Text 9.29 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 9.29]

This wondrous, marvellous, amazing reality
Does not extraneously exist and come forth.
But it emerges in those dispositions
Which have the nature of discriminative awareness.
Steadfast in skillful means.
The real nature of the expanse of discriminative awareness
Becomes the seals of skillful means.
Thus pristine cognition is displayed in pristine cognition
And the display of pristine cognition is itself gathered. [29]

[Tibetan]

ngo-mtshar cho-'phrul rmad-kyi chos /
gzhan-nas yod-'ongs ma-yin-te /
thabs-la brten-pa'i shes-rab-nyid /
de-lta-bu-yi ngang-du byung /
shes-rab dbyings-kyi de-bzhin-nyid /
thabs-kyi phyag-rgyar gyur-pa'i phyir /
ye-shes la-ni ye-shes rol /
ye-shes rol-pa-nyid-kyang gsog / [29]

Commentary:

[ii. The second concerns the genuine meaning (of the appropriate array of accomplishments which emerges from the mind. It comments on Ch. 9.29):]

So this (ultimate) maṇḍala of buddha-body, speech, mind, attributes and activities, which is the wondrous marvelous (ngo-mtshar cho-'phrul) astonishing and amazing reality (rmad-kyi chos), and provisional accomplishments such as the four rites are obtained in the abiding nature of genuine mind-as-such. However one does not arrive at (this result) by transcending (one's present level). It does not extraneously exist (gzhan-na yod) in space, and it does not come forth ('ongs ma-yin-te) having been summoned into one's presence. But rather, it naturally emerges (byung) and appears as a spontaneous maṇḍala of Buddha-body and pristine cognition in (-du) the dispositions (ngang) of those (de-lta-bu-yi) who master the creation and perfection stages. Such beings have become thoroughly steadfast in (la-brtan-pa'i) the mental cultivation of great compassion in the creation stage of skillful means (thabs), beginning with the visualisation of the outer containing world as the celestial palace, its inner contents as the male & female deities, and oneself as the body of the conqueror; and they have thence become purified in the nature (nyid) of non-dual coalescence through the cultivation of the perfection stage of discriminative awareness (shes-rab), free from all extremes of conceptual elaboration.

The real nature of the expanse of (dbyings-kyi de-bzhin-nyid) reality or discriminative awareness (shes-rab), a nature free from conceptual elaboration, is the disposition of the buddha-body of reality. It becomes (gyur-pa'i) transformed into the seals of skillful means (thabs-kyi phyag-rgya), a display of spontaneous pristine cognition which is arrayed as the selfmanifesting maṇḍala of the body of form within the spontaneous Bounteous Array. Thus (phyir), the pristine cognition (ye-shes) of the buddha-body of form is displayed (rol) in (la-ni) the pristine cognition (ye-shes) of the Buddha-body of reality; and it is from this disposition that the display of the pristine cognition (ye-shes rol-pa) of the emanational body is itself (nyid-kyang) said to be gathered (gsog), in the manner of the moon's reflection in water, without straying from its (source) and corresponding to the perception of those to be trained in the world.

It says accordingly in the Intermediate Mother (T. 9):

The all-knowing one is like a dream, an illusory display, the moon’s reflection in water, and an optical Illusion. The pristine cognition of the all-knowing one too is like a dream, an illusory display, the moon’s reflection in water, and an optical illusion.

Some interpret this verse to mean that the buddha and his pristine cognition are both “gathered”, i.e., gradually acquired, but their view is unconnected with the real nature of the Buddha-body of perfect rapture.^[2]

[iii. The third section (of the appropriate array of accomplishments which emerges from the mind) concerns the benefit for the sake of others which thereby emerges. (It comments on Ch. 9.30):]

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Footnotes and references:

[1]:

On Jyotiṣka, see Divyāvadāna. pp. 271-282; and on Uttarakuru, ibid., pp. 215-216.

[2]:

kLong-chen-pa emphasises that the gradualist view of an accumulated jñānasambhāra, as upheld in the causal vehicles, is not intended here. Cf. Lo-chen Dharmaśrī, gsang-bdag dgongs-rgyan, pp. 277-278, who expresses a similar interpretation of this verse.

[3]:

Although discrete objects are said to resemble dreams, a distinction is still drawn between their efficacy within the perception of saṃsāra and their ultimate or purified status. This is illustrated in the life of Zur-chung-pa Shes-rab Grags (NSTB, Book 2, Pt. 5, PP. 339-359) by the following incident: Zur-chung-pa when asked by one, gLan-ston Śāk-ya bZang-po, if, in the Guhyagarbha / Māyājāla tradition, all appearances are regarded as male & female deities, replied: "Who would refute the validity of direct perception, to which discrete, inanimate objects appear?" And when asked if he did not maintain these appearances to be deities, he replied: "Who can contradict the intention of the Sūtras and Tantras concerning the purification of the discrete, impure, delusory appearances perceived by sentient beings?"