Observations placeholder
Tibetan Book of the Dead - Annihilation
Identifier
010714
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
This absolutely key piece of information is hidden away in a long paragraph all about the ordinary process of death. It is one of the few passages I found which describes what annihilation is like and was - if the description is right- provided by yogins who had been through this process. It is thus a first hand account.
A description of the experience
One will swoon into a state of blissfulness.
Thus, consciousness dissolves into inner radiance
Engendering the experience of the 'co-emergent delight'.
[At this point], awareness dissolves into actual Reality, at the centre of the heart,
like the meeting ofl mother and child.
[It is at this time that] the inner breath will [also] cease,
And the vital energy and mind will rest in the central channel.
[At this moment], the inner radiance of the ground dawns upon all sentient beings,
And, in the case of a few yogins who have achieved realisation,
At this moment, the inner radiance of the path meets [the inner radiance of the ground],
Like a [meeting of] a mother and child,
And [thus, now], instantaneously, in an ascending and core-penetrating manner,
These [yogins] actualise the uncreated Buddha-body of Reality,
And through the Buddha-bodies of Perfect Resource and Emanation
They will perform inestimable actions for the sake of all beings.
[Thus], the three buddha-bodies will be spontaneously present,
And buddhahood will have been attained.