With great earnestness, he should pray them to protect him from all evil hindrances and influences. Then the yogi should clearly visualize both himself and the corpse transformed into Patron Buddha and vividly visualize the Hum word in the Heart Center of both. Then the yogi contacts the air-gate of the corpse and actuates his prana to drive the Hum word in his Heart Center out through his right nostril and into the Hum word of the corpse through its left nostril. At this time the yogi should pull up all his strength to aim at the Hum word of the corpse with his prana-mind. By means of this exercise, the corpse will begin to breathe and jerk, etc. Whereupon, the yogi's friendly companions should take care of him, foster him with proper food for half a month in a solitary place. Until the yogi can stably live with the new body, he should not appear before people. In order to express his gratitude to the deceased one, the yogi should perform the Offering Rituals, such as the Ritual of Tsa Tsa and the Ritual of Burning Performances. With this new human body, the yogi should devote himself to the welfare of sentient beings on a great and broad scale.

These instructions were given by gurus. Thus, the instruction on the Yoga of Entering Other's body which are based on the genuine contents of (several) Tantras and their commentaries has now been given here without wavering ambiguity.

(Now the important question concerning the rightfulness of performing this yoga will naturally arise in people's

minds);[r_nar:105] if it is sinful to transform one's consciousness to some other consciousness to some other place before the coming of death as admonished in the Instruction on Transformation Yoga, is it not also sinful to perform this Yoga? Though no clear statement answering this question can be found in Tantras, I consider the problem in the light of the following: first, since the performance of this yoga excludes itself from the category of normal death, it cannot be considered a crime of committing suicide, for it does not meet the qualifications of normal death and rebirth; it belongs to none of the regular Four Births of Samsara. Though there is a (tiny) intermediate stage between the time the consciousness leaves the body and the time it enters into the other's body, this cannot be considered a qualified Bardo-stage. Besides, in the case of a right performance of this yoga, the yogi has a pure and altruistic wish, and, since his mind aims at Dharma, he cannot be regarded as committing the crime of suicide. If one wants to know more about this topic, one may study the pith-instructions on the Illusory Body in the Tantra of Gsun-adus.

Though both the instruction of the Self-Transforming Yoga and the Yoga of Transforming into Others were available in the past, the latter was not given to gurus; therefore, it is not explained here.

Footnotes