THE SADANGA YOGA

yogin] has to examine [the signs] for a day, and the experience will
follow". The worldly signs, smoke, etc., which appear at the moment the"
perfections are attained, are not similar to Maya or to a dream, because
their effects (smoke, fire, etc.) [which are produced by the yogin] clearly
have the power of burning [whereas this does not happen with the signs in
question]. The same can be said for a shower of saffron, flowers, gems,
gold, and so on. Therefore, the signs beginning with smoke appear by
virtue of the sixfold yoga. Thus the Blessed One said in the
piikinivajrapaiijara:
Therefore, [the yogin] has to meditate on the sixfold yoga, similar to a selfblessing,
and then he will see the signs in their regular sequence.
Here, what is called "self-blessing" is the vision of the true reality of the
conventional truth, derived from withdrawal. The "sign" is an apparition
similar to a cloud, smoke, and so on. At first this is seen until the lamp
appears, and later on an immaculate and cloudless sky manifests itself. The
other six signs, beginning with the flame and finishing with the bindu,
were also spoken of by the Blessed One in [other] Tantras, [such as] the
Miiyiijiila in the chapter on concentration 149 :
1) A great fiJ:e of wisdom and knowledge, which is autogenous and bom
from the ether; 2) a great solar light, which is a shining brightness of
knowledge; 3) the lamp of the w011d; 4) a torch of knowledge; 5) the great
brightening splendour; 6) the king of the vidyas, who is the most excellent
Lord of the mantras. The king of the mantras, the author of the great goal
[NS VI, 20c-22b (61c-63b)]lS0.
In these two verses of the Miiyiijiila, the Blessed One spoke of the other
signs using intentional language. The image [viz., "a great fire of wisdom
and knowledge"], arising from the above-mentioned cloudless sky, is
149 Viz., in the NS, which would be the samiidhipata1a of the Miiyiijiilatantra.
GBh: "Six signs, the nature of which is the complete pmification of the six aggregates,
have been [cryptically] described in the Miiyiijiila with the words gaganodbhava, and so on,
according to the day-yoga. Whereas ten signs, the nature of which is the complete
purification of sensorial objects and the senses, and of wisdom and means, have been
explicitly (mukhyataf:1) expounded in the glorious Adibuddhatantrariija".
150 See above, pp. 27-28. These stanzas are also quoted in the PAIS (VP, ed., vol. III,
p. 69). As is well known, the NS has been explained in various ways, according to the
different traditions of the commentators. In the gloss on stanzas 61 cd-63ab by Vilasavajra
there is no mention of signs.
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