Chapter 19 - Commitments

Then the Transcendent Lord, the Great Joyous One, uttered this meaningful expression concerning the great commitments in order that mantra-adepts might succeed. [1]

When the unsurpassed vehicle is well ascertained,
All conflicting emotions and deeds are experienced,
Yet they are engaged, without being accumulated.
And they become the provisions.
This is the excellence of moral discipline and vows. [2]

In the unsurpassed supreme commitments
Moral discipline through training.
And all the unthinkable vows that there are.
Without exception are all gathered and purified. [3]

There is no reference to existence, non-existence, or the middle way.
Life is not existent, in a manner which resembles
An apparition and an optical illusion.
So there is in fact no taking of life.
Life and living creatures are merely misunderstandings, [4]

Because the two truths are indivisible.
There is no difference, as in Nirmāṇarata.
Because there is nothing extraneous that is not given.
There is no taking.
All things are the expanse of the real. [5]
Phenomena are like an apparition.
And they are lies to which names and words are applied.
They are themselves a lie, and when experienced as a lie.
There is nothing to be called a lie,
Even so much as a name. [6]

There is attachment to that which is without attachment.
But in this attachment, there is no attachment.
This is the supreme king of attachment.
It is the supremely great attachment. [7]

One should not abandon the unsurpassed.
One should venerate the Guru.
One should not interrupt the flow of mantras and seals.
One should have loving kindness
For those who enter the genuine path,
And one should not divulge the secret truths outside.
These are the five basic ones—
The supreme commitments to be attained and guarded. [8]

One should not renounce delusion, desire.
Hatred, pride and envy. [9]

One should not dispense with the white seminal fluid.
The red seminal fluid, the excrement, urine and human flesh.
Because they form a pure container.
These ten ancillary commitments
Are experienced by the realisation
Of their primordial purity and sameness. [10]

The five commitments to be attained and guarded
Are the basic ones through (degeneration of) which
One is deprived of the enlightened family. [11]

The two (groups)—the five which are not to be renounced,
And five not to be dispensed with
Are the ancillary commitments, hard to transgress. [12]

If one maintains the commitment of sameness
Which unites in sameness,
One will obtain the Great Perfection of sameness.
But if one transgresses it, one will not obtain Buddha-hood. [13]
Do not speak even for an Instant or a moment
To those apathetic persons
Whose basic commitments have degenerated.
And who do not try to restore them.
The defects of those who have degenerated are indescribable. [14]

If one's basic commitments have degenerated.
All that one would attain is reversed.
And one acquires against one's will
Diversified and unpleasant results. [15]

If one's ancillary commitments have degenerated,
There is no result, and one falls into evil destinies. [16]

Commitments are the supreme indestructible realities.
They are the identity of all the Buddhas. [17]

Among the five basic commitments
Each has two and then thirty subdivisions. [18]

Among the two groups of five ancillary commitments
Each also has twenty subdivisions. [19]

These commitments are most amazing.
In the ten directions of the six world-systems
Commitments are emanated which equal the number
Of the living beings in the three spheres of existence.
In order to train their thoughts. [20]

Moreover the seal of Samantabhadra the supreme conqueror
In which all things are present without exception
Is accomplished in all that is genuine, without attainment.
Such (commitments) are infinitely supreme. [21]

One who holds the supreme awareness of the conquerors
Is venerated by mundane lords and their retinues. [22]

One is intentionally consecrated as a son or brother
By the genuinely supreme ones and the genuine ones. [23]

Those who enter the range of the Sugatas themselves
Unite with fearless Samantabhadra. [24]

The reality Just as it is.
The skillful means which grant instruction.
And all the unthinkable vows that there are
Are without exception pure and spontaneously present. [25]

If there is degeneration,
It is perfected through rites of fulfilment.
Such (benefits) are infinitely supreme. [26]

At these words, the Tathāgatas themselves bowed to the Tathāgata himself. [27]

This completes the nineteenth chapter from the Secret Nucleus Definitive with respect to the Real, entitled Commitments. [28]