What is the Great Perfection?
rDzogs chen as a ritual moment
As far as we are aware, the earliest appearance of the term rdzogs chen being used in a similar way to the Great Perfection literature, is in the Guhyagarbha tantra. The term rdzogs chen seems to be used in the tantra in association with a specific ritual moment, the state of being at the climax of the sexual yoga of the perfection stage immediately following consecration with the drop of semen or bodhicitta? In this context, the word rdzogs chen could certainly be interpreted to have the semantic content of a great (chen) culmination of the perfection (rdzogs) stage.
This usage occurs in chapter thirteen of the tantra, spoken by the Tathagata from the state of sexual union, and in chapter fourteen, which is a further poetic discourse on that state. Furthermore, chapter nineteen, which deals with the commitments (samaya) associated with the perfection stage yoga, also uses the term rdzogs chen. The use of the term in the sixth chapter is more general, speaking of the yogin who realizes the great perfection; yet on the evidence of the other occurrences of the term, this realization would be understood to come about through the practice of the perfection stage.
Given that rdzogs chen is closely associated in the Guhyagarbha tantra with the ritual moment of the culmination of perfection stage yoga, the question of what it signifies remains. In general, the significance seems to differ little from later Great Perfection traditions: all qualities (yon tan) and enlightened activities (’phrin las) — that is, the aims of the Buddhist practitioner — are complete (rdzogs) from the start (ye nas).
That is to say, in another phrase that is used in the tantra far more often, everything is spontaneously present (Ihun gyis grub)? Furthermore, there is an emphasis on the transcendence of concepts in a state beyond the reach of thought (bsam gyis mi khyab).
In spite of the association of rdzogs chen with these ideas, so familiar from the later Great Perfection texts, the phrase itself occurs only four times in the tantra, and is certainly not the defining term for this complex of ideas that it later became.
Certain texts preserved in the Dunhuang collections confirm that the term rdzogs chen was actually used in practice in the context of the ritual moment of consecration. For translations of the passages referred to here, see Germano 1994. pp. 214-215. Dalton 2004. For example, in PT 321, a sadhana based around a Heruka mandala, following self-consecration and the offering of the bodhicitta to the mandala of deities, the text mentions the mandala of the secret great perfection (rdzogs pa chen po gsang ba’i dkyil ‘khor), which is associated with the purity of all phenomena. Another manuscript. ITJ 437, a treatise on the development and perfection stages incorporating material from the Guhyasamaja tantra and the Vajramrta
Another piece of evidence for the association between the term rdzogs chen and the Guhyagarbha in this period is provided by an untitled poem from the Dunhuang manuscripts, PT 322B.11 This text, which has not been noticed before, takes rdzogs chen as its theme while remaining within the frame of reference of the Guhyagarbha and Mayajala tantras.
On reading it, one feels that the term rdzogs chen has begun to represent the complex of ideas surrounding it, as it does in the later tradition. Nevertheless, the author the setting of these ideas is clearly the universe of the Mayajala tantras, as the following verses demonstrate:
The teaching of the primordial, spontaneously present great perfection, This sublime experiential domain of supreme insight Is bestowed as a precept upon those with intelligence;
I pay homage to the definitive counsel spoken thus.
Without centre or periphery, neither one nor many,
The mandala that transcends thought and cannot be expressed, Illuminates the mind of intrinsic awareness, wisdom and knowledge; I pay homage to the great Vajrasattva. From the illusory three worlds [like] the limitless sky, Many millions of emanations are present everywhere, Surrounded by the net of insight in the expanse of sameness, I pay homage to you, the magical net (Mayajala').
The ten directions and the four times secretly have the nature of the great perfection,
Which itself is the suchness of the definitive essence,
Primordial and spontaneously present, cause and effect inseparable, I pay homage to the supreme secret nucleus (Guhyagarbha).
tantra, refers to the bodhicitta substance as "the great perfection, the great self, the heart nectar” (f.l4r:rdzogs cen [sic] bdag nyid chenpo thugs kyi bend).
The hand seen in this manuscript is identical to several others in the Dunhuang collection. A group of four manuscripts in the same hand are a syncretic explication of Chan and Mahayoga meditation practices (see van Schaik and Dalton 2004). Thus the scribe of PT 322B was certainly making use of Chan texts as well, although this is not apparent in itself.
The term Mayajala tantra can be used to specifically denote those tantras with Mayajala in their title, such as the Vajrasattva mayajala tantra, or a more general group including the Guhyagarbha. The texts under examination here use the term in the latter sense.
