Text 6.13 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 6.13]

This teacher is a magical display or optical illusion,
A mode which essentially does not stray from the expanse.
But when diversified without straying,
He manifests in dissimilar, diverse (Buddha-bodies),
Corresponding to the different (classes of beings).
Although he is uncontrived by the real,
He appears distinctly through the residue of deeds,
As, for example, (images) on a mirror.
And the moon (reflected) in water. [13] ...

[Tibetan]

ston-nyid sgyu-ma mig-yor tshul /
tshul-nyid dbyings-las gYos-pa-med /
ma-gYos bzhin-du sna-tshogs-pa'i /
de-tshe mi-mthun sna-tshogs-la /
so-so 'dra-bar snang-ba-ni /
de-bzhin-nyid-las ma-bcos-kyang /
las-'phro'i dbang-gis so-sor snang /
dper-na me-long chu-zla-bzhin / [13]

Commentary:

For the sake of those to be trained, this teacher (ston-nyid) of diverse emanations relatively is a magical display or optical illusion (sgyu-ma mig-yor tshul), which in the manner of a shadow is not concretely recognised from the moment it appears. Ultimately however, he has an uncreated and primordially pure disposition or mode (tshul) which does not stray from the expanse (dbyings-las gYos-pa med) of reality because it is essentially (nyid) without conceptual elaborations. But when (de-tshe), without straying (ma-gYos bzhin-du) the diversified (sna-tshogs-pa'i) forms of the emanational body appear differently in the perception of living beings, he manifests (snang-ba-ni) in diverse (sna-tshogs-la) buddha-bodies of dissimilar (mi-mthun) form, including kings and brahmans, and including peaceful and wrathful deities, corresponding to ('dra-bar) the different (so-so) classes of beings to be trained. Although he does not stray from (-las ma-gYos kyang) the expanse of the real (de-bzhin-nyid), the buddha-body of reality, he appears distinctly (so-sor snang) through the (dbang-gis) respective fortunes of living beings and their residue of ('phro'i) past deeds (las)—to terrestrial beings he appears as emanations of natural expression, to some living beings as emanations which train living beings, to some as impure emanations, to some as the diversified emanational body, and so forth. It is as (bzhin), for example (dper-na), when the image of one's complexion appears on the surface of a mirror (me-long) although the complexion itself does not change, and when in a pool of water the moon of the sky appears as the moon reflected in water (chu-zla) although the moon itself does not change.

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

Just as the moon, without changing from the expanse.
Appears in a pool of water.
Without wavering from the real
There are inconceivable billions of emanations.
To some the Buddhas are slightly revealed.
To some they are manifoldly and extensively (revealed).
And to some the fields are revealed as emptiness.

[The latter (the appearance of enlightened activity for the sake of those to be trained) has four parts (which comment on Ch. 6.14-17):]

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