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 4.12 (Commentary)
[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 4.12]
The nature of mind is the syllable.
The syllable is without substantial existence. [12] ...[Tibetan]
sems-kyi rang-bzhin yi-ge-ste /
yi-ge dngos-po yod-ma-yin / [12]
Commentary:
[vi. The sixth (see p. 566) verbally defines the appearance of mind-as-such as the syllables.]
It has three parts, namely: a teaching on the meaning of the uncreated syllable or mind-as-such; the spontaneous presence of enlightened attributes through their appearance as syllables from the disposition of that uncreated nature; and the written representations and arrays of those syllables in which appearance and emptiness are without duality.
[The first (comments on Ch. 4.12):]
The nature of mind (sems-kyi rang-bzhin), inner radiance itself, is the syllable (yi-ge-ste) spontaneously present in nature. The syllable (yi-ge) itself is without (yod-ma-yin) substantial (dngos-po) or designated existence.
Accordingly, the Litany of the Mames of Mañjuśrī (T. 360) says:
A is supreme among all seed-syllables.
Emerging from within, the uncreated
Sacred syllable of great meaning,
The supreme causal basis of all expressions,
Illuminates thoroughly all words.
Subhūti, the syllables are ultimately uncreated. They are the esesential nature of A. That which is the essential nature of A is the nature of mind. It genuinely transcends all things, substantial and non-substantial.
[The second (comments on Ch. 4.13):]
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Footnotes and references:
[1]:
N. L.