Foreword

[Part Three contains a translation of the root-tantra, each chapter of which is accompanied by kLong-chen Rab-'byams-pa's commentary phyogs-bcu mun-cel and annotations. For each chapter the commentary Includes an overview (spyi-don) and an interlinear exegesis (gzhun-don). Annotations are supplied in Volume Two after the translation and commentary. By way of Introduction, the work is preceded by the foreword from phyogs-bcu mun-sel.]

[Foreword (2.1–7.1)]

Herein is contained a commentary on the glorious Tantra of the Secret Nucleus Definitive With Respect to the Real (Guhyagarbhatattvaviniścayatantra) entitled Dispelling All Darkness of the Ten Directions.

This work is an analysis of the kingly Magical Net, the glorious Tantra of the Secret Nucleus definitive With Respect to the Real, which actually dispels all the darkness of the ten directions through the great appearance of its sunlit and moonlit clouds.

Obeisance to all Sugatas of the ten directions and four times, along with their sons, without exception,—none excepted, omitting none at all.^[1]

All victory to Samantabhadra and his queen,
In whom phenomena and reality are non-dual.
Who attained buddha-hood in the essence
Of the buddha-body of reality, non-dual by nature.
He is the original lord, perfect In enlightened attributes,

In whom the expanse and pristine cognition are non-dual,
The Inconceivable and uncompounded one
In whom existence and quiescence are non-dual.

I bow before the spontaneously present host
Which assumes limitless peaceful and wrathful forms—
The field of the Bounteous Array which Is the most
Immeasurable apparition and inner radiance of the sugatas.
The limitless celestial palace conjured from
The nature of the five kinds of pristine cognition,
And the perfect rapture or natural expression
Of the five enlightened families.
Which emanates and is absorbed everywhere.
In the manner of oceanic clouds.

Obeisance to Vajrasattva, the Lord of Secrets,^[2]
Most marvelous spirituality of the conquerors
Who delivers the perfect buddha-speeeh,
Formost of all enlightened families and maṇḍalas
Who acts on behalf of living beings through diverse emanations.
The perfect buddha, preceding all,
Who obtained the treasury of the supreme Secret Nucleus^[3] —
For he Is without conjunction or disjunction.

To clarify the suddenly arisen conflicting emotions
Of those who require training.
The Teacher causes a cascade of doctrine.
By virtue of its nature which liberates
In a gradual or non-gradual manner

In accordance with varying degrees of acumen.
The path of the supreme Secret Nucleus is highest of all.
It is the mighty teaching of the buddha-body of perfect rapture.
Which itself steers the great eharlot (of the doctrine)
Along tracks followed by countless conquerors
Of ancient and recent time.
It appeared among the glorious of living creatures in the
Human world, and came to this Land of Snow Mountains,
Where its meaning, excellently translated and established
By genuine translators and scholars of the past.
Was analysed by many learned masters.
Firmly grasping that unsetting victory banner,
They caused the doctrinal tree of life to flourish.
And its thousand leaves of hundred-fold superior faith to stir.

Even though the sunlit meaning of this profound extensive a
Tantra is not within the perceptual range of my Intellect,^[4]
The variegated forms of its words and meaning do appear
By opening the eyes with the surgical needle^[5]
Of the eloquence of genuine masters.
Relying on their literary transmissions, logical reasoning.
And esoteric Instructions which perceive its entire meaning,
I must clarify the nucleus of definitive meaning in this work,
For the sake of those fortunate students who inspired it.

In this respect, the genuinely perfect Buddha, glorious Samantabhadra who is learned In skillful means and a master of great spirituality, without moving from the great palace of reality's expanse, manifested in and of himself through the blessing of his natural spirituality, and assumed the form of the Buddhas of the Five Enlightened Families as an ornament of the spontaneous Bounteous Array of buddha-body, speech and mind. Holding sway through his great might which is not extraneous to the natural maṇḍala where the indestructible minds of all Buddhas of the ten directions and four times are without duality, he taught the vehicle of indestructible reality (vajrayāna), the secret mantras excellently endowed with profound and extensive doctrines,^[6] to Vajrasattva and other such resultant spiritual warriors.

Through three modes of appearance (these teachings) naturally liberate the world-system of living beings who require training; for the inner secret mantras do appear in three modes—the creation phase or Mahāyoga, the literary transmissions or Anuyoga, and the Great Perfection or Atiyoga—which are respectively outer. Inner and secret. The secret mode among these also has three aspects, which respectively: reveal the maṇḍala which manifests in and of itself as mind and pristine cognition, without duality of creation and perfection stages; reveal mind-as-such, without reference to creation and perfection stages, to be the nature of primordial Buddha-hood; and reveal pristine cognition in its self-manifesting essence to be the nature of Buddhahood. Among these aspects, it is the maṇḍala which manifests in and of itself as mind and pristine cognition, without duality of creation and perfection stages, that is revealed here as the actual awakening of the Magical Net.^[7]

This (cycle of the Magical Net) also comprises four sections, namely, the Magical Net of Vajrasattva which reveals all things of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa to be self-manifesting and indivisible; the Magical Net of Vairocana (T. 466, NGB. Vol. 19) which extensively reveals the ritual activity and feast-offerings; the Magical Net of the Goddess (T. 836, NGB. Vol. 15) which actually reveals the display of reality; and the Magical Net of Mañjuśrī (T. 360, NGB. Vol. 15) which all-pervasively reveals the vehicle.

The Magical Net of Vajrasattva itself comprises eight sections, namely, the glorious Secret Nucleus (T. 832, NGB. Vol. 14) which reveals mind and pristine cognition to be manifest in and of themselves; the Forty-Chapter Magical Net (NGB. Vol. 14) which perfectly reveals enlightened activity; the Eight-Chapter Magical Net (NGB. Vol. 14) which perfectly reveals the maṇḍala; the Superior Magical Net (T. 837, NGB. Vol. 14) which clearly reveals the empowerments; the Supplementray Magical Net (NGB. Vol. 14) which reveals the commitments as supreme; the Eighty-Chapter Magical Net (T. 834, NGB. Vol 14) which extensively reveals enlightened attributes; the Mirror of Indestructible Reality (T. 833, NGB. Vol. 15) which clearly reveals the deitys’ body-colours and symbolic hand-implements; the Oceanic Magical Net (NGB. Vol. 15) which clearly reveals the creation stage; and the Penetrating Magical Net (NGB. Vol. 15) which clearly reveals the path of skillful means.

Of these, the present exegesis concerns the great kindly and glorious Tantra of The Secret Nucleus Definitive With Respect to the Real (T. 832)—the furthest summit of all vehicles, the source of all literary transmissions, the great short-cut of the vehicle of all buddhas of the three times, and the most secret of all. It has three parts, namely, an exegesis of the meaning of the title, which is an aspect of its expressed realisation; the exegesis of the actual meaning of the tantra which clearly reveals the expressed meaning (of its twenty-two chapters); and the exegesis of the meaning contained in its perfect conclusion.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Tibetan ma-lus mi-lus lug-pa med-pa. As explained below, p. 353, these synonymous terms respectively indicate the three buddha-bodies, i.e.. those of reality (dharmakāya), perfect rapture (saṃbhogakāya) and emanation (nirmāṇakāya). Identified respectively as Samantabhadra, the five enlightened families of conquerors (rgyal-ba rigs-lnga), and Vajrasattva, these are the subject of the first three stanzas of the invocatory verses which follow.

[2]:

On Guhyapati (gsang-bdag), the “Lord of Secrets”, who is a form of Vajrapāṇi, see NSTB, Book 2, Pt. 2, p. 80. Vajrasattva here is a generic term meaning "spiritual warrior of indestructible reality" and does not refer to Akṣobhya.

[3]:

I.e., the Guhyagarbhatattvaviniścayamahātantra.

[4]:

I.e., the intellect of the author, kLong-chen Rab-'byams-pa.

[5]:

Tibetan mig-thur dbye-bas.

[6]:

The doctrines concerning the abiding nature of reality (gnas-lugs) are held to be either vast (rgyas) because they contain manifold skillful means, or profound (zab) because they essentially represent discriminative awareness and emptiness. See also NSTB. Book 1, Pt. 4, pp. 132ff.

[7]:

Of the three aspects of the secret mode enumerated here, the first corresponds to the tantra-texts of this cycle, which Integrate creation and perfection stages with the Great Perfection, the second corresponds to texts of the Mental Class (sems-sde) and Spatial Class (klong-sde) of the Great Perfection, and the third corresponds to the Esoteric Instructional Class (man-ngag-gi sde). See below, p. 997. On the distinctions between these classes, see NSTB, Book. 1, Pt. 4, pp. 190a-211b; and for their lineages, ibid.. Book 2, Pt. 2, pp. 120-143. The term sgyu-'phrul drya-ba (māyājāla) is explained in two parts—the first (“magical emanation”) Indicating that psychophysical components inherently abide as the male deities, Vairocana etc., and the second (“net”) indicating that the elements inherently abide as the female deities, Dhātvīśvarī and so forth. See below. Ch. 4, p. 582, Ch. 11, pp. 889-890.