cosmic mandala.

It should be remarked that we cannot discuss here the entire

symbolism either of Vajrayana in general or of the Tibetan Book
of the Dead in particular. We shall only refer to the characteristic
structure of an initiatory doctrine such as that of the Tibetan Book
of the Dead, in order to facilitate understanding of the whole
work. ater, in chapter III,!we shall make a closer study of the
symbolism of the deities, since we shall then be setting out on the
path through the bardo "isions in discrete symbolic steps.
It is already remarkable that the teachings of the Tibetan
Book of the Dead proceed from the premise that the duration of
the transformations in the bardo between two earthly forms of
e#istence is forty!nine days. In this space of time of se"en times
se"en days, beginning from the moment of the first "ision, all the
apparitions through to the moment of re!entry into earthly life $the
moment of conception% occur in a way that corresponds to a pro!
gression of symbolic numbers and multiple "alues. The more the
awareness!principle in the bardo state becomes conscious of its
capabilities, the more the "isionary forms and images appear,
which are described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead as images
from one&s own awareness.
The symbols which are of interest to us here are not so much
the indi"idual numbers, colors, or forms, but rather the number
and aspects of the di"ine worlds that appear in the "isions. The
Tibetans ha"e always had a predilection for gathering together
important concepts or groups of teachings into number!"alues. 's
a simple e#ample we could mention (the three deities of long life,(
)*
Basic +lements of Wisdom
or the (four blisses( of yoga, the (fi"e poisons,( or the (si# doc!
trines,( or the (eight signs of good fortune.( The language of the
religious te#ts and especially of the great treatises of Tibet is e#!
tremely rich in such group!concepts. It is understandable that as
definite "erses they could be more easily remembered. We con!
tinually come across the same things in the te#ts of the Books of
the Dead, which thereby afford us an important classification and
o"er"iew.
We generally find in the writings of the Tibetan Book of the
Dead a progression from the number one to the number two $as
the most important tantric polarity%, the number three $as trinity%,
the number four as ,uaternity $or as unity from out of the trinity%,
and the number fi"e as the centering of the ,uaternity and the
tantric uniting of the cosmological and psychological opposites.
This leads in its double aspect to the number ten. There then
follow the e,ually significant symbolic groupings under the
number si#, under se"en unities, and finally "arious kinds of sym!
bolic groupings of eight, of which many ha"e a purely psychologi!
cal background. It is clear, just from an o"er"iew of these symbolic
groups, that the Tibetan Book of the Dead presents a masterfully
de"eloped work of applied psychology drawn from the ancient
e#periences of -oga and Tantra, and that it has synthesi.ed this
knowledge about the direction of awa