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 19.20 (Commentary)
[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 19.20]
These commitments are most amazing.
In the ten directions of the six world-systems
Commitments are emanated which equal the number
Of the living beings in the three spheres of existence.
In order to train their thoughts. [20][Tibetan]
dam-tshig 'di-ni rmad-po-che /
'jig-rten drug-gi phyogs-bcu-na /
srid-gsum 'gro-ba ji-snyed-pa /
rtog-'dul dam-tshig de-snyed spro / [20]
Commentary:
[The second, the inconceivable classification, has two aspects of which the former reveals that commitments are inconceivable because apparent reality is inconceivable. (It comments on Ch. 19.20):][1]
These ('di-ni) basic and ancillary commitments (dam-tshig) are wondrous and most amazing (rmad-po-che) because they instruct the world-systems of living beings in the great pristine cognition. It is taught that, just as sentient beings are infinite, the three hundred and sixty subdivisions of the commitments which relate to each of these beings become as many as the number of beings, so that they too are infinite. in the ten directions of the six world-systems ('jig-rten drug-gi phyogs-bcu-na) basic and ancillary commitments (dam-tshig) are emanated (spro) which equal (de-snyed) the number of living beings ('gro-ba ji-snyed-pa) subsumed in the three spheres of existence (srid-gsum 'gro-ba) in order to train ('dul) their thoughts (rtog), which are as many in number. Thus they are inconceivable as the expanse of space or the expanse of reality.
There are some who explain that there are dissimilar kinds of commitments, equal in number to the multifarious thoughts of sentient beings, but that is not intended here. It is contradicted because one aspires to these commitments immediately after, and in consequence of, the explanation of the basic and ancillary commitments.[2]
[The second reveals that the commitments are inconceivable because reality is inconceivable. (It comments on Ch. 19.21):]
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Footnotes and references:
[1]:
This section is known as the appendix of commitments in four ±èÄå»å²¹²õ.
[2]:
As emphasised by Rong-zom-pa (above, p. 1212), the enumeration of three hundred and sixty is not one of distinct or dissimilar commitments, but rather one comprising the attributes of the ten ancillary commitments.