Guhyasamāja History by Pagpa

The Biography of Jñānapāda and His Guhyasamāja Lineage

I n times long gone by, in the southern part of India, was a king of Orissa by the name of Visukalpa. He had faith in the Buddha, so he learned many teachings of both the Hearers and the Great Vehicle. Still, he was thinking there ought to be some other teaching yet more profound than they are when he settled in for the night. He had a dream that a woman approached him and said, “You must leave this place and go to a land called Oḍiyan in the north-western borders and you shall become a Vajraholder in this very life.” So saying, she vanished.

No sooner had he awakened than he set off for the region of Oḍiyan. When he arrived there he met a woman resembling the one he had seen in his dream. Thinking he was seeing an emanation, he prostrated at her feet, paid his respects and made a prayer requesting that she take him under her guidance. She initiated him into the great maṇḍala and granted him the complete Guhyasamāja Tantra together with the explanatory tantras. The king did indeed apply himself to the practices and thereby achieved the siddhis. He advanced the teachings in the world among such as Saraha, and then to the Saint Teacher Nāgārjuna and others that followed him. This much is known.

Moving on to later times, the Teacher Buddhajñānapāda is the name of a child born to the King Gha-pa-ru-pra-bha-wa in the region of southeast India known as Sindhura. From childhood his bodily form, his insight and behavior were impeccable, and he studied and learned to an advanced level such arts and sciences as grammar, prosody and statecraft. He matured to adulthood and left behind his royal prerogatives as if they were a pool of spittle on the ground.

In one of the regions of Nalendra was a place known as Taxila (Takṣaśīla). In that city, in a vihāra called Trikadhru built by King Śrī Dharmapāla, was a community of the Mahāsammata monastic order. Among the monks was one in particular who was graced by moral discipline and learnedness, the best of all the students of their abbot Vairocanabhadra. He had already attuned himself to compassion and bodhicitta, fully embodying the life of the Bodhisattva. He had mastered a number of the textual-explanatory traditions, holding the treasuries of a number of the scriptures of the Sugatas, but in particular he was able to fully illuminate the meaning of the Perfection of Insight Sūtras. [468] The person of whom we speak is the teacher and great personage Haribhadra. Pleasing Haribhadra with his attendance, Buddhajñānapāda studied and mastered a number of textual-explanatory traditions pertaining to the Perfection of Insight. Eventually he composed a commentary on the Sañcaya for the sake of a fully ordained nun of brahmin caste by the name of Guṇamitra, this being only one example of his many deeds of composition and instruction.

Then he left Magadha and traveled 300 yojanas to the northwest, finally arriving at Oḍiyan, a place blessed by assemblies of skygoers. There was a teacher who was native to Nor-bu-gling, one accomplished in Mahāmudrā known as Śrī Viśvarūpin, or to give his secret initiatory name, Vilāsavajra. Staying near him, he received initiations into a number of maṇḍalas of the secret mantra, as well as learning many tantra texts.

Later on, in a part of that same place, he received from a teacher with an inconceivable number of secret precepts, a yogi by the name of Guru, many Highest Yoga Tantra initiations as well as tantra teachings and precepts, which he mastered.

Then one evening he had another dream. In his dream a prophetic voice spoke to him, “There is living in the northern parts of Oḍiyan a young woman of low caste, a yoginī born into the caste known as Jātijava (Dzā-ti-dza-ba), who is called Lakṣmisena. Go to be with her. Your aims will be fulfilled.”

When he awoke he went to her and pleased her with his attendance. He heard much esoteric advice and teaching. Then he went to the region of Jalandhara in western India and the city of Ratnadhāra where he met a teacher who had performed the Jambhala practices and attained the flowing stream-like samādhi. This teacher’s name was Bālipāda (Byis-pa’i Zhabs). He studied with him a number of texts and the main tantras of the Prajñā class. He mastered these subjects and was persistent in their practices.

He also went to the south Indian region of Koṅkana,* the residence of a great teacher named Bālipāda who had the supreme samādhi and was especially learned in the tantras. There were a number of others who stayed there in his miraculous company including his disciple of the brahmin caste Saraha and one of the vaiṣya class named Mañjuśrī. Their living necessities were provided by Vasudhārā, Goddess of Wealth (Nor-rgyun-ma) — ten man-cha** of gold and a heap of pearls for each one of them as well as 300 cowries (kārṣāpaṇi). When he came into the presence of this teacher he received initiation into the 32-deity Guhyasamāja and learned the root tantra eighteen times. He also learned the explanatory tantras, the sādhanas and the secret precepts. In the mean time it emerged that there were 18 especially difficult points in the root tantra of the Guhyasamāja, and even though he asked his teacher about them he still had doubts. So he went to Śrī Vajrāsana and said his prayers at the Mahābodhi shrine. As he did so a voice cried out from the sky, “Thou son of the family! Seek out Mañjuvajra and receive his blessing, then all your doubts will depart.”

(*The Konkan coastal area of present-day Maharashtra, nowadays we are not likely to consider it as part of south India per se. **Interesting to see this gold and silver weight called manca or mancu here. I could be wrong, but this could be an Old English term, so this ought to be investigated further. Some readers of this translation may not be aware that cowries could be used as a medium of exchange, or that coins could be called cowries.)

Since Mañjuvajra was staying at Wu-tai Shan in China, he went to his teacher Bālipāda and asked if he could go there. Permission was granted, so he set out on the road from Vajrāsana traveling to the north. [470]

He happened to spy a garden of squash plants. Near to it was a house, and there beside the house he saw a woman and a bitch. Not far from them was a monk, his robe wrapped up around his head like a turban, plowing a field. ‘Oh my,’ he thought, ‘if it is even possible there could be a renunciate living with a woman and plowing a field like this then the teachings have truly fallen to ruin,’ and the thought saddened him. Meanwhile it was the noon time, so he thought he would beg alms. The monk said, “Teacher, come over and enjoy a Dharma feast.” The Teacher was given a seat and the monk ordered the woman, “Bring this renunciate a hot meal.” She took out a fish trap, caught a fish from a creek and cooked it. Then she placed a tree leaf in front of the bitch and ordered it, “Bring the Dharma feast.” When the bitch vomited, this together with the fish the woman served to him.

The Teacher thought the flesh had been specifically prepared for him, and that it was impure, so he abstained.

According to another account the woman had killed many small birds and cooked their flesh, but when she served it he abstained. The woman then snapped her fingers and the birds flew out of the curry and disappeared. So goes that other version of the story.

Then the monk said, “Goodness, since he is a worldling give him ordinary food.” So he was served a cooked rice dish with yoghurt. The Teacher finished eating and thought he would be on his way, but the monk said, “If you depart at this time of day you will not reach a place to stay in the evening. So leave tomorrow.” So he spent the night while the monk went to stay elsewhere. [471] The Teacher was there doing his Guhyasamāja recitations and arrived at a place he did not recognize. The look on the woman’s face told him that she was displeased, so he was convinced that she had the extraordinary ability to read minds.

So then he thought, ‘She may be the one to dispel my doubts.’ He prostrated to her and made his requests, but she replied, “I do not know the answers, but the monk who was just here is quite an expert, so you ought to ask him.”

He asked her where he had gone, and she told him, “He went to buy beer.”

“When will he return?”

“In the morning.”

So he waited until morning when he saw someone arrive who seemed to be drunk from beer. He didn’t really believe in him, but he anyway swallowed his pride and prostrated before him, “I solemnly request you to grant me your explanations of the Guhyasamāja.”

“You must take initiation!”

“I have received the initiations.”

“You need my personal initiation.”

So the Teacher went to find the items needed for the ritual and brought them when he requested the initiation.

In another account it tells how he had a cowrie and gave it to the woman. She then transformed her appearance to create the needed items.

It was on the night of the 8th day of the first lunar month of autumn when the grass hut was transformed into a divine palace, and within it clearly visible was a maṇḍala of the 19-deity Mañjuvajra. The monk was sitting there beside the maṇḍala in the same aspect displayed earlier. [472] He asked the Teacher, “Will you take the initiation from me or from the maṇḍala?’

The Teacher, even while thinking that the maṇḍala was an emanation of none other than the monk, had faith in the divine aspects, so he made his request to take initiation from the maṇḍala.

“Well then, so receive it!’ said the monk. Then he received the complete set of initiations from the maṇḍala.

Another account tells us that when he requested to take initiation from the maṇḍala, the maṇḍala vanished, and only then he knew that the maṇḍala was a manifestation by the monk and prostrated to him. Saying words of praise including the words, “You are the father of all sentient beings, their mother, too,’ he begged his indulgence and made requests. Then at the break of dawn he projected the maṇḍala out of his heart area. Then he smiled and, saying “Good!’ commenced the initiation. So says the other account.

Then began a summarization of the meanings of the Guhyasamāja with oral authorization and so on, and all the difficult points in the tantra he was at least made to understand. Then the Teacher, pleased and satisfied, thought, ‘I will offer a gift.’ So he asked the monk, “What is your wish?’

“I wish for nothing at all,’ the monk replied.

But the Teacher insisted that he must by all means accept something. Responded the monk, “Well then, make me the gift of prostrating whenever you see me.” The Teacher agreed to this and made his offering in this way.

Then the monk said,

“You had some small misconceptions

about eating behavior and about me.

So you will not become accomplished in

the present life through your bodily aggregate.

When your mind has turned into Vajrabody

you will be liberated only in the intermediate state.”

Then he added,

“Now you will perform the practices

but will not become Buddha in the present life.

You must spend your life teaching for the benefit of others,

and only then be liberated in the intermediate state.”

and with these words he disappeared.

Then the Teacher proceeded to the northeast of Vajrāsana to a place known as Ri-bo’i Phung where he lived in a [monastery] called Dharmāṅkura (Chos-kyi Myu-gu).* There Buddhajñānapāda received initiations directly from Mañjughoṣa and heard from him all the teachings. News of this spread throughout the world such that kings, panditas, teachers and others gathered around him.

(*See Tāranātha’s history where a place by this name is associated with Asaṅga.)

The fortunate among them received initiations as well as teachings of Mañjughoṣa suitable to their minds with the oral transmissions and so on. He went to still other places to teach.

Then even his previous teacher Bālipāta arrived there hoping to request teachings, but the Teacher said to him, “You are my teacher! There is no way I could teach you.” But then through an eloquent discourse he made his doubts dissolve, and for this purpose composed his work, Samantabhadra Sādhana. In general he composed 14 books that belong to this tradition. They are:

1. Kun-tu bzang-po’i sgrub-thabs.
2. Kun-tu bzang-mo’i sgrub-thabs.
3. Sbyin-sreg-gi cho-ga.
4. Gtor-ma.
5. Tshogs-’khor.
6. Dkyil-’khor-gyi cho-ga.
7. Nyis-brgya-lnga-bcu-pa.
8. Ye-shes chen-po.
9. Tshigs-su bcad-pa’i mdzod.
10. Grol-ba’i thig-le.
11. Bdag bsgrub-pa.
12. Byang-chub-kyi sems-kyi thig-le.
13. Dpal-bshes-kyi rnam-bshad bzhi-pa-la ’jug-pa.
14. Chu-sbyin-gyi sgrub-thabs.

So in sum this teacher did many teachings and composed many treatises until an immeasurable number of students came to him. Yet among them there were 18 who were outstanding, four who reached nirvāṇa by virtue of direct seeing.* The latter were Dīpaṅkarabhadra, Praśāntamitra, Rāhulabhadra and Mahāsukhavajra.

(*?? dṛṣṭadharma nirvāṇa, = Pāli ditthadhamma nibbana.)

Thus he illumined the minds of myriad beings. Once he was leading a teaching session for a great multitude when he saw coming into his presence a man who walked as if drunk with beer. He thought, ‘If I were to salute him the others might lose faith in me.’ So he did not salute him and he disappeared in the audience. But later on he followed him and caught sight of the guru sitting with his legs stretched out in the shade of a stūpa. Then he prostrated at his feet and the guru said to him, “You made a promise as an initiation gift to me that you would prostrate to me whenever you would see me, so how is it that today you did not salute me?”

The Teacher without thinking about it blurted out, “I did not see you.”

The guru said, “Essence of the earth, go out!” (sa’i snying-po gatstsha), and the Teacher’s eyes fell on the ground. He prayed to the guru requesting his indulgence, so he was granted eyes that could see regardless of obstructions for a distance of a full yojana. From then on he was called Jñānalocana, which is to say Full Knowledge Eye. [475]

There is another account telling us that it was to one of Teacher’s disciples, a brahmin named Jñānapāda, that he appeared in the manner just described, and not to Teacher himself.

Once Teacher was staying in a hut not far from Vajrāsana performing his practices when everyone else was observing a holy day at Vajrāsana by doing prostrations and making offerings. Everybody was criticizing Teacher for not attending, and their words reached the ears of the king Dharmapāla. The king couldn’t believe that Teacher had neglected the holy day, so he decided to look into the matter. The king entered the hut and had a look, but all he saw was an image of Mañjuśrī. So he went back outside and asked a disciple who assured him that he was indeed inside. So once again he went in and had a look. He saw Teacher sitting there and asked him, “Why did you not go to Vajrāsana to perform prostrations?”

“I did so from this very spot where we stand.”

“How did you do that?”

“Śākyamuni was clearly seated in the space in front of Vajrāsana, and to him I prostrated.”

The king was impressed. Begging the Teacher’s indulgence, he requested him to serve as his court priest, but the Teacher did not accept the offer and went elsewhere.

On the very spot where the teacher’s hut had stood he erected a temple with a divine array just like the one he had previously seen.

Thus with the body of his present life he performed incalculable benefits for others before his death. In the intermediate state he attained the supreme siddhi.

He had a disciple named Dīpaṅkarabhadra whose lineage came down through first Śrīsena, then Vimalagupta, Ratnavajra, Ratnakīrti, Pandapa, Gnyan Lo-tsā-ba, Gnang-kha’u-pa brothers,* the guru and Dharma master Sa-skya-pa both father and sons.

(*The usual form of the name is Gnam-kha’u-pa.)

[Colophon:]

“This ’Phags-pa wrote based on all he had seen and heard

about the succession of gurus that transmitted the teachings

and the biography of Jñānapāda

who was tended by none other than Mañjughoṣa.”

Composed in the palace of Prince Qubilai in the final month of autumn in the year of the Earth Male Horse (1258 CE).

The source of this translation is this:  ’Phags-pa (= Chos-rgyal ’Phags-pa Blo-gros-rgyal-mtshan, 1235-1280), Gsang-’dus Ye-shes-zhabs-kyi Rnam-thar dang Brgyud-pa’i Rim-pa, contained in:  Chos-rgyal ’Phags-pa’i Bka’-’bum, vol. 2, as contained in:  Sa-skya-pa’i Bka’-’bum, Toyo Bunko (Tokyo 1968), vol. 7, pp. 1 (column 1, line 1) through 3 (column 3, line 3).  This historical work has been awarded an update entry in the Tibetan Histories listing as no. 51.02. You can try locating it here, but you won't find it. Still, if you go here you just might.

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Postscript (June 8, 2020):  Y.B. apprised me of the existence of a major study of the life of Jñānapāda by Catherine Dalton in her 2019 doctoral dissertation at the University of California at Berkeley with the title Enacting Perfection: Buddhajñānapāda's Vision of a Tantric Buddhist World. She also coauthored with Peter Szantos an entry for Jñānapāda in Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism.  I'll have to go study these things before I can say more.