Here is a quote from Chogyam Trungpa and Francesa Fremantle’s translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It shows that while doing readings that we need not hold any ideologies…that our intention for the liberation of the voyager is what matters.
“Just reading the Bardo Thotrol (The Book of the Dead) does not do very much, except that the dying person knows that you are performing a ceremony of some kind for him. You should have some understanding of the whole thing, not just reading out of the book but making it like a conversation…
… While you are doing all of this, the intelligence and consciousness of the dying person are deteriorating, but at the same time he also develops a higher consciousness of the environmental feeling; so if you are able to provide a basic warmth and basic confidence that what you are telling him is the truth rather than just what you have been told to tell him, that is very important.
… The whole point is that when you instruct a dying person you are really talking to yourself. Your stability is part of the dying person, so if you are stable then automatically the person in the bardo state will be attracted to that. In other words present a very sane and solid situation to the person who is going to die. Just relate with him, just open to each other simultaneously, and develop the meeting of the two minds.”
(Fremantle, Book of the Dead, pp 28-29)
