Chapter 29 Outline
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 1. The promise to explain
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2. The actual explanation
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.1. The characteristics of the messenger
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.2. The procedure of power
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.3. Praise for Mahāyoga
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.3.1. The consequences of hating and rejecting Mahāyoga
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.3.2. The benefits of establishing oneself in Mahāyoga
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 3. Showing the name of the chapter
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. The characteristics of the messenger and procedure for the state of heat or power
The third part, the characteristics of the messenger and the procedure for the state of heat or power, has three sections: (1) the promise to explain, (2) the actual explanation, and (3) showing the name of the chapter.
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 1. The promise to explain
Now, following the twenty-eighth [chapter], one should know that which is taught, i.e., which should be taught, regarding the characteristics that distinguish the messengers, from the characteristics previously explained. Why is this necessary? It is so that the yogī will correctly discern the characteristics of the messengers. If one knows this, the ḍākinīs will abide without transgressing the commitments (29.1) in order to benefit the adepts.
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2. The actual explanation
The second part has three sections: (1) the characteristics of the messenger, (2) the procedure of power, and (3) praise for Mahāyoga.
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.1. The characteristics of the messenger
The previous [gurus] explain that if the adept knows and depends upon the commitment of the ḍākinīs, in a moment they will see him as their brother, father, and their lord, i.e., husband (29.2ab).228 Regarding the method of finding and staying with a consort (mudrā), it is engaging in practice together with “father and likewise mother”229 with a very affectionate attitude. With whom will they engage? It is with their lord, i.e., the yogī who has attained gnosis. “Seeing in a moment” is to perceive for as long as a moment the individual self-awareness of the nature of that gnosis through pure entry into the non-duality of bliss and emptiness.230
Her thick tongue and eyes are tawny,231 and her rough limbs232 and hair is also tawny (29.2cd). These four correspond to the four clans of consorts (mudrā). Kambala’s commentary states the following regarding the first [of them]:233
Her face is big, as are her breasts.
Yet she is short and her hair’s short.
Her scent and swaying’s intoxicating.
Taken together, she is known to be
Tall, and moreover to have a long face.
Her feet and her hands are likewise quite long.
She produces fluid that smells like sweetmeat.234
She is moon-like235 with a long vagina,
And is evenly dusky with hard breasts.
Her body is small and her hair is fine;
Her breasts are small and her body hair’s course.236
She’s indolent,237 has a prominent snout;238
Her neck’s high but not excessively so.
Her beautiful form is like a white lotus,
Ever exuding a ravishing scent.
She has doe eyes, and she gives doe glances.
Her neck and her navel are both doe-like,
And she has the waist of the deer king too.
She is auspicious with a lotus scent.
Regarding the second [type of consort]:239
Both of her eyes are tawny, however,
Her feet are red and her hands are red too.
She is redolent with the jasmine scent,
And she delights in Buddhist assemblies.
A woman who always bestows power,
She’s corpulent and tall240 with swollen breasts.
Her hair moreover should be curly, and
She’s indolent, with the gait of a goose,
Is not very tall and her face is round.
She’s known for her pendulant navel folds.
Regarding the third [type of consort]:241
She is rough, having limbs that are rough too.
She is clever as well, just like Indra.
Regarding the fourth [type of consort]:242
She has a mass of tawny colored hair,
And her body is wan and is wasted.
She is devoid of breasts just like a man.
She burns with longing for the scent of rice,
And is covered with the fragrance of rice.
She always takes delight in alcohol.243
Perfected in the commitments’ practice,
She closely attends to her mental state.
She seeks out all scents, and especially
Good scents, alcohol in particular.
Excessively intoxicated,244
She exudes copious sexual fluid.
These seals (mudrā) are companions who are equal to all yogīs, virtuous spiritual friends for the sake of the accomplishment of liberation (29.3a). The twenty-four ḍākinīs bestow the fruits of enjoyment, i.e., the supreme exalted state, and liberation (29.4ab) from attachment to things to that mantin who is always intent upon [mantra] repetition and the observances, who is endowed with recollection of the characteristics of the messengers, and who trains in yoga continuously and is stationed,245 i.e., abides, in the commitments of gathering, eating, and protecting together with the messenger, and so forth (29.3bcd).
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.2. The procedure of power
Meditate on Heruka’s mandala wheels, and always repeat the definitive and interpretable root mantras. That is the means of achieving all desired aims (29.4cd), and it pacifies all obstructing devils. All power arises from this mantra, i.e., are attained by one who is very well trained. What are they? Everything mobile, i.e., the inhabitants, and immobile, the habitat, namely the triple world — the underworld, surface world, and celestial pure buddhalands — are the gift of the fruits of enjoyment and liberation through the yogic play (29.5) of experiential uniformity in the reality of Vajradhara.
The adept who is endowed with the mantra that protects the mind and the consort is entirely focused on the attainment of the supreme power. But the mantra devoid of union with the consort will yield no power for the embodied (29.6), i.e., the adepts, meaning that power will be very hard to attain. Therefore, through constant practice in the application of mantra and the consort (mudrā), should one endeavor for however long it takes to attain the exercises of heat, that is, the powers of destroying and benefitting, one will be awakened (29.7ab) regardless of whether one has attained them or not. One should practice having attained heat. Moreover:
The first is wisdom that’s heated,
While the second should be smoky.
In the third is quavering light,246
And in the fourth a lamp-like flame.
The fifth is perpetual light,
Just like a sky without a cloud.247
The four — heat, peak, endurance and the supreme phenomenon — are as explained in the Abhidharmasamuccaya and Ornament of the Universal Vehicle Sutras.248
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.3. Praise for Mahāyoga
The third part has two sections: (1) the consequences of hating and rejecting Mahāyoga, and (2) the benefits of establishing oneself in Mahāyoga.
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.3.1. The consequences of hating and rejecting Mahāyoga
Those confused ones who, due to consorting with sinners, harm by disparaging the great yoga (mahāyoga) of Shrī Heruka that is the means of achieving all desired aims (29.7cd) in this very life will go to Avīci Hell. After being released from there, they will also be born from one hundred dog wombs. And when they are reborn as humans, they will be born among the chaṇḍālas (29.8ab), that is, in a wretched social class.
For example, if someone who desires butter were to churn water with great confidence (29.8cd), butter would not be produced, only physical pain (29.9ab), i.e., suffering. Likewise, those who reject this yoga and resort to other yogas due to the motive of [earning] a livelihood (29.10ab), in the end, here and elsewhere, uphold or even revere them in error and in vain (29.9cd).
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 2.3.2. The benefits of establishing oneself in Mahāyoga
The heroes, i.e., adepts, uphold the supreme great yoga of Shrī Heruka; one should select the land in which they dwell as the land of heroes, even if it is in a land of chaṇḍālas and barbarians (29.10c–11b). Since I, Heruka, always exist, i.e., reside, in that land in order to benefit the sentient beings (29.11cd) of that land, their relatives should by all means also worship me.
3.3.3. 2.2.2. 5.2.3. 3. Showing the name of the chapter
In the Concise Shrī Herukābhidhāna Tantra, this is the twenty-ninth chapter on showing the characteristics of the messenger and the procedure that is the means of generating the power of heat. This is the explanation of the twenty-ninth chapter in the Illumination of the Hidden Meaning, A Detailed Exegesis of the Concise Saṁvara Tantra Called “The Chakrasaṁvara.”
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228. Tsong Khapa here paraphrases Sachen’s commentary on this verse. Here he wrote: “Regarding first displaying the signs of the messenger, those yoginīs who recognize them will, when the see the adept, will thus love him, for they will instantly see him as their charming brother, father, or lord, that is, husband” (PG 344.3: dang po pho nya’i mtshan nyid bstan pa ni / ngo shes pa’i rnal ’byor ma de rnams kyis sgrub pa po mthong ba na / ’di ltar brtse zhing yid du ’ong ba ming po dang / pha dang / bdag po ste khyo nyid du skad cig gis mthong bar ’gyur ro).
229. Tsong Khapa here quotes a variant reading of 29.2a, pha ’am yang na ma dang ni, which occurs only in Kambala’s commentary, as follows: mātaraṁ pitaraṁ vā (K 53b.3), ma dang pha (SN 56a).
230. Tsong Khapa here glosses Kambala’s commentary; see SN 56a.
231. Tsong Khapa follows the Tibetan translations in reading the adjective “tawny,” dmar ser as applying to both her tongue and eyes. The Sanskrit, however, reads, piṅgalākṣā; since this adjective in is compound it can thus only modify akṣā, “eyes.”
232. While the Sanskrit and Tibetan simply read “rough” (karkaśī, rtsub), Tsong Khapa glosses this as “rough limbs,” yan lag rtsub pa, to enable him to read it as a list of four tawny body parts.
233. This is my translation from the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts of Kambala’s commentary. K 53b.5–7: sthūlāsyā sthūlapayodharā / tadanta hrasvā hrasvakeśī / madagandhā madavihvalā / saṃhṛteti vikhyātā / dīrghā caiva dīrghavaktrā / dīrghapādakarā tathā / sā miṣṭagandhamadāvahā / dīrghayonyā śāśisaṃnibhā / samaśyāmā kharastanā / alpāṅgī alpakeśā ca yo[n]i kharā [r]oṃan / karā unnatā unnatagrīvā nātyantā / rūpyarūpā puṇḍarīkā / prasveda vahate nityaṃ sugandaṃ ca manoramam /mṛgākṣaṇā mṛgadṛṣṭi mṛgagrīvā mṛgodarī / mṛgarājakaṭiś caiva subhagā padmagandinī; SN 56a.1–3: bzhin ’phel che zhing nu rgyas ma / gzhan yang thung zhing skra yang thung / glang chen dri bro dregs pa’am / mdor bsdus nas ni rab tu bshad / lus po ring zhing bzhin yang ring / de bzhin lag pa rkang pa’ang ring / nya yi dri bro khu ba ’bab / skye gnas ring zhing zla ba ’dra / mnyam zhing sngo bsangs nu ma mkhrang / yan lag chung zhing skra yang srab / skye gnas chung zhing skra yang rtsub / dal bar smra zhing sna mtho ma / mgrin pa ha cang ring ba min / gzugs mdzes pad ma dkar po ’dra / lus las rtag tu rdul ’byung ba / shin tu dri zhim yid ’phrog ma / mig dang lta stangs ri dags ’dra / ri dags mgrin pa ri dags lto / ri dags rgyal po’i rked pa can / skal bzang pad ma’i dri dang ldan.
234. This translates the Sanskrit, miṣṭagandha. The Tibetan here reads nya yi dri, “smell of fish” (SN 56a.2).
235. This translates both the Sanskrit, śāśisaṁnibhā, and the accurate canonical translation, zla ba ’dra (SN 56a.2). Tsong Khapa, however, here quotes zla ba ’bab, which seems to be a conflation with the translation of madāvahā in the previous line, khu ba ’bab.
236. Tsong Khapa’s quotation of this text reads yan lag, “body” or “limbs,” here, rather than skra like the canonical translation. This interpolation is likely derived from Kambala’s commentary that he quotes below.
237. This text, dal bar smra, does not occur in the Sanskrit here. However, it occurs again below, where it translates the Sanskrit mantharā.
238. The Tibetan here reads “nose,” sna, but the Sanskrit reads karā, which does not mean “nose,” but can designate the trunk of an elephant. This was likely used deliberatively to poetically emphasize the prominence of her nose.
239. This is my translation from the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts of Kambala’s commentary. K 53b.7–54a.2: piṅgalākṣani . . . raktapādakarā tathā / mallikāgandinī saugatagoṣṭhīratā caiva / pramadā siddhidā sadā pīnonnatā pīnapayodharā / kuñcitāś ca bhavet keśāḥ mantharā haṁsagaminī / nātyuccā mukhaparimaṇḍalā [na]bhitrivalīmadhyāvalambinī sā jñeyā /; SN 56a.3–5: de yi mig ni dmar ser la / de bzhin lag pa rkang pa’ang dmar / mā li ka yi dri ’byung zhing / bde gshegs ’dus la dga’ ba yi / bud med dngos grub ster bar byed / lus rgyas nu ma yang rgyas shing / skra ni ’khyil bar gyur pa dang / ngang pa’i ’gros can dal bar smra / shin tu ring min bzhin yang zlum / lte ba’i dbus su gnyer gsum ste / dbus nas ’phyang ba der shes bya.
240. This translates the Sanskrit pīnonnatā; the Tibetan reads “with a stout body,” lus rgyas.
241. The Sanskrit here reads: karkāśī karkaśāṅgī kauśikī kuśalā (K 54a.2); the Tibetan: rtsub cing yan lag rtsub pa dang / lha sbyin lta bus gzhan la smod (SN 56a.5).
Note that my translation of the second line follows the Sanskrit kauśikī kuśalā. The Tibetan reads here “she deprecates others as if she were Indra.”
242. This is my translation from the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts. Differences from the text as quoted by Tsong Khapa are noted above. K 54a.2–3: piṇḍapiṅgalakeśā vivarṇātasakṣitāṅgī pramivata pum iva stanarahitā śāligandharucā śālimodagandhāstarā / samayācarasaṁpannā āśayatatparā sugandhāśiṣṭā sarvagandhānugaminī madaviśe–ṣātisamāsada vihvalyā śukrabahulā; SN 56a.5–7: skra ni ’khyil zhing kham par gnas / mdog ngan yan lag rtsub pa dang / skyes pa lta bur nu ma spangs / sā la lta bu’i dri yang bro / ’od ’bar sā la’i dris byugs la / rtag tu chang la dga’ ba ste / dam tshig spyod pa phun sum tshogs / bsam pa rtogs la nan tan byed / khyad par can gyi dri zhim pa / chang gi rjes su ’gro ba ste / chang gi khyad par dag dang ni / chang gis shin tu myos pa dang / de bzhin khu ba mang du.
243. This line is omitted in the extant Sanskrit.
244. This translates the Tibetan chang gis shin tu myos pa dang; the Sanskrit here is corrupt.
245. For some reason Tsong Khapa treats the noun go ’phang, which translates the Sanskrit pada, as a verb here.
246. This translates the Tibetan gsum pa la ni ’od ’khrug ’byung; the Sanskrit here is defective.
247. Tsong Khapa quotes Kambala’s commentary here. K 54b.5–6: prathamam uṣmāyate prajñā dvitīye dhūmravatī bhavet / tṛtīye tyajati spalimāni / caturthe dīpavat jvalam / pañcamaṁ tu sadālokam / nirabhra. . . . The remainder of this verse is lost due to ms. damage. SN 57a.1–2 reads: dang po shes rab dro ba ste / gnyis pa du ba ldan par ’gyur / gsum pa la ni ’od ’khrug ’byung / bzhi pa mar me ltar ’bar ba / lnga pa rtag tu snang ba ni / sprin med pa yi nam mkha’ bzhin.
248. Tsong Khapa explains the term “heat,” uṣman in a variety of ways. He alludes to Bhavabhaṭṭa’s interpretation of it in terms of the mundane powers, as well as Jayabhadra’s connection of it to the “heat” that is the first of the four “aids to penetration” (nirvedabhāgiya) of the Path of Application (prayogamārga) described by Asaṅga/Maitreyanātha in the Ornament of the Universal Vehicle Sutras. Regarding this see Gray 2007, 290, n. 8.