RELIGION TIBETAN YOGA AND SECRET DOCTRINES Second Edition Seven Books of Wisdom of the Great Path Arranged and edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz Seven authentic Tibetan yoga texts, almost unknown to the occidental world until their first publication in English in 1935, are now available in this Galaxy Book edition. A companion to the unique Tibetan Book of the Dead (GB 39), which the late Dr. Evans-Wentz also edited, this volume, illustrated with photographs and reproductions of yoga paintings and manuscripts, contains some of the principal meditations used by illustrious Hindu and Tibetan gurus and philosophers through the ages in attaining Right Knowledge and Enlightenment. The editor, whose inquiry and research extended through more .than fifteen years in the Orient, spent much time as a pupil of Hindu sages and Buddhist lamas. He has included a body of orally transmitted tradition and teachings received at first hand. These will be of particular interest to anthropol ogists and psychologists, and to students of comparative religion and practically applied Mahayana Yoga. Special commentaries precede each carefully rendered text, and a comprehensive preface contrasts the tenets of Buddhism with European concepts of religion, philosophy, and science. Yoga, the tap root of Hinduism, Jainism, Zen Buddhism, and Taoism, has also influenced the development of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. These seven distinct but intimately related books, arranged in orderly sequence, afford a comprehensive view of the spiritual teachings which have shaped the culture of the Orient, and which are now increasingly enriching the West's appreciation of the depths of the human psyche. z The late W. Y. Evans-Wentz, formerly of Jesus College, Oxford, is art w also the editor of The Tibetan Book of the Dead (GB 39), The Tibetan h c Book of the Great Liberation (GB 260), and Tibet's Great Yogi, S e Milarepa (GB 294). His substantial tetralogy of works on yoga, based ay K on translations from the Tibetan, offers an "interpretation from within" a rarely found in the works of Western scholars. During the early years Rit of this century Dr. Evans-Wentz lived in India and in Sikkim, at the by invitation at the Maharaja Sidkyong Tulku, where he studied occult gn doctrines intensively. esi d A GALAXY BOOK er v o OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK C ISBN 0-19-500278-4 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) From Photographs by the Editor MODERN GURUS Described on pages xviii-xix TIBETAN YOGA AND SECRET DOCTRINES OR SEVEN BOOKS OF WISDOM OF THE GREAT PATH, ACCORDING TO THE LATE LAMA KAZI DAWA-SAMDUP'S ENGLISH RENDERING Arranged and Edited with Introductions and Annotations to serve as a Commentary by W. Y. EVANS-WENTZ M.A., D.LITT., D.Sc. Jesus College, Oxford; Author of The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries; The Tibetan Book of the Dead; Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa; The Tibetan Book of the Great Libera tion, &c. With Foreword by DR. R. R. MARETT and Yogic Commentary by TRANSLATOR-PROFESSOR CHEN-CHI CHANG SECOND EDITION OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON OXFORD NEW YORK OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford London Glasgow New York Toronto Melbourne Wellington Ibadan Nairobi Dares Salaam Cape Town Kuala Lumpur Singapore Jakarta Hong Kong Tokyo Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi © W. Y. Evans-Wentz, 1958 First published by Oxford University Press, London, 1935 Second Edition, 1958 First published as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1967 This reprint 1978 Printed in the United States of America THIS BOOK OF SEVEN BOOKS OF WISDOM OF THE YOGA PATH DIRECT I DEDICATE TO THEM THAT SHALL SUCCEED ME IN THE QUEST ON EARTH WISDOM-TEACHINGS AND GOOD-WISHES OF THE ADI-BUDDHA SAMANTA-BHADRA 'The Foundation of all is uncreated, uncompounded, independent, beyond mental concept and verbal definition. Neither the term Sangsara nor the term Nirvana can be applied to It. To realize It is to attain Buddhahood. Not to realize It is to wander in the Sangsara. . . . 'Not knowing the Foundation, beings aforetime erred. They were overwhelmed by the darkness of unconsciousness, whence sprang igno rance and error. Immersed in error and obscured by ignorance, the "knower" became bewildered and afraid. Then arose the concepts "I" and "Others'', together with hatred. When these had grown strong, there was born an unbroken current of sangsaric evolution. Then the ''five poisons" of the obscuring passions, lust, anger, selfishness, delusion, and jealousy, flourished, and there was produced an intermin able chain of evil karma. 'The root-source of error among sentient beings is thus unconscious ignorance. And, in virtue of the power of the Good-Wishes of Me, the Adi-Buddha, may each of them realize the radiant, immaculate mind, innate in every living thing.' From The Good-Wishes of the All-Good Buddha Samanta-Bhadia (Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's Translation). P R E F A CE TO T HE F I R ST E D I T I ON AS in The Tibetan Book of the Dead and in Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa so in this book, the third in a threefold series, my aim has been to place on record not only a catena of carefully made translations of texts which are as yet almost unknown in Occidental countries, but also a body of orally transmitted traditions and teachings relating to the texts, which I received from the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, who was my Tibetan guru. The present work thus contains much that is new to Western thought, and much that, apart from its value for philosophy and religion, is interesting anthropologically. It should prove to be of the same quality and public appeal as the two volumes of the series which have already been pub lished. Perhaps it may be found to be the most valuable member of the trilogy, inasmuch as it gives the very texts of some of the principal yogas and meditations which many of the most illustrious Tibetan and Indian philosophers, including Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa, employed in attaining Right Knowledge. This volume is meant at once for the exact scholar and for the general reader. The former will note that the original textual sources, which are sevenfold, are authentic, and that nothing has been incorporated into the texts or presented in the introductions and annotations which has not doctrinal sanction. The seven chief texts upon which the seven Books, or parts, comprising this volume are based contain teachings and matter dating a long way beyond the time to which the actual manu scripts and block-prints can be referred. A full discussion of this question is contained in the special introductions to the seven Books. The shortened titles of these seven texts, ren dered into English, are as follows: (1) Gampopa's Supreme Path, called 'The Precious Rosary', consisting of twenty-eight categories of yogic precepts for the guidance of the disciple; viii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION (2) The Epitome of the Great Symbol, a treatise on the practical yogic method of realizing Nirvana; (3) The Epitome of the Six Doctrines, which are the Psychic-Heat, the Illusory Body, the Dream-State, the Clear Light, the After-Death State, and the Trans ference of the Consciousness; (4) The Transference of the Consciousness, a yogic treatise complementary to the last of the Six Doctrines; (5) The Method of Eradicating the Lower Self a treatise on the Yoga of Non-Ego; (6) The Five-Fold Wisdom Attribute of the Long Hum, a treatise on the Yoga of the Five Wisdoms; (7) The Essence of the Transcendental Wisdom, a short Sutra belonging to the Prajna-Paramita of the Tibetan canon. For the benefit of the general reader, I have prefixed to the treatise, in the form of a General Introduction, a brief account of Buddhism, so presented as to contrast with our European conceptions of religion and philosophy, and, to some extent, science. Similarly, in my exposition of the Yoga Philosophy, upon which the treatise as a whole is based, I have made use of teachings which have come to me from trustworthy teachers during the course of careful inquiry and research extending over a period of more than fifteen years, spent mostly in the Orient. In a realm so filled with difficulties for the European mind as this book attempts to explore, it is not to be expected that I have always escaped error. In any event, I trust that readers and critics of this volume will recognize in it, despite any such shortcomings as it may perhaps exhibit, a sincere effort to help, in some small degree, to bring about amongst the peoples of the Western World a better understanding of some of the master minds of Tibet and of India. Once more in the preface of a printed book, and probably for the last time in this incarnation, I here acknowledge my indebtedness to the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, without whose patient toil and guidance neither this treatise nor the two treatises which have prepared the way for it would ever PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION ix have been written. I also acknowledge my indebtedness to each of my other preceptors and helpers in India and Tibet and throughout the Occident. In this connexion I cannot omit to record the name of Dr. R. R. Marett, Reader in Social Anthropology in the University of Oxford, and Rector of Exeter College, who has never failed to offer encouragement and sound advice to me, his old pupil, during the past twenty-seven years, that is to say, ever since I came up to Oxford. And now I am further indebted to him for the Foreword to this volume. I am also very grateful to my good friend and helper, Mr. E. T. Sturdy, translator of The Narada Sutra, for having read over, both when it was in typewritten form and when it was in proof, the matter contained within these covers, and more particularly for having given attention to the San skrit terms and to my exposition of Vedantic doctrines. With respect to certain problems relating to the original Tibetan texts, I have been fortunate in having been able to question Dr. F. W. Thomas, Boden Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Oxford. I owe another debt of like nature to Dr. F. A. M. Spencer, lately Chaplain of Brasenose College, Oxford, and author of a number of works, including Civilization Remade by Christ, and The Theory of Christ's Ethics, who read the typewritten copy of this volume before it went to the printers, and contri buted some constructive criticism concerning certain Christian problems herein touched upon. To Sir E. Denison Ross, Director of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, grateful acknowledgement is here made for permission to use his copy of the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's rendering of the Lodan-Gawai-Roltso. And I am also indebted to the Bhikkhu Parawehera Vajiranana, attached to the Vidyodaya College, Colombo, Ceylon, at present in England and a candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, for having critically examined my exposition of yogic practices in relation to Southern Buddhism. Nor must I forget to thank the many friends who have