Guhyasamaja Practice in the Arya Nagarjuna System, Volume One by Artemus B. Engle & Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa

Author:Artemus B. Engle & Gyumé Khensur Lobsang Jampa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2019-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

729. Cf. AKB, p. 179.

730. T: tshangs chen pa.

731. T: tsangs pa’i mdun na ’don.

732. T: tshangs ris pa rnams.

733. See nn. 680–85.

734. S: vivartakalpaḥ, T: ’chags pa’i bskal pa. AKB (p. 179): “The [period of] time from [the arising of] the first wind until the appearance of sentient beings in the hell regions is called the ‘kalpa of formation.’”

735. S: upapādukaḥ, T: rdzus te skye ba. AKB (pp. 118–19): “What is the spontaneously produced form of birth? It is [the form of birth undergone by] those beings who are born all at once, with their faculties complete and unimpaired and possessing all their limbs and appendages. Therefore, because they act in an exceptional manner with regard to [their own] birth, they are called ‘those whose are spontaneously produced.’”

736. S: kavaḍīkārāharaḥ, T: kham gyi zas. AKB (pp. 152–55) defines food as that which causes the world to continue to exist. This is meant both in the sense of maintaining life and in the sense of perpetuating samsaric existence. There are four types of food: (1) food that is taken in morsels, (2) contact, (3) volition, and (4) consciousness. Food that is taken in morsels is only present in the desire realm and, for those who crave it, it serves as a cause of rebirth there.

737. This description of the nature of human beings at the beginning of a kalpa (S: prāthamakalpikaḥ, T: bskal pa dang po pa) is based upon MGZhL (fol. 68b). Cf. also AKB, p. 187.

738. S: adhimuktidevatā, T: lhag par mos pa’i lha. Typically, the term adhimuktiḥ (T: here lhag par mos pa, but also simply mos pa) refers to a spiritual attitude that is a combination of conviction and faith; hence the translation devotion. Asaṅga (BBh, English translation, p. 172) describes it as “a [sense of] certainty and eagerness that is preceded by the faith that is a clarity [of mind] toward the eight objects of devotion.” Its use is sometimes indistinguishable from adhimokṣaḥ (T: also mos pa), which Asaṅga defines as follows (AS, p. 6): “What is conviction? [It is] the steadfastness [of mind that maintains], in relation to an object about which a determination has been made, that [it does exist] in the manner that has been determined. Its action is [to make an individual] incapable of being led astray.” In the present context, the principal sense of either term seems to be that of a mental act in which the practitioner ‘directs his or her mind strongly’ (the literal sense of the verb adhimuc) in a way that causes the mandala deities to be generated instantaneously. No doubt it can also be surmised that the qualities of faith and eagerness (S: ruciḥ, T: dga’ ba) are understood to be included. Khedrup Je (NgGy, fol. 69a) describes this process in the following manner: “As [indicated] in the Piṇḍīkramaḥ (v. 35ab), which states, ‘Having brought to mind the mandala deities in this way / by [an act of] devotion (S: adhimuktayā, T: lhag par mos pas) in the prescribed manner,’ and in the Sūtramelāpakam (fol.

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