Full text of "82422626 Wayman Alex Tr Yoga Of The Guhyasamajatantra OCR" See other formats BwMbitt T rMlilkia S*ri#» Yoga of the Guh>^sainajatantni lm UM.iM lO«U Of HlMh *UtVI3 ALEX WAYVtAX YOGA OF THE GUH Y AS AM A J AT ANTRA The Arcane Lore of Forty Verses A Buddhist Tantra Commentary ALEX WAYMAN MOTiLAh BA N A R S11) A SS ] Jrllii :: Varanasi :: Patna © MOTILAL BANARSIDASS Indological Publishers and Booksellers AW Offict : BVNOALOW ROAD, JAWAHAR NACAR, DELHI-7 Branthtt : I. CHOWX, vara nasi-■ (u.P.) 2. ABHOR RAJPATH, PATNA-4 (BIHAR) First Edition : Delhi, 1977 Printed in India RY IBAKTUJU. JAIN AT OtRI JAIHENDRA PRES*, A-45, PHASE- |, INDUSTRIAL AREA, KARAINA, NEW DRLHI-28 AND PUBLISHED BV IUNDARLAL JAIN FOR MOTILAL BANAREIDAsa, BUNQALOW ROAD, JAWAHAR KAOAR, DELHI-7 To Professor Murray B. Emencau, Who set the standard difficult to sustain PREFACE The work here presented i<> the public is an organization of materials Iroin the Guhyasumajatantra cycle, stressing the aspect of yoga, with sufficient introductory treatments to enable the reader to place this remarkable literature within the general frame of Indian thought and religious practice, which has already made world-wide contributions to the theory of yoga. The set of forty verses was memorized for centuries by follo¬ wers of the ‘Arva’ Guhyasamaja tradition, which claims that these verses explain the entire ( Guhyasamdja) Tantra. I made up a title, the ‘ Guhya$amaja-nidana-kdrika\ for those verses ( karika ) which go with each syllabic of the initial sentence (nidana) of the Guhyasamajafantra. The verses stem from the Explanatory l antra Wijmmiild, and were extant in the origi¬ nal Sanskrit by reason of being cited in the Pradipoddyotana manuscript. As the synthetic commentary on the verses became increas¬ ingly technical, considerable introductory materia) was indi¬ cated; and this grew to three introductions before I was satisfied with the standard of clarification. Thus the reader has a bridge to the verses, which in turn have been sullicicntly annotated to bring out their individual character. Having long ago become aware of the hazards of speculating on the intricate subject of the Tantra, I have tried at every point to bring forward the authentic and reliable passages, whether in Sanskrit or Tibetan. But I do not deny my own contribution of selecting, translating, and organizing this mate¬ rial; and especially the decision to group the forty verses accord¬ ing to the steps of yoga. .Since most of the material in this book has not hitherto appeared in Western sources, certainly as far as English is con¬ cerned, I have preferred to give the original passages. However, I have omitted the Tibetan for Tson-kha-pa’s Mchan fjtgrel on the forty verses, because the interlinear form of this annotation renders it difficult to cite separately; and there arc some other omissions of Tibetan. The reader will soon notice my over¬ whelming use of Tsoii-kha-pa’s works. His writing is like the VUI PREFACE personal message of a guru, for it is always to explain, not to conceal. The Tibetan chronicle called The Blue Annals lias a most eloquent tribute to Tson-kha-pa for his authoritative works on the Guhyasamaja system. The concluded research is the outcome of a long-time aspi¬ ration. My original delving into the major theories is found in my first major published article, “Notes on the Sanskrit term Jfiana” (1955). Already I knew about the forty verses and that they are quoted in the Pradipoddyotana because they are mentioned in an important context in Abkhas grub rje's Funda¬ mentals of the Buddhist Taniras\ the late Professor F.D. Lessing and myself collaborated on a translation of tnis Tibetan book during the 1950’s even though it was not published until 1968. I realized that to do anything scholarly with the forty verses I would have to obtain the original Sanskrit, which was pre¬ sumably in the Pradipoddyotana manuscript of the Bihar Research Society, During my faculty research in India from February 1963 to January 1964, sponsored by the American Institute of Indian Studies, it became part of a wonderful memory of 1963 Divali days in Patna that the Bihar Research Society in con¬ junction with the K.P, Jayaswal Institute graciously arranged forme to secure an enlargement of the Pradipoddyotana manuscript, for which I am most grateful. On December 24, 1963, the author was granted an interview with the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala (Punjab, India) during which His Holiness ex¬ pressed delight to learn that the forty ‘revelation’ verses explaining the initial sentence of the Guhyasamaja were extant in that unique manuscript. He mentioned a Tibetan tradition that there had been an Indian commentary on these forty verses not translated into the Tibetan language, and asked to be in¬ formed if such a Sanskrit commentary were to turn up. It is a special pleasure of this research that the present modest incursion into the vast Guhyasamdja lore leads to the publication in India of this commentary on the nidana verses, which thus becomes an ‘Indian commentary’ in a sense. If an old Sanskrit conunen- tary ever turns up, the contents should overlap, but tire fact that the data has been silted through a Western consciousness will have brought many changes of outer form. Upon returning to my position of those days in Madison, Wisconsin, with the help of the Tibetan version. I edited the PREFACE IX forty verses in Sanskrit, which along with the. Tibetan and English translations, heads the ‘Documents’. As time went on, I collected materials for a synthetic commentary, on which account I must pay tribute to the remarkably convenient Japanese photographic edition of the Peking Kanjur-Tanjur and of Tsoh-kha-pa’s collected works, all of which has contributed so much to this endeavor. The early integrat¬ ing labor was pursued in part-time research in the Fall of l%a supported by Ford Area funds of Tbe University ot Wisconsin; and I tried out some of the subject matter in my seminars on lantric Buddhism at Madison in Spring 1966 and at Columbia (as a visitor) in Fall 1966. In Summer 1966, I put together a manuscript that had considerable information oil the subject. The Department of Indian Studies in Madison kindly afforded me secretarial assistance for typing up these technical materials. During the next academic year I derided to include oven more new data while publishing such a book. During the Summer 1967 in a special teaching and research arrangement by mv department in Madison, I selected from the photographic edition of the Tibetan canon a great amount of works or portions of works dealing with these and kindred topics. Mv assistant, Mr. Rio Kanda, duplicated all those pages on the excellent machine of the University-Industry Research Program in Madison by the cooperation of the ladies in that office. This provided me maximum ease of consulting texts as desired. In my new position at Columbia University starting in Fall 1967 I found some leisure from time to time for perusing more of the relevant texts, and for making more use of the I'uid'ifmUlyolana manuscript, which however, is only of interest to me for completing this book. The sabbatical year (1966-70) allowed me by Columbia University afforded me some leisure for further improvements and corrections. I am confident that the delays have considerably strengthened the contribution to knowledge of this tantric system, and that any future investigator of this or associated Buddhist tantric litera¬ ture will find in this a rich reference work. Ail important observation of comparing the basic text of the GulivHuimajntiintia with its commentaries, and in particular, with the kind of ideas found in the forty verses and their annota¬ tion, is that the coinnientarial literature brings forth an array X PREFACE of data that is not at all apparent in the basic 1 antra. Ibis observation leads to the surprising conclusion that one cannot evaluate the Guhvasamdjatantra in its edited Sanskrit lot in simply bv reading it, which is the premise ol the modern-day condem¬ nation of the Tantra. Adding to the dillirulty is the hiss in original Sanskrit of most ol the eommentaria) works; which, fortunately, are almost all available in fine Tibetan translations. But few specialists are pre pared to exploit these I ibetau woiks. For example, the onlv published paper that I know ot as employ¬ ing Tson-kha-pa’s Mchan hard t*» anv extent is fliuseppe Tucci’s “Some glosses upon the Guhyauirndja." I ucci also explored the Guhyasamdja man dal a in his Indn-'I ihetica and in his work translated into Kuglish under the title 7 he ! henry and Practice of the Mandafa. Without any rcllrction on those pre¬ vious efforts, it still follows tli.it the subject of the Guhyauimaja has an importance deserving its own book. I I relieve it lair to say that the very effort of integrating materials from the vast sources has brought this system into a locus not hitherto possible with those -other than Professor Tucci who only brushed against it in the dark and then piaiscd or blamed. It is a pleasure to reeall the* helpful conversations with f>r. Rasik Yihari [oshi about some* of the Sanskrit verses included in this book. An explanation is due the readers who e*xpe*e ted this work to appear some years ago, since* it was submitted to a publisher in South India late in MtfiO. Through no fault of that publisher but only ol troubles in his city, it was hnalK nr< essarv to lesubmit it to the present publisher. I am indeed grateful to Shree N. P. Jain ol Motilal Banarsidass to have undertaken this work and given it a speech* processing. However, those who appre¬ ciate tin* appendixes should thank the publishing de-lav. Also, in the meantime Samuel W**ise i. Inc of New York, published another work e»l mine on the* Buddhist lautras, with tnatc'iials mostly different from the cemtent «»1 the present work , just as this one is se> different liom \tkhas o 1u b ijr's Fundamentals of the Huddhist 1 antras. This should point attention to the* almost inexhaustible* character of the Buddhist Tanlias. New York City . July HI77 Alex Wavnian CONTENTS PREFACE vii PART ONE : DOCUMENTS 1 I. The Guhyasamaja-nidana-karika (Sanskrit- Tibrtan-English) 1 II. Chapters VI and XII of the Guhyasamaja- tantra, translated into English 23 III. Edited Pradlpoddyotana commentary on Chapter XII, 60-64, and English translation 35 PART TWO : INTRODUCTIONS 51 I. Introduction to Buddhist Tantrism 51 A. Tantra (generalities) 51 B. Definitions and varieties of Tantras 58 C. Some fundamentals of the Tantras 62 D. Winds and mantras 69 E. The world of light 77 II. Introduction to the Guhvasamajatantra 84 A. Texts, commentators, and history 84 B. Title of the work and nidana 105 C. Seven ornaments and subdivisions 113 D. Importance of the forty verses 119 E. The mandala of the Guhyasamaja 122 III. Introduction to the Yoga of the Guhyasamaja system 137 A. The chapters of the Guhyasamaja- tantra and yoga 137 B. The two stages, initiations, and the Clear Light 142 G. The four steps of yoga and three samadhis in the Stage of Generation 156 1) The six members of yoga and five kramas in the Stage of Completion 163 E. Grouping the Nidana Karikas 173 XU CONTENTS PART THREE : COMMENTARY ON THE NIDANA KARIKAS 181 I. The Stage of Generation 181 A. Evam maya srutam ‘Thus by me it was heard’ 181 B. Ekasmin samaye ‘Upon an occasion’ 199 C. Bhagavan sarva ‘The Lord—All’ 223 D. Tathagata ‘Who has come the same way’ 244 II. The Stage of Completion 259 E. Kayavakcitta ‘Body, Speech, and Mind’ 259 F. Hrdaya-vajrayosid ‘Diamond Ladies of the Heart’ 284 G. Bhage-su vijahara ‘Was dwelling in the Bhagas’ 310 APPENDIX I: The Lankavatarasutra and the Guhva- samajatantra 332 >> II: The Arcane-Body Controversy 340 W III: The Praxis according to Aryadeva 349 fy IV: Grading of the Four-Stage Yoga 361 BIBLIOGRAPHY 363 INDEX 373 ERRATA AND ADDITIONS 389 TABLES I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. The World of Light—Brahmanical and Buddhist Correspondences of Aksobhya-mandatu The Clear Lights Intra-uterine correspondences Partite realities : five skandhas • » ■.four elements >1 n : six sense organs >1 >> : live sense objects The Great Time 78 132 153 216 231 235 242 254 324 Part One DOCUMENTS The purpose of placing the documents first is to expose the Guhyasamajatantra on its literal level. This was always the initial step in the traditional understanding of Buddhism, pursuant to the ‘three instructions’ (iikfa-traya ), ‘insight consisting of hearing’, ‘i nsight consisting of contemplation‘insight consisting of cultivation (or putting into practice)’. That is to say. Buddhism always acknowledged a kind of ‘insight’ ( prajfld ) for the elementary step of exposure to the text when it was accompanied by devotion even if necessitating personal dis¬ comfort. The subsequent introductions, annotation of the forty verses, and appendices, all represent the ‘pondering’ level for this study. While the documents provide the most elementary level of ‘insight’, the form in which they are exhibited here has some advantage over their service to the reader of edited Sanskrit texts. In particular, a number of corrections have been made to the Sanskrit text of Chapters Six and Twelve, Guhyasamdja - tantra, prior to their translation. Again, a portion of the Pradt - poddyotana commentary on Chapter Twelve is presented from an unedited work, and the same holds for the forty verses them¬ selves, here edited in Sanskrit. Also, the translations of the two chapters and the extract of comment on Chapter Twelve have been slightly expanded by the use of commentarial and subcommentarial materials, mainly available in Tibetan. Of course, the theory of ‘insight consisting of hearing’ takes for granted that the text itself is correct. Thus considerable care has been taken with the Documents to meet this condition laid down for ‘insight’. I. The Guhyasamaja-nidana - karika (Sanskrit - Tibetan- English). This section of the ‘documents’ exhibits samples of the languages employed: Sanskrit and Tibetan for research purposes , and English for translation and communication purposes. 2 YOOA OF THE GUHYASAMAJATANTRA The nidana is the formula at the outset of the Gtthyasa- mdjotantra : Evam maya srutam ckasmin samayc bhagavan sarvatathagatakayavakcittahrdaya-vajrayosidbhagcsu vijahara. The word nidana is being employed in the sense of ‘primary cause’, that is to say, the cause of the entire Guhyasatmljatantra. The forty syllables of that formula serve mnemonic purpose as initials of forty verses (karikd) : (1) E, (2) vam, (3) ina, (4) ya, (5) Sru, (6) tarn, (7) e, (8) ka, (9) smin, (10) sa, (11) ma, (12) ye, (13) bha, (14) ga, (15) van, (16) sa, (17) rva, (18) ta, (19) tha, (20) ga, (21) ta, (22) ka, (23) ya, (24) vak, (25) cit, (26) ta, (27) h r , (28) da, (29) ya, (30) va, (31) jra, (32) yo, (33) sid, (34) bha, (35) ge, (36) su, (37) vi, (38) ja, (39) ha, (40) ra. The original Sanskrit of the forty verses is here edited from the Pradipoddyotana manuscript, the Tibetan translation from the Derge Tanjur edition of the Pradipoddyotana and from the version of the Tantra Vajramald in the Peking Tibetan Tripitaka edition. There are relatively few textual problems. The Sanskrit manuscript gives the syllables ci and tta for nidana verses 25 and 26, but I followed the Tibetan phonetic transcrip¬ tion, since cit and ta correspond more closely to the initial words of the Sanskrit verses. Nidana verse 20 has a defective pad a in the manuscript, gacchaty indriyas tat tat But the scribe had erased a syllable, leading to my solution : gacchann asty indriyas tat tat. The correction gacchann asty is justified by the Tibetan equivalence hgro bar hgyur ba. The Tibetan text here presented follows the Vajramald except for some obvious corruptions remedied with the Pradipoddyotana version. The translation snail ba gsal ba is the old one for nidana verse 4’s alokabhusa; the standard translation is snah ba mched pa. DOCUMENTS 3 q i q* rc>fir mi st5tt farmTftWITtfem I r^jff fafafaw qRd re vmb ti [i] tfl| £r^*r*q^*rq^| | 5jY^S*T c ^* r ^* rc l| | “E” is the Noble woman (sati) Prajfia, the moments of aversion, and so on. This root is designated as the experience in the three worlds. * 1 w?wtfcT TTnrforcr^fcimni II [2] 4| I S^ir^^*q**q*§*\*^! I ^•q*0|^ai'q-j=«*qv^| | That Spread-of-Light vij'tana called ‘means* (upaja), attended with begetting of desire, and so on, appears like an emerging bamboo. 4 YOGA OF THE GUHYASAMAJ AT ANTRA i ngifoar wi i wferar II [3) Y^-fr-q^qc-q^l ] In the reverse order, the great Science (=Wisdom) is itself the root of nescience. And the (‘Spread-of-Light’) arises from nescience ( avidya ) while from that (‘Spread-of- Light’) arises Light. m I mfa f^5TR*TR> cRTvftVPTmHf^cm I cn q gmwicri m * mfa u [4] S*^C'^C*q-^arq*^r | ^*^c*G^*£n^srqv(- 5p3j At first, that vijilana (i.e. Light) passes to what is called * Spread-of-Light’. That passes to the great Void, and the latter passes to the Clear Light. documents 5 STf*frnfa* Hr^ldkil^d: || [5] ^J| | v ^wrs^psisr^ariwci^l | The vijudna heard here has the characteristics of the three lights. This is entirely the root of the prakrtis (natures) of the sentient-being realm. cT I I 5 l ^5 cT ^ fW5TH II [6] O " •» "k ^ 51 5T*‘^VVV'F'^! 1 | f N-. n; 4 “* ' <L- The wind seizing, takes hold of that entity-light in each case, and vijtiana joined with wind continually operates in the world of living beings. 6 YOGA OF THE OUHYASAMAJATANTRA &«T: JTfTrRT: *T*U II [7] <W ^•^•§C - pW«^“5 5 ^l | v' *'Wr*c-q§dj^q|y3l I Tim wind, the great element, is the mount of the three vijUdnas. By means of it, the prakrtis always proceed accord¬ ingly. *> i v: TOtergTrq?^ &srt gupr ^ i 3TOW § Eisth srroft II [8] "I! *r^-«rp*isr§‘9^c-| | SY^*F°fl 5 , ‘*r§r t *‘ a » 3 *l I What be the solid realm and of water : likewise that of fire and wind —using these, vijndna takes birth in the womb of triple gestation. DOCUMENTS 7 * lfcsTW HWtTT fntR #* ^SWHq II [9] mi ^•^gc-^2f^wi'»i t aqc*a‘a^*rg*r*Ms^^| | "l^-^aiy^^ygV^sM I |5!-^5}-f^-arqpf| |