Guhyagarbha Tantra (with Commentary)
by Gyurme Dorje | 1987 | 304,894 words
The English translation of the Guhyagarbha Tantra, including Longchenpa's commentary from the 14th century. The whole work is presented as a critical investigation into the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, of which the Guhyagarbhatantra is it's principle text. It contains twenty-two chapters teaching the essence and practice of Mahayoga, which s...
Text 2.16 (Commentary)
[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 2.16]
[But] not bound by any agent, bondage is non-existent.
There is not an object to be bound.
By egotistical conceptual thoughts
Knots in the sky are urgently tied and untied. [16] ...[Tibetan]
sus-kyang ma-bcings bcings-med-de / bcing-bar bya-ba yod-ma-yin / rnam-rtog bdag-tu 'dzin-pa-yis / nan-gyis mkha'-la mdud-pa 'dor / [16]
Commentary:
[The third teaches that there is neither bondage nor liberation from the very moment when bewilderment appears.—It comments on Ch. 2.16:]
Despite such afflictions caused by the many kinds of happiness and suffering in ²õ²¹á¹ƒsÄå°ù²¹, in the abiding nature, as in space, all living beings are not bound (ma-bcings) by any agent (sus-kyang) causing bondage. Even conflicting emotion which ostensibly appears as bondage (bcings) is actually non-existent (med-de) because there is not (yod-ma-yin) in fact a single living being or even the mind of a living being which is an object to be bound (bcing-bar bya-ba). If you ask, however, whence this ostensible bondage has emerged, bewilderment is fabricated, without actually occuring, by egotistical conceptual thoughts (rnam-rtog bdag-tu 'dzin-pa-yis) which suddenly arise. It is as if, for example, one has urgently (nan-gyis) or purposefully imagined a rope to appear in the sky (mkha'-la) before one, and then tied and untied ('dor) many knots (mdud-pa) in it. One’s own mind-as-such is originally pure like the sky, but it appears as the bewilderment of ²õ²¹á¹ƒsÄå°ù²¹ because it has contrived many modes of refutation and proof, or of subject and object. Just as a knot in the sky also seems more veridical the longer this intellectual effort is not abandoned and yet nothing is actually tied. this bewildering appearance of ²õ²¹á¹ƒsÄå°ù²¹ is more veridical the longer one does not abandon one’s attachment to the subject-object dichotomy, and yet it is actually not veridical at all.
[iv. The diffusion of spirituality’s display in order that this reality might be revealed (110.5-111.2):]
Fourth, there is the diffusion of spirituality in order that this reality might be revealed. (It comments on Ch. 2, 17):
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