1. REMOTIO MORTUORUM

(Instrumental)


2. INTO THE SOIL

Open casket, a ritual of death
In the name of human vanity
One last gaze upon the deceased
A desperate clinging to the mortal vessel

Morbid reality kept away from civilized society
An induced image of peaceful rest displayed to the mourners

Postmortal cosmetics
Enhancing the body's presentation
Scars concealed, eyes sewn shut
Tampering with nails and hair of the dead

Blood displaced by formaldebyde
Bloating the emaciated corpse to a near vital shape
Almost lifelike color is restored

Conclusion to the service
Human doll is now lowered into the soil

Contaminated, eggs hatch in orifices
Within, sweet fumes linger

Embalmment will start to lapse
Eventually rendering tissue defenseless

Vital, activity
Shows in the necrotic body

Fluid's effects fail
Maggots find their way
Domain of decay
Slowly eaten away

Fluid's effects fail
Maggots find their way
Domain of decay
Slowly eaten away

Chemical expulsion
Part human sludge is purged
Body shrinks as maggots finish their meal

"Dead, stiff and cold, in your box, to decay"


3. CONSUMING GRIEF

Mourners gather around the fire
To honor those passed away
Consanguines have the duty
To dissect, prepare, decorate

Affines take the burden to devour the flesh
Of the ones that they held dear within their hearts...
Familiar body pieces that may have once caressed
Now to be served for consumption

As they have to submit
The beloved body
For dismemberment
Grief intensifies
A fevered chorus of keening and crying
Ritual method to keep spirit from lingering

Several days of decay
Made the corpse so putrid
Stench so overwhelming
Legs and arms
Dead and neck
Placed on sticks
Reluctantly devoured

...Eaters of the dead...

Heart and liver wrapped in leaves to be roasted
Genitals and intestines thrown onto the fire

Mournful feast continues
Throughout the night
Until the flesh is entirely
Cannibalized

Pathways erased
Scenery soon altered to avoid memories of the deceased

House burnt to the ground
Belongings destroyed
Names to never be
Spoken again


4. GENEROSITY OF THE DECEASED

Empty shell is placed on a sacred ledge
Exposed to the elements

Pungent odours rise
Scavengers will feast
Cold flesh soon to be devoured

Corpse will be reduced to skeletal remains
Rapid disposal of a possible source of infection

Ancient ritual to sustain other's lives
Generosity of the deceased...

Harsh lands leave no option for interment or cremation
Traditional practice claiming man's intrepidity
Pale limbs chopped up with an axe
Enabling creatures to swiftly consume
Loved ones are adviced to leave this morbid scene

Skin, flesh, tendons, feet, genitals
Liver, heart, spleen and intestines...
Primitive deconstruction of the human anatomy

Skin, flesh, tendons, feet, genitals
Liver, heart, spleen and intestines...
Primitive deconstruction of the human anatomy

Ripping frenzy interrupted
Bones mashed into pulp for consumption
Skull split open to make brain accessible
Nothing is wasted...

Transference... of vitality...

Empty shell have vanished from the sacred grounds
A return to idyll
Pungent odours gone
Scavengers are full

Skeletal remains
Reduced to nothing
Transference of vitality
An act of good karma


5. SUTTEE

Bound to the lifeless body of her deceased spouse
Firstborn lits the flame to burn both the living and the dead

Made responsible for husbands undoing
Failure to protect from harm seals her fate

Twisted celebration
Unity in death
Worthless as a widow, now begins the
Coerced sacrifice...

And a cloud of human smoke
Engulfs the congregation
And you watch in horror
as her body becomes a blistered mess

Family tree uprooted
All within a few days,
For loyalty and prestige
Tradition is carried out

Morbid chants - deeply drenched in dogma
As they claim - her absolute devotion
Sacred shrines - To be built in her honor
Won't alleviate the torment as she burns...

Horrifying screams, from her melting face,
Terror fused with grief, A world crashing down
Shock carves your psyche, tears will soon dry,
Religion will brainwash, to perpetuate the sickness


6. THE BELL

Endless quest for enlightenment
Driven to extremes to become one with the exalted - reach immortality

Stemming from Shingon doctrines
Bizarre customs emerge
Practice of living embalmment baffling
Uninitiated minds

Persevere to preserve... (Your earthly vessel)
Your earthly vessel becomes a monument of spiritual sublimity...
(Sublimity) achieved through acts of self-denial
Endurance beyond humanity

Stage 1
Meditation beneath icy waters
Self imposed hardships to drain body fat
Merciless reduction of food intake
Deprived of all earthly pleasures

Stage 2
Bark and roots, your sole nutrition
Toxic substances cause rapid loss of budy fluids, vomiting
Arsenic ingestion corrupts
The little meat left on your bones

Stage 3
Encased alive in your tomb
Engrossed in spirituality
The bell rings for 13 days
(Until) silence signals transformation

Strengthened through excruciation
Body fat extermination
Deliberate contamination
Flesh now unfit for consumption

Tormant chocked through meditation
Locked tight in Lotus position
Successful mummification
Postmortal idolization

Sacred site of admriation
A dead body's exhibition
Visitors confronted with greatness


7. DHARMATA

(Instrumental)


8. THE MESMERIZING LIGHT

Awakening from this swoon
Extracted from my mortal shell
Trapped within the unknown
Subjected to the netherworld

Visions, intimidating powers appear
Glorious orbs of lights
Emitting rays of unbearable radiance

Divine figures embracing each other
Casting glances, both morbid and inviting
Torn between terror and affection
Whirlwind of impressions
Lurid, glaring colors
Violent sounds

From thy own self comes this immensity
Rays of grace forming frightful entities

Paralyzing luminosity
When confronted with the deities
Awful bliss will strike against thee
Do not fear the light, let it enter you, free of attachment
Know it to be wisdom, guiding the pathway to liberty

Distant prayers from the world of the living
Soaking in my conciousness
Intensifying my perplexity
Until I recognize my noble guides

"Oh, soul unprepared for the phenomena of the afterlife, listen undistractedly."

Chants of compassion and profound knowledge
An exalted voice instructing me in this dark realm of uncertainty, preparing me for things to come"

Paralyzing luminosity
When confronted with the deities
Awful bliss will strike against thee
Do not fear the light, let it enter you, free of attachment
Know it to be wisdom...

From thy own self comes this immensity
Rays of grace forming frightful entities
Karmic obscurations weaken the mind
Seeking escape will block the portal to enlightenment


9. AT ONE WITH WRATH

Wandering through hostile lands
A veil of confusion still controlling me
And the visions grow darker

Blood drinking demons come to dawn, ghastly faces, embodied anger
Human skulls, putrefying entrails decorate their flame-enhaloed form

Unearthly manifestations - the reflections of your mind
Psychedelic horror - Particles of discriminating wisdom
Wisdom shineth upon thee
so that you may transcend this fainting state

Recognize, Merge with those abominations, Conquer thine animalistic self
At one with wrath, know it to be the embodiment of thine own intellect

Cryptic instructions from the carnal world enter the mental ear
Through esoteric teachings, somehow comfort is found
Terror and awe create one pointed attention

Tutelary deities
Appear before thee
merge into them

Animal headed
Weapon wielding
Miscreations
Trust them as they were human acquaintances

Dissection
Disembowelment,
cannot harm you, since you are bodiless

Emptiness cannot harm emptiness

Yama - Lord of death
Judge of sinister authority
Accumulated Karma
is evaluated
Judgement is inevitable
Surrender to thine inner sublimity

Do not attempt escape
A fall into the unhappy worlds
will result
Thou will be
trapped inside hostile lands -
veil of confusion – timeless suffering

Unearthly manifestations - the reflections of your mind
Psychedelic horror - Particles of discriminating wisdom
Wisdom shineth upon thee
so that you may transcend this fainting state

Recognize, Merge with those abominations, Conquer thine animalistic self
At one with wrath, know it to be the embodiment of thine own intellect


10. THE QUEST FOR NON-EXISTENCE

Stripped of my material body, spirit travels
Boundless liberty, visiting places
Approaching my loved ones, people I cherish
Left with no reply as I'm trying to reach out

Seeing relatives weeping
Now certain, I have died

I can look upon my mortal vessel
A shroud of despair engulfs me
Trapped within another dimension
Forced to abandon my earthly existence

Once again I hear the voices call my name, blessed by their existence

"O nobly-born being, oppressed with intense sorrow, the thought will occur to thee, 'O what would I not give to possess a body!"

Dharma-Kaya, abide in unattachment, devoid of weakness
Tranquility, in this uncreated state thou will gain perfect enlightenment and birth will be obstructed

"O nobly-born, (at this time) thou wilt see visions of males and females in union.
When thou seest them, remember to withhold thyself from going between them."

Lust and aggression
Asphyxiate me, unable to resist
Whirlwind of impurities
Familiar patterns of Samsara

Hatred and envy
Struggling with sexual rivalry
Sinful desire
Wallowing in emotions

Do not enter the womb!
Become one with bliss!
Escape the endless cycle of suffering!

Dharma-Kaya, abide in unattachment, devoid of weakness
Tranquility, in this uncreated state thou will gain perfect enlightenment and birth will be obstructed

Lust and aggression
Asphyxiate me, unable to resist
Whirlwind of impurities
Familiar patterns of Samsara

Entering the womb
Thou will be propelled to repeat the endless cycle of suffering!


11. RETURN TO SAMSARA

Thou did not recognize
Luminosity of thine mind
Absorbed in impurities
Familiar patterns take their course

Tormenting furies
Compelled to push on
Through terrifying hail-storms
Darkness, snow and rain

"O nobly-born, do not seek refuge in the womb!"

Visions of thine future existence will arise
Caverns and blossoms will appear to thee, avoid to hide inside
For they ate the womb
Passage into another painful reality

Flesh eating demons
Ghosts of those forever lost in this intermediate state
Haunt me, paralyzed with horror

Ridden with sorrow of loosing my past life
Feeling drawn
Towards the realm of pleasure and pain

"Anxiety and despair will take hold of thine fate"

Visualize thy tutelary deity
Massive limbs, terrifying appearance
Possessing the might to reduce to dust the legions of mischievous spirits

The power of its grace will separate thee from the tormenting furies and thou will wilt obtain ability to select the womb-door you desire
In deep faith, heed this profound teaching

The power of its grace will separate thee from the tormenting furies and thou will wilt obtain ability to select the womb-door you desire
In deep faith, heed this profound teaching

Hiding in my place of refuge
To escape the horrors of the Bardo
Hearing the sounds of immensity
From outside my resort

I shall never return to that hostile plane
Longing for existence like it used to be
Gravitated towards Samsara
Thou will faint away into unconsciousness

Womb-door opens, conciousness resets
Seeing the light of day, cycle is complete
Slave to ignorance and attachment
Yet another lifetime to accumulate wisdom

Visions of thine future existence will arise
Caverns and blossoms will appear to thee, avoid to hide inside
For they ate the womb
Passage into another painful reality