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 8.24 (Commentary)
[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 8.24]
Including these, (the maṇḍala) is inconceivable. [24]
[Tibetan]
de-la-sogs-te bsam-mi-khyab / [24]
Commentary:
[Once this (maṇḍala) has been experienced, there is the fourth section concerning the refinement of the maṇḍala of inconceivable Buddhas (which comments on Ch. 8.24):]
When each Buddha, including these (de-la sogs-te) forms, is in turn visualised as twenty-one thousand Buddhas, the maṇḍala (of deities) which is to be refined is inconceivable (bsam-mi-khyab).
Now, the bLa-ma Rong-zom-pa comments (on this same passage) as follows: A single buddha-body of the deity (such as Vairocana), is endowed with forty-two limbs, and each of these also is endowed with three deities blessed respectively by buddha-body, speech and mind. So it is that these themselves are the emanated limbs (yan-lag spros-pa dag-ste). The forty-two (deities) become diffused in a threefold manner. Also, he explains that the twelve (surrounding pairs) and the six (sages) have a diffusion of blazing light because the deities who are the limbs are also estimated to have the same (number of Internal deities) as the central deity himself, soo that in each one-hundred-and-twenty (deities) emerge.[1]
These apparitional deities are established as the result through the previous experience of yoga, and they are also established as the path because they are the causal basis for attaining power over the lifespan during the performance of feast-offering ceremonies.[2]
[iii. The third concerns actions on behalf of living beings through the conclusive seals. It has five parts, the first of which reveals their diversity for the sake of those to be trained. (It comments on Ch. 8.25):]
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Footnotes and references:
[1]:
This is an obscure passage, even within the extant oral exegetical tradition of the Guhyagarbha. It appears to indicate, however, that in Rong-zom-pa’s view, the verse: bcu-gnyis drug-gi 'od 'phro-'bar is combined with the previous section on the threefold diffusion of the forty-two deities, rather than on the maṇḍala of 21,000 buddhas.
[2]:
On the attainment of power over the lifespan (tshe-dbang). see below. Ch. 9, PP. 810-811, Ch. 12, pp. 959-974.