Eighteen tantras of Mahayoga
(Redirected from Eighteen Mahayoga Tantras)
Eighteen tantras of Mahayoga (T. ma hA yo ga'i rgyud sde bco brgyad མ་ཧཱ་ཡོ་གའི་རྒྱུད་སྡེ་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་). The tantras of Mahayoga, according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
There are several ways of classifying the eighteen tantras.
Classification according to Minling Terchen
The following classification is used by Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje.[1] It has also been presented by Patrul Rinpoche[2] and other teachers.[1][3]
Five major tantras (which are the roots of the eighteen)
- (1) Union with Buddha (Skt. buddhasamāyoga; སངས་རྒྱས་མཉམ་སྦྱོར་, Wyl. sangs rgyas mnyam sbyor)
- Enlightened body
- (2) Secret Vital Essence of the Moon (Skt. śrīcandraguhyatilakanāmamahātantrarāja; ཟླ་གསང་ཐིག་ལེ་, Wyl. zla gsang thig le)
- Enlightened speech
- (3) Gathering of Secrets (Skt. guhyasamāja; གསང་བ་འདུས་པ་, Wyl. gsang ba 'dus pa)
- Enlightened mind
- (4) Glorious Supreme Beginning (Skt. śrīparamādya; དཔལ་མཆོག་དང་པོ་, Wyl. dpal mchog dang po)
- Enlightened qualities
- (5) Garland of Activity (Skt. karmamāla; ཀརྨ་མཱ་ལེ་, Wyl. karma mA le)
- Enlightened activity
Five tantras of sadhana
- (6) Manifestation of Compassion Tantra (T. snying rje rol pa'i rgyud སྙིང་རྗེ་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་)[4]
- Deity: Yamantaka (Tib. Shinjé) (in his black and red forms)
- Enlightened body
- (7) Manifestation of Hayagriva Tantra (T. rta mchog rol pa'i rgyud རྟ་མཆོག་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་)[5][6]
- Deity: Hayagriva (Tib. Tamdrin)
- Enlightened speech
- (8) Manifestation of the Heruka Tantra (T. he ru ka rol pa'i rgyud ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་)[7]
- Deity: Viśuddha heruka (Tib. Yangdak Heruka),
- Enlightened mind
- (9) Manifestation of Amrita Tantra (T. bdud rtsi rol pa'i rgyud བདུད་རྩི་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་)
- Deity: Amritakundali (Tib. Düdtsi Yönten),
- Enlightened qualities
- (10) Tantra of the Twelve Kilas (T. phur pa bcu gnyis kyi rgyud ཕུར་པ་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་འབྱུང་བའི་རྒྱུད་)
- Deity: Vajrakilaya
- Enlightened activity
Five branch classes of tantra of activity
- (11) Arrangement Like a Mountain (རི་བོ་བརྩེགས་པ་, Wyl. ri bo brtsegs pa)
- (12) Magnificent Wisdom Lightning (ཡེ་ཤེས་རྔམ་གློག་, Wyl. ye shes rngam glog)
- (13) Arrangement of the Three Samayas (དམ་ཚིག་བཀོད་པ་, Wyl. dam tshig bkod pa)
- (14) Single-Pointed Samadhi (ཏིང་འཛིན་རྩེ་གཅིག་, Wyl. ting 'dzin rtse gcig)
- (15) Rampant Elephant Tantra (གླང་ཆེན་རབ་འབོག་, Wyl. glang chen rab 'bog)
Two tantras of accomplishment or Two Later Tantras (རྒྱུད་ཕྱི་མ་, Wyl. rgyud phyi ma)
- (16) Vairochana's Magical Manifestation Matrix (རྣམ་སྣང་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲྭ་བ་, Wyl. rnam snang sgyu 'phrul drwa ba), which serves as a branch for engaging with mandala practice
- (17) Lasso of the Arya's Method Entitled "A Garland of Lotuses" (འཕགས་པ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ཞགས་པ་པདྨོའི་ཕྲེང་བའི་དོན་བསྡུས་པ་, Wyl. 'phags pa thabs kyi zhags pa pad+mo'i phreng ba'i don bsdus pa), which serves as a concise branch for the accomplishment of siddhi during sadhana practice
Root tantra of all
- (18) Secret Essence Tantra (Skt. Guhyagarbha Tantra; རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲྭ་བ་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་གསང་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་, Wyl. rdo rje sems dpa' sgyu 'phrul drwa ba rtsa ba'i rgyud gsang ba'i snying po)[8]
Classification according to Longchen Rabjam
Longchen Rabjam in his Thundering Roar of Brahma classifies the eighteen tantras into a five-fold set of the enlightened body, speech, mind, noble qualities and activity of the Buddha.
Khenpo Namdrol describes this scheme as follows:
- The eighteen tantras of Mahayoga can be correlated to the five-fold set of the enlightened body, speech, mind, noble qualities and activity of the buddha. Each category is sub-divided into three, and correlated to the enlightened body, speech and mind, so that for the enlightened body, for example, there is a triad of the enlightened body of the enlightened body, the enlightened body of the enlightened speech, and the enlightened body of the enlightened mind. This same pattern is reproduced in the other four categories: speech, mind, noble qualities and activity. The resulting fifteen categories correspond to the first fifteen tantras, while the remaining three tantras are termed ‘general tantras’, which are also divided up to correspond with the triad of the enlightened body, speech and mind."[9]
In detail, the eighteen tantras are classified as follows:[10]
Enlightened Body
- Langchen Rabok, representing the body aspect of enlightened body (sku'i sku rgyud glang po rab 'bog)
- Langpo Churjuk, representing the speech aspect of enlightened body (sku'i gsung rgyud glang po chur 'jug)
- Sarvabuddhasamayoga, representing the mind aspect of enlightened body (sku'i thugs rgyud sangs rgyas mnyam sbyor)
Enlightened Speech
- Riwo Tsekpa, representing the body aspect of enlightened speech (gsung gi sku rgyud ri bo brtsegs pa)
- Pema Wangchen, representing the speech aspect of enlightened speech (gsung gi gsung rgyud padma dbang chen)
- Dasang Tiklé, representing the mind aspect of enlightened speech (gsung gi thugs rgyud zla gsang thig le)
Enlightened Mind
- Tsemo Düpa, representing the body aspect of enlightened mind (thugs kyi sku rgyud rtse mo 'dus pa)
- Chik Lé Tröpa, representing the speech aspect of enlightened mind (thugs kyi gsung rgyud gcig las 'phros pa)
- Guhyasamaja, representing the mind aspect of enlightened mind (thugs kyi thugs rgyud gsang ba 'dus pa)
Enlightened Qualities
- Drönme Barwa, representing the body aspect of enlightened qualities (yon tan gyi sku rgyud sgron me 'bar ba)
- Dutsi Samaya Bumde, representing the speech aspect of enlightened qualities (yon tan gyi gsung rgyud bdud rtsi samaya 'bum sde)
- Palchok Dangpo, representing the mind aspect of enlightened qualities (yon tan gyi thugs rgyud dpal mchog dang po)
Enlightened Activity
- Paltreng Karpo, representing the body aspect of enlightened activity (phrin las kyi sku rgyud dpal phreng dkar po)
- Mamo Gyülung, representing the speech aspect of enlightened activity (phrin las kyi gsung rgyud ma mo rgyud lung)
- Vidyottama Tantra in 100,000 Sections, representing the mind aspect of enlightened activity (phrin las kyi thugs rgyud bidyotama 'bum sde)
General Tantras
- Tabshak, representing the body aspect in general (spyi'i sku rgyud thabs zhags)
- Damtsik Köpa, representing the speech aspect in general (spyi'i gsung rgyud dam tshig bkod pa)
- Guhyagarbha Māyājāla, representing the mind aspect in general (spyi'i thugs rgyud gsang ba sgyu 'phrul).
Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa (1504-66) also follows this sixfold division in his Scholar’s Feast (chos ’byung mkhas pa'i dga' ston), but with some slight differences in the sequence of the texts.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ringu Tulku 2006, Chapter 3.
- ↑ In Garland of Scriptural Transmissions of the Aural Lineage རྣ་རྒྱུད་ལུང་གི་ཕྲེང་བ།, Collected works of Patrul Rinpoche, Vol. 2, p.293-307.
- ↑ Tulku Thondup 1999, p. 360.
- ↑
སྙིང་རྗེ་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ རྟ་མཆོག་རོལ་པ་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ རྟ་མཆོག་རོལ་པ་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ Tulku Thondup (1999), page 360 lists this one as first, but the Essence of Clear Light (2010), Light of Bairotsana Translation Group, pages 383-384, lists this one as last.
- ↑ Khenpo Namdrol, Vajrakilaya (Dharmakosha, 1997 or Snow Lion: 1999), pages 8-9.
- ↑
Eighteen tantras of Mahayoga, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
Sources
Ringu Tulku (2006), The Ri-Me Philosophy of Jamgon Kungtrul the Great, Shambhala- Tulku Thondup (1999), Masters of Meditation and Miracles, Boston: Shambhala
