Text 10.2 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 10.2]

Derived from the seal of skillful means
In discriminative awareness.
The stream which radiates as a mass of blissful seeds
From the pathway of the vajra, Becomes centred in the lotus.
Is absorbed from the tip (of the tongue).
And transforms the maṇḍala. [2]

[Tibetan]

shes-rab thabs-kyi phyag-rgya-las /
bde-ba'i 'bru-tshogs gsal-ba'i rgyun /
rdo-rje'i lam-nas padmar 'khyil /
rtsa-nas bstim-zhing dkyil-'khor bsgyur / [2]

Commentary:

[Empowerments of Ability (371.4-376.4):]

This has three sections:

[i. The first is a general teaching on the empowerments of profundity. (It comments on Ch. 10.2):]

These occur, as previously explained, once the maṇḍala of the deity has been visualised, the master and the students have entered, the empowerments of benificence and ability have been given, and the female consort (gzung-ma) has been consecrated. The male consort who is the seal of skillful means (thabs-kyi phyag-rgya) becomes equipoised in union with the female consort who is the seal of discriminative awareness (shes-rab), and derived from (las) that union, the “enlightened mind” (semen) of the male consort comes forth from the pathway of the ('i lam-nas) secret vajra (penis) in a stream which radiates (gsal-ba'i rgyun) as a mass of seeds ('bru-tshogs), or syllables HŪṂ, blissful (bde-ba'i) in nature. It becomes centred in the lotus (padmar 'khyil) (=vagina) of the female consort, whence it is then absorbed (bstim) internally by the student from the tip (rtse-nas) of the tongue; and (zhing) in this way it transforms (bsgyur) the emanation, absorption, consecration and subsumption of the maṇḍala (dkyil-'khor) of the central deity into the heart of the student, whereupon the secret mantras are recited.

Concerning this passage, there are some who claim that all the five empowerments of ability are conferred by means of this ritual, that their different visualisations and permissory intitiations are given, and that the secret stream (of "enlightened mind”), transformed into the seed-syllables beginning with TRĀṂ, is then absorbed into the student so that it emanates and absorbs the five maṇḍalas of the different deities. This view is defective because the order (in which empowerments are conferred) is mistaken.^[1]

[ii. The second section is an exegesis of the particular empowerments of ability.]

[It has five parts of which the first concerns the contemplation associated with the empowerment of the listener (nyan-pa'i dbang—It comments on Ch. 10.3):]

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Footnotes and references:

[1]:

As stated above, p. 835. the structural order in which empowerment is conferred requires the empowerments of beneficence (phan-pa'i dbang) to be followed by the empowerments of ability (nus-pa'i dbang), and then by the empowerments of profundity (zab-pa'i dbang).