The Hundred Syllables, and the Closing Entrustment
Part 9 carries the last thirteen chapters of this sūtra's core teaching: the "hundred-syllable" sequence built on the letter A, a parable about a magician's illusion creating a further illusion of itself, a definition of what a tathāgata actually is, a former life the Buddha recounts among the Brahmā gods, and forty-four Vedic fire-lineages absorbed and reworked into twelve fires of wisdom — before the sūtra closes its own thirty-one-chapter foundation with a final entrustment: who is fit to receive this teaching, and a last empowerment offered to protect it in the world.
The Hundred Syllables, and Four Kinds of Measurelessness
爾時毘盧遮那世尊觀察諸大會眾，說不空教……以妙音聲告大力金剛手言：「勤勇士一心諦聽諸真言、真言導師。」即時住於智生三昧，而說出生種種巧智百光遍照真言曰：「南麼三曼多勃馱喃(一) 暗」佛告金剛手：「此一切真言，真王救世者，成就大威德，即是正等覺，法自在牟尼。……」
爾時毘盧遮那世尊告執金剛祕密主言：「祕密主！若入大覺世尊大智灌頂地，自見住於三三昧耶句。」……以知心無量故，知身無量。知身無量故，知智無量。知智無量故，即知眾生無量。知眾生無量故，即知虛空界無量。祕密主！由心無量故，得四種無量。得已，成最正覺，具十智力，降伏四魔，以無所畏而師子吼。
At that time the World-Honored One Mahāvairocana, surveying the whole great assembly, taught the doctrine of unfailing accomplishment…and, in a wondrous voice, said to the mighty Vajrapāṇi: "Valiant one, listen closely with a single mind to every mantra, and to the guide of mantras." He then abided in the samādhi of wisdom's own arising, and spoke the mantra that gives rise to every kind of skillful wisdom, the hundred lights universally illuminating: Namaḥ samanta-buddhānāṃ aṃ. The Buddha said to Vajrapāṇi: "This is the very king of every mantra, savior of the world, accomplishing great majestic virtue — it is itself perfect awakening, the Silent Sage sovereign over the Dharma…"
At that time the World-Honored One Mahāvairocana said to Vajrapāṇi, Lord of Secrets: "Lord of Secrets, one who enters the ground of the great awakened World-Honored One's own great wisdom-empowerment beholds themselves abiding in the phrase of the three samayas."…Because one knows mind to be measureless, one knows body to be measureless. Because one knows body to be measureless, one knows wisdom to be measureless. Because one knows wisdom to be measureless, one knows beings to be measureless. Because one knows beings to be measureless, one knows the realm of space to be measureless. Lord of Secrets, from the mind's own measurelessness, four kinds of measurelessness are attained. Having attained them, one accomplishes the most perfect awakening, complete with the ten powers of wisdom, subduing the four Māras, and roars the lion's roar, without any fear at all.
The chain from mind's measurelessness to body's, then to wisdom's, then to that of all beings, then to space's own — each link following necessarily from the one before — restates, in a single unbroken sequence, the identity Part 1 already established between mind, space, and bodhi as "three without duality": here that identity is not simply asserted but walked through step by step, so that a practitioner who genuinely grasps the mind's own measurelessness is shown arriving, by strict implication rather than further teaching, at the measurelessness of the entire realm of space. The "hundred syllables" this chapter and the next several take their name from build outward from AṂ exactly as Part 3's forty-two gateways built outward from A — the same seed multiplied through its own transformations rather than a genuinely new alphabet.
The Mirror of the Self
「復次祕密主！真言門修菩薩行諸菩薩如是自身影像生起無有殊勝過三菩提，如眼耳鼻舌身意等四大種攝持集聚，彼如是自性空，唯有名字所執，猶如虛空，無所執著，等於影像。彼如來成正覺，互相緣起無有間絕。若從緣生，彼即如影像生。是故諸本尊即我、我即本尊，互相發起身所生身尊形像生。……祕密主！云何從意生？意能生影像。祕密主！譬如若白若黃若赤，作意者作時染著意生，彼同類如是身轉。祕密主！又如內觀意中漫荼羅療治熱病，彼眾生熱病即時除愈無有疑惑。非漫荼羅異意，非意異漫荼羅。何以故？彼漫荼羅一相故。祕密主！又如幻者幻作男子，而彼男子又復作化。祕密主！於意云何？彼何者為勝？」時金剛手白佛言：「世尊！此二人者，無相異也。何以故？世尊！非實生故。是二男子本性空故，等同於幻。如是祕密主，意生眾事及意所生，如是俱空，無二無別。」
"Furthermore, Lord of Secrets, for bodhisattvas practicing bodhisattva conduct within the gateway of mantra, this arising of their own body's reflected image is nothing more excellent than the three-fold bodhi itself — just as the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are held together and gathered from the four great elements, and are, in just this way, empty of any nature of their own, grasped at only through name, like space itself, with nothing genuinely to grasp, equal to a mere reflection. That Tathāgata's own accomplishment of perfect awakening arises through mutual dependent origination, without a single break. If it is born from conditions, then it is born exactly as a reflection is born. Therefore every meditational deity is myself, and I am that very deity — one body giving rise to another, arising as the deity's own reflected form…Lord of Secrets, how does this arise from mind? Mind is able to give rise to a reflected image. Lord of Secrets, it is like this: whether white, yellow, or red, when the one who forms the intention forms it, a mind attached to that color arises, and the body then turns according to that very kind. Lord of Secrets, it is also like an inwardly visualized maṇḍala within the mind that heals a fever — that being's fever is cured at once, without any doubt about it. The maṇḍala is not other than the mind, nor is the mind other than the maṇḍala. Why is this so? Because that maṇḍala is itself of a single nature with mind. Lord of Secrets, it is also like a magician who conjures an illusory man, and that illusory man in turn conjures a further illusion of his own. Lord of Secrets, what do you think — which of these two is superior?" At that time Vajrapāṇi said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, these two are no different from one another. Why is this so? World-Honored One, because neither was ever truly born in the first place. Both of these men are, in their fundamental nature, empty — equally illusory. Just so, Lord of Secrets: what mind gives rise to, and what mind itself is, are both equally empty, without duality, without any difference between them."
The image of an illusory man conjuring a further illusion of his own, with neither more or less real than the other, gives this chapter its sharpest formulation yet of a claim this collection has traced since the ten similes of Part 1: a practitioner visualizing a deity, and the deity thereby visualized, stand in exactly the relation of the first illusory man to the second — neither is the "real" one from which the other derives, because neither was ever independently real to begin with. This is also the doctrinal foundation of a specific later practice this sūtra does not name directly but clearly anticipates: nyāsa or "deity yoga" in its broadest sense, where a practitioner does not merely petition an external deity but comes to identify their own body directly with the deity contemplated — stated here in the plainest possible terms, "every meditational deity is myself, and I am that very deity."
Every Letter as a Face of A
Chapter Twenty-Two repeats the forty-two gateways of Part 3 in a new key: rather than each letter independently negating some aspect of phenomena, every letter here is described as a specific "manifestation" (現…字形) of the letter A itself — VA appearing where ungraspability is shown, KA where freedom from fabrication is shown, and so on through the same alphabet, closing with the claim that even the thirty-two marks of a buddha's own body arise from this single sequence. Chapter Twenty-Three then turns to sound itself: a mantra's sound is empty, arising from the letter, and a practitioner who enters directly into that emptiness of sound is said thereby to enter samādhi itself.
「祕密主！如是阿字，住於種種莊嚴，布列圖位。以一切法本不生故，顯示自形。或以不可得義，現嚩字形。或諸法遠離造作故，現迦字形。……祕密主！隨入此等一一三昧門，祕密主！觀是乃至三十二大人相等皆從此中出。」
「當知聲性空， 即空所造作，一切眾生類， 如言而妄執；非空亦非聲， 為修行者說，入於聲解脫， 即證三摩地。」
"Lord of Secrets, this letter A, dwelling amid every kind of adornment, is arrayed and set in place throughout the whole design. Because every dharma is fundamentally unborn, it displays its own true form. Through the meaning of ungraspability, it appears in the form of the letter VA. Because every dharma is far removed from fabrication, it appears in the form of the letter KA…Lord of Secrets, entering by turns into each of these samādhi-gateways, Lord of Secrets — observe that even the thirty-two marks of a great being arise entirely from within this very sequence."
"Know that the nature of sound is empty — precisely what emptiness itself fabricates; every kind of being clings falsely to it, exactly as it is spoken. It is neither emptiness nor mere sound that is taught here to the practitioner: entering into the very liberation of sound, one thereby bears witness to samādhi itself."
Reframing the forty-two gateways as "manifestations" of a single letter A, rather than forty-two independent negations, makes explicit what Part 3's own commentary already implied about A's status as seed-syllable: every other letter is not merely built from A phonetically, but is A itself, appearing under a different name at a different angle. The teaching on sound's own emptiness that follows closes a loop this sūtra opened at its very first mantra: a practitioner is not asked to treat a mantra's sound as an arbitrary noise pointing toward a separate, silent truth beyond it, nor as itself a solid, self-existing power — "neither emptiness nor mere sound" — but to enter directly into the sound's own liberation, which the text identifies outright with samādhi.
The Nature of Bodhi, and Three Samayas
「譬如十方虛空相， 常遍一切無所依，如是真言救世者， 於一切法無所依。又如空中諸色像， 雖可現見無依處，真言救世者亦然， 非彼諸法所依處。世間成立虛空量， 遠離去來現在世，若見真言救世者， 亦復出過三世法。」
「復次祕密主！有三三昧耶，最初正覺心， 第二名為法，彼心相續生， 所謂和合僧，此三三昧耶， 諸佛導師說。……」祕密主！三藐三佛陀安立教故，以一身加持，所謂初變化身。復次祕密主！次於一身示現三種，所謂佛、法、僧。……彼不著一切妄執，無能為障礙者，除不樂欲、懈怠、無利談話、不生信心、積集資財者。復應不作二事，謂飲諸酒及寢床上。」
"Just as the mark of space in the ten directions is ever pervasive, dependent upon nothing at all, so too the mantra practitioner, savior of the world, depends on no dharma whatsoever. And just as every form and color within space, though visible, has nowhere it truly rests, so too the mantra practitioner, savior of the world — no dharma is the ground on which they rest. What the world establishes as the measure of space is far removed from past, future, and present alike; whoever beholds the mantra practitioner, savior of the world, sees one who likewise passes beyond the dharmas of the three times."
"Furthermore, Lord of Secrets, there are three samayas: the first, the mind of perfect awakening; the second, called the Dharma; and that mind's own continuous arising, namely the harmonious saṅgha — these three samayas every buddha, every guide, has taught…" Lord of Secrets, because the Perfectly Awakened One establishes his teaching, he empowers it with a single body — namely, the first, transformation body. Furthermore, Lord of Secrets, within that one body, three are displayed: namely, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha…Such a one clings to no false grasping, and nothing can obstruct them — except a lack of aspiration, laziness, idle and unprofitable talk, a failure to give rise to faith, and the hoarding of wealth. They should further refrain from two things: drinking any wine, and sleeping upon a raised bed."
The two concrete prohibitions closing this chapter — no wine, no sleeping on a raised bed — stand out for their sheer ordinariness against the surrounding cosmic-scale doctrine of a bodhi "far removed from past, future, and present alike"; the sūtra does not treat this as a jarring shift in register but simply moves, in a single breath, from the outer limit of what can be said about emptiness to the plainest possible standard of a practitioner's daily conduct. The three samayas mapped onto the Three Jewels — bodhicitta as Buddha, teaching as Dharma, and the mind's own continuous arising as the harmonious saṅgha — offer this sūtra's own account of why the Three Jewels, refuge for every school of Buddhism, are not a separate layer of devotion added onto esoteric practice but are already fully present within the single body Mahāvairocana displays.
What Is a Tathāgata?
爾時執金剛祕密主白世尊言：
「云何為如來？ 云何人中尊？云何名菩薩？ 云何為正覺？導師大牟尼， 願斷我所疑。菩薩大名稱， 棄捨疑慮心，當修摩訶衍， 行王無有上。」
爾時薄伽梵毘盧遮那觀察諸大會眾，告執金剛祕密主言：「善哉善哉！金剛手！能問吾如是義。祕密主！汝當諦聽，善思念之，吾今演說摩訶衍道。頌曰：
「『菩提虛空相， 離一切分別，樂求彼菩提， 名菩提薩埵。成就十地等， 自在善通達，諸法空如幻， 知此一切同，解諸世間趣， 故名為正覺。法如虛空相， 無二惟一相，成佛十智力， 故號三菩提。唯慧害無明， 自性離言說，自證之智慧， 故說名如來。』」
At that time Vajrapāṇi said to the World-Honored One:
"What is a tathāgata? What is the most honored among people? What is called a bodhisattva? What is perfect awakening? Great Silent Sage, guide of the world, I beg you to resolve my doubts. Let bodhisattvas of great renown cast off every hesitant mind, and cultivate the Great Vehicle, the unsurpassed king among every path."
At that time the Bhagavān Mahāvairocana, surveying the whole great assembly, said to Vajrapāṇi, Lord of Secrets: "Excellent, excellent, Vajrapāṇi! You ask me a question of such import. Lord of Secrets, listen closely, and reflect on this well — I shall now proclaim the path of the Great Vehicle. The verse:
"'Bodhi bears the mark of space itself, free of every discrimination; one who delights in seeking that very bodhi is called a bodhisattva. Having accomplished the ten grounds and the rest, sovereign and thoroughly penetrating, knowing every dharma to be empty as an illusion, and knowing this to be true of all alike, understanding every destiny of the world — for this one is called perfectly awakened. The Dharma bears the mark of space itself, without duality, of a single mark alone; having accomplished the buddha's own ten powers of wisdom, for this one is called the fully awakened one. Only wisdom destroys ignorance; its own nature is beyond all words — the wisdom that bears witness to itself: for this, one is called a tathāgata.'"
This chapter's four brief definitions — bodhisattva as one who delights in seeking markless bodhi, samyaksaṃbuddha as one who has accomplished the ten grounds and knows every dharma as illusion, saṃbuddha as one who has attained the Dharma's own single mark through the ten powers, and tathāgata as self-witnessing wisdom that destroys ignorance — are among the most quotably concise statements of Buddhist ontology anywhere in this sūtra, offered without a single mantra, mudrā, or maṇḍala instruction attached to any of them. Their placement here, roughly two-thirds of the way through the text's core chapters and immediately before the sūtra turns to its final ritual matters (fire offerings, deity visualization, recitation method, and the closing entrustment), reads as a deliberate pause: a moment where the sūtra restates, in the plainest possible prose-poetry, what all the preceding ritual apparatus has been in service of the whole time.
Forty-Four Vedic Fires, and Twelve Fires of Wisdom
The Buddha now recounts a story from a former life: as a bodhisattva dwelling among the Brahmā gods, he was once asked by a Brahmā how many kinds of fire there are. What follows is a genealogy of forty-four named fires drawn directly from Vedic domestic ritual — each fire proper to a specific life-cycle rite, from conception through marriage, illness, and cremation — which the Buddha, now awakened, reworks into a wholly different scheme: twelve fires of wisdom, named for qualities of mind rather than ritual occasions.
「復次祕密主！往昔一時我為菩薩，行菩薩行住於梵世，時有梵天來問我言：『大梵！我等欲知火有幾種？』時我如是答言：……〈四十四種火名，各配其禮儀場合，自受胎、澡身、生子、命名、飲食、剃髮、受戒、婚媾、造房、拜日月、乃至劫燒盡火〉……此四十四種，爾時我宣說。』復次祕密主！我於往昔時，不知諸火性，作諸護摩事，彼非護摩行，非能成業果。我復成菩提，演說十二火，智火最為初，名火因陀羅……第十一火神(梵本闕其名)；十二謨賀那，眾生所迷惑。祕密主此等，火色之所持，隨其自形色，藥物等同彼，而作外護摩，隨意成悉地。復次於內心，一性而具三，三處合為一，瑜祇內護摩。大慈大悲心，是謂息災法，彼兼具於喜，是為增益法，忿怒從胎藏，而造眾事業。」
"Furthermore, Lord of Secrets, long ago, at one time, I was a bodhisattva, practicing bodhisattva conduct while dwelling among the Brahmā gods, when a certain Brahmā came and asked me: 'Great Brahmā, we wish to know how many kinds of fire there are.' I answered him thus…" (forty-four named fires follow, each assigned to a specific domestic rite — conception, bathing after intercourse, the birth of a child, the naming of a child, eating, the first cutting of a child's topknot, the taking of vows, a young man's marriage, the building of a house, worship of the sun and moon, and, at the very last, the fire that consumes the world at the end of an aeon) — "'These forty-four, I proclaimed to you at that time.' Furthermore, Lord of Secrets, in that former time, not yet knowing the true nature of fire, I performed fire offerings that were, in fact, no true fire-offering practice at all, and could not bring any karmic fruit to accomplishment. Having now accomplished bodhi, I proclaim instead twelve fires. The fire of wisdom comes first of all, named Fire-Indra…the eleventh, a fire-deity whose name is missing from the Sanskrit text; the twelfth, Moha, "delusion," by which every being is confused. Lord of Secrets, these are upheld by their own colors of fire; and whatever substance and medicine shares that same color should be used accordingly, performing the outer fire offering, so as to accomplish siddhi according to one's own wish. Furthermore, within the heart, a single nature holds all three at once — three places joined as one, the yogin's own inner fire offering. The mind of great loving-kindness and great compassion is called the rite of pacification; that same mind, joined with joy, is the rite of increase; wrath, arising from the very matrix of compassion, carries out every other kind of ritual work."
This chapter is unusually direct about its own relationship to the Vedic tradition it draws from: rather than simply borrowing fire-ritual vocabulary silently, the sūtra stages an explicit before-and-after — the Buddha himself, in a former life still bound within the Brahmanical cosmos, reciting the forty-four traditional household fires exactly as a Brahmin priest would have taught them, and only later, "having now accomplished bodhi," replacing that entire genealogy with a scheme of twelve wisdom-fires organized by psychological and ritual function rather than by life-cycle occasion. The move mirrors, in narrative form, the same absorption-rather-than-rejection this collection has already traced in the maṇḍala's own outer courts (Part 2's reading note on Indra, Brahmā, Yama, and the rest gathered into the second court rather than excluded from it): the forty-four fires are not declared false or discarded, but explicitly named as the earlier, unenlightened version of a practice the Buddha himself once performed without understanding — reworked, not erased, once real wisdom is attained. The three inner fires closing the chapter — loving-kindness and compassion for pacification, joy added for increase, and wrath arising "from the very matrix of compassion" for subjugation — restate the fourfold rite-classification already introduced with the five-color visualization of Part 5, confirming that even the most forceful, wrathful ritual action this sūtra ever describes is said to originate from compassion rather than anger in the ordinary sense.
Deity-Bodies, and the Markless Samādhi
「祕密主！諸尊有三種身，所謂字、印、形像。彼字有二種，謂聲及菩提心。印有二種，所謂有形、無形。本尊之身亦有二種，所謂清淨、非清淨。彼證淨身離一切相，非淨有想之身則有顯形眾色。彼二種尊形，成就二種事：有想故成就有相悉地，無想故隨生無相悉地。」而說偈言：「佛說有想故，樂欲成有相；以住無想故，獲無相悉地。是故一切種，當住於非想。」
「祕密主！彼真言門修菩薩行諸菩薩樂欲成就無相三昧，當如是思惟：『想從何生？為自身耶？自心意耶？若從身生，身如草木瓦石，自性如是，離於造作、無所識知、因業所生，應當等觀同於外事。……愚童凡夫於自性空形像自我分生，顛倒不實起諸分別，或復供養或加毀害。』……復次祕密主！心無自性，離一切想故，當思惟性空。祕密主！心於三時求不可得，以過三世故，如是自性遠離諸相。」
"Lord of Secrets, every deity has three kinds of body — namely, letter, seal, and image. The letter has two kinds: sound, and bodhicitta. The seal has two kinds: with form, and without form. The deity's own body likewise has two kinds: pure, and impure. The body realized as pure is free of every mark; the body not yet pure, still bearing a mental image, still bears a displayed form and every color. These two forms of the deity accomplish two kinds of thing: because there is a mental image, siddhi with form is accomplished; because there is no mental image, siddhi without form arises accordingly." He then spoke this verse: "The Buddha teaches that, because there is a mental image, one delights in accomplishing what has form; and because one abides free of any mental image, one obtains siddhi without form. Therefore, in every respect, one should abide in what is neither thought nor its absence."
"Lord of Secrets, bodhisattvas practicing bodhisattva conduct within the gateway of mantra, wishing to accomplish the markless samādhi, should reflect thus: 'Where does this mental image arise from? From my own body? From my own mind? If it arises from the body, the body is like grass, wood, tile, or stone — its own nature just so, free of any fabrication, without any awareness of its own, born from karma alone; one should regard it, equally, the same as any outward thing…The ignorant, childish common person, out of the emptiness of their own nature, gives rise to a divided sense of self through such an image, and, through this inversion and falsehood, gives rise to every kind of discrimination — sometimes making offering to it, sometimes doing it harm.'…Furthermore, Lord of Secrets, mind has no nature of its own, being free of every mental image; one should therefore contemplate its own emptiness of nature. Lord of Secrets, mind, sought across the three times, cannot be apprehended — because it passes beyond the three times altogether, its own nature is, in just this way, far removed from every mark."
"One should abide in what is neither thought nor its absence" gives this sūtra its most compact resolution of a tension this collection has tracked since Part 1's ten similes: a practitioner who visualizes a deity in full iconographic detail (Part 2's Womb Maṇḍala, Part 6's mudrās) is not thereby indulging in a lesser, merely provisional practice compared to one who contemplates formless emptiness directly — both are named here as legitimate, each accomplishing its own kind of siddhi, and the sūtra's actual instruction is to hold neither position exclusively. The markless samādhi chapter that follows applies the same "search through every possible location" method Part 1 used to search for mind through twelve sense-fields, now searching specifically for where a visualized image could originate — body, or mind — and finding, in both cases, only further emptiness; this collection's reading notes on Part 1 already flagged this exact search-method as the sūtra's single most frequently reused technique, and its reappearance here, in one of the very last doctrinal chapters before the sūtra's closing entrustment, marks it as a technique meant to remain live throughout a practitioner's entire path, not merely a beginner's exercise superseded by more advanced instruction.
Recitation, Worldly and Transcendent
「一一諸真言， 作心意念誦，出入息為二， 常第一相應，異此而受持， 真言闕支分。內與外相應， 我說有四種，彼世間念誦， 有所緣相續，住種子字句， 或心隨本尊，故說有攀緣， 出入息為上。當知出世心， 遠離於諸字，自尊為一相， 無二無取著，不壞意色像， 勿異於法則。」
"For every single mantra, recitation is made with the mind's own intention; the breath moving in and out forms a pair, and this is ever the most excellent way to be attuned to it — held and practiced in any other way, the mantra's own limbs remain incomplete. There are four kinds of attunement, inner and outer together, I say: worldly recitation has an object held continuously in mind, abiding on the seed-syllable's own phrase, or the mind following the deity contemplated — this is called recitation with an object of attention, and the breath moving in and out is its most excellent form. Know that the transcendent mind is far removed from every letter; its own honored object is a single mark alone, without duality, without any grasping, not destroying the mind's own visualized form, and yet never departing from the rule of the Dharma either."
This short chapter's four kinds of recitation — attuned to the breath and a seed-syllable, attuned to a visualized deity, and, beyond both, a transcendent recitation "far removed from every letter" that nonetheless does not discard visualized form — closes out the sūtra's practical instruction with the same both/and structure just given for deity-bodies: worldly recitation with an object of focus is not superseded by transcendent recitation without one, but named as its own complete, legitimate stage, exactly as siddhi with form and siddhi without form were both affirmed in the preceding chapter.
The Closing Entrustment
爾時世尊告一切眾會言：「汝今應當住不放逸。於此法門，若不知根性，不應授與他人，除我弟子具標相者。我今演說，汝等當一心聽。若於吉祥執宿時生、志求勝事、有微細慧、常念恩德、生渴仰心、聞法歡喜而住，其相青白或白色、廣首長頸、額廣平正、其鼻脩直面䩉圓滿、端嚴相稱，如是佛子應當殷勤而教授之。」爾時一切具威德者咸懷慶悅，聞已頂受，一心奉持。是諸眾會，以種種莊嚴廣大供養已，稽首佛足，恭敬合掌而說是言：「唯願於此法教演說救世加持句，令法眼道遍一切處久住世間。」爾時世尊於此法門說加持句真言曰：
「南麼三曼多勃馱喃(一) 薩婆他勝勝(二) 怛稜怛稜(三) 顒顒(四) 達[口*嶙]達[口*嶙](五) 娑他跛也娑他跛也(六) 勃馱薩底也嚩(七) 達摩薩底也嚩(八) 僧伽薩底也嚩(九) [合*牛][合*牛](十) 吠娜尾吠(十一) 莎訶(十二)」
時佛說此經已，一切持金剛者及普賢等上首諸菩薩，聞佛所說，皆大歡喜，信受奉行。
At that time the World-Honored One said to the whole assembly: "You should now abide free of heedlessness. Regarding this Dharma-gate, if one does not know a person's capacity, one should not confer it upon them — except upon my own disciple, one who bears the proper marks. I shall now explain this; listen with a single mind. Should one be born under an auspicious lunar mansion, seek surpassing things, possess a fine and subtle wisdom, constantly remember kindness received, feel a genuine thirst to learn, and dwell in joy on hearing the Dharma — bearing marks such as these: a complexion blue-white or white, a broad head and long neck, a wide and level forehead, a straight and well-formed nose, a full and rounded face, well-proportioned and fine of feature — such a child of the Buddha should be earnestly and diligently taught." At that time, every one of those present, possessed of majestic virtue, was filled with joy; hearing this, they received it with a bow of the head, and upheld it with a single mind. The whole assembly, having made every kind of vast and adorned offering, bowed their heads to the Buddha's feet, joined their palms in reverence, and spoke these words: "We beg only that, for this teaching, you speak the phrase that saves the world and empowers it, so that the eye of the Dharma, this path, may pervade every place and long abide in the world." At that time the World-Honored One spoke, for this Dharma-gate, this mantra of the empowering phrase:
(a closing protective mantra, retained in transliteration per this site's standing convention)
When the Buddha had finished speaking this sūtra, every vajra-holder, and Samantabhadra together with the other foremost bodhisattvas, on hearing what the Buddha had taught, were all filled with great joy, and received it with faith, and upheld it in practice.
The closing formula — "were all filled with great joy, and received it with faith, and upheld it in practice" — is the standard closing line of a Buddhist sūtra, the same formula that ends texts across the entire canon regardless of school or period; its appearance here marks the genuine end of this sūtra's thirty-one-chapter core teaching, even though the text as preserved in Taishō continues for a further, distinct fascicle. The physiognomic description of a fit disciple — specific facial and bodily features alongside inward qualities of wisdom, gratitude, and joy — echoes the thirty-two marks of a buddha already referenced in Chapter Twenty-Two's letter-teaching, applied here at a human scale: not claiming a disciple must already resemble a buddha bodily, but describing the kind of person a teacher is instructed to actually look for, inward disposition and outward bearing read together rather than treated as separate criteria.
The Speech-Wheel, and the Mirror in the Heart
Chapters twenty and twenty-one turn from the hundred syllables to where they are seen. Vajrapāṇi asks who generates mantra and from what place, and the answer moves inward: an eight-petaled lotus produced by thought, a full moon-disc within it, stainless as a clean mirror, and the practitioner’s own face appearing in it as the aspect of awakening.
破諸無智暗， 如日輪普現，是我之自體， 大牟尼加持，利益眾生故， 應化作神變。乃至令一切， 隨思願生起，悉能為施作， 神變無上句。故當一切種， 淨身離諸垢，應理常勤修， 志願佛菩提。
……佛言：「祕密主！觀我語輪境界廣長遍至無量世界清淨門，如其本性表示，隨類法界門令一切眾生皆得歡喜。亦如今者釋迦牟尼世尊，流遍無盡虛空界，於諸剎土勤作佛事。祕密主！非諸有情能知世尊是語輪相流出正覺妙音莊嚴瓔珞，從胎藏生佛之影像，隨眾生性欲令發歡喜。」……佛說偈言：「勤勇此一切， 無上覺者句，於百門學處， 諸佛所說心。」
爾時執金剛祕密主得未曾有，而說偈言：「佛說真言救世者， 能生一切諸真言。摩訶牟尼云何知， 誰能知此從何處？誰生如是諸真言？ 生者為誰惟演說？大勤勇士說中上， 如此一切願開示。」……「若悲生漫荼， 得大乘灌頂，調柔具善行， 常悲利他者，有緣觀菩提， 常所不能見。彼能有知此， 內心之大我，隨其自心位， 導師所住處，八葉從意生， 蓮華極嚴麗。圓滿月輪中， 無垢猶淨鏡，於彼常安住， 真言救世尊。金色具光焰， 住三昧害毒，如日難可觀， 諸眾生亦然。常恒於內外， 普周遍加持，以如是慧眼， 了知意明鏡。真言者慧眼， 觀是圓鏡故，當見自形色， 寂然正覺相。身生身影像， 意從意所生，常出生清淨， 種種自作業。次於彼光現， 圓照如電焰，真言者能作， 一切諸佛事。若見成清淨， 聞等亦復然，如意所思念， 能作諸事業。」……祕密主！觀是法緣通達慧、通達慧緣法，彼等遞為作業，無住性空。
Breaking the darkness of every ignorance, appearing everywhere like the disc of the sun — this is my own substance, the empowerment of the Great Sage; and for the benefit of living beings, transformations in response should be worked. And so that everything may arise according to thought and vow, he is able to perform for them all the unsurpassed phrase of transformation. Therefore in every kind he should purify the body and be free of stains, and in accordance with principle practice always with diligence, aspiring to the Buddha’s awakening.
…The Buddha said: “Lord of Secrets! Regard the domain of my speech-wheel: broad and long, reaching everywhere to the pure gateways of measureless worlds, showing itself according to its own nature, and by the gateway of the dharma-realm suited to each kind, making all living beings glad. So also now Śākyamuni the World-Honored One streams throughout the endless realm of space, diligently performing the buddha-work in every field. Lord of Secrets! It is not for sentient beings to know that the World-Honored One is the aspect of that speech-wheel — the exquisite sound of perfect awakening streaming out as an adornment and a necklace, the image of a buddha born from the Womb, gladdening beings according to their natures and desires.” …The Buddha spoke this verse: “Diligent and brave one, all of this is the phrase of the unsurpassed Awakened; in the training of the hundred gateways is the heart that all the buddhas have declared.”
Then Vajradhara, the Lord of Secrets, having gained what he had never had before, spoke this verse: “The Buddha declares that mantra is the savior of the world, able to generate every mantra there is. How does the Great Sage know it? Who can know from what place this comes? Who generates such mantras? Who is the one that generates — only declare it! Greatly diligent and brave one, highest among speakers — may all of this be revealed.” …“If it be one born of compassion in the maṇḍala, who has received the Great Vehicle’s consecration, gentle and furnished with good conduct, always compassionate and benefiting others — one who contemplates awakening with an object cannot ever see it. He is able to know this: the Great Self of the inward heart. According to the station of his own mind is where the Guide abides: an eight-petaled lotus produced from thought, exquisitely splendid. Within the full moon-disc, stainless as a clean mirror, there abides always the mantra-lord who saves the world — golden and blazing with light, abiding in the samādhi that destroys poison, hard to look upon as the sun; and so it is with living beings. Constantly, within and without, the empowerment pervades everything; and with such an eye of wisdom he understands the bright mirror of the mind. Because the mantra practitioner, with his eye of wisdom, contemplates this round mirror, he will see his own form and color as the still aspect of perfect awakening. A body produces a body’s image, and mind is born of mind; there arises always a purity, and the various works he himself performs. Next, in that light appearing, a full illumination like a flash of lightning, the mantra practitioner is able to perform every buddha-work. If he sees it become pure, then hearing and the rest are likewise; and whatever the mind conceives, he is able to accomplish.” …Lord of Secrets! Contemplate this: the wisdom that penetrates takes dharmas as its object, and dharmas take that penetrating wisdom as theirs; these two perform work for one another in turn, without abiding, empty of nature.
Reading note — after Yixing
“One who contemplates awakening with an object cannot ever see it” (有緒觀菱提，常所不能見) is placed immediately before the most vividly objective image in the chapter — a lotus, a moon, a mirror, a golden figure. Yixing takes the order as deliberate: the mirror is given to someone who has just been told that looking for awakening as an object will not find it, so that what he sees in it is his own face.
Forty-Four Gates
The heart of chapter twenty-two, and one of the oldest pieces of Buddhist alphabet mysticism to survive in Chinese. Each consonant of the Sanskrit syllabary is assigned a doctrinal reason for its own shape: the letter appears because something cannot be found. The formula never varies, and the cumulative effect is an alphabet in which every letter is a denial.
祕密主！真言救世者，身身無有異分。意從意生，令善淨除，普皆有光。彼處流出，相應而起遍諸支分。彼愚夫類常所不知，不達此道。乃至身所生分，無量種故，如是真言救世者分說亦無量。譬如吉祥真陀摩尼，隨諸樂欲而作饒益。如是世間照世者身，一切義利無所不成。
祕密主！云何無分別法界，一切作業隨轉？祕密主！亦如虛空界，非眾生、非壽者、非摩奴闍、非摩納婆、非作者、非吠陀、非能執、非所執，離一切分別及無分別，而彼無盡眾生界一切去來諸有所作，不生疑心。如是無分別一切智智等同虛空，於一切眾生內外而轉。
……「若本無所有， 隨順世間生，云何了知空， 生此瑜伽者？若自性如是， 覺名不可得，當等空心生， 所謂菩提心。應發起慈悲， 隨順諸世間，住於唯想行， 是即名諸佛。當知想造立， 觀此為空空，如下數法轉， 增一而分異。勤勇空亦然， 增長隨次第，即此阿字等， 自然智加持。」
……「祕密主！觀此空中流散假立，阿字之所加持，成就三昧道。……或一切法等虛空故，現佉字形。或行不可得故，現誐字形。或諸法一合相不可得故，現伽字形。……或一切法離生滅故，現遮字形。或一切法無影像故，現車字形。或一切法生不可得故，現若字形。或一切法離戰敵故，現社(上聲呼)字形。或一切法離我慢故，現吒字形。或一切法離養育故，現咤字形。或一切法離怨對故，現拏字形。或一切法離災變故，現荼字形。或一切法離如如故，現多字形。或一切法離住處故，現他字形。或一切法離施故，現那字形。或一切法界不可得故，現馱字形。或一切法勝義諦不可得故，現波字形。或諸法不堅如聚沫故，現頗字形。或一切法離繫縛故，現麼字形。或一切法諸觀不可得故，現婆字形。或一切法諸乘不可得故，現也字形。或一切法離一切塵故，現囉字形。或一切法無相故，現邏字形。或一切法離寂故，現奢字形。或一切法本性鈍故，現沙字形。或一切法諦不可得故，現娑字形。或一切法離因故，現訶字形。……此等隨現，成就三藐三佛陀隨形好。」
Lord of Secrets! In the mantra that saves the world, body and body have no separate part. Mind is born of mind, made well purified, and everywhere there is light. From that place it streams out, arising in correspondence and pervading every limb. The class of the foolish never know it, and do not reach this way. And since the parts that a body produces are of measureless kinds, so likewise the parts declared of the mantra that saves the world are measureless. As the auspicious wish-fulfilling jewel works benefit according to what each desires, so is the body of the one who lights the world: there is no good or benefit it does not accomplish.
Lord of Secrets! How is it that in a dharma-realm without discrimination every work turns accordingly? Lord of Secrets, it is like the realm of space: not a being, not a life, not a man, not a youth, not an agent, not a Veda, not a grasper, not a grasped; apart from all discrimination and from non-discrimination alike — and yet concerning all the coming and going and all the doings of that endless realm of beings, no doubting mind arises. Just so, the knowledge of all knowledge, without discrimination, is the equal of space, and turns within and without all living beings.
…“If from the root there is nothing at all, yet in accordance with the world there is arising — how is emptiness understood, and how is this yogin produced? If own-nature is thus, and even the name of awakening cannot be found, then a mind equal to space should arise: this is what is called the awakening-mind. He should give rise to loving-kindness and compassion and accord with all the worlds; abiding in the practice of conception alone — this is what the buddhas are called. Know that conception sets things up, and contemplate this as the emptiness of emptiness; as the numbers below turn, increasing by one and differing thereby, so also, diligent one, is emptiness: it grows according to sequence — and it is this syllable A and the rest, empowered by spontaneous knowledge.”
…“Lord of Secrets! Contemplate what in this emptiness is scattered abroad and provisionally set up, empowered by the syllable A, accomplishing the way of samādhi. Because all dharmas are the equal of space, the form of the letter KHA appears. Because activity cannot be found, the form of GA appears. Because the aspect of a single combination in dharmas cannot be found, the form of GHA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from arising and ceasing, the form of CA appears. Because all dharmas are without image, the form of CHA appears. Because the arising of all dharmas cannot be found, the form of JA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from battle, the form of JHA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from conceit, the form of ṬA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from nurture, the form of ṬHA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from enmity, the form of ṘA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from calamity, the form of ḏHA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from suchness, the form of TA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from a dwelling place, the form of THA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from giving, the form of DA appears. Because the dharma-realm cannot be found, the form of DHA appears. Because the ultimate truth of all dharmas cannot be found, the form of PA appears. Because dharmas are not firm, like a mass of foam, the form of PHA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from bondage, the form of MA appears. Because the contemplations of all dharmas cannot be found, the form of BHA appears. Because the vehicles of all dharmas cannot be found, the form of YA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from every defilement, the form of RA appears. Because all dharmas are without aspect, the form of LA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from stillness, the form of ŚA appears. Because the own-nature of all dharmas is dull, the form of ṢA appears. Because the truth of all dharmas cannot be found, the form of SA appears. Because all dharmas are apart from cause, the form of HA appears. These appear accordingly, and accomplish the minor marks of a Perfectly Awakened One.”
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The formula is the argument: because X cannot be found, the letter Y appears. A letter is not a symbol standing for a doctrine; it is what shows up in the place where something was looked for and was absent. Read that way, the syllabary is not a code to be decrypted but a record of twenty-five failed searches, and the “minor marks of a Perfectly Awakened One” that the list is said to accomplish are the visible form those absences take.
A few of the assignments are opaque even to the tradition. “Because the own-nature of all dharmas is dull, the form of ṢA appears” (本性鈯) has been read as referring to the inertness of things left to themselves; the Chinese gives no more than that, and we have not supplied more.
The Syllable Is the Deity
Chapters twenty-three and twenty-four draw the conclusion the alphabet was heading toward, and then push past it into a denial so sustained that the passage reads as a list of everything awakening is not.
「復次祕密主！於此三昧門，以空加持，於一切法自在成就最正覺，是故此字即為本尊。」而說偈言：「祕密主當知， 阿字第一句，明法普周遍， 字輪以圍繞。彼尊無有相， 遠離諸見相，無相眾聖尊， 而現相中來。聲從於字出， 字生於真言，真言成立果， 諸救世尊說。……依法布相應， 以字為照明，故阿字等類， 無量真言想。」
……「唯住於名趣， 遠離作者等，虛空眾假名， 導師所宣說。名字無所依， 亦復如虛空，真言自在然， 現見離言說。非火水風等， 非地非日光，非月等眾曜， 非晝亦非夜，非生非老病， 非死非損傷，非剎那時分， 亦非年歲等，亦非有成壞， 劫數不可得，非淨染受生， 或果亦不生。若無如是等， 種種世分別，於彼常勤修， 求一切智句。」
“Further, Lord of Secrets! In this gate of samādhi, empowered by emptiness, sovereign in all dharmas, the most perfect awakening is accomplished — and therefore this syllable is itself the deity.” And he spoke this verse: “Lord of Secrets, know that the syllable A is the first phrase; the bright Dharma pervades everywhere, encircled by the wheel of letters. That honored one has no aspect and is far removed from every aspect of view; the aspectless honored one among the holy comes forth within aspect. Sound issues from the letter, the letter generates the mantra, and the mantra establishes the fruit — so the saviors of the world declare. He spreads it in correspondence as the rule prescribes, taking the letter for illumination; and so from the syllable A and its kind arise measureless mantra-contemplations.”
…“It abides in the course of a name alone, far removed from any agent; space and the host of provisional names — so the Guide has declared. The name has nothing to depend on, and is likewise as space; mantra is sovereign in just this way, and what is seen directly is apart from speech. It is not fire, water, or wind; not earth, nor sunlight; not the moon or the other luminaries; not day nor night; not birth, nor age, nor sickness; not death, nor injury; not a moment or a division of time, nor a year or an age; nor is there forming and breaking, and the count of kalpas cannot be found; not purity, not defilement, not the taking of birth — nor does a fruit arise. If one is without such things as these, the many discriminations of the world, then in that let him practice always with diligence, seeking the phrase of the knowledge of all.”
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
“Therefore this syllable is itself the deity” (是故此字即為本尊) is the sentence the whole alphabet apparatus exists to license. It is also what distinguishes this material from ordinary allegory: the letter does not represent the deity, and the deity is not hidden behind it. The chapter that follows then denies the deity every predicate the world has — not fire, not time, not birth, not even a fruit — without withdrawing the identification.
Three Samayas
Chapter twenty-five gives the three-stage sequence the whole sūtra has implied: a first mind that does not examine its own nature, a second in which real knowledge arises and the net of discrimination falls away, and a third in which compassion turns without an object. The three vehicles are then said to be established from this.
佛言：「有三種法相續除障相應生，名三三昧耶。云何彼法相續生？所謂初心不觀自性，從此發慧，如實智生，離無盡分別網，是名第二心菩提無分別正等覺句。祕密主！彼如實見已，觀察無盡眾生界，悲自在轉無緣觀，菩提心生。所謂離一切戲論，安置眾生皆令住於無相菩提。是名三三昧耶句。」
……「若住此三等， 修行菩提行，諸導門上首， 為利諸眾生，當得成菩提， 三身自在輪。」……復次祕密主！從此成立說三種乘，廣作佛事，現般涅槃，成熟眾生。祕密主！觀彼諸真言門修菩提行諸菩薩，若解三等，於真言法則而作成就。
The Buddha said: “There are three dharmas which, arising in continuous succession and answering to the removal of obstruction, are called the three samayas. How do those dharmas arise in succession? The first mind does not examine its own nature; from this wisdom is roused, knowledge of things as they are arises, and the endless net of discrimination falls away — this is called the second mind, the phrase of perfect awakening in which bodhi is without discrimination. Lord of Secrets! Having seen thus as it truly is, he contemplates the endless realm of living beings, and compassion turns in sovereignty as a contemplation without object; and the awakening-mind arises. That is to say: apart from all frivolous elaboration, he settles living beings and makes them all abide in aspectless awakening. This is called the phrase of the three samayas.”
“If he abides in these three equalities and practices the conduct of awakening, foremost among all the gateways of guidance, for the benefit of living beings — he will attain awakening, the sovereign wheel of the three bodies.” Further, Lord of Secrets: from this the three vehicles are established as taught, widely performing the buddha-work, displaying parinirvāṇa, and ripening living beings. Lord of Secrets! Consider those bodhisattvas practicing the conduct of awakening by the gate of mantra: if they understand the three equalities, they make accomplishment within the rule of mantra.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The sequence is not three stages of one thing but three different objects: the first mind is unexamined, the second is examined and found empty, and the third turns outward with nothing to hold onto. Compassion appears only at the third, and only as “a contemplation without object” — which is to say that the chapter will not allow compassion to be motivated by anything it could name.
Forty-Four Fires, and the One That Burns Inside
Chapter twenty-seven lists the fire-gods of the Vedic domestic rites — a fire for placing an embryo, a fire for the wife’s bath, a fire for naming a child, a fire for the first tonsure, a fire for a wedding — and says plainly where it got them: this is what those who study the Vedas transmit. It then supplies twelve fires of its own, and ends by relocating the whole apparatus inside the practitioner.
世間之火初， 其子名梵飯，子名畢怛囉， 吠濕婆捺羅。復生訶嚩奴， 合毘嚩訶那，簸說三鼻覩， 及阿闥末拏。彼子鉢體多， 補色迦路陶，如是諸火天， 次第以相生。復次置胎藏， 用忙路多火；欲後澡盥身， 嚩訶忙囊火；浴妻之所用， 以瞢蘖盧火；若生子之後， 用鉢伽蒲火；為子初立名， 用簸體無火；飲食時所用， 當知戍脂火；為子作髻時， 應用殺毘火；次受禁戒時， 三謨婆嚩火；禁滿施牛時， 用素哩耶火；童子婚媾時， 以瑜赭迦火；造作眾事業， 跋那易迦火。……為汝諸仁者， 已略說諸火，修習韋陀者， 梵行所傳讀。
……我復成菩提， 演說十二火，智火最為初， 名火因陀羅，端嚴淨金相， 增益施威力，焰鬘住三昧， 當知智圓滿；第二名行滿， 普光秋月花，吉祥圓輪中， 珠鬘鮮白衣；第三摩嚕多， 黑色風燥形；第四盧醯多， 色如朝日暉；第五沒㗚拏， 多髭淺黃色，脩頸大威光， 遍一切哀愍；第六名忿怒， 眇目霏烟色，聳髮而震吼。……又彼祕密主！ 如其所說處，隨相應事業， 隨信解焚燒。
爾時金剛手白佛言：「世尊！云何火爐三摩地？云何而用散灑？云何順敷吉祥草？云何具緣眾物？」……佛告祕密主， 持金剛者言：「火爐如肘量， 四方相均等，四節為緣界， 周匝金剛印。藉之以生茅， 繞爐而右旋，不以末加本， 應以本加末。次持吉祥草， 依法而右灑，以塗香華燈， 次獻於火天。行人以一華， 供養沒栗荼，安置於座位， 復當用灌灑。應當作滿施， 持以本真言，次息災護摩， 或以增益法。如是世護摩， 說名為外事。
復次內護摩， 滅除於業生，了知自末那， 遠離色聲等。眼耳鼻舌身， 及與語意業，皆悉從心起， 依止於心王，眼等分別生， 及色等境界，智慧未生障， 風燥火能滅。燒除妄分別， 成淨菩提心，此名內護摩， 為諸菩薩說。」
……又如造立形像，非火非水、非刃非毒、非金剛等之所傷壞，或忿恚麁語而能少分令其動作。若以飲食衣服塗香華鬘、或以塗香旃檀龍腦如是等類種種殊勝受用之具，諸天世人奉事供給，亦不生喜。……祕密主！有心想者即是愚童凡夫之所分別，由不了知，有如是等虛妄橫計。如彼不實不生，當如是思念。祕密主！此真言門修菩薩行諸菩薩證得無相三昧，由住無相三昧故，如來所說真語親對其人常現在前。
The first of the worldly fires; his son named Brahmaudana; his son Pītara; Vaiśvānara. Then are born Havyavāhana, and Havirvāhana with him, and Pāvaka, Sabhya, Sabhyavasu, and Ātharvaṇa. Their sons Pattika and Puṣkara, Rodha — so these fire-gods are born one from another in order. Further: for the placing of an embryo, the fire Māruta is used; for bathing the body afterward, the fire Vāhamana; for the bathing of a wife, the fire Maṅgalya; after a child is born, the fire Pragalbha; for giving a child its first name, the fire Pārthiva; at the time of eating, know that it is the fire Śuci; when the child’s topknot is made, the fire Satya should be used; next, when the precepts are received, the fire Samudbhava; when the vow is completed and a cow is given, the fire Sūrya; at a youth’s wedding, the fire Yojaka; for the making of the various works, the fire Vināyaka. …For you, honored ones, I have now briefly declared the fires — what those who study the Vedas transmit and recite in their holy practice.
Having attained awakening, I declare in turn the twelve fires. The fire of wisdom is first of all, named Fire-Indra, of upright and pure golden aspect, increasing and bestowing majestic power, a garland of flame abiding in samādhi — know it to be the fullness of wisdom. The second is named Fulfillment of Practice, a universal light like an autumn moon-flower, within an auspicious full disc, with pearl-garlands and fresh white robes. The third is Māruta, black, of a dry wind-form. The fourth is Rohita, colored like the light of morning. The fifth is Mṛḍa, heavily bearded and pale yellow, long-necked and of great majestic light, pitying all without exception. The sixth is named Wrathful, with narrowed eyes the color of drifting smoke, hair standing up, and roaring. …And again, Lord of Secrets: according to the place as declared, and according to the work that answers to it, let the burning follow his faith and understanding.
Then Vajrapāṇi said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! What is the samādhi of the fire-hearth? How is the sprinkling used? How is the auspicious grass laid in order? What are the various requisite articles?” …The Buddha said to the Lord of Secrets, the vajra-holder: “The fire-hearth is the measure of a forearm, its four quarters equal, four sections for its bounding rim, encircled by vajra seals. It is strewn with fresh kuśa grass, laid rightward around the hearth; the tips are not laid over the roots, but the roots over the tips. Next, holding the auspicious grass, he sprinkles rightward as the rule prescribes; and with unguent, flower and lamp he then presents an offering to the fire-god. The practitioner, with a single flower, makes offering to Mṛḍa, establishes him on the seat, and should then use the sprinkling again. He should perform the full oblation, holding it with his root mantra; and next the homa of pacifying, or else the method of increase. Such a worldly homa is called the outer work.
Further, the inner homa destroys what is born of action. Understanding his own manas, he keeps far from form and sound and the rest. Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, together with the works of speech and mind — all of them arise from the mind and depend upon the mind-king. The discriminations arising from eye and the rest, and the objects of form and the rest, and the obstruction where wisdom has not yet arisen — the dry wind-fire can destroy them. Burning away deluded discrimination, it becomes the pure awakening-mind: this is called the inner homa, declared for the bodhisattvas.”
…Again, as with a made image: it is not damaged by fire or water, by blade or poison, by vajra or the like; nor can anger and harsh words make it move even slightly. And if with food and drink, robes, unguent and flower-garlands, or with sandalwood and camphor and every kind of excellent article of use, gods and humans should serve and supply it, neither does it give rise to delight. …Lord of Secrets! One who has conceptions of mind is one discriminated by the foolish and childish ordinary person; and because of not understanding, there are such false and baseless reckonings. As those are unreal and unarisen, so should he contemplate. Lord of Secrets! Bodhisattvas practicing the bodhisattva conduct by the gate of mantra realize the aspectless samādhi; and because they abide in the aspectless samādhi, the true words the Tathāgata has spoken are always present before them, face to face.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The Vedic fire-list is the most straightforwardly borrowed material in the sūtra, and the text does not disguise it: “what those who study the Vedas transmit and recite.” What follows is not a refutation but a substitution — twelve fires of its own, beginning with wisdom — and then a relocation: the inner homa burns discrimination, and its fuel is the sense faculties. The genealogy of Agni’s sons is left standing; it is simply no longer where the fire is.
Several fire-names here are reconstructed from the transliteration and remain uncertain. The Chinese preserves the sounds of a Vedic ritual vocabulary that its translators were rendering at second hand, and some of these fires are attested in no Sanskrit source we can check.
Three Short Chapters, and a Count
What remains of chapters twenty, twenty-eight and thirty: the Buddha’s consecration appearing as dhāraṇī, Vajrapāṇi asking to be told how a deity’s image is to be seen, and the last chapter’s plain instruction about how many times to recite and why the number should not be altered.
祕密主！入薄伽梵大智灌頂，即以陀羅尼形示現佛事。爾時大覺世尊隨住一切諸眾生前施作佛事，演說三三昧耶句。……爾時世尊於無量世界海門遍法界慇懃勸發成就菩提，出生普賢菩薩行願。於此妙華布地胎藏莊嚴世界種性海中受生，以種種性清淨門淨除佛剎、現菩提場而住佛事。
……爾時執金剛祕密主白佛言：「世尊！願說諸尊色像威驗現前，令真言門修菩薩行諸菩薩觀緣本尊形故，即本尊身以為自身，無有疑惑而得悉地。」
……「復次祕密主！今說祕密持真言法。」……「所說三落叉， 多種持真言，乃至眾罪除， 真言者清淨，如念誦數量， 勿異如是教。」
Lord of Secrets! Entering the Blessed One’s consecration of great wisdom, he then displays the buddha-work in the form of dhāraṇī. Then the Greatly Awakened World-Honored One, abiding before every living being according to their case, performs the buddha-work and declares the phrase of the three samayas. …Then the World-Honored One, at the gateways of measureless world-oceans throughout the dharma-realm, earnestly urged them on to the accomplishment of awakening, and brought forth Samantabhadra’s vows of practice. Taking birth within the ocean of lineages of this Womb-adorned world where exquisite flowers are strewn on the ground, he purifies the buddha-fields by the pure gateway of the various lineages, manifests the seat of awakening, and abides in the buddha-work.
…Then Vajradhara, the Lord of Secrets, said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! May you declare the colors and images of the honored ones and the manifesting of their majestic proof, so that bodhisattvas practicing by the gate of mantra, contemplating the form of their own deity as object, may take that deity’s body as their own body, and without doubt or hesitation gain attainment.”
…“Further, Lord of Secrets! I shall now declare the secret method of holding mantra.” …“Three hundred thousand are declared, and many kinds of holding mantra, until the many offenses are cleared away and the mantra practitioner is pure. As to the count of the recitations — do not differ from the teaching in this.”
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
“Do not differ from the teaching in this” is the last instruction the main body of the sūtra gives before the entrustment, and it is about a number. After thirty chapters on emptiness, syllables and the mind that cannot be found in twelve places, the closing practical word is: count properly.
Part 9 Complete — and the Main Teaching Concludes
This closes Part 9, and with it the sūtra's thirty-one-chapter core teaching: the hundred syllables built on AṂ, the mirror of the self and the magician's illusion of an illusion, sound's own emptiness, the nature of bodhi beyond the three times, three samayas mapped onto the Three Jewels, four brief definitions of tathāgata and bodhisattva, forty-four Vedic fires reworked into twelve fires of wisdom, deity-bodies with and without form both affirmed, the markless samādhi, four kinds of recitation, and a final entrustment naming who is fit to receive it all. What remains in Taishō's own seventh fascicle is a distinct text in its own right: 供養次第法, the "Method of Sequential Offerings," a five-chapter ritual manual traditionally attributed to Buddhaguhya and appended to this sūtra in its printed editions — Parts 10 and 11 of this collection.
Continue to Part 10 — The Method of Sequential Offerings →