Tibetan Book of the Dead

Death is not the end of pain and pleasure. The Great Gristmill grinds fine pebble deeds and boulder misdeeds. When YOU, heaving beast, hear your last breath, a change will come. Reality may flash—there’s an instant of Clear Light. Eternity, its silent thunder hums the mighty Hymn of Paradise. You float for a moment, calm ocean of sky, then drag Heaven down─ Karmic undertow! Earth sinks into water, water into fire, fire into air. O momentary swoons! Slumber of ignorance, you awaken to crying friends and relatives. Not having dawned on you, dearly dead, that you have departed, you call “I am here!” But they don’t see. So you go away, floating through walls, displeased. And then the dreams come— terrifying and tantalizing phantasms. Demons and deities dance down upon the mind stage of propensities. Realize, Noble Dreamer, apparitions are aspects of temporal mind. Recognize, and liberation is won! But should you fail to recognize visions, mating couples will come, and you will slip into another realm. Go to your womb! Nine months solitary, birth and puberty—O God! Four more years of high school.