sufferingand to guide all people, not just the select initiates,toward a rebirthof personalityand composure-a rebirthto take place not within a life afterclinical death but within our very presentlife.

NOTES

1 - Although the Englishtranslation of the Bardo Thodol (The great liberationthrough learning in the bardo)has been titled The Tibetan Book of the Dead, it is not quite a book "of" the dead, but rather a book "for"the dead. Since the latteris more aptly descriptive,I will refer to the Bardo Thodol as The TibetanBook for the Dead throughoutthis essay. 2 - In RobertThurman's translation of the text, the bardo is simply referredto as "the between." See RobertA. F. Thurman,trans., The TibetanBook of the Dead (London:Aquarian Press, 1994). 3 - For example, both desire and hatred betray a deep attachmentto objects. By eliminatingthis bondage to objects, the person is freed from compulsionsand aggressions. 4 - Thurman,Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 68. 5 - Francesca Fremantleand Chogyam Trungpa,trans., The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bostonand London:Shambhala, 1987), p. 64. 6 - The analogy between the experience of the visionary deities and the experience of ordinarylife is obvious, since both are regarded within Tibetan as having no more substance than a dream.Just as the realityof the visionarydeities issues as an effect of consciousness' own activity,so does the realityof ordinarylife. 7 - W. Y. Evans-Wentz,ed., The TibetanBook of the Dead, 3d ed. (Oxford:Oxford UniversityPress, 1960), p. 91. 8 - Fremantleand ChogyamTrungpa, Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 35. 9 - Thurman,Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 122. 10 -One might believe that an ancient Peruvian could significantly PhilosophyEast & West respond to the universal,or archetypal, meanings of the Tibetan

492 gods, if such gods were to appear to that person in an afterlife state. Although such a hypothesis may appear plausible, it is dubious in view of Levi-Strauss' observations on the semantic character of mythic symbolism. His critique of Jung's theory of archetypes is particularly appropriate in the present context: Ancient philosophers reasoned about language the way we do about mythology. On the one hand, they did notice that in a given language certain sequences of sounds were associated with definite meanings, and they earnestlyaimed at discoveringa reasonfor the linkagebetween those sounds and that meaning.Their attempt, however, was thwartedfrom the very beginning by the fact that the same sounds were equally present in other languagesalthough the meaning they conveyed was entirelydifferent [emphasis added]. The contradictionwas surmountedonly by the dis- covery that it is the combination of sounds, not the sounds themselves, which providethe significantdata. It is easy to see, moreover,that some of the more recent interpretations of mythological thought originated from the same kind of misconcep- tion under which those early linguistswere laboring.Let us consider, for instance, Jung's idea that a given mythological pattern-the so-called archetype-possesses a certain meaning. This is comparableto the long- supportederror that a sound may possess a certainaffinity with a meaning: for instance, the "liquid" semi-vowels with water, the open vowels with things that are big, large, loud, or heavy, etc.[,] a theory that still has its supporters.Whatever emendations the originalformulation may now call for, everybody will agree that the Saussureanprinciple of the arbitrary characterof linguisticsigns was a prerequisitefor the accession of linguis- tics to the scientific model. (Claude Levi-Strauss,Structural Anthropology, trans. Claire Jacobson and Brooke GrundfestSchoepf [New York:Basic Books, 1963], pp. 208-209) 11 - Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup approaches this view. See Evans-Wentz, Tibetan Book of the Dead, pp. 33-34. 12 - Chandradhar Sharma, A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1964), p. 70. 13 - In his introduction to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Chdgyam Trungpa, himself a respected representative of Tibetan thought, mentions that "one never knows" whether or not the meditative experiences that indicate the existence of after-death states are indeed veridical. See Fremantle and Ch6gyam Trungpa, Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 12. 14 - His psychological commentary first accompanied the 1938 Swiss edition (Das Tibetanishe Totenbuch [Zurich: Rascher Verlag, 19381) and later, the 1957 English edition. 15 - We should note, however, that this progression from finite humans to an infinite God is an abstracted part of a larger pattern. The Old RobertWicks

493 Testament initially describes a perfect condition (Adam and Eve beforethe Fall)that degenerates into a morepainful condition (Adam and Eveafter the Fall).The fullerconception thus involves an initial descent/departurefrom a divine condition,and a subsequentascent/ returnto this condition. In this respect, the sequence of psycho- logical states described in The TibetanBook for the Dead is not as foreign to Western sensibilities as it might at first appear, since it comparesto the Biblicalepisode of the Fall. 16 - Lama Anagarika Govinda, "IntroductoryForeword," in Evans- Wentz, TibetanBook of the Dead, p. Ixi. 17 - LamaAnagarika Govinda, Foundationsof TibetanMysticism (New York:Samuel Weiser, 1974), p. 123. 18 - This aristocraticconception of "secret" is described in Alexandra David-Neel's The Secret Oral Teachingsin TibetanBuddhist Sects (San Francisco:City LightsBooks, 1967), p. 3. 19 - Lama Govinda comprehensively described these various realms of inner experience in CreativeMeditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness(Wheaton, Illinois: Theosophical PublishingHouse, 1976). 20 - See the excerpt cited in note 4 above. 21 - Fremantleand ChogyamTrungpa, Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 57.

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