The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva
The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva
Equal to the End of the Sky
Vajrasatva Khasam Anta Mahātantra
In the Tibetan language:
rDo rje sems dpa’ nam mkha’i mtha’ dang mnyam pa’i rgyud chen po
In the English language:
The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva: Equal to the End of the Sky
Introduction
As a young child, Vairochana was one of seven select Tibetan children that had been singled out for intensive training in foreign languages by the King Trisong Detsan, who ruled from 755 to 804 AD. As a young man, the King endowed him with a large amount of gold and sent him to India in search of special teachings, the transmission of effortless enlightenment. Travelling with only one friend, Vairochana underwent tremendous hardships to get to India and find a qualified teacher of this transmission. At last he found Śrī Singha, who was a qualified teacher of this transmission, but did not have the books. The King had sealed the volumes that contained this teaching in Bodhgaya, and locked them up. So Śrī Singha and Vairochana snuck in by night, broke the seals, and stole the books, without being noticed. Then, in a place called Dhahena, Śrī Singha taught these texts to Vairochana secretly, in the middle of the night.
Vairochana’s biography, The Great Image,[1] reports that after studying for a long time under Śrī Singha, Vairochana returned to Tibet, and only in Tibet did he begin his work of translation. There survive, however, two texts that Vairochana translated while with Śrī Singha in Dhahena. One is a Mañjuśrī Yamāntaka Sadhana.[2] The other is The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva: Equal to the End of the Sky. The existence of these texts shows us that Vairochana was working very hard as a translator, even while in India, and that he had a least a few translations ready for presentation when he arrived back in Tibet. It also indicates that the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva may well have been one of the earliest major translations of a Great Perfection Tantra into Tibetan.
In Tibet, the Yamantaka Sadhana was preserved in the Tengyur, the official compilation of commentarial texts, but the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva was not included in the Kagyur, the official compilation of the Buddha’s own teachings. We may wonder why it was not included.
The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva appears to be a Buddhist work. It talks about Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and enlightenment, in the style of a Sutra or a Tantra, but as we read we will see that it uses language that is unusual for a Buddhist work. It talks about unity in non-duality, oneness, the lack of any need to practice a path, and the irrelevance of cause and result, for example. It talks about a self-luminescent wisdom that is eternal.
The existence of books that resemble the Dharma, but actually contain unorthodox teachings, was noted heavily by the leaders of the reformation movements of the Eleventh Century, collectively known as the New Schools (Sarma). Podrang Zhiwa Od compiled a list of such scriptures in the 11th century, calling them “contrived semblances” (ltar bcos).[3] The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva is not on his list. I have found no citation of this work as having been deliberately excluded from the Kagyur. Whether it was not available to the compilers or its contents were found objectionable will require further research.
A study of the possible origin of the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva is beyond the scope of this introduction. Readers who are familiar with world literature may well see evidence of Gnostic teachings in reading this. Clear evidence of Gnosis movements along the Silk Route has been documented.[4] Some may see evidence of the Upaniṣadic thought that informed the Advaita tradition reflected here in Buddhistic terminology. It is possible that some writer had a deliberate intention of subterfuge, intending to
trick unwary Buddhists into accepting non-Buddhist views, but it would likely have been disseminated more widely if this were so. Those who seek evidence that Buddhist and non-Buddhist thinking had reached the point, by the Eighth Century, that they were sometimes indistinguishable may find evidence of this in this Tantra. It may well be that the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva was considered to represent
heterodox views by some Tibetans, and therefore excluded from the Kagyur. Many who persevere at maintaining orthodoxy fail to remember that the orthodox can only be understood in its relation to the heterodox. We will better understand Buddhist orthodoxy by reading a text that represents what it tries to guard against.
The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva itself claims that a few fortunate people may achieve instantaneous enlightenment by understanding its contents. I hope so.
While the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva was not incorporated into the Kagyur, its manuscript was faithfully copied down through the centuries, preserved among the collections called Nyingma Gyubum, or Hundred Thousand Tantras of the Ancients and in the manuscript collection known as the Hundred Thousand Tantras of Vairochana.[5] The present translation was done based on a manuscript contained in the second volume of the mTshams brag manuscript.[6]
The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva is only one of a very many scriptures translated by Vairochana. I hope that this translation will encourage further study of the literature of the Great Perfection tradition, so that these treasures of mankind’s literary heritage may be more widely read and appreciated.
The Basic Scene
I bow to glorious Vajrasattva, Secret Wisdom!
These things were once spoken:
The Tathagata is a fully perfected Buddha who dwells eternally in a magnificent pleasure that is like the sky. His body, speech, and mind are like vajras. He is a spontaneously formed potentate, indivisible from the totality of Vajrasattvas. He beams out like a thousand suns in a most extraordinary way. He is the unique essence of all things. His magnificence cannot be separated from any of them. This glorious Vajrasattva, the unity of all the Buddhas of the three times, lives in the abode of Akaniṣṭa, a dominion of the Dharma that is not to be exaggerated or demeaned, in a crystal palace made of the blazing wisdom of awareness. It has no boundaries or center, and is equal to the dominion of the sky.
The most secret of secret wisdoms has the measure of a magnificent all-encompassing pervasion that has no extent or limits. It is profound and subtle. Its nature is difficult to understand. Nothing touches it, and it is neither depleted nor augmented. It is ornamented with a countless vast diffusion of jewels, equal to the end of the sky. The Great Perfection, the Blessed One, dwells in it.
He has a retinue of natural essence, a retinue who looks after this nature, and a retinue who actually attains this nature. They are like this: They are of earth, water, fire, wind, space, the realm of desire, the realm of form, and the formless realm. They are also of the Total Yoga,[7] the Great Yoga,[8] the Referential Yoga,[9] and the Extreme Yoga.[10] All of them were there in a single party with all the Buddhas of the ten directions, past, yet to come, and present, in their embodiment as the Dharma, their embodiment as pleasure, and their manifest embodiments.
Then the mightiest of the gods addressed all the Victorious Ones of the ten directions with these words:
Kye,
The Victorious Ones who travel through the three times
Are said to fulfill the wishes of everyone,
But they teach the vehicles that require seeking to be final.
Please speak on the instantaneous vehicle
For yogins who are trained in non-seeking!
Then all the Buddhas of the ten directions proclaimed these words to Vajra, the Great Vajrasattva:
Kye Ma!
Great Vajrasattva!
You hold the vajra of the bodies, speech, and minds
Of all the Buddhas of the three times.
You are the lord of all the Victorious Ones.
Please use your naturally uncontrived compassion
To explain the transmission of this effortless perfection.
Then a Vajrasattva who was an emanation of wisdom emerged from out of glorious Vajrasattva’s dominion of the Dharma to grant the empowerment of the five-pointed vajra. He proclaimed these words:
You hold the treasure of the wheel
Of the secrets of all the Buddhas of the three times.
You hold the secrets of their bodies, speech, and minds.
You are a lion among speakers.
Please speak on the spontaneously achieved vehicle,
For people who are trained in non-seeking.
Then Sattvavajra proclaimed these words:
Vajra of the Secret Mantra,
The magnificent sky is not in the domain of words.
Talking about it will not bring understanding.
It is extremely difficult to argue about it, saying: “This.”
However,
This place is full with vow keepers.
Use the compassionate blessings of the Buddha
To elaborate on it,
Through the portals of words,
So that they may meet with the significance of the symbols,
And understand them!
Then Vajrasattva addressed the Tathagata named: “Unshakable,”[11] who was comprehensively teaching his own retinue the significance of the unsought mind in the Eastern dominion of the world called: “Truly Joyous,”[12] with these words:
The base is, itself, a self-occurring vajra,
So how could there be the delusion
That there is an escape from it?
The Tathagata Unshakable proclaimed these words:
The base is, itself, self-occurring wisdom.
It was not born and will not be destroyed.
It is free from joining or separation,
Like the sky.
Use this to teach the way of enlightenment!
Then Sattvavajra addressed the Tathagata Truly High[13] in the world to the South called: “Glorious,”[14] with these words:
How does the real perfection of the All Good,
Which occurs by itself,
Fulfill innumerable wishes?
The Tathagata Truly High proclaimed these words:
The reality that dawns from itself
Is like the rays of the sun,
Or like a jewel.
It is spontaneously perfected from the primordial,
Without any acquisition.
It neither goes nor comes,
For it encompasses all things.
Use this to teach the way of enlightenment!
Then, again, Sattvavajra addressed the Buddha Unattached Lotus[15] in a place called: “Lotus Mound,”[16] in the world to the West, with these words:
Is this heart-essence of self-occurring purity
Stained or unstained
By ignorance, taking in and holding on,
Delusion in samsara, karma, and habitual patterns?
The Tathagata spoke these words:
Self-occurring wisdom is pure from the beginning.
It is free from habitual patterns,
Even those of the five inexplicables,
Just like a lotus is free from mud.
Use this to teach the way of enlightenment!
Then Sattvavajra addressed the Tathagata Total Success[17] in the world called: “Total Success,”[18] to the North, with these words:
How is the apparent world,
Both internal and external,
Built upon the spontaneously formed activity
Of the base itself?
The Tathagata proclaimed these words:
Blessings from spontaneously formed bliss waves
Pervade the ten directions
Without any search.
Use this to teach the way of enlightenment
That is everyone’s treasure,
And is not kept anywhere in the ten directions!
Then Sattvavajra addressed the Tathagata Maker of All Appearance[19] with these words:
According to the ways of magical people,
We understand one thing,
And everything else is like that.
We will not see
The uncontrived heart-essence of enlightenment
By looking for it.
Then the blessings of heroic compassion
Showed themselves in a body,
Using their five lights,
As a force of encouragement for people
At the end of the dominion of desire
Who have three names,
For there were three omens.
From atop the throne of a Dharma wheel,
Beneath a shining firmament of blazing jewels,
Vajra proclaimed the unspoken.
Princely people,
Having the resolve of awareness,
Understood what it means,
And that very moment
Was the instant of the ending of time for them.
So it was that the twenty thousand volumes
On the nine spaces[20]
Were disseminated in the abodes of the fortunate gods.
Then, through the blessings of their compassion,
A flock of subtly ornamented birds,
Emanations of Light Rays,[21]
The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.
She was invested with empowerment
With the vase of royal investiture,
From seven fortunate children who were also emanations,
And met with the Bodhicitta without hindrance.
This wheel of secrets is a treasure of awareness.
It is most significant,
And does not require the assembly of the pieces of signs.
We achieve it by settling into whatever pleases us,
Without looking for anything.
Innumerable Victorious Ones have brought this together
From out of their perfect stores,
And proclaimed its teaching broadly.
There is nothing that is not included in the Nine Spaces.
The fortunate, those who know compassion,
Will understand this instantaneously.
Their bodies will fill the great expanse[22] of the vajra sky.
They will cut through the complications
Of there being a middle and extremes.
They will carry a wheel of wisdom lamps,
Without being given them.
Their luminescence is unspeakable.
Their inspiration equals the end of the sky.
They are primordially cleansed
From the complications made by definitions.
In the wheel of self-illuminating awareness
They are skilled in the methods
Of thought, speech, and practice.
In the wheel of the awareness of equanimity,
They lay things out with definitions and grammar.
From out of the wheel of self-occurring wisdom
Their fabulous compassion naturally arises.
The Tathagata Vajrasattva
Rises up from out of the wheel of self-occurring secrecy,
As do the teachings on the Nine Spaces,
And demonstrates how the self-occurring
Is clear by itself.
It explains things to itself.
It teaches itself.
It gathers itself,
And brilliantly comes together,
Dwelling as one with the uncontrived circle.[23]
The proclamations on awareness are clear by themselves,
And are beyond speaking.
This is well known as the Tantra on Effortless Perfection.[24]
From the Great Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the first chapter, the Basic Scene.
The Self-Occurrence of Wisdom
Then the holy Sattva Vajra presented a request to Vajrasattva, the Blessed One, with these words:
Secret Heart of All the Victorious Ones,
Heart of Hearts,
Lord of Orators,
Please take into consideration
The threefold explanation
Of the essence of the three Atis
That uses validations whereby we connect meanings to symbols,
And then speak on the base, the path, and the fruit.
Then the Tathagata Vajrasattva proclaimed these words:
Great Vajrasattva,
Listen well:
The Tantra that is Equal to the End of the Sky
Is the intent of all the contemplations of the Victorious Ones.
It has given birth to innumerable Victorious Ones.
I am not a professor of emptiness,
Yet the joining of words with meanings is dear.
The nature of the uncontrived contemplation of the Great Perfection
Is to be methodical and bring results.
We exemplify it,
Using a voice that speaks without contradiction.
We do not confuse these three:
The systematic presentation of the true significance of material things,
The path where there is no seeking, our unchanging heart,
And the results that occur by themselves, that we do not work toward,
For they are definitely equal, and are one,
But they are to be understood
Through three styles of explanation.
The base, path, and result
Are the fruition of a wisdom that exists by itself.
It brings a shining happiness to practitioners.
Our thoughts dawn into a truly brilliant diffusion.
The significance of the transmission,
To the extent that definitions prevail,
Which is essentially where causes and conditions are definite,
Is entirely transparent
In this wisdom that rises up by itself.
It is not contrived and not created.
It has been here since the beginning.
It is not joined or departed from.
It is perfect in itself.
It is clear and undisturbed,
A dominion that comes about by itself,
A sphere of equanimity that appears to us,
But is not to be conceptualized.
It shines by itself and is not to be obstructed.
This self-awareness dawns on us
As being the truth in the wisdom that we know.
It shines by itself.
It is not to be visualized.
It is not part of any object.
The shining space of perfect wisdom has no words.
It is the true perfection of equanimity.
We do not think about ourselves.
We do not think about anyone else.
We do not think of either of them.
We are free from these extreme positions.
There is nothing to be generated,
And no act of generation,
For there is no cause for these things.
The uncreated heart-essence of enlightenment
Is not born and does not end.
It is free from these conventionalities.
Our wisdom is perfected,
And whatever there may be, be it caused or uncaused,
In this shining domain,
Is unified in this dominion.
We do not generate it,
For it is present from the primordial.
This wheel that occurs by itself
Has been shining since the primordial.
Our fruition has been present in its own cause
Since the primordial.
In the heart-essence of wisdom,
Everything is perfect.
Everything is one.
There are no differences.
In the heart-essence of uncontrived enlightenment,
The clarity of reflexive awareness
Is perfect without our seeking it,
In the heart-essence of enlightenment.
We seem to be looking for something in the darkness
With a lamp,
So we use deceptive words to join symbols with meanings
To elucidate samsara as being
The heart-essence of enlightenment
We use no generation,
For this has no connection to causes and fruitions.
In the heart-essence of the vajra
They are perfected in a single instant.
When we unite boundaries we abide in unity.
In clarity, a self-luminescent mandala,
We are primordially cleansed of ignorance regarding conditions.
This is the highest illumination of uncaused wisdom.
There is nothing like the transmission
Of the selfless emptiness of self-awareness,
For it frees us instantaneously from the current.
The dominion of the Dharma has no country
And has no visualization.
It is uncontrived,
And occurs by itself.
It has no connection with conditions.
Therefore, its abode, occurrence, and coalition
Do not fall into a position
That claims that everything is a material reality.
It is because we know it, practice it, and it is something to understand
That it is not connected to names, designations, and symbols.
It is not connected to the extreme there is
In designating some realness.
It does not engage in the ways of certainty and uncertainty.
It has no designation,
And is not connected to definite words.
In its freedom from identity with letters
There is an unerring path
Toward understanding how it is,
And there is the path
Where we are either certain or uncertain
About what is real.
They are the same, and abide no differences,
But when we take the aspect of what they mean
To be primary,
We must understand them,
So we discuss it to be sure.
When we move along the trails of words
With sounds that are certain and not deceptive,
We can make things meaningful.
We are joined to the wheel of awareness
From the primordial,
And contemplate awareness
Through the intentions in what is spoken.
On the mound of precious jewels
That is reflexive awareness,
That is deceptive words,
To see the hill,
That is a house of treasure,
And without our seeking it
Our fruition is evident.
This analogy in which three ends are evident
Is not to be seen through the visions of our cravings.
It is described to resemble
The density of darkness.
There is no discontinuity in its play.
This is described to resemble
The ripples on water.
Its clarity and evenness do not mix.
It is not connected to equanimity.
This is described to resemble
These are the analogies for the playfulness of the three embodiments:
It has no part in holding onto any essence
That might subdue and pervade.
This is described as the embodiment of the Dharma,
The spaciousness of the sky.
The embodiment of perfection is beautiful.
It is pervasive and totally transparent.
It is described as resembling
The shining of a hundred thousand suns.
Manifest embodiment abides in all things,
Without causing them or engaging in them.
This is described as resembling
The rays of the sun.
We analyze this heart-essence
That has been spontaneously formed since the primordial
With the conceptions of our intellects.
This is described as resembling
Clouds and mist.
All of these have the single flavor of wisdom,
Which is described to resemble
The ocean with its salt.
As you see, they are to be understood
In non-duality.
So the genuine acquisition
Of a source on the Great Perfection
Is described to resemble
Hearing the moon.
Our practice of what is meaningful
May be definite or indefinite.
Our thoughts about giving things up,
And taking them on,
Are like stars.
When they are definite we have a transparent equanimity
That is not connected to our conceptions.
This is described as resembling
Meditating the sun.
When we do not reject any definitions at all,
Our clarity is perfected
In the heart-essence of wisdom.
The true character of this has been empty
From the very beginning.
It has been perfected in a dominion
That has no connection to our consciousness.
It is there, no matter what.
It is anything at all.
It does not stop.
But through the specializations of our minds
This unstoppablity becomes a dimension of our clarity.
It is one,
And it is not adulterated.
It is evident in different things.
It cuts through our addiction to appearances.
We may visualize it,
But it is not connected to any objective we may seek.
The heart-essence of wisdom is a rising sun.
It is like a house made of precious gemstones.
Anything at all may be revealed,
But there is nothing there at all.
Through an equanimity that is not visible in any way
Anything we look for appears to us,
And our joining with it is equal to the end of the sky.
It transcends measures, relationships, and analogies,
As if it were the blazing heart of the sun.
To the measure that we are free from obstructions due to extremes
Our wisdom will be transparent and unstoppable.
It will not remain in any definite place, though,
For anything at all might appear to be definite.
To the measure that the mirror of delusion is clear
This precious jewel that is the mind itself
Is originally pure,
And is not connected to any designations there may be
For the appearances of taking things in,
And holding onto them.
It is like the light rays of a hundred thousand suns.
To the measure we feel this occurring in ourselves
We will be united with the end of the sky,
Leaving behind the measures of great and small.
Holding on is like looking for the edge to the sky.
The most minute of the minute mustard seeds
Has a subtle measure
That a hundred thousand others do not allow.
The heart-essence of the wisdom that holds knowledge
Does not know anything,
It does not visualize any extreme or middle,
But knows its equality with the end of the sky.
In the way of the perfection of self-arising wisdom
Obstructions that are limiting are brilliantly removed.
The mandala of the self-arising sun is clear.
This is discussed in the transmission of this perfection,
A perfection that is not connected with our works.
The wisdom of reflexive awareness holds knowledge,
So we understand the heart-essence of non-duality
To perfection.
This wisdom of self-clarity holds to perfection,
And occurs to us in our experience
As being both awareness and appearances.
In the mandala of self-occurring light
Deceptive words are joined to symbols
In our awareness,
And so we meet up with meanings
For the symbols of an unborn dimension
Without seeking them,
With little toil,
And for great purpose.
Self-occurring wisdom is a treasure of jewels,
A method for entering many doors.
It is inconceivable.
If we understand it,
It is the place we abide in unity.
The magnificent methods there are for understanding it
And the transmissions of the Tantras,
Which arise like the light of the self-luminescent sun,
Reach into the space of our awareness,
Which encompasses the sky.
This self-luminescence of awareness,
Which occurs by itself,
Is the transmission of the Bodhicitta
That pervades the sky.
The nine lines of the Cuckoo of Awareness[25]
Were broadcast from out of the heart-mandala of Vajrasattva.
The twenty thousand volumes on the nine spaces
Were elucidated so that the self-luminescence of the mind itself
Might be seen.
The thing that has nine
Is the base of the mind.
It is a door from which piles of jewels pour out.
It is like the light of the sun
Coming out primordially
From a treasure house with heaps of jewels.
From the Tantra that is Equal to the End of the Sky this is the second chapter: The Self-occurrence of Wisdom.
