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...

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Text 1.12 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 1.12]

... the assembled host of the queen of time past, the one of time present, the one of time future, and the one of time unpredictable. [12] ...

[Tibetan]

btsun-mo 'das-pa-dang / da-ltar-dang / 'byung-ba-dang / ma-byon-pa'i tshogs-dang / [12]

Commentary:

[The section on their female consorts (who are also outer spiritual warriors of the maṇḍala):]

They are respectively: the queen of time past (btsun-mo 'das-pa-dang) who appears as Dhūpā to illustrate that she enters the vision of pristine cognition, unobstructed and unimpeded with respect to the past, the nature in which phenomena of the past actually radiate as they really are, surpassing those phenomena which were known in the past and are now non-existent. having been destroyed; the one of time present (da-ltar-dang) who appears as Puṣpā to illustrate that she enters the vision of pristine cognition, unobstructed and unimpeded with respect to the present, in which all phenomena become meaningless in terms of aeons, surpassing those which are merely the actual appearances of the sense-organs; the one of time future ('byung-ba-dang) who appears as Ālokā to illustrate that she enters the vision of pristine cognition, unobstructed and unimpeded with respect to the future because phenomena of the future are seen in the present, just like a leaf of kyurara in the palm of the hand, surpassing those objects of the future which have not become manifest; and the assembled host (tshogs-dang) including the one of time unpredictable (ma-byon-pa'i), indefinite in its moment of emergence, who appears as Gandhā to illustrate that she is present as the pristine cognition of sameness with respect to the four times, the reality in which naturally present appearances do not change from their disposition, as it really is.

As for the way in which past, present and future are known, they are clearly known in the manner of the signs of the past and future which arise along with the present when they are drawn prognostically on the surface of an (oracular) mirror.[1]

Accordingly it says in the Great Bounteousness of the Buddhas (T. 44):

Past, present and future events.
As many as there are, become manifest.

[iii. The section on the male and female consorts who are the gatekeepers (of the maṇḍala) has two parts, of which the former concerning the male consorts (comments on Ch. 1.13):]

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Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Sanskrit prasena. See NSTB, Book 2, Pt. 3. p. 155

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