Kim Cang Đỉnh Du Già Tam Thập Thất Tôn Xuất Sanh Nghĩa

Our Teacher, the Tathagata, took pity upon beings in the three realms and six paths who, deluded by the aggregates, dhatus, and ayatanas, continually undergo birth and death. In their deluded attachment, they regard sky-flowers, which do not exist, as existent, while failing to recognize the jewel sewn into their own garment, though it is truly there. How lamentable!

I shall now gather the traces of the teaching and record them. Our Teacher, Shakyamuni Tathagata, descended from the palace of the Tushita Heaven into central India and established a conjured city to receive and deliver beings. He eliminated evil while comforting and instructing them.

Out of compassion for those of the Great Seed-Nature whose Dharma conditions had matured, and because the time had come to expound the teaching of the Three Mysteries, he did not remain in his body of personal enjoyment but proceeded to the palace of the Akanishtha Heaven. There he entered the Samadhi of the Unfailing King, universally summoned the sages and noble ones, curtailed the gradual stages of the levels, and opened the wondrous Dharma of sudden realization.

From Samantabhadra’s vajra ocean there streamed forth empowered form-bodies as numerous as fine motes of dust. He then proclaimed the mantra of Samantabhadra’s vajra speech-karma, revealed the mudra of Samantabhadra’s vajra body-karma, and disclosed the secret wisdom of Samantabhadra’s vajra mind-karma, forming for sentient beings the universal gateway of the vajra three karmas. Those who do not comprehend it treat its detailed movements as though they were merely play; while reciting its texts, their bodies become entangled in calculating discriminations and defilement.

How could they know? Entering here, one emerges there; applied in the shallows, it is accomplished in the depths. It is like Vajrapani Bodhisattva, who had scarcely mounted the simha when the king of beasts suddenly sprang forth and pressed its claws upon the mounds, leveling them.

This source and current cannot be discussed and is not the sphere of the Three Vehicles and Four Fruits. How could it be correctly fathomed by the limited capacities of ordinary sentiment?

One who realizes it immediately enters right absorption through the five faculties, bears the myriad existents while illuminating great emptiness, guides the Buddha realm while universally purifying sentient beings, and gathers the multitudes of conscious beings so that all unite in a single wisdom. Therefore, practitioners first abide in the external forms, as though imitating them, and thereby receive the power of empowerment.

Those with little defilement obtain a share of samadhi as soon as they glimpse the illumination of the Dharma. Those who enter deeply and ultimately comprehend both emptiness and form can purify everything, even habitual tendencies, until the coverings and obstructions naturally vanish without remainder. Silently illuminating the source, they carry out every karmic function according to the principle of equality and freely bestow the meaningful benefits of the Dharma King.

They naturally know that all honored perfectly awakened ones have always abided and that the assemblies of great bodhi are never at any time apart. Adherents of non-Buddhist paths are obscured by attachment to self; those of the Two Vehicles stagnate in the realization of emptiness; those who remain close to emotional consciousness lose themselves in grasping and rejecting; and those of inferior wisdom are deluded regarding existence and nonexistence.

Consequently, they break apart their own boats and rafts and cannot reach their destination. To arrive at suchness is precisely to possess such a mind of Samantabhadra. To enter the vast, luminous, perfectly complete wisdom is precisely the bodhisattva practice of mantra.

Having established the great skillful means of Yoga, one can then make firm the mind of bodhi, adorn the mind with form and characteristics, open and reveal the mind’s Dharma treasury, perfect the mind’s spiritual powers, and eliminate the mind of conceptual proliferation. Therein one reveals knowledge and vision, brings sentient beings to accomplishment, abides in the gateway of correspondence, and performs the deeds of the Buddhas.

From the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, Vajra Equality appears and manifests the body of perfect awakening; this is Akshobhya Tathagata in the eastern quarter of the stupa.

From the Wisdom of Equality, Equality of Meaning appears and manifests the body of perfect awakening; this is Ratnasambhava Tathagata in the southern quarter of the stupa.

From the Wisdom of Wondrous Observation, Equality of Dharma appears and manifests the body of perfect awakening; this is Amitabha Tathagata in the western quarter of the stupa.

From the Wisdom of Accomplishing Activities, Equality of Karma appears and manifests the body of perfect awakening; this is Amoghasiddhi Tathagata in the northern quarter of the stupa.

From the four wisdom Tathagatas arise the four Paramita Bodhisattvas. Because they are the mothers who give birth to and nurture all sages and noble ones throughout the three periods—past, present, and future—they all form, within that mudra, the body of personal enjoyment of the Wisdom of the Essential Nature of the Dharma Realm. This is Vairocana Tathagata at the very center of the stupa.

The four attendant bodhisattvas are precisely the mudras of the four paramitas. From them arise the immeasurable essence of great compassion, and from them stream forth immeasurable protective skillful means.

From the firm and enduring essence of the bodhi of all Tathagatas arises Vajrasattva.

From the essence of the bodhi of the four means of attraction of all Tathagatas arises Vajraraja.

From the undefiled and pure essence of the bodhi of all Tathagatas arises Vajraraga.

From the essence of the bodhi that accords with all praises of all Tathagatas arises Vajrasadhu.

These are the four attendant bodhisattvas of Akshobhya Tathagata in the eastern Realm Adorned with Vajra Majesty. They serve as the locus for the accomplishment of the great precept of the kshanti paramita of all Tathagatas.

From the meaning of the great adornment of all Tathagatas arises Vajraratna.

From the meaning of the great and wondrous majesty of all Tathagatas arises Vajrasurya.

From the meaning of the great fulfillment of vows of all Tathagatas arises Vajradhvaja.

From the meaning of the great joy and bliss of all Tathagatas arises Vajrahasa.

These are the four attendant bodhisattvas of Ratnasambhava Tathagata in the southern Realm of the Meritorious Radiance of the Jewel. They serve as the locus for the accomplishment of the apratishthita dana paramita of all Tathagatas.

From the sovereign and undefiled wisdom of all Tathagatas arises Vajradharma.

From the wisdom that forever severs the habitual tendencies of all Tathagatas arises Vajratikshna.

From the wisdom that turns the wheel of the Great Dharma of all Tathagatas arises Vajrahetu.

From the wisdom beyond speech and conceptual proliferation of all Tathagatas arises Vajraguhyavak.

These are the four attendant bodhisattvas of Amitayus Tathagata in the western Realm of the Lotus Dharma Treasury. They serve as the locus for the accomplishment of the samadhi of the paramita of great wisdom of all Tathagatas.

From the gateway of skillful arts of all Tathagatas arises Vajrakarma.

From the gateway of the armor of great loving-kindness of all Tathagatas arises Vajraraksha.

From the gateway of fearless subjugation of all Tathagatas arises Vajrayaksha.

From the gateway of accomplished maintenance of all Tathagatas arises Vajrasandhi.

These are the four attendant bodhisattvas of Amoghasiddhi Tathagata in the northern Realm of the Functioning Wheel of Transformation. They serve as the locus for the accomplishment of the great virya paramita of never abandoning sentient beings of all Tathagatas.

The implements held in the hands of the sixteen great beings are all emblems of samadhi. By looking upon the implements and seeking their meanings, one can swiftly understand.

As for guiding beings in the realm of sentient beings into the gateways of the six paramitas: from within the four wisdoms in the ocean of the essential nature of all Tathagatas arise the four bodhisattvas of attraction—the vajra Hook, Noose, Chain, and Bell. They can summon, draw in, hold firmly, and gladden beings at every place of practice, while carrying out all commands of the teaching. When humans and devas obtain them, they assemble every liberation; when sages and noble ones employ them, they receive and deliver the deluded stream of inverted views. These figures abide outside the four gates of the stupa, each maintaining the position of its karmic function.

Through the arising of the four wisdom bodhisattvas, the noble ones cannot rest at ease in their own palaces. Having observed beings, they quickly turn their palms downward in response to supplications from every direction. If practitioners abiding in mantra can enter this samadhi, they can raise this ocean of clouds of offerings and accomplish the practice that benefits self and others.

This is the great meaning of the thirty-seven honored ones in the central quarter. Moreover, abiding in the Crown-Born Samadhi, they manifest bodies arising from the crown of the head, as numerous as those in the upper quarter of the stupa. The distinct assembly of the Five Crown Wheel-Kings exists precisely because all bodies born from the crown of the head are gathered into these Five Crowns of Unsurpassed Wisdom.

Since the ultimate cannot be attained, it is the crown characteristic of the Buddha; likewise, no boundary of the supreme Dharma can be attained, and it is therefore called the Crown, ushnisha. These Five Crown Kings are also the sovereign leaders of all mantra deities and are therefore called kings, raja. Among the Five Crown Wheels, the Golden Wheel is supreme.

If this were not so, who could know the uniquely transcendent and supreme Dharma? Therefore, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and all those below him are gathered together and express homage.

Furthermore, in the lower quarter are sixteen Vajra-Holding Deities. They are transformation-born from the courageous mind of bodhi of all Tathagatas. They also reveal how, while the Tathagata was cultivating the path, afflictive and obstructive mental states as numerous as fine motes of dust were all shattered by that vajra wisdom.

After great awakening was attained, the gateways of the varieties of wisdom became as numerous as fine motes of dust. With that vajra wisdom, the Tathagata again manifested terrifying wrathful bodies, holding the wisdom of great majesty to subdue those difficult to tame. At their roar, a thousand great tremors occur; at a mere glance, the hosts of maras flee in terror.

Thus the Mother of Ghosts runs away in alarm, and the elephant-headed Vinayakas, fearing their majesty, withdraw far away. Even Maheshvara, lord of great delusion, sought to be slain by them and thereby attained perfect awakening. One should therefore know that when wrath is displayed, it is itself great compassion.

These vajra beings are as numerous as the sands of the Ganges; only sixteen are presented here, for even a number equal to fine motes of dust does not lie outside this enumeration.

All other great beings, devas, and humans assume bodies appropriate to their kinds and pleasing to behold. They set ladders upon the mountain of wrong views and lower boats into the ocean of suffering. They too issue from the gateway of skillful karmic functioning of Mahavairochana Tathagata.

Therefore, this stupa may be said to govern comprehensively the esoteric intent of the One Vehicle, to say nothing of the fact that both the provisional and the real aspects of the path are entirely contained therein. The universally manifested form-bodies, the hundreds of thousands of samadhis, the four immeasurable minds, beneficial skillful means, and the six paramitas proceed in sequence, even to the point that, without leaving one’s seat, one roams through the Buddha lands, makes offerings, renders service, and benefits sentient beings.

Through the permeation of inconceivable meaning, the realm of sentient beings is secretly transformed.

Regarding this principle and its functions, the sutras may contain only their names without the actual Dharma, whereas here even the functioning ritual manuals are complete. Because this gateway of teaching differs from the other Mahayana teachings, it is exceedingly difficult to transmit. If an acharya who transmits the Dharma finds a person with the proper capacity, the acharya must confer upon that person the precepts of the bodhisattva-nature, admit the person into the great assembly of the Dharma altar, enable the person to receive the sages and noble ones of the Vajra Realm, and confer the ambrosial abhisheka of the Vajrayana.

Only afterward may that person enter the gateway of the Buddha’s mind. If this is not understood, the recipient’s practice will bring no benefit, while the transmitter incurs an offense. Therefore it is said: “The Buddha descended, changed his appearance, and entrusted the teaching.”

After Shakyasimha received the transmission from Vairocana Tathagata, he transmitted it under solemn vow to Vajrasattva. After Vajrasattva received it, several hundred years passed before he transmitted it to Bodhisattva Nagarjuna. After Bodhisattva Nagarjuna received it, several hundred more years passed before he transmitted it to Acharya Nagabodhi.

Nagabodhi preserved it for several hundred years before transmitting it to Acharya Vajrabodhi. Through the power of his compassionate vow, Acharya Vajrabodhi brought it to China and propagated it there. Carrying only his bowl and khakkhara staff, he reached the Upper Capital in the seventh year of the Kaiyuan era.

Not until the fourteenth year did he encounter the extraordinary person to whom, again under solemn vow, he transmitted it: Acharya Amoghavajra. Thereafter, the branch transmission was entrusted with these words: “Only an extraordinary person, like the eldest son of a family, may receive the inheritance. Establish the original teaching in accordance with this.”

If anyone receives this abhisheka, Vajrasattva constantly abides within that person’s body and mind, protecting the mind-king and enabling it to reach the path. Although the person has not yet entered realization, the Dharma arises from that point, and the person receives the name “Vajra.” According to the number of bodhisattvas one has seen and encountered, one contemplates the cause of bodhi.

THE MEANING OF THE ARISING OF THE THIRTY-SEVEN HONORED ONES OF THE VAJRA CROWN YOGA

(End)

In the third year of the Jokyo era, on the first day of the fifth month, the collation was completed. On the twenty-fourth day of that same month, it was collated once again. The characters in the circulating edition still contain many errors; it is hoped that a good edition may be obtained for correction.

JOGON (48 years old)