Text 19.11 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 19.11]

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

[Tibetan]

bsrung-zhing sgrub-pa'i dam-tshig lnga /
rtsa-ba yin-te rigs-med 'gyur / [11]

Commentary:

[The latter or verbal definition has two aspects of which the first is the verbal definition of the basic commitments. (It comments on Ch. 19.11):]

The five commitments to be guarded and attained (bsrung-zhing sgrub-pa'i dam-tshig lnga) are the basic ones (rtsa-ba yin-te) among the commitments through which the secret mantras are to be attained. When they are guarded in the manner of the roots of a tree, accomplishments emerge, but on their degeneration, one is deprived of (med-'gyur) the enlightened family (rigs) of the greater vehicle, or the fortune associated with manifest awakening.

Now according to these words, one is not deprived perpetually of the enlightened family or good fortune, but one's (unfortunate) circumstances are merely prolonged. This is because (the enlightened family) gives birth to the seed of liberation, and because it is impossible to belong to a cut-off family.^[1]

As for the term "enlightened family", the vehicle of dialectics holds it to be the virtuous seed of the beginningless expanse of reality.^[2]

It says in the Sūtra Which Reveals the Nucleus:

The expanse of beginningless time
Is the abode of all phenomena.
If this is present, all living beings
Will obtain nirvāṇa.

This enlightened family is present in two modes—as reality and as apparent reality,^[3] on which the Supreme Continuum of the Greater Vehicle (T. 4024, Ch. 1, v. 149) says:

One should know this enlightened family to be twofold:
One similar to treasure and the other to a fruit tree.
The (first) is that which naturally abides without beginning,
And (the second) is supreme through having been genuinely acquiree

The former refers to the mind-as-such, the genuine ground-of-all, which is primordially and naturally pure, and inwardly radiant.

As is said in the Supreme Continuum of the Greater Vehicle:

Thus, as a precious treasure within the mind.
Reality is indeed immaculate,
Neither to be clarified nor established.

In addition to the genuine ground-of-all, apparitional reality is held, in the manner of the seeds of a tree, to be beginninglessly present in the nature of the subtlest objects which may emerge as the buddhas' major and minor marks and their rays of light; and through the refinement of which the Buddha-body of form emerges.

The same text says:

Just as the imperishable seeds and shoots
Present in fruits such as the mango.
Gradually take form as the kingly objects of fruit trees
By ploughing. Irrigation and so forth.
The virtuous seed of the doctrine abides
Within the skin of ignorance and so forth
Which are the fruits of sentient beings.
Indeed, by relying on that virtuous seed,
Beings are gradually transformed
Into their true nature, the King of Sages.

Through the first (of these two enlightened families) the Buddha-body of reality is produced, and through the second the Buddha-body of form is produced.

The same text says:

The three bodies of the Buddhas are held to be obtained
Through these two enlightened families.
The first Buddha-body emerges through the first (family)
While the last two emerge through the second (family).

Therefore when the enlightened family which is present in the ground is awakened, one has the good fortune to cultivate an enlightened attitude and to attain the path.

As for the signs that one has awoken to the first enlightened family, it says in the Introduction to the Madhyamaka (T. 3861, Ch. 6, v. 4-5c):

One who, having heard about emptiness
Even as an ordinary person.
Experiences, within, sheer delight again and again.
And who, owing to this delight, is brought to tears.
And whose body hair stands erect,
Has the seed of intelligence which attains to perfect Buddha-hood.
That one is a vessel for this very instruction.
To whom the ultimate truth should be revealed.

And concerning the signs that one has awoken to the second family, the previous text (Ornament of the Sūtras of the Greater Vehicle, T. 4020, Ch. 3, v. 5) says:^[4]

Even prior to practice,
Correct conduct with respect to compassion,
Volition, patience and virtue.
Is truly explained to be a sign of that family.

Concerning this enlightened family: The adherents of the secret mantras hold that Buddha-body, pristine cognition and Buddha-field are primordially and spontaneously present, and that all phenomena are not without primordial Buddha-hood. This resembles the sun that is obscured by clouds, or the gemstone that is covered by mud.

As our text says, in the passage beginning (Ch. 2.2):

The aspects of the component of indestructible reality...

And (continuing down to Ch. 2.2):

Phenomena extraneous to the Buddhas themselves
Have not been found by the buddhas themselves.

Accordingly, it is held that the suddenly arisen and imaginary stains themselves are liberated in pristine cognition, just as ice melts into water.

It says in the Indestructible Reality (NGB. Vol. 15):

The five conflicting emotions are the five pristine cognitions,
The three spheres of existence are Sukhāvatī.

This nature is also described in the Sūtras of definitive meaning belonging to the final transmitted precepts.^[5]

It says for example in the Sūtra of the Nucleus of the Tathāgata (T. 258):

It is just as a man's pot of gold may fall into mire.
But however many years it remains there.
Its apparent reality is imperishable,
And then the sods, seeing it with their divine sight,
Say to others, in order that it might be cleansed:
Herein is contained the most precious sold.
You should cleanse it!
Similarly, though all sentient beings persistently perceive
With conflicting emotions for a long time,
I know these to be suddenly arisen conflicting emmotions,
And reveal the doctrine of skillful means
In order to refine their true nature.

Therefore, even though one does not really degenerate from this enlightened family, one is said to do so because, according to the Yogācāra or Mind Only School, one temporarily degenerates from that family in which the path is attained.^[6]

[The second, concerning the verbal definition of the ancillary commitments, (comments on Ch. 19.12):]

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Footnotes and references:

[1]:

On the absence of a "cut-off" family (agotraka, Sanskrit rigs-med-pa). see NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 3, pp. 95b-106b.

[2]:

Tibetan thog-ma med-pa'i chos-khams dge-ba sa-bon is a synonym for dharmakāya. See NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 3, pp. 95bff.

[3]:

Corresponding to the dharmakāya and the rūpakāya respectively, these are known as chos-nyid rang-bzhin gnas-pa'i rigs and chos-can rang-bzhin gnas-pa'i rigs. See references in previous two notes.

[4]:

Cf. NSTB. Book 1. Pt. 3. PP. 96b-97a.

[5]:

I.e those belonging to the third dharmacakrapravartana, See NSTB. Book 1, Pt. 3. pp.66b-68b. 92a-95b. 116b-118a.

[6]:

This refers, in the view of Great Madhyamaka or Yogācāra-Madhyamaka, to the division of the "enlightened family" (gotra) into that "which naturally abides" (rang-bzhin gnas-pa'i rigs) as the "causal basis of separation" (bral-rgyu) from obscuration, and the "enlightened family of Inner growth" (rgyas-'gyur-gyi rigs) through which the culminating "result of separation" (bral-'bras) from obscuration takes effect. See NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 3, pp. 95b-106b.