This is the reason that the practice of Heat Yoga is considered the peerless teaching. This one should always remember. From the state of recognizing and holding the Light of Death, the dying person comes to another stage, and, through his ability acquired from meditation in his lifetime, and through his understanding of the key-instructions and his faith toward Dharma, he is then able to raise the Buddha's Bodies in the delusory Bardo state. The Bardo Body, however, cannot be used as a qualified means to accomplish the Supreme Bodies of Buddha, though at the time of Bardo one should recognize the Bardo state and try to take up the perfect Buddha Bodies. Nevertheless, one still should visualize the self-Body becoming the Yidam's Body, contemplate on the View of Thatness, and identify all manifestations--cosmos and sentient beings--

as illusory, dreamlike, and magic in nature. If the yogi practises these teachings in Bardo, he will procure superb benefits; therefore, he should realize the significance of these pith instructions and practise them.

The yogi who practices the Teachings of Path may not be womb-born in his next life. Very possibly he may take any of the other three forms of Birth[r_nar:94]. Therefore the Bardoist should try all the more to practise the teaching of manifestation-as-Yidam, Yidam-as-delusion, delusion-as-Voidness, as instructed before. He should also identity his future parents as the father and mother Guru or the father and mother Yidam.

One may also apply the teaching of choosing the place of birth in the Bardo state--to vow earnestly to be born in the Pure Land of Buddha--as given in another part of Marpa's teachings. These teachings include the recognizing of Bardo and the longing for a birth in the Pure Land according to the pith-instructions of Apo-wa (the teaching of Transforming One's Consciousness).

Footnotes

^233:* This is an extremely significant point. Compare our observations on pages <page 176>-<page 178>, <page 182> and <page 191>. Ed.