Text 3.2 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 3.2]

... Having come forth, each of these great sages or transcendent lords also acts on behalf of the five classes of living beings through four kinds of instruction in each great trichiliocosm of the infinite and limitless ten directions of the six worlds where, by the power of deeds, (beings) move, facing laterally, upwards or downwards. [2] ...

[Tibetan]

'thon-nas-kyang las-kyi dbang-gis snrel-zhi-dang yan-man-gyi 'jig-rten drug-gi phyogs-bcu mtha'-yas mu-med-pa'i stong-gsum-gyi stong-chen-po re-rer / thub-pa chen-po bcom-ldan-'das re-res 'dul-ba rnam-pa bzhis 'gro-ba lnga'i don mdzad-de / [2]

Commentary:

[The first comprises both an abbreviated teaching and a detailed exegesis—the former (commenting on Ch. 3.2):]

The six sages having come forth ('thon-nas) in this way, their world-systems also appear differently by the power of (kyi dbang-gis) the respective deeds (las) accumulated by living beings. Briefly, there are worlds ('jig-rten) which are round, square, crescent-shaped and triangular, along with the hollowed nadir and the uncovered zenith, where living beings move laterally (snrel-gzhi), indicating that their heads are lopsided, and upwards or downwards (yan-man-gyi), indicating that their heads face up or down. in each (re-rer) world-system of the great trichiliocosm (stong-gsum-gyi chen-po), naturally pervading all of the ten directions of these six (drug-gi phyogs-bcu) dissimilar container-worlds, infinite (mtha'-yas) in number and parts and limitless (mu-med-pa'i) in their forms of happiness, sorrow, rapture and so forth, each great sage or transcendent lord (thub-pa chen-po bcom-ldan-'das re-res), granting his own particular instructions. also (kyang) acts on behalf of the five classes of living beings through his own four kinds of instruction ('dul-ba rnam-pa bzhis 'gro-ba'i don mdzas-de).

Now these (four kinds of instruction) are namely, instruction by merit, instruction by the direct perception of all meanings, instruction by great miraculous abilities, and instruction by knowledge.

It also says in the Great Bounteousness of the Buddhas (T. 44):

The distinctions of deeds are inconceivable.
The world of the hells slopes downwards.
The world of Yama is lateral.
Animals, gods and humans move upwards.

However, the animals are also (sometimes) considered to be included in the category of the lateral.

So it is that in the world-system of a single trichlliocosm, the container-world and its sentient contents who are subsumed in the five classes (of living beings) and endowed with three kinds (of motion)—lateral, upwards and downwards—are the field of instruction for the emanational body. On this point, there are some who hold that the six worlds comprise those of the four directions which are lateral, along with a nadir which is downward facing and a zenith which faces upwards, but they do not even partially perceive the central meaning.

The latter (the detailed exegesis of the four kinds of instruction) has four sections, namely. Instruction by the great merit of buddha-body and its excellent deeds, instruction by direct perception or the great supernormal cognitive power of buddha-mind, instruction by great inconceivable miraculous abilities, and instruction by knowledge conveyed in the five vehicles of buddha-speech.

[The first (comments on Ch. 3.3):]

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