Commentary 3.2: The Recognition of Rudra

[As for the recognition of the significance of this chapter: It has three sections, namely, the recognition of the maṇḍala, the recognition of Rudra, and the recognition of (appropriate) times and teachers.]

The second, concerning the recognition of Rudra, has two aspects. Among them the former sets forth the following argument:

Rudra who has been described here, must either be an ordinary being or an emanation. in the former case, since he is said to be a great tormented spirit or ogre, that would be inconsistent with him holding sway over the form-realm because such (ordinary spirits and ogres) belong to the desire-realm, and have not obtained contemplation in the meditative concentrations.^[1] It would also be inconsistent for him to perceive the visage of the Great Glorious One and become an actual disciple because the Great Glorious One and he would not experience the same perceptual range. in the latter case, it would be inappropriate for him (as an emanation) to experience the sufferings of the three evil existences.

The second aspect is the response to that argument, which has two parts: Among them, the response to the first proposition is that, although Rudra does belong to the realm of desire, there is no contradiction in him holding sway over the form realm; for one who obtains the sublime levels in a form belonging to the desire realm does hold sway over the form realms, and he in fact did so because the force of his past deeds was inconceivable. Nor is it found that one who is described as a great tormented spirit of the desire realm cannot obtain the contemplations. It is not contradictory even for one whose supporting form belongs to the desire realm to obtain the contemplations of form, just as it is said that an ordinary person of the desire realm might obtain the mind of formless concentration, and dust as there are sublime beings within the desire realm.^[2] The expression "great tormented spirit or ogre" in fact indicates that he is great in contemplation and miraculous ability.

Again, it is most implicit that Rudra must have experienced a perceptual range equal in fortune to that of the Great Glorious One, in order to perceive the visage of the Great Glorious One. Indeed, the defect (in the first argument) cannot be rejected because it is also implicit that sentient beings who perceive the six sages experience the same perceptual range as the sages, and that when one perceives gods, humans, animals, material objects and so forth one does experience the same perceptual range as they do.

Therefore, the Rudra who is depicted here along with his retinue appears to be an ordinary being, but is indeed extraordinary. Just as sublime beings emanate in the worlds of the denizens of hell and tormented spirits in order to protect sentient beings, the self-manifesting teacher appears as the display of most rapturous wrathful deities arrayed in Akaniṣṭha through the contrivance of his spirituality and his miraculous ability to actualise the wrathful deities who primordially abide.

However, it is most implicit that he too has an ordinary form because he appears in the ordinary forms of tormented spirits and so forth. The sages who train living beings also appear to emanate in ordinary forms which experience birth, old age, death, sickness, distemper and so forth, and in fact they do become ordinary (in form). Even the lion and other (animals) who support the thrones in Akaniṣṭha appear in ordinary realms. in the desire realm, it is clearly explained that their display of five attributes itself is a display of the conquerors, inasmuch as they are self-manifesting symbols, representing power and so forth.^[3]

The response to the second proposition is that Rudra does not experience sufferings in evil existences as one endowed with independent characteristics. This is because Rudra is himself an emanational array of self-manifesting pristine cognition. The description of the omniscient (Heruka) perceiving him by virtue of his past service does not indicate that this apparitional Rudra actually had (the experience of suffering); but it does indicate that (suffering) is generated through such causes for those of posterity who do emerge in the world with independent characteristics of the Rudra-type.^[4]

This is reminiscent of a common Sūtra which reveals that when the dwarf Angullmāla had formed a garland of the fingers of nine hundred and ninety-nine men whom he had slain, he was tamed by the Buddha and then shown to have (ultimately) no defect. However it was in fact an emanation of the Tathāgatas who slew phantom human beings of his own emanation so that the garland was strung. Intending that the supreme antidotes would be untainted by defects for the sake of posterity.^[5]

This is also Illustrated by those emanational pious attendants who have transcended the limits of their training. Having previously transcended such (limits), they subsequently display the miracle whereby they are perceived by a retinue of creatures in the evil existences, and in this way they train (those creatures) as monks. On such occasions also, the emanations do not experience suffering either through having accumulated deeds (appropriate to suffering) or through the continuum of past and future (events).^[6]

However the present case is even more sublime than these. An emanational Rudra and his maṇḍala are not revealed after being (mundanely) revealed in the perception of others. Rather, when the maṇḍala of the wrathful deities is naturally actualised, the contemplation of this display of pristine cognition becomes manifest in and of itself as a miracle of magical pristine cognition; and it is on this basis that the emanations occur, appearing in the world of those to be trained. If the emanational basis were not so, it would be improper for such emanational forms to emerge at all. These are consistent, just as the moon in the sky and the reflection of the moon in a pool of water are not different in their shape. There would occur the defect of uncertainty if, for example, despite the presence of the moon in the sky there were other forms such as a tree which appeared in the pool.

Again, in the opinion of some, the oceanic emanations of the Buddhas which appear, do appear different to the display of Buddha-body and pristine cognition because there is a distinction between (the former which appear) through the power of trainees, and (the latter) which abide in the ground. Yet, in the genuine essence saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are without duality. in accordance with axioms such as the single basis,^[7] the spontaneously present pristine cognition arises as this or that (emanation) from the disposition of the ground, which is the basis for their arising.

Nonetheless, you may ask, does this not mean that Impurity would also be present in the arising ground, or else that (the ground) would appear (impure) to trainees? How can you say that there is impurity? When (an emanation) is actively perceived among the six classes of living beings, its arising ground or display of spirituality is explained to be a naturally pure display which appears in the oceanic perceptual range of the six classes of living beings. This is because it is through the natural expression of the six centres within the energy channels (of the body) that the appearances of the world of the six classes of living beings exist.^[8] It says in the Indestructible Reality (NGB. Vol. 15):

The appearance of the six world-systems.
Through the natural expression of the six centres.
Is a primordial appearance, spontaneously present.
But it appears in its (mundane) way
Through the action of vital energy and mind.

Now, although in the circumstances of saṃsāra happiness, suffering and so forth are experienced as such through ignorance, when the nature of saṃsāra has been conclusively realised to resemble a reflected image, the basis for the arising of those (experiences, i.e. the six centres) also gives rise to the display of the six sages in the world-systems of the different six classes of living beings.^[9] Since it is this basis for the arising of the six classes of living beings that indeed appears, no saṃsāra is produced in which the six classes of living beings have independent characteristics; just as when diverse miracles are displayed, they are without (independent characteristics) to those spiritual warriors whose deeds are pure, and just as a mirror reflects all things and yet is essentially untainted.^[10]

So it is that the Great Bounteousness of the Buddhas (T. 44) says:

The oceanic natures of the fields
Appear as the diverse perceptual range of mind.
Just as in a clear ocean
Oceanic reflected images appear.
In the oceanic natures of earth, water.
Fire, air, space and mind.
There are fields which equal the number of oceanic atoms.
There are no arrays which do not abide therein:
Some are naturally pure.
Some have diverse perceptual ranges.
And all the realms of living beings clearly appear.
Even in a single pore of hair
There are oceans of Buddha-fields,
And their diversity is indescribable.

Therefore, the reality of the buddhas has an inconceivable perceptual range. How can it be appraised by those of grasping intellect?

Moreover, saṃsāra is not brought about by the appearance of the six classes of living beings who resemble either the six sages or apparitional and illusory creatures. The different kinds of suffering will indeed be reversed if the causal basis or egotism which gives rise to the suffering of saṃsāra is reversed. However in this circumstance the nature of the teachers who appropriately appear in saṃsāra through the spirituality of the arising basis, i.e. the petals of the six energy centres, does not become non-existant like (an image) on the surface of a mirror. Otherwise, the (Impure) perception of the six classes of beings could be suddenly fabricated by anyone,^[11] and all the attributes of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa contained within the great Buddha-body of perfect rapture would be Incomplete, and the display of Buddha-body and spirituality which appears in impure saṃsāra would be interrupted. This is why the Yogins of the Mind-Only School also profess that three essential natures are present from beginningless time in the ground-of-all, namely. those which appear as objects, concepts, and corporeal forms.^[12]

It is held that although impurities are transformed Into a pure nature through refinement, the genuine ground-of-all is spontaneously present as the Buddha-body of reality, without changing throughout the three times—past, future, and present. In this way, the display of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa or basis for arising does not become non-existant.

When this response is condensed: Rudra attained Buddha-hood as Samantabhadra in primordial original time, and then, in order to subdue the Māra who appeared within his self-manifesting energy centres, he became manifest in and of himself. He is indeed without independent characteristics because he manifests in and of himself. Nor is he an emanation, because emanations refer to the extraneous perception of those to be trained, and because, being self-manifest, he does not differentiate between those to be trained and the training itself. Therefore, he appears primordially at the beginning, manifest in and of himself. This (ultimate view of emanation) is dissimilar to (the views of) the Sūtras, among which there are the following distinctions or dissimilar purposes which ostensibly appear: differences in time, differences in the mind which is trained and that which trains, and differences with respect to the single essence.^[13]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

On the interrelationship of the eaturdhyāna and the twelve lower realms of rūoadhātu. see the chart in NSTB, Book 1, introduction.

[2]:

It is senerally considered that human beings, by definition within kāmadhātu, can attain the caturdhyāna of the form realms (Mahāvyutpatti 1447-1481) and the catuḥsamāpatti of the formless realms (Mahāvyutpatti 1492-1495).

[3]:

On the five thrones anf their respective attributes, see above. Ch. 1, pp. 383-389.

[4]:

By emphasisins the emanational character of Rudra, kLons-chen-pa indicates the allegorical and didactic nature of the Rudra legend. The phrase "by virtue of his past service... " (jl£ sneon bsten-pa'i stobs-kyis...), on which see also pp. 1094, 1108, refers to the past connection between Rudra and Vajrapāni, i.e. between Thar-pa and Thub-dka' gzhon-nu.

[5]:

See the Aṅgulimālīyasūtra, T. 213. The "supreme antidotes" (gnyen-po mchog-rnams) refer to the wrathful means of discipline assumed by the wrathful deities.

[6]:

e.g., the sojourn of Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana in the hells. See NSTB, Book 2, Pt. 1, pp. 38-39.

[7]:

On the axioms of Mahāyoga. including the "single basis" (rgyu gcig-pa), see above. Ch. 11, pp. 890ff.

[8]:

On the pure and impure expressions of the seed-syllables within the six centres of the body, which are said to give rise to Buddha-hood or to the six realms of saṃsāra. see above. Ch. 4, pp. 552-553.

[9]:

On these appearances of the six sages and their colour symbolism, see also above. Ch. 6, p. 655, note 30.

[10]:

The pure emanational character of fields, which to obscure vision appear as saṃsāra, is indicated in the following verses from the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra. Cf. NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 2, pp. ft6bff. especially the quotation from sgyu-'phrul rgyas-pa, p. 50a.

[11]:

I.e. impure perception would recur if the basis for its purification were a transient phenomenon.

[12]:

in the Cittamātra view, the ālaya is said to give rise to three propensities (bag-chags gsum); those of objects (yul) which appear as the container world-systems, those of concepts (don) which appear as the eight aggregates of consciousness, and those of corporeal forms (lus) which appear as the physical forms of the different classes of living beings. For a rNying-ma discussion of this structure, see kLong-chen Rab-'byams-pa, yid-bzhin mdzod, pp. 10ff. The distinction between this Cittamātra view and that upheld by the Great Madhyamaka (dbu-ma chen-po) is that the former identify the ālaya with mind (citta) while the latter identify it with pristine cognition (jñāna). Cf. NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 3, pp. 84a-92a.

[13]:

On these differences in the time, trainees, trainings, and essence of the nirmāṇakāya, as expressed in the Sūtras and the Tantras, see below, pp. 1093-1095. and NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 2, p. 63a-66b.