The ancient Tibetan text adapted by Jean-Claude van Itallie. Photos from La Mama performance by Gerry Vezzuso. Tibetan art illustrations selected by Professor Deborah Klimburg-Salter. Introduction by Judith Lief, former Dean of Naropa Institute. Published by North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 1998.

Oh you,

Who have come to this place,

Sisters and brothers, friends,

This person is dying.

She (he) has not chosen to do so.

She is suffering greatly.

She has no home, no friends.

Falling as from a cliff,

She is entering a strange forest.

Driven by the winds, swept by the ocean,

She feels no solid ground.

She is embarking on a great battle.

Moved from state to state,

She is alone and helpless.

Embrace her with your love.

My friend,

You are feeling heavy,

You can no longer open or close your eyes.

Blue, yellow, red and green are turning white.

Logic and the chair and the table are dissolving.

The earth element in your body is dissolving into water.

My friend, Your mind is losing its hold,

You grab at this,

You grab at that.

Your blood is slowing,

You feel faint.

Logic and the chair and the table are dissolving.

No more external sounds,

No more internal sounds.

You have no saliva, no sweat.

Everything is drying.

The water element in your body is dissolving into fire.

My friend,

Now you feel cold.

You have a sense of far-off vastness,

And you seem to see fireflies, or sparks

Within smoke.

You can’t get enough air.

You are losing ground.

Everything seems hollow.

You try to remember who you love.

The fire element in your body is dissolving into air.

My friend,

Now you are losing your last touch with the world:

Your sense of taste.

The last sign:

A sputtering butter lamp,

About to go out.

The air element in your body is dissolving into ether.

My friend,

Now is the moment of death.

The time has come for you to start out.

You are going home.

Oh, Nobly Born,

Now is the moment.

Before you is mind, open and wide as space,

Simple, without center or circumference.

Now is the moment of death.

Your mind in this moment is total transparency:

No color, no substance, empty,

Sparkling, pure and vibrant,

A mass of light

Not stopped by any obstacle.

It has neither beginning nor end.

Go toward the light.

Merge with it.

Merge with the light.

Death has happened.

Death has happened.

So nothing can hurt you.

You can’t die again.

Don’t be afraid.

Merge with the light. Merge. Merge.

"Jean-Claude van Itallie, one of our most original playwrights and a longtime practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, has taken Guru Padmasambhava’s 8^th century masterpiece, The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo, or as it’s known in the west, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and rendered its essential brilliance into deeply moving and inspiring poems meant to be read aloud. Its sole intent is to pilot us wandering voyagers through the illusory and superstitious realms we call life and death.

With constant reminders to pay attention and watch our minds, the poet urges us to come to our senses and remember our Nobly Born true selves completely beyond all designation, all hope and all tears… merging with the clear light bliss, no center, no circumference, an ocean with no boat… I love this little book. Read it aloud!"

Richard Gere

"Jean-Claude van Itallie’s presentation of this old classic brings us face to face with the radiance and emptiness of our own minds. He has made new a relevant — even urgent — text: A guide for the continually arising moments of choice in our living and in dying." Diane di Prima