ON THE HISTORY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE 'DAS-LOGhave two ethnographically verifiable associations; they may be tears (liquid from
the eye as opposed to the sexual organs) or bindu, the drop or spot signifying
creative potential in the heart (mind). These in tum stand for compassion and for
the potential of the manifest body (sgyu-lus) to be transformed into the wisdom
body (ye-shes-lus) and for the bodhicitta of the adept, the comingling of his
"semen" with his mudrii. But bodhicitta is also pha-ma 'i byang-sems, the white
and red drops in the corpse's heart, which are the remnants of the original germ
of the parents. These are associated with the life-and "para-sympathetic-"
winds in the embryo. Normally found at the forehead's vein-cakra and at the
navel's, they migrate to the heart at death, encapsulating the mind in a tent-like
structure. When this structure collapses, their gross remnants appear at the nos-
trils or urinary opening, signalling the departure of the rnam-shes. Here we have
at least three sets of associations, all related and all reiterating the same
message. The first, the mystical or yogic, is connected to soteriology through the
application of means (compassion/tears) to wisdom, in which the "sexual"
release of the yogin in connection with his female coadept (real or imagined)
renders the transformation of bindu to red and white liquids in the internal body
to nothingness/bliss/immortality. The second, the physiological, stands for
embryo formation and bodily destruction. The third, the social, stands for
explicit sexual and social attachment, where love, mundanely tendered, leads to
birth, pain and death, instead of the yogi's immortality.
Third, the soul is further confused by the hospitality shown to mourners by its
family, and by other persons' failures to display toward it even the common
amenities of the good life. As a ghost-like soul, of course, no one is able to hear
or see it. Yet it has not yet come to realize that it has "died," and it still remains
attached to the major modes of Tibetan social interaction: commensality and
conversation.^24 As a disembodied spirit it is harrassed by the remnants of its own
corporeal and social attachments, and it is harried by the attitude of others which
cause it emotional distress. This is precisely the kind of situation against which
funerary texts and the "Book of the Dead" advise. Since the moment of death
can afford the final opportunity in one's life for liberation, anything which dis-
tracts the consciousness of the dead and involves it in worldly affect can have
the most adverse effects upon both the quick and the dead. We shall return to a
more detailed analysis later.
In the next "act" of the biographies, the 'das-log, angered at or disappointed
by the acts of its loved ones or acquaintances, takes its leave and is transported
willy-nilly to Bardo. Heretofore, the 'das-log has been receiving sensory, albeit
distorted, input from its surrounding environment. From this point on until its
recovery sense impressions from the outer world entirely cease and the events
that follow are entirely hallucinatory.^25 Bardo is described as a strange and baf-
fling land, and Bardo proper as a city. The 'das-log, generally in the company of
a guide, tours Bardo and gradually begins to establish meaning and order out of
its own initial confusion. The 'das-log witnesses events which are explained to
him as basic lessons in the laws of causation and human ethics.