Guhyasamaja Tantra by Alex Wayman

YOGA OF THE GUH YAS AM AJ ATANTRA The Arcane Lore o f F orty Verses A B uddhist T a n t r a C o m m en tary

ALEX

M ( )T I LA L Delhi

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W AYM AN

BAN AR S 11)A SS V aranasi

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Patna

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M O T IL A L B A N A R S ID A S S Indological Publishers and Booksellers O ffie* : b u n o a l o w r o a d , j a w a h a r n a c a r , B r a n th tt :

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2 . A M O K R A JP A T H , P A T N a - 4

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First Edition : Delhi, 1977

Printed in India ■ Y IK A K T U JU . JA IN A T «H R I JA IIV tN D ftA P * E » , A - 4 5 , P H A S E - I , IN D U S T R IA L A » B A , H A R A IK A , W »W O K L H I-2 B AND P U B L IS H E D BY IU N D A K L A L JA IN FO R I f O T tL A l B A N A BW D A U ,

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To Professor M urray B. E m en cau , W h o set the stan d ard d ifficu lt to sustain

PREFACE T h e w ork h e ir presented to the public is an organization of m aterials from the Guhyasumfijatantra cycle, stressing the aspect of^vogfl, w ith sufficient intro d u cto ry treatm ents to enable the read er to place this rem arkable literature w ithin the general fram e of In d ia n th o u g h t an d religious practice, w hich has a lre a d y m a d e w orld-w ide contributions to the theory of yoga. T h e set of forty verses was m em orized for centurics by follo­ wers o f the ‘A rv a ’ Guhyasanuija tradition, w hich claims th a t these verses e x p lain the entire ( Guhyasanuija) T a n tr a . I m ad e u p a title, the lGuhyasamaja-nidana-karika, for those verses (kdrika) w hich go w ith each syllabic o f the initial sentence (niddna) o f the Guhyammajatantra. T h e verses stem from the E x p la n a to ry T a n t r a Vajiamaln, a n d were e x ta n t in the origi­ nal S anskrit by reason o f being cited in the Pradipoddyotana m an u scrip t. As the synthetic co m m e n ta ry on the verses becam e increas­ ingly technical, considerable intro d u cto ry m ateria) was indi­ c a te d ; a n d this grew to th re e introductions before I was satisfied w ith the; s ta n d a rd o f clarification. T h u s the reader has a bridge to the verses, w h ich in tu rn have been sulliciently an n o tated to b rin g o u t th eir individual character. H av in g long ago become aw are o f the hazards of speculating on the intricate subject o f the T a n tra , I have tried a t every point to bring forward the au th en tic a n d reliable passages, w hether in Sanskrit or T ib e ta n . But I do not d eny m y own contribution of selecting, translating, an d organizing this m ate­ rial; and especially the decision to group the forty verses accord­ ing to the steps o f yoga. .Since most o f the m aterial in this book has not hitherto appeared in W estern sources, certainly as far as English is con­ cerned, I have preferred to give the original passages. However, I have om itted the T ib e ta n for T sori-kha-pa’s Mchan (tgrel on the forty verses, becausc the interlinear form of this annotation renders it diilicult to cite separately; a n d there arc some other omissions of T ib e ta n . T h e read er will soon notice m y over­ w helming use of T so n -k h a-p a’s works. His w riting is like the

personal message of a guru, for it is always to explain, not to conceal. The Tibetan chroniclc called The Blue Annals lias a most eloquent tribute to Tsori-kha-pa for his authoritative works on the Guhyasamaja system. The concluded research is the outcome of a long-timt' aspi­ ration. My original delving into the major throries 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 arc mentioned in an important context in Mkhas grub rje's Funda­ mentals o f the Buddhist Tantras\ the late Professor 1; .L). Lessing and myself collaborated on a translation of tn.is T ibetan 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, wliich was pre­ sumably in the Pradipoddyotana manuscript of the Bihar Research Society. D uring my faculty research in India from February 1963 to January 1964, sponsored by the American Institute of Indian Studies, it bccamc 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 form e to secure an enlargement of the Pradipoddyotana manuscript, for which I am most grateful. O n December 24, 1963, the author was granted an interview witli the Dalai Lam a 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 T ibetan 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 spccial pleasure of this research that the present modest incursion into the vast Guhyasam&ja 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 conunentary ever turns up, the contents should overlap, but the fact that the data has been sifted through a Western consciousness will have brought many changes of outer form. Upon returning to my position of those days in M adison> Wisconsin, with the help of the T ibetan version I edited the

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 K anjur-Tanjur and of T son-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 196.1 supported by Ford Area funds of T he University of 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. T he D epartm ent of Indian Studies in Madison kindly a Horded me secretarial assistance for typing u p these technical materials. During the next academic year I decided to include oven more new d ata while publishing such a book. During the Summer 1967 in a special teaching and research arrangem ent by mv departm ent in Madison, I selected from the photographic edition of the Tibetan canon a great am ount of works or portions of works dealing with these and kindred topics. Mv assistant, Mr. K.io Kanda, duplicated all those pages on the excellent machine of the Univorsity-Industry Research Program iu Madison bv the cooperation of the ladies in that ollice. This provided me maximum ease of consulting texts as desired. In my new position at Columbia University starting iu Fall 1967 I found some leisure from time to time for perusing more of the relevant texts, and for making more use of ihe I'ladifinddyotana manuscript, which however, is only of interest to me for completing this book. The sabbatical year (1 ) allowed me by Columbia University afforded me some leisure for further improvements and corrections. I am confident that ilu* 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 lind in this a rich reference work. Au important observation of comparing the basic text of the (luhyaiamajntantta with its commentaries, and in particular, with the kind of ideas found in the forty verses and their annota­ tion, is (hat the comnicntarial literature brings forth au array

of data that is not at all apparent in the basic T antra. I his observation leads to the surprising conclusion that one rannot evaluate the Gukyasamajatantra in its edited Sanskrit lonn simply bv reading it, which is the premise ol the modern-day