Text 12.5 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 12.5]

By the seal which assumes ornaments and raiment.
One will accomplish (the status of) the king
Who blazes forth, and which cannot be matched. [5]

[Tibetan]

rgyan-dang bgo-ba'i phyag-rgya-yis /
'bar-ba'i rgyal-po thub-med 'grub / [5]

Commentary:

[The third, concerning the seal of ornaments and raiment, (comments on Ch. 12.5):]

As for contemplation, this contemplation radiantly visualises that, derived from the syllable TRĀṂ, the crown and other such a ornaments become gemstones; and, derived from the syllable A, the garments are consecrated as the garments of the deities and the garb of the peaceful and wrathful deities. This is implemented by the seal (phyag-rgya-yis) which assumes the ornaments (rgyan) including gemstones and bones, and (dang) the raiment (bgo-ba'i) of upper and lower garments and so forth.

As for its beneficial attributes: Provisionally one will be clad in solid armour, which is luminous, brilliant, and cannot be destroyed even by Nārāyaṇa;^[1] and conclusively one will become a universal monarch, and a bodhisattva who blazes forth ('bar-ba'i) with major and minor marks, and then one will accomplish ('grub) (the status of) the buddha-body, the king (rgyal-po) who holds sway over them with his ten powers which cannot be matched (thub-med) by Māra or by any disputant.^[2]

The energy comprised by these ten powers accords with the description found in the Pagoda of Precious Gems (T. 45-93) which says that one athlete is much stronger than seven human beings of Jambudvīpa, and similarly, one Śākya youth is stronger than seven athletes. The antigods are superior to seven of these, and the gods, Yaksas, Nārāyaṇa, pious attendants, self-centred Buddhas, and bodhisattvas are (successively) superior to seven of their immediate predecessors in power and skills. Meanwhile, the Buddhas surpass in power all those beings who fill the expanse of space.

[The fourth, concerning the seal of food and drink, (comments on Ch. 12.6):]

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Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Nārāyaṇa (sred-med-kyi bu), a proverbially mighty being, often Identified with Viṣṇu, on whom see the definitions in F. Edgerton, Dictionary of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. The point of this passage is that even the status of a śrāvaka surpasses that of the highest gods of the kamadhātu.

[2]:

These daśatathāgatabala are enumerated above. Ch. 1, pp. 384-385.