Text 9.23 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 9.23]

Alternatively, It should be sixteen, and twenty
Or twenty-five cubits in dimension.
One meditates on the five maṇḍalas of enlightened families.
And the forms endowed with Buddha-body, speech and mind are also arrayed. [23]

[Tibetan]

yang-na khru-ni bcu-drug-dang /
nyi-shu'am nyi-shu-rtsa-lngar bya /
rigs-kyi dkyil-'khor lnga-rnams bsgom /
sku-gsung-thugs-ldan gzugs-kyang dgod / [23]

Commentary:

[ii. The second section concerning the Intermediate (maṇḍala comments on Ch. 9.23):]

This (maṇḍala) also has three forms: Alternatively (yang-na). the small form of the intermediate (maṇḍala) should be (bya) sixteen cubits (khru-ni bcu-drug), and (dang) the intermediate form of the intermediate (maṇḍala) twenty (nyi-shu), or ('am) the large form of the intermediate (maṇḍala) twenty-five cubits in dimension (nyi-shu rtsa-lngar). In this (maṇḍala), the lines should be pitched in the previous manner. One meditates on (bsgom) the coloured lines as the five maṇḍalas of the enlightened families (rigs-kyi dkyil-'khor lnga-rnams), and visualises the coloured lines of the five pristine cognitions which arise from their fusion. And, once the lines have been pitched and the colours have been applied, the appropriate forms (gzugs) indicative of buddha-body, speech, and mind are also (kyang) to be arrayed (dgod) in the respective locations of the deities. These include the pictures (tsa-ka-li). relief images, or mould engravings symbolic of buddha-body (sku) which mark the different locations of the deities; the seed-syllables or heartmantras symbolic of buddha-speech (gsung): and the vajra and wheel with which they are endowed (ldan) and which indicate the nature of the deities by their hand-implements, symbolic of buddha-mind (thugs).

[iii. The third section concerns the large (maṇḍala, and comments on Ch. 9.24):]

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