The Tibetan Book of the Dead · Reading 133 of 170

The Closing of the Door of the Womb

The Fourth Method of Closing the Womb-Door

Reading 2 of 2

'I, by not having understood these [things] in that way hitherto, have held the non-existent to be the existent, the unreal to be the real, the illusory to be the actual, and have wandered in the Sangsāra so long. And even now if I do not recognize them to be illusions, then, wandering in the Sangsāra for long ages, [I shall be] certain to fall into the morass of various miseries.

'Indeed, all these are like dreams, like hallucinations, like echoes, like the cities of the Odour-eaters, like mirage, like mirrored forms, like phantasmagoria, like the moon seen in water — not real even for a moment. In truth, they are unreal; they are false.'

By holding one-pointedly to that train of thought, the belief that they are real is dissipated; and, that being impressed upon the inner continuity [of consciousness], one turneth backwards: if the knowledge of the unreality be impressed deeply in that way, the womb-door will be closed.