365bet

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...

Go directly to: Footnotes.

Text 12.7 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 12.7]

By the seal of "vowels" and "consonants,"
Each and every (activity) will be achieved. [7]

[Tibetan]

- k-'i phyag-rgya-yis /
thams-cad thams-cad 'grub-par 'gyur / [7]

Commentary:

[The fifth, concerning the contemplation of the seal of the rites of sexual union and "liberation", (comments on Ch. 12.7):]

This contemplation is one in which the male and female consorts are radiantly visualised as deities and the ṇḍ is invited Into their secret centres. There, the ṇḍ should be pleased by the seal (phyag-rgya-yis) of the "vowels" (-). which make offerings of the supreme bliss, and of the "consonants" (k-) which perform rites of "liberation", making offerings of human and non-human flesh and blood which are turned into nectar.[1]

The beneficial attributes (of this contemplation) are that each (thams-cad) supreme and common accomplishment, Including that of the uncorrupted contemplation, will be achieved ('grub-par-'gyur) through the rite of sexual union, as will every (thams-cad) enlightened activity which eradicates malign beings, pacifies naturally occuring evil forces, and releases (beings) into the next life, and so forth by the rites of "liberation".

[Particular Exegesis of the Result Attained through the Feast-Offerings (424.2-435-4):]

Secondly (see p. 954), the particular exegesis of the results attained through the feast-offerings Includes an overview and an interlinear commentary.

[Overview (424.2-430.6):]

This comprises both verbal definition and classification: According to the (Sanskrit) term 󲹰, means awareness, which is the seed of discriminative awareness, pristine cognition, and Buddha-hood. Dhara means holding or maintaining, i.e., the study or possession of (awareness) as an object.

The classification comprises both a general teaching which is illustrative (of the resultant awareness-holders), and a particular exegesis of their natural expression.

Concerning the former, it says in the Fulfillment and Confession of the Denizens of Hell (na-ra-ka skong-bshags):

They have maturation, power over the lifespan.
The (great) seal, and spontaneous presence.

Thus, there is the awareness-holder of maturation, the awarenessholder with power over the lifespan, the awareness-holder of the great seal, and the awareness-holder of spontaneous presence.[2]

The first of them is endowed with three characteristics. namely, maturation in the yoga of the meditational deity, stability in the form of the maturational body, and, on association with the seal of the body (lus-rgya = 첹ܻ), the Buddha-body of the great seal is obtained.[3]

It says in the Flash of Splendour (T. 830):

Having grasped the form of the meditational deity,
And untied the knots by means of the seal of the body,
The Buddha-body of the (great) seal will itself become radiant.
That is said to be maturation.

The second (the awareness-holder with power over the lifespan) transforms that maturational body into the body of indestructible reality, and without abandoning it, unites with the buddha-level so that there is no corruption of the components and the intelligence of pristine cognition is cultivated.

As the same text says:

One endowed with body and components
Attains the awareness with power to keep them.
And, through the emergence of higher realisation.
Passes away without relinquishing the body.
This is the great awareness.
Wherein all corruption has ceased.
Whatever is practised, there is no reversal.
One who has obtained independence
Obtains inspiration, and so at this juncture
Perceives the middling degree of truth.[4]

According to the third (the awareness-holder of the great seal), one's own body is transformed into the guise of (the deity) on whom one has meditated.

It says in the Answers to the Questions of Vajrasattva (p. 5082):

The deity actualised by meditation
On one's own body as the great seal
Of the conquerors,
Endowed with major and minor marks.
And supernormal cognitive powers,
Is known as the awareness-holder
Of the great seal.

If one were to think that Buddha-hood has then been actualised, it is still to be attained because that (awareness-holder) is not free from all obscurations. One should know this to resemble the assertion of the Ornament of Emergent Realisation (T. 3786), concerning the "attainment of Buddha-hood", that although Buddha-hood is obtained on the first level, there are still stains to be purified on the remaining levels.[5]

The Indestructible Reality (NGB. Vol. 15) also says:

Although the Buddha-body with the guise
Of the seal of enlightenment
Manifests that guise.
Endowed with major and minor marks and so forth.
The real nature of quiescence is not perceived.

The fourth (the awareness-holder of spontaneous presence) is the Buddha-hood in which renunciation and realisation are concluded.[6]

It says in the Indestructible Reality:

Through the perfection of the power
Derived from the previous awareness,
Stains are purified, as has been explained.
And one becomes an awareness-holder of spontaneous presence
Endowed with the three kinds of discriminative awareness
Of the Buddha-level.[7]

The latter, the particular exegesis of their natural expresion has four parts, namely, their emanational births, their subsumption of the uncorrupted levels, their completion of the transcendental perfections, and their conclusive attainments.

i. Concerning the first: These awareness-holders perform acts of benefit for each according to his or her needs, having emanated for the sake of living beings as a universal monarch who is chief among human beings, as , Śatakratu and so forth who are chief among the gods, and as the beings of the Ѳ realms.[8] There are some who claim without contradiction that the awareness-holder of maturation is displayed among human beings, the awareness-holder of power over the lifespan among gods, the awareness-holder of the great seal among realms, and the awareness-holder of spontaneous presence among all.[9]

ii. As for their subsumption on the uncorrupted levels: the awareness-holder of maturation is subsumed in the level which concludes (the paths of) provision and connection. The awareness holder of power over the lifespan is subsumed in the levels of learning as far as the path of insight. The awareness-holder of the great seal is subsumed in the levels of extraordinary realisation on (the paths) of) insight and meditation, which concern the sublime pristine cognition; and the awareness-holder of spontaneous presence is subsumed in the Buddha-level.[10]

However all of these are subsumed together on the Extraordinary (khyad-par-can) or thirteenth level. Therein they have all certainly been actualised. The distinction here resembles, for example, that between a fish which has been caught by an iron hook but is still in the water, and one which has been brought forth to dry land.[11]

Moreover, through the function of having sublime pristine cognition, one is called an awareness-holder of the great seal; and through the function of being devoid of birth and death, one is called an awareness-holder with power over the lifespan.

Again, there is explained to be a threefold division, according to which (the awareness-holders) are respectively introduced onto the Buddha-level, abide on the buddha-level, and are matured on the Buddha-level.

There are also some who hold that the awareness-holder with power over the lifespan refers to the first level, that of the great seal to the eighth, and that of spontaneous presence to the tenth, but that is not intended according to the intention of the Magical Net, which says (Ch. 9.32):

Within sixteen lifespans (one will obtain)
The spontaneously perfect five Buddha-bodies.

And:

Without renouncing the body, on the Buddha-level...

These passages indeed contradict the explanation that (the awareness-holder) of spontaneous presence has Buddha-hood, and they do not differentiate between the characteristics of the (awareness-holders) with power over the lifespan and of the great seal.[12]

iii. As for the third (their completion of the transcendental perfections): It is revealed that the ten transcendental perfections are gradually refined by adherents of the gradual path and that the ten levels correspondingly arise; whereas adherents of the immediate path swiftly complete these.[13] Because things are not at all grasped, the transcendental perfection of liberality and its result are revealed to be spontaneously perfected without being sought. Similarly, moral discipline is uncovered, without acceptance or rejection, through an awareness of the sameness (of all things); patience is the absence of disturbance and the total apprehension of the character of pristine cognition; perseverence is the lack of degeneration in that and the accumulation of appropriate actions and behaviour; concentration is the abiding in the nature of all things without deviating from sameness, although the sense-organs are object-oriented; discriminative awareness transcends the apprehension of substances and signs because that nature is incontrovertibly realised; skillful means is that which directs one to action for the sake of others; aspiration is that which utterly purifies fields and perceptual ranges; power is that which is never oppressed by disharmonious aspects; and pristine cognition is the qualitative realisation of the truth. Through the spontaneous perfection of these ten transcendental perfections, (their corresponding results) are swiftly perfected, without having to be refined over a long period of time.[14]

The verbal definition and the attributes of the levels are also mentioned in the following passage from the Ornament of the ūٰ of the Greater Vehicle (T. 4020):

The Joyful Level is so called because
It gives rise to joy
At the increasing proximity of enlightenment.
And at the preception that the benefit
Of sentient beings is accomplished.
The Immaculate Level is so called
Because it is free from the stains
Of striving after indisciplined behaviour.
The Illuminator Level is so called because
It activates the great appearance of doctrine.
The Flaming Level is so called because
It burns both aspects (of obscuration)
Which are out of harmony with enlightenment.
The Hard to Conquer Level is so called because
It completely matures sentient beings.
And also protects one's own mind,
And is hard for intelligent beings to conquer.
The Manifest Level is so called because
Dependent on the perfection of discriminative awareness
Both ṃs and Ծṇa are thereon manifested.
The Far-Reaching Level is so called
Because it connects one with the unique path of progression.[15]
The Immovable Level is upheld
Because it is unmoved by the two kinds of perception.[16]
The Level of Excellent Intelligence
Is that of the noble intelligence of
Particularising genuine awareness.
The Cloud of Doctrine is so called because
It fills the firmament with the two cloud-like (provisions).[17]

As for their respective enlightened attributes, on the first level twelve hundred are instantly actualised, without temporal sequence, including the audience with a hundred Buddhas.

It says in the Bounteousness of the Buddhas (T. 44):

One hundred contemplations and a hundred Buddhas are seen.
One hundred fields are roused and manifestly traversed.
One hundred sentient beings are refined.
And established within the door of the doctrine.
Emanating for one hundred aeons.
One hundred bodies are revealed.
And sons of the conquerors, one hundred in number.
Are also revealed.
Higher than that there are immeasurable (attributes)
Endowed with the power of supreme aspiration.

Similarly, on the second level there are twelve thousand attributes, on the third there are twelve hundred-thousand, on the fourth there are twelve billion, on the fifth there are one hundred and twenty billion, on the sixth there are twelve billion billion, on the seventh there are twelve hundred-thousand billion billion, on the eighth there are (attributes) equal to the number of atoms in one hundred-thousand chiliocosms, on the ninth there are (attributes) equal to the number of atoms in one million chiliocosms, and on the tenth there are (attributes) equal In number to (the atoms of) indescribable (chiliocosms). These include audiences with the buddhas, in which their doctrines are heard, their Buddha-fields are roused, their light is effulgent, their fields are traversed, sentient beings are matured, the gateways to the doctrines are opened, contemplations are entered with equipoise, instantaneous time-moments are revealed for many aeons, many aeons are revealed in an instantaneous time-moment, the vision of all limits of all past and future lives is penetrated, one's own body emanates as many Buddha-bodies, and each of these is revealed to be surrounded by many retinues. All these emerge instantaneously without temporal sequence.[18]

iv. The fourth concerns their attainment of the conclusive levels: Once these ten levels have been completed, the following levels are spontaneously perfected: the eleventh level. Universal Light, whereon many rays of light are diffused and one acts on behalf of sentient beings; the twelfth level. Unattached Lotus-Endowed, on which there is no attachment owing to the appearance of pristine cognition and great spirituality; and the thirteenth level which is called Holder of Indestructible Reality, or the Great Mass of Rotating Syllables, or the Great Extraordinary level, or the Awareness-holder because the conclusive power over all things is spontaneously perfected. Now this thirteenth level, from the standpoint of the buddha-body of reality free from conceptual elaboration is called the Great Extraordinary level. Derived from that disposition, it is called the Great Mass of Rotating Syllables because it is the basis for the arisal of the buddha-body of perfect rapture; it is called the Holder of Indestructible Reality because it Itself is the Guru of all; it is called the Awareness-holder because it is the essence of conclusive pristine cognition. Thus it is known (differently) according to the standpoints of its enlightened attributes.

These levels are without a hierarchical order as in the case of the rungs of a ladder, and are indeed the essence of the single Buddha-nature, expressed (differently) from the standpoints of the three buddha-bodies. When these too are distinguished through their enlightened attributes, there are said to be many more (synonyms).

Then, there is the fourteenth level, which is known as Supreme Bliss because it has immeasurable bliss; the fifteenth level known as Contemplation, and the sixteenth level known as Guru of Pristine Cognition. in the genuine essence, these are explained to refer to a single level because there is nothing to be accomplished or clarified. They are one in the Great Perfection, the indivisible Samantabhadra.[19]

It is said in the All-Accomplishing King (T. 828):

Together they are the all-accomplishing enlightened mind, which...

This completes the exegesis of the overview.

[Interlinear Commentary (430.6-435.4):]

This has three parts, namely: the causal basis through which the status of an awareness-holder is accomplished; the provisional results accomplished thereby; and the conclusive result of one who has reached the goal.

[i. The first has two sections, among which the former concerning the actual causal basis (comments on Ch. 12.8):]

[Read next page]

Footnotes and references:

[back to top]

[1]:

Ā- and k- are respective symbolic terms for the sbyor-sgrol practices. See also below. Ch. 20, p. 1272; and NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 4, p. 167. According to Dil-mgo mKhyen-brtse Rin-po-che, the phrase "human and non-human flesh and blood" (zhing-dang zhing-phran-gyi sha-khrag) may also be rendered as "flesh and blood of those born in seven successive lives as a pure brahman [i.e., as a vegetarian], and the flesh and blood of ordinary beings." On the significance of tasting pills derived from the flesh of such seven-times born beings, see NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 6, p. 522, note.

[2]:

On the four kinds of 󲹰. see also above, pp. 810-811, 853-854. and below, pp. 1247-1248; also NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 4, pp. 144ff., 160ff.

[3]:

The attainment of this maturational body or body of pure essences (첹ⲹ) is contrasted here with that of the (rdo-rje'i sku). The former through union with a consort is said to result on its abandonment in the 峾ܻⲹ (where one's body is identified with that of one’s particular yi-dam). The latter, however, by transforming rather than abandoning the maturational body, has the attainment of the tshe-dbang-rig-'dzin and ultimately of the lhun-grub rig-'dzin on the Buddha-level. See also above, pp. 853-854.

[4]:

Tibetan bden-pa bar-ma. The "middling degree of truth" in the context of this Anuyoga text indicates the path of insight (岹śԲ), which subsumes the sixth ū and which, on the cessation of corruptions and the transitory bliss of the Dz, is said to confer great release or inspiration and the accomplishment of the divine body, coalescing bliss and emptiness. See NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 4, pp. 165b-166a.

[5]:

Cf. pp. 965-966. where, according to the ūٰṃk, there is said to be only a "proximity to enlightenment" on the first level.

[6]:

Cf. NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 3, PP. 80b-84a, where there is a discussion on the two kinds of renunciation and realisation, viz. one that is atemporally acquired and one that is dynamically acquired through the experiences of the path.

[7]:

These are "discriminative awareness produced by study" (śܳپⲹñ), "discriminative awareness produced by thought" (Գ峾ⲹñ), and "discriminative awareness produced by meditation" (屹峾ⲹñ).

[8]:

The Ѳ (tshangs-pa chen-po) is the third of the twelve ordinary form realms (so-skye'i gnas bcu-gnyis) attained through the ٳܰԲ. See the chart in NSTB, Book 1, introduction.

[9]:

This entire section is reproduced in the authors� tshangs-dbyangs 'brug-sgra. pp. 61-62.

[10]:

Cf. NSTB. Book 1. Pt. 4. pp. 161b-162a, and kLong-chen Rab-'byams-pa, tshangs-dbyangs 'brug-sgra. P. 62.

[11]:

There is a distinction drawn between the dynamic realisation of the Ihun-grub rig-'dzin which belongs to the path and the resultant realisation of the thirteenth buddha-level which is a fait accompli. See note 10 above.

[12]:

I.e. in the view of the Guhyagarbhatantra, the Ihun-grub rig-'dzin is held to be attained on the path to Buddha-hood, and the phyag-rgya rig-'dzin, while not explicitly mentioned, is Implied in the descriptions of the tshe-dbang rig-'dzin.

[13]:

On the gradual acquisition of the 岹ś. see e.g.. Sgam.po.pa, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation. pp. 148-231. Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Sanskrit Buddhist Literature. Ch. 4, and NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 3.

[14]:

On the Immediate acquisition of the 岹ś, which accords with the view of rdzogs-pa chen-po, in addition to the present account, see also below. Ch. 13. p. 1014, and NSTB, Book 2. Pt. 7, pp. 736-758. esp. the quotations from rig-pa rang-shar-kyi rgyud (NGB. Vol 10) and the 󳾲śṣaԳپ貹ṛc-ūٰ.

[15]:

Tibetan bgrod-gcig lam Indicates the eighth ū, from which regression becomes impossible.

[16]:

"two kinds of perception" ('du-shes gnyis); perception which significantly apprehends reality (don-la mtshan-mar ' dzin-pa'i ' du-shes) and perception which significantly apprehends conventional expressions (tha-snyad-la mtshan-mar 'dzin-pa).

[17]:

Tibetan sprin-bzhin gnyis: retention (zungs) and contemplation (ting-nge-'dzin) which exemplify respectively ṇy and ñԲ.

[18]:

On these attributes, see also kLong-chen Rab-'byams-pa, tshangs-dbyangs 'brug-sgra. pp. 64-65; also, on their acquisition through sampannakrama and rdzogs-pa chen-po, see below. Ch. 13, pp. 1029ff, and espcially NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 4, pp. 208-209.

[19]:

On the six higher or resultant levels, see also above, pp. 661, 672-673, and below, pp. 974-976, 1015.

Let's grow together!

I humbly request your help to keep doing what I do best: provide the world with unbiased sources, definitions and images. Your donation direclty influences the quality and quantity of knowledge, wisdom and spiritual insight the world is exposed to.

Let's make the world a better place together!

Like what you read? Help to become even better: