Commentary 1-2: Teachings on the Wrathful Deities

[Commentary (488.2-534.4):]

The second part of the second section (of this text—i.e. indicating how both the peaceful and wrathful deities emanate from the natural maṇḍala of the ground—see pp. 331; 543) is an exegesis of the maṇḍala in which the wrathful deities emerge (Chs. 15-21). It has three parts, namely; a teaching on the appearance of the maṇḍala of wrathful deities which is the nature of the spontaneously present ground (Ch. 15); an extensive exegesis of the branches of its means for attainment in accordance with the path (Chs. 16-20); and a description of the eulogy to the resultant Buddha-body and pristine cognition (Ch. 21).

The first of these three parts (forms the subject matter of this chapter). It Includes an overview and an interlinear commentary.

[Overview (488.3-503.3)]

The overview has three subdivisions, namely, a general teaching on the wrathful deities who are spontaneously present in the ground, a detailed exegesis of the wrathful deities who emanate therefrom, and a recognition of the significance of this chapter.

1. General Teaching on the Wrathful Deities

The term "wrathful deity" (Tibetan khro-bo), derived from (the Sanskrit) krodha, refers to those (deities) who are triumphant over disharmonious aspects and who act on behalf of living beings through the wrathful enlightened activity of anger. When classified, they are of three types: There is the Buddha-body of

reality free from extremes of conceptual elaboration, so-called because the wrathful counterpart of the reality of the peaceful deities is without object or sign; there is derived from that disposition the genuine abiding; nature of perfect rapture which appears as the maṇḍala of Herukas in Akaniṣṭha;^[1] and there is their spontaneous spirituality, i.e. the essence of the emanational body and nature of enlightened deeds or activities, which manifests as wrathful deities to train each according to his or her needs.

It says in the Lasso of Skillful Means (T. 835):

Obeisance to the one who is wrathful
Through the disposition of sameness;
Obeisance to the one who performs
Acts of perfect rapture through wrath;
Obeisance to the one who absorbs and emanates
The indestructible reality.

Now the wrathful deities are also disclosed through their four attributes, namely: reality, pristine cognition, deeds, and enlightened activity.

The reality free from conceptual elaboration is dispositionally wrathful because it does does not abide in the symbolic, as is said in the Indestructible Reality (NGB. Vol. 15):

The great genuine discriminative awareness
Is supreme among wrathful deities
Because it subdues the symbolic.

As to the second, the extensive pristine cognition is dispositionally wrathful with respect to the objects of renunciation because it does not abide in ignorance and error, as is said in the Extensive Magical Net (T. 834):

Through kingly Intrinsic awareness or pristine cognition,
All ten directions are overwhelmed,
And then all things indeed are absorbed
In the non-referential expanse.

As to the third, when living beings are protected through spirituality, (deeds) are Implicitly wrathful because disharmonious aspects are subdued without effort.

It says in the Tantra of the Deity (lha-rgyud):

Without subjective thoughts.
Spirituality is wrathful
In its attraction and desire.

As for the fourth, (enlightened activities) are ostensibly enacted in wrathful forms in accordance with (the acumen of) those to be trained.

It says in the Sūtra Which Gathers All Intentions (T. 829):

The peaceful deities will not benefit
Those who are most venomous and fierce.
All the Tathāgatas therefore act in wrathful forms.
Derived from their seals of discriminative awareness and skillful means.

Why, you may ask, do living creatures fall into the two categories of the venomous and those who are peaceful, passionate, and so forth? This depends on the greater or lesser degree to which the energy of the wrathful and peaceful maṇḍalas is spontaneously present in the crown- and heart-centres (of the body) respectively.^[2]

Indeed, when one is bewildered in saṃsāra through the egotistical grasping of ignorance, the glow of the wrathful deities appears intractable and fierce through those deeds which manifest hatred along with its two concomitants, pride and envy. Consequently, this becomes the basis for external harmful (actions).

Through desire, on the other hand, the glow of the peaceful deities increases, and one is overwhelmed by delight and attachment. Delusion, meanwhile, abides as the essence of these two (conflicting emotions).

It says in the Tantra of the Display of Pristine Cognition (ye-shes rol-pa'i rgyud):

The Buddhas present in the ground
Are naturally expressed as the peaceful and wrathful deities.
Derived therefrom, the three poisons of ignorance
Have a corresponding causal basis.
Whereby the sense faculties may appear
To be either peaceful or wrathful.

It is indeed in order to train those (conflicting emotions) that both peaceful and wrathful deities spontaneously emerge.

As the same text says:

In order to train them, the two maṇḍalas
Appear as peaceful and wrathful deities
In all directions and times.
And become spontaneously present
In an Instantaneous moment.

Those (wrathful deities) are also present in the ground, path and result.^[3] The wrathful deities who are primordially pure in the ground comprise the maṇḍalas of Blood-Drinkers who abide spontaneously in the crown-centres of all sentient beings and of all Buddhas.

As quoted above (p. 404):

In the dark-brown palace of the skull which blazes forth.
The portals are constructed with the mighty king of Māras,
And rivetted with awesome wrathful deities.

And in the Subtle Array of Gemstones (NGB. Vol. 9):

Within the respective heads (of sentient beings).
There abide the bodies of the wrathful deities.

Those wrathful deities through whom the path is actually attained are visually created and meditated on within their maṇḍalas.

It says in the Secret Tantra (gsang-rgyud):

One should meditate well on the maṇḍala
Of wrathful deities, according to the path,
Who form a great blazing assembly.

Those wrathful deities who are spontaneously present in the result appear as the maṇḍala of wrathful deities in the selfmanifesting spontaneous Bounteous Array, where defilements are purified in the expanse.

The same text says:

The wrathful deities of the expanse of the real.
In accordance with the result.
Radiate as the self-manifesting spontaneous
Bounteous Array of the three Buddha-bodies.

Now, if those wrathful deities were non-existent in the ground, it would be incorrect, according to the way of the unsurpassed vehicle, for them to be attained during the path. Many such flaws would occur. For example, most of the maṇḍalas which are reputedly attained in the body according to the new and ancient traditions would not accord with the truth. Even after being propitiated they would not be accomplished: and it would be incorrect for emanations to emerge from them because there would be no emanational basis. It is, on the other hand, revealed that the wrathful deities present in the ground are actualised by buddhas, not actualised by sentient beings, and subsequently refined by those on the path.^[4]

2. Detailed Exegesis of the Wrathful Deities

As for the detailed exegesis of the wrathful deities who emanate therefrom: One should know that the extensive explanation given here accords with the present tantra which teaches that the Transcendent Lord Heruka tamed all the mundane wrathful (deities) without exception and then arrayed them on their seats and in the surrounding rows of the maṇḍala. The (preliminary) account of the actual taming of Rudra through the emanations of spirituality, however, is found in the Sūtra Which Gathers All Intentions.^[5] Twelve-thousand and six great aeons ago, during the aeon known as Universal Array, the teaching of Akṣobhya Buddha emerged in the Buddha-field of Abhirati.^[6] At that time, there was one monk, Thub-bka' gZhon-nu by name, who turned the doctrinal wheel of the unsurpassed (vehicle). Among his attendants there was a householder Kaukala (Ke'ukaya) who had a son named Thar-pa Nag-po, and his servant was called gDan-phag. At that time, Thar-pa Nag-po and his servant approached the monk Thub-bka' gZhon-nu and made the following request, "Great monk! is it certain, as we have heard, that the path of liberation exists for one who has freely enjoyed all things?" The monk said that that was indeed the case.

Then Thar-pa Nag-po and his servant asked, "What is the path which has regard for all things, and in which desire is present after one has become a renunciate?"

In response, he said:

If that real nature is not contrived,
Even the practice of the four shocking things⁷ 
Resembles clouds in the sky.
This is the path of genuine Yoga.

The pair went off rejoicing, and among them, Thar-pa, who was not learned in skillful means and who had feeble intelligence contrived to acquire a holy body by literally practising the four shocking things at will, and yet his mind entered on the paths of evil existences. gDan-phag who was of keen intelligence and learned in skillful means practised according to the meaning.^[7] Although he was debased in body and a servant, his mind entered upon the genuine path. But since those two had dissimilar views and conduct. they disputed among themselves, and then asked the monk. who said. "gDan-phag is definitive with respect to the view." Thereupon, Thar-pa, in anger, exclaimed,”They are two of a kind!". In his imbalanced state, he thought that he alone was being reproached, and then he rebuked both his servant and the monk, and expelled them far (from the land).

Then Thar-pa literally practised the secret teachings of the buddhas, and became perverse. Adopting a perverse ascetic discipline, he ate the human corpses of the charnel grounds, he wore human skins, he walked with the black jackals of the charnel grounds and the wild dogs, and he associated with ogres. He Blew birds of prey, and he befriended Brahmany kites, carnivorous wild boar, and other base creatures; and he deprived all beings of their lives. He cohabited with many gatherings of whores and lived while indulging his great desire. in consequence of this, after his death, he proceeded into limitless evil existences, and finally became known as Rudra Thar-pa Nag-po. Holding sway over the form realms downwards and trusting in flesh and flood, he became a harmful obstructor to a host of living beings.^[8]

On that occasion Rudra was not subdued by forms such as glorious Hayagrīva.^[9] Instead, Guhyapati (Vajrapāṇi) materialised as the Great Glorious One (Mahāśrī Heruka), and made him obedient and amenable for the first time by entering into his body and stretching out. Tormented underfoot, with great distress and contrition, Rudra confessed his previous evil deeds. Then, along with his spouse, he was accepted as a servant and tamed.^[10]

There were also Māra, Yama and other such (demons) who belonged to species which could not have been tamed by any means other than sorcery (abhicāra). For their sake, Srl Heruka again emanated in his fearful Buddha-body, speech and mind, and then eradicated and disciplined them.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

This is the maṇḍala described in the present chapter. On the position of these deities in the crown-centre, see above. Ch. 1, pp. 1103-404, and below, pp. 1078ff.

[2]:

Cf, above. Ch. 1. pp. 403-404.

[3]:

Just as the peaceful deities appear according to ground, path and result, so these wrathful deities of ground, path and result are respectively the subject of Ch. 15, Chs. 1620, and Ch. 21.

[4]:

As explained above, this atemporal presence of the ground is elaborated in both the causal and resultant vehicles. See NSTB, Book 1. Pts. 3-4.

[5]:

mdo dgongs-pa 'dus-pa, Chs. 22-31, 147.5.1. ff. The Transcendent Lord Heruka (bcom-ldan-'das he-ru-ka) or Che-mchog He-ru-ka is Samantabhadra in wrathful form.

[6]:

Cf. the account in Yeshe Tsogyal, The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava, Pt. I, pp. 26-47 where Rudra is subdued by Hayagrīva and Vajravarāhī. Thub-bka' gZhon-nu is regarded as an emanational form of Vajrasattva. On Abhirati, the Buddha-field of the eastern direction, see above. Ch. 1, pp. 364.

[7]:

Just as Thar-pa is said to have become Rudra through his misapplication of the sbyor-sgrol practices, so gDan-phag through his genuine progess became Vajrapāṇi

[8]:

l.e. as Rudra, Thar-pa became a lord of rūpadhātu and kāmadhātu.

[9]:

This version derived from the mdo dgongs-pa 'dus-pa differs from that of Ye-she Tsogyal, The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava. Pt. 1, pp. 41-46, where the task of taming Rudra is assigned to Hayagrīva.

[10]:

The subjugation of Rudra is here assigned to Vajrapāṇi because, as gDan-phag, he had formerly made a spiritual connection with Thar-pa.