The Tibetan Book of the Dead Quotes

“No sane person fears nothingness.”
― Robert A.F. Thurman, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“You don’t have to be a
philosopher; you just have to want to know who you are”
― Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“Our past thinking has determined our present status, and our present thinking will determine our future status; for man is what man thinks.”
― W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book of the Dead or The After-death Experiences on the Bardo Plane

“Transcendent renunciation is developed by meditating on the preciousness of human
life in terms of the ocean of evolutionary possibilities, the immediacy of death, the
inexorability of evolutionary causality, and the sufferings of the ignorance-driven,
involuntary life cycle. Renunciation automatically occurs when you come face-to-face
with your real existential situation, and so develop a genuine sympathy for yourself,
having given up pretending the prison of habitual emotions and confusions is just fine.
Meditating on the teachings given on these themes in a systematic way enables you to
generate quickly an ambition to gain full control of your body and mind in order at least
to face death confidently, knowing you can navigate safely through the dangers of further
journeys. Wasting time investing your life in purposes that “you cannot take with you”
becomes ludicrous, and, when you radically shift your priorities, you feel a profound
relief at unburdening yourself of a weight of worry over inconsequential things”
― Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“Our past thinking has determined our present status, and our present thinking will determine our future status; for man is what man thinks.”
― C.G. Jung, The Tibetan Book of the Dead or The After-death Experiences on the Bardo Plane

“There is no reason for a sound faith to be irrational. A useful faith should not be blind, but should be well aware of its grounds. A sound faith should be able to use scientific investigation to strengthen itself. it should be open to the spirit not to lock itself up in the letter. A nourishing, useful, healthful faith should be no obstacle to developing a science of death.”
― Robert A.F. Thurman, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“Thine own consciousness, not formed into anything, in reality void, and the intellect, shining and blissful, --these two,-- are inseparable. The union of them is the Dharma-Kāya state of Perfect Enlightenment.”
― W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book of the Dead or The After-death Experiences on the Bardo Plane

“Be not fond of that dull bluish-yellow light from the human [world]. That is the path of thine accumulated propensities of violent egotism come to receive thee. If thou art attracted by it, thou wilt be born in the human world and have to suffer birth, age, sickness, and death; and thou wilt have no chance of getting out of the quagmire of worldly existence. That is an interruption to obstruct thy path of liberation. Therefore, look not upon it, and abandon egotism, abandon propensities; be not attracted towards it; be not weak.”
― Karma-glin-pa, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“The book describes the death experience in terms of the different elements of the body, going deeper and deeper. Physically you feel heavy when the earth element dissolves into water; and when water dissolves into fire you find that the circulation begins to cease functioning. When fire dissolves into air, any feeling of warmth or growth begins to dissolve; and when air dissolves into space you lose the last feeling of contact with the physical world. Finally, when space or consciousness dissolves into the central nāḍī, there is a sense of internal luminosity, an inner glow, when everything has become completely introverted.”
― Chögyam Trungpa, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing In The Bardo

“Strive after the Good before thou art in danger, before pain masters thee and thy mind loses its keeness”
― Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“De acuerdo con la tradición, Padmasambhava era un ser iluminado que había decidido volver a la existencia en la Tierra para enseñar la doctrina budista.”
― Padmasambhava, El libro tibetano de los muertos. Bardo Thödol

“De acuerdo con la tradición, Padmasambhava era un ser iluminado que había decidido volver a la existencia en la Tierra para enseñar la doctrina budista. Tenía la capacidad de volar, atravesar”
― Padmasambhava, El libro tibetano de los muertos. Bardo Thödol

“paredes, viajar en el tiempo y, por supuesto, recordar el paso de su alma por el estado intermedio entre dos reencarnaciones, conocido como “Bardo”. Se cree que esas experiencias le permitieron describir lo que sucede tras la muerte del cuerpo físico y crear el método de liberación del espíritu.”
― Padmasambhava, El libro tibetano de los muertos. Bardo Thödol

“But his virtue was a matter of habit only and he had no philosophy”
― Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“Furthermore, if semen flows without any [blissful] sensation,
And it is interspersed with quicksilver-like globules, the size of sesame seeds,
It is said that one will die {imminently]”
― Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

“It seems necessary, unless the dying person is in a coma or cannot communicate, that he should be told he is dying. It may be difficult to actually take such a step, but if one is a friend or a husband or wife, then this is the greatest opportunity of really communicating trust. It is a delightful situation, that at last somebody really cares about you, somebody is not playing a game of hypocrisy, is not going to tell you a lie in order to please you, which is what has been happening throughout your whole life. This comes down to the ultimate truth, it is fundamental trust, which is extremely beautiful. We should really try to generate that principle.”
― Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing In The Bardo

“yidam is the expression of one’s own basic nature, visualized as a divine form in order to relate with it and express its full potentiality.”
― Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing In The Bardo