beings.’
Now, having attained All-knowing Awareness, the Bhagavat Vairocana pervaded all of the T hree Realms spontaneously with the configurations {caJtra)o( the A dornm ents of the Inexhaustible Sameness o f his Body and so forth, by the power o f his previous aspirations, in o rd e r to suprem ely liberate limitless realm s o f beings with that All knowing Awareness, by various m eans and various m ethods. While that intrinsically existent M andala (47b) is actually seen by such pure Bodhisattvas as Sam antabhadra, Vajrapani and so on, and is accessible to them , those configurations o f the Bhagavat's Body and so on are not accessible to lower creatures. So Vajrapani asks the Bhagavat to explain the transform ation o f those configurations o f his Body an d so on into the mandalas, m antras and mudras for the sake o f those beings.
2. T hen the Bhagavat Vairocana gazed upon the assembly o f all those
around him and said to Vajrapani, the L ord o f the Secret O nes, ‘Listen to
this discourse which teaches the m ethod fo r practising the M andala which
causes All-knowing Awareness to b e fully p erfected !’ T hen, because the
Bhagavat Vairocana had not co m p leted 1 his task with regards to the
continuum o f reality and because he had vowed to liberate all realm s o f
beings without exception, all the Tathagatas gathered together in consulta
tion [with him], and he then entered into the samddhi called T h e Arising o f
the Matrix o f G reat C om passion’. As soon as the Bhagavat had en tered it,
Tathagatas em erged from all parts o f his Body who p erfo rm ed acts
bene Fitting beings, from those at the first arousing o f the intention up to
those on the T enth Level. Having com e forth, they encom passed the ten
directions and then they retu rn ed to take up their places within the Body o f
the Bhagavat.
Having becom e perfectly en lightened, the Bhagavat him self directly experienced the con u n u u m of reality which is inconceivable and transcends all th e levels o f minds.
a ) He then m anifested him self th ro u g h o u t all realm s o f beings with the COr,figuraiions 0 f ^js g ocjy an(j so on which cause th e individual inclinations of
^ * adds: — |E • the perfect Enlightenment [ which the Bhagavat )’
C omiLs ‘ not' and reads: Sfe became of his former vow to
beings to be fulfilled according to th eir individual faith. O nce again Vajrapani asks the Bhagavat ab o u t what he sees and experiences. (48b)
T he Bhagavat replies: 'Listen to this discourse which teaches the method fo r practising the Mandala which causes AlUmowing Awareness to be fully perfected!' H e is going to explain th e practice in sixteen parts for propitiating th e deities by m eans o f the M andala. T hus gradually, by way o f the sadhana, th e deities are to be propitiated by the practice which generates the deities, th e four-m em bered recitation, and the purification o f o n e ’s m ind, and then, when o n e has actually accom plished the vidyadhara attainm ents and so forth, (49a) o n e will fully perfect All-knowing Awareness.
Practising the Mandala: T he sixteen acts o f draw ing the M andala and so forth. Then because the Bhagavat Vairocana had not completed... their places within the Body o f the Bhagavat T he Bhagavat revealed the samadhi from which the intrinsically existent M andala arises, for the sake o f future beings, so that the M andala Arising From G reat Com passion may be drawn. T he samadhi which he revealed was also revealed to show the way in which the Master who is to draw the M andala Arising from G reat Compassion should actualize such a samadhi and then draw the M andala which depicts th e details o f his Body and so on, with colours upon the ground.
Continuum o f reality. Suchness ( tathatd), em ptiness (sunyata), o r the limits o f reality (bhutakoti). T he Bhagavat’s 'task' is to completely pervade all realms o f beings with the A dornm ents o f his Inexhaustible Body and so on, and liberate those beings into suprem e E nlightenm ent. Yet since th e re still rem ains beings to be liberated, his task is n o t yet com pleted. Because he vowed to liberate all realms o f beings: (49b) As the com pletion o f his task regarding the continuum o f reality rem ains unfinished, for when the Bhagavat was previously engaged in the Bodhisattva practice he m ade a vow to liberate all beings w ithout rem ain d er upon his attain m en t o f E nlightenm ent. All the Tathagatas gathered together in consultation: T he Buddhas o f the past, present and future, are identical in their accum ulations', dharmakayas and benefitting o f beings*, so this shows that all the Buddhas teach with o n e voice. Secondly, 'all the Tathagatas gathered together in consultation' m eans that they all had actualized the continuum o f reality, Suchness. Thirdly, this is also m entioned in o rd er to hum ble arro g an t beings in the future, and to p ro m p t beings who have not m ade enquiries to question and enquire o f gurus and spiritual friends. If even the All-knowing Tathagatas deliberate with o thers and then teach the D harm a, then we ourselves should consult with others w hen we are attem pting som ething. The saitaadhi called 'The Arising o f the Matrix o f Great Compassion' (Maha-karund-garbhodbhava): This can be in terp reted eith er as the Matrix o f G reat Compassion arising from that samadhi, or as the samadhi which arises from that Matrix o f G reat Com passion. (50a)