Text 22.4 (Commentary)

[Guhyagarbha-Tantra, Text section 22.4]

The Infinite wondrous pristine cognition
Never speaks without bringing benefit. [4]

[Tibetan]

ye-shes ngo-mtshar rab-'byam-kyis /
don-du mi-'gyur yong ma-gsungs / [4]

Commentary:

[iii. The third concerning those types to whom it must not be spoken (comments on Ch. 22.4):]

Since it would therefore be sufficient to teach the Secret Nucleus alone, why, one might ask, are the many enumerations of the vehicle, high and low, revealed? Because sentient beings provisionally have diverse degrees of acumen, (the vehicle) is differently revealed, satisfying each according to his or her needs. Preliminaries or steps are taught because this (Secret Nucleus) is at first extremely difficult to understand or encounter. Subsequently, in order that it should be encountered and practised, the naturally present spirituality of the teacher, Samantabhadra himself, who possesses the infinite wondrous pristine cognition (ye-shes ngo-mtshar rab-'byams-kyis) of renunciation and realisation appears in the world in the emanational body.^[1] He never speaks (yongs ma-gsungs) in the slightest, or at any time, any of those doctrines which have been divulged, without bringing benefit (don-du mi-'gyur) to sentient beings.

Accordingly, it says in the Sūtra Requested By Sudatta (legs-byin zhus-pa'i mdo):

In order to benefit the world-systems
The conqueror and guide teaches the doctrine.
He pacifies desire, hatred, and delusion.
And he establishes (beings) on the path to nirvāṇa.
The great sage is one whose defects have ceased,
Who has abandoned lies, and who never has (conduct)
Which does not benefit (living beings).

The doctrine so revealed actually perceives all knowable objects without exception, and is exclusively beneficial because the speech of the buddhas has renounced all obscurations.

Now concerning this perception of pristine cognition.

It says in the Supreme Continuum the Greater Vehicle (T. 4024):

In a single instant of knowing
It pervades all maṇḍalas of knowable objects.

As for being free from all obscurations: a Buddha is validly cognised to be one who has abandoned lies.

It says in the Ascertainment of Valid Cognition (T. 4211):

Because he has abandoned defects
He has no reason ever to tell lies.
Therefore, one should know
According to literary authorities^[2]
That his defects have ceased.

In accordance with the beneficial teachings given by the Buddhas, their sons and students follow the conquerors' transmitted precepts and compose exegeses which accord with the transmitted precepts.{GL_NOTE::}

As is said in the Supreme Continuum of the Greater Vehicle (T. 4024, Ch. 5. v. 19):

There are some who teach with undistracted mind,
Referring solely to the Conqueror, the Teacher.
Conforming to the path which attains to liberation.
Let them be reverently accepted in the manner
Of the Sage's transmitted precepts.

[The second, concerning the greatness of the recipient to whom the Instruction is to be given, (comments on Ch. 22.5):]

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Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Tibetan spangs-pa-dang rtogs-pa'i ye-shes. As explained in NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 3, pp. 80b-84a, renunciation and realisation are of two kinds, one a passive fait accompli and the other a dynamic process.

[2]:

"Literary or scriptural authority" (lung. Sanskrit āgama) is recognised in Buddhist logic as a valid form of appraising objects which are "indirectly evident to an extreme degree". See NSTB, Book 1, Pt. 1, pp. 37b-38a.