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...
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Text 19.10 (Commentary)
[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 19.10]
One should not dispense with the white seminal fluid.
The red seminal fluid, the excrement, urine and human flesh.
Because they form a pure container.
These ten ancillary commitments
Are experienced by the realisation
Of their primordial purity and sameness. [10][Tibetan]
dkar-rtsi dmar-rtsi dri-sha chen /
dag-pa'i snod-pas [bcud/ chu] mi-dor-ro /
yan-lag bcu-yi dam-tshig-ste /
ye-nas dag-mnyam rtogs-pas spyad / [10]
Commentary:
[Secondly there are the five commitments to be acquired (which comment on Ch. 19.10):]
One should not dispense with (mi-dor-ro) the five kinds of pure-essence, namely those of the white seminal fluid (dkar-rtsi) or "enlightened mind", the red seminal fluid (dmar-rtsi) which is the blood of the lotus (vagina), the human excrement (dri-chen), urine (dri-chu) and human flesh (sha-chen). This is because (-pas) those essences which some hold to be dirty and which the intellect, in consequence of their opinion, knows as things to be renounced, form a pure (dag-pa'i) vacuous container (snod), according to the sacraments of commitment.
There are some who Interpret this verse to say that one should not dispense with (mi-dor) them because they form a primordially pure container and its contents (dag-pa'i snod-bcud); and others that one should not dispense with the pure sacraments of commitment and the skull-cup which is their container. They appear however to have misunderstood (the verse), which is in fact 32 understood by a reading of the text itself.
These are called the ten ancillary commitments (yan-lag bcu-yi dam-tshig ste) because they assist the basic ones, or emerge as their skillful means. If they are indulgently experienced, one becomes like ordinary beings, but by the realisation of (rtogs-pas) their primordial (ye-gnas) presence as the three kinds of purity (dag) and four modes of sameness (mnyam),[1] their true natures are to be known, and they are experienced (spyad) by the retention of their respective skillful means.
[The latter or verbal definition has two aspects of which the first is the verbal definition of the basic commitments. (It comments on Ch. 19.11):]
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Footnotes and references:
[1]:
On these axioms of "purity and sameness", see above. Ch. 11, section 15.