(no subject)

The Tibetan Book of the Dead turns out to be seriously chunky stuff. Between its value as a philosophical tool, and all the tie ins to myth, to folklore, and just as anthropological information, it's not something I'm going to read just once. This thing is packed with good stuff, and I'm not just saying this because of the elaborate descriptions of furry monster girls and Jack-Kirby-like Tathagathas.

There are little shamanic seeming details scattered all through the thing so far (emphasis on skeleton, blood and entrails, that last part reminds me especially of the zuld in Buryat mysticism) but one part especially struck me;

Then the Lord of Death will drag you by a rope tied round your neck, and cut off your head, tear out your heart, pull out your entrails, lick your brains, drink your blood, eat your flesh and gnaw your bones; but you cannot die, so even though your body is cut into pieces you will recover.

That's being mystically killed eight times, and it sounds like a lot of Siberian stuff as documented in Eliade. Dayumn.