| Introduction |
ix |
| The Traditions of the Tibetan Books of the Dead |
1 |
| Basic Elements of Wisdom about Life and Knowledge about the After-Death State and Rebirth |
13 |
| Life, Karma, Death, and Rebirth |
15 |
| The Trikaya Doctrine as the Basis of the Initiations |
23 |
| The Six Kinds of Bardo and Other "Intermediate States" |
33 |
| The First Group of Three Bardos as Intermediate States for the Transformation of Awareness in This Life |
36 |
| The Second Group of Three Bardos as Intermediate States for the Guidance of Awareness in the World Beyond |
38 |
| Bardo as the Indivisible Union of the Essential |
43 |
| On the Symbolism of Tantric Polarity, the Trinity, the Quaternity and the Fivefold, and of Colors and Elements |
47 |
| From Unity to Multiplicity |
49 |
| Duality as an Expression of Polarity |
50 |
| Threefold Articulations |
53 |
| Some Groups of Four |
58 |
| The Fivefold Arrangement of the Mandala |
62 |
| The Six Realms of Incarnation |
68 |
| Other Symbolic Groupings |
71 |
| The Death Ritual as Guidance through the Bardo |
74 |
| Signs in the Transition between the Two Worlds and the Primordial Light at the Onset of Death |
87 |
| The Great Ritual of the Initiations into the Mandalas of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities |
97 |
| The Peaceful Deities |
99 |
| The Adibuddha as the Mystical Creator of the Mandala |
101 |
| The Five Tathagatas (Yab-Yum) |
104 |
| The Buddha Vairocana |
105 |
| The Buddha Aksobhya |
106 |
| The Buddha Ratnasambhava |
107 |
| The Buddha Amitabha |
108 |
| The Buddha Amoghasiddhi |
108 |
| The Eight Mahabodhisattvas (Yab-Yum) |
114 |
| The Six Buddhas |
118 |
| The Six Buddhas of the Bhavacakra and the Ritual of Guidance through the Six Realms of Existence |
118 |
| The Six Buddhas and the Great Image of the Realm of Hells |
130 |
| The Four Guardians of the Mandala (Yab-Yum) |
137 |
| The Five Secret Vidyadharas (Yab-Yum) |
139 |
| The Wrathful Deities |
141 |
| The Great Heruka of the Adibuddha (Yab-Yum) |
144 |
| The Five Wrathful Buddha-Herukas (Yab-Yum) |
145 |
| The Eight Keurima |
147 |
| The Eight Phra-men-ma |
148 |
| The Four Animal-Headed Female Guardians of the Mandala |
149 |
| The 28 Powerful Animal-Headed Goddesses |
150 |
| The Five Jnana-Dakinis and the Powerful Vajrakumara-Heruka |
154 |
| From the Books of the Dead of the Pre-Buddhist Ancient Tibetan Bon Religion |
156 |
| The Peaceful Deities |
159 |
| The Wrathful Deities |
167 |
| Psyche and Awareness |
173 |
| Some Comparisons with Ideas about Death and the After-Life in Other Cultures |
185 |
| Indian Insights in the Upanisads |
188 |
| Comparable Elements in the Religions of Persia, Babylon, and Egypt |
194 |
| Comparable Elements with the Greeks, Romans, and Germans |
198 |
| The Soul and Death for the Manicheans and the Mandaeans |
200 |
| The Soul, Light, Life and Death in Some Western Schools of Thought |
202 |
| Psychological Commentary to the Bar-do thos-grol |
211 |
| General Basic Thoughts from Buddhist Philosophy and Elements of Psychology |
213 |
| Suffering and the Pleasure-Pain Principle |
213 |
| The Two Stages of Liberation |
215 |
| Ignorance and Wisdom |
215 |
| On the Relation of Mind and Body |
217 |
| Karma and Self-Responsibility |
218 |
| Alayavijnana and Archetypal Structures |
220 |
| Psychological Aspects of the Tibetan Book of the Dead |
224 |
| Notes |
241 |
| Bibliography |
250 |
| Tibetan Original Sources |
250 |
| Tibetan Buddhist Texts |
250 |
| Tibetan Texts of the Bon-po Religion |
252 |
| Secondary Literature |
252 |
| Comparative Literature |
254 |
