gnosis of the moment of passing away sūtra and the unpolluted tantra jiats_05_2009

8/12/2019 Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Away Stra and the Unpolluted Tantra JIATS_05_2009

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Journal of theInternational Association

of Tibetan Studies

Issue 5 December 2009

ISSN 1550-6363

An online journal published by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL)

www.jiats.org
http://www.jiats.org/http://www.jiats.org/


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Editors-in-Chief:Jos I. Cabezn and David GermanoGuest Editor:Kurtis R. Schaeffer

Book Review Editor:Bryan J. CuevasManaging Editor:Steven Weinberger

Assistant Editor:William McGrathTechnical Director:Nathaniel Grove

Contents

Articles

Contributions to the Development and Classication of Abhisamaylakra

Literature in Tibet from the Ninth to Fourteenth Centuries (56 pages) James B. Apple

A Noble Noose of Methods, the Lotus Garland Synopsis: Methodological Issuesin the Study of a Mahyoga Text from Dunhuang (51 pages)

Cathy Cantwell and Robert Mayer

On the Very Idea of a Tantric Canon: Myth, Politics, and the Formation of the Bkagyur (37 pages)

David B. Gray

Recovering a Lost Literary Heritage: Preliminary Research on the Wanli Bka gyurfrom Berlin (27 pages)

Agnieszka Helman-Wany

Two Bka gyur Works in Mahmudr Canons: Therya-tajna-nma-mahyna-straand theAnvila-tantra-rja(24 pages)

Roger R. Jackson

Classicism in Commentarial Writing: Exegetical Parallels in the IndianMlamadhyamakakrikCommentaries (67 pages)

Ulrich Timme Kragh

Canonical Literature in Western Tibet and the Structural Analysis of CanonicalCollections (27 pages)

Bruno Lain

The Role of theBodhicittavivaraain the Mahmudr Tradition of the Dwags pobka brgyud (31 pages)

Klaus-Dieter Mathes

Notes on the Co ne Bka gyur and Bstan gyur in the Library of Congress,Washington, D.C. (14 pages) Susan Meinheit

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GuaprabhasVinayastraCorpus: Texts and Contexts (19 pages) Paul K. Nietupski

On the Vicissitudes of SubhticandrasKmadhenu Commentary on theAmarakoa

in Tibet (105 pages) Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp

Pseudepigrapha in the Tibetan Buddhist Canonical Collections: The Case of theCarymelpakapradpaCommentary Attributed to kyamitra (31 pages)

Christian K. Wedemeyer

Book Reviews

Review ofTibetan Ritual, edited by Jos Ignacio Cabezn (12 pages) Christopher Bell

Review ofThe Culture of the Book in Tibet, by Kurtis R. Schaeffer (3 pages) Hildegard Diemberger

Review ofJesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideris Mission to Tibet, byTrent Pomplun (6 pages)

Michael Sweet

Goldsteins Response to M. Akesters Review ofA History of Modern Tibet,Volume 2: The Calm before the Storm, 1951-55, by Melvyn C. Goldstein (12 pages)

Melvyn C. Goldstein

Akesters Rejoinder to M. Goldsteins Response to Review ofA History of ModernTibet, Volume 2:The Calm before the Storm, 1951-55, by Melvyn C.Goldstein (4 pages)

Matthew Akester

Abstracts

Contributors to this Issue

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TwoBka gyurWorks in Mahmudr Canons:-

Therya-tajna-nma-mahyna-stra-

and theAnvila-tantra-rja1

Roger R. JacksonCarleton College

Abstract: Tibetan Buddhist lists and collections of Indian Great Seal (Phyag rgyachen po, Mahmudr) texts consist almost exclusively of works found in theTranslation of Treatises (Bstan gyur). There are, however, two Translation of theWord (Bka gyur) texts that appear in a collection of Ten Dharmas of the GreatSeal (Phyag rgya chen poi chos bcu) transmitted by the eleventh-century Indianteacher Vajrapi: the Noble Mahyna Stra Called The Gnosis of the Momentof Passing Away (Phags pa da ka ye shes shes bya ba theg pa chen poi mdo;

rya-tajna-nma-mahyna-stra) and the Royal Tantra on the Glorious

Unpolluted (Rgyud kyi rgyal po dpal rnyog pa med pa zhes bya ba; r-anvila-tantra-rja). In exploring these two texts, rarely discussed by either Tibetan orWestern scholarship, this article provides a translation and discussion of the Gnosisof the Moment of Passing Away (tajna; Da ka ye shes) and a synopsis anddiscussion of the Unpolluted (Anvila; Rnyog pa med pa). It concludes that althoughneither text is an obvious choice for a Great Seal canon, each contains terminologyand themes that are consonant with the Great Seal discourse of later Indian, aswell as Tibetan, Buddhism, each appears to have been sufciently prominent tocome to the attention of Vajrapi, and each can serve to provide the necessary

authority of the word of the Buddha (Buddhavacana; sangs rgyas kyi bka) to listsof Indian Great Seal texts utilized by Tibetans.

Introduction

The listing and collection of textual canons and corpora was an activity pursuedby Tibetan scholastics with great zeal over many centuries. The fruits of their

1 I would like to thank the following for assistance with and suggestions about various aspects of

this article: David Gray, Matthew Kapstein, Donald Lopez, Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Marta Sernesi, andJIATS two anonymous reviewers.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009): 1.http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5706.1550-6363/2009/5/T5706. 2009 by Roger R. Jackson, Tibetan and Himalayan Library, and International Association of Tibetan Studies.Distributed under theTHL Digital Text License.
http://www.thlib.org/?tid=T5706http://www.thlib.org/tools/licenses.php#essay=/thl/text-license/http://www.thlib.org/tools/licenses.php#essay=/thl/text-license/http://www.thlib.org/?tid=T5706


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organizational labors include not only the great Translation of the Word(Bkagyur) and Translation of Treatises (Bstan gyur) collections of Buddhism andBon, but canons or corpora related to a variety of more specialized topics, themes,

and traditions. Prominent among the specialized collections are those focused onthe Great Seal (Phyag rgya chen po, Mahmudr) a complex term that is animportant topic of discourse in most Tibetan Buddhist orders, though most

prominently in the Word Lineage (Bka brgyud). Although the identication ofthe Great Seal as a central topic of scholarly discourse is largely a product ofTibetan scholasticism, the term is Indic in origin, and gures with increasing

prominence in the tantric literature of late Indian Buddhism. Furthermore, as theterm expanded from connoting a ritual hand-gesture or a consort in sexual yogato indicating the nature of mind and reality, a system of formless meditation, and

the blissful gnosis accomplished at the culmination of the path, Great SealAttainment (Mahmudrsiddhi; Phyag chen sgrub), it came to be regarded by many(though not all) scholars as a term relevant not only to the Mantra Vehicle(Mantrayna; Sngags theg pa), but to the Stra Vehicle (Strayna; Mdoi theg

pa) as well.2

In their analyses of the Indian textual foundations for the study and practice ofthe Great Seal, Bka brgyud pa (and other) authors consistently listed the textscontained in such corpora as Sarahas (Mda bsnun) Triple Cycle of Essentials(Snying po skor gsum), the Seven Accomplishment Texts (Grub pa sde bdun), and

Sixfold Cycles of Essentials (Snying po skor drug) composed by assorted masters,and Maitrpa (eleventh century)s Twenty-Five Texts on Unthinking (Yid la mi

byed pa nyi shu rtsa lnga). Less frequently, they mentioned the texts contained insuch collections as the Four Dharma Ordinances (Bka bskul gyi chos bzhi), theTen Dharmas of the Great Seal (Phyag rgya chen poi chos bcu), and the Cycle ofLesser Texts (Phra mo skor) transmitted by Vajrapi (eleventh century), and theEight Doh Treasuries (Do ha mdzod brgyad). In the fteenth century, most of thetexts in these corpora, and many others besides, were collected in the greatest ofall Great Seal anthologies, Extensive Collection of Great Seal Texts (Phyag chen

rgya gzhung) of the Seventh Kar ma pa, Chos grags rgya mtsho (14541506),3 andin the nineteenth century, a smaller anthology of essential Great Seal texts wasincluded by Jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha yas (181399) in the Marpa

2 On this much-debated and often-studied issue, see, especially, David P. Jackson, Enlightenmentby a Single Means: Tibetan Controversies on the Self-Sufcient White Remedy,Beitrge zur Kultur-und Geistesgeschichte Asiens no. 12 (Wien: Verlag der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,1994); and Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Blending the Stras with the Tantras: The Inuence of Maitrpa andhis Circle on the Formation of Stra Mahmudr in the Kagyu Schools, in Tibetan Buddhist Literature

and Praxis: Studies in its Formative Period, 9001400: Proceedings from the Tenth Seminar of theInternational Association of Tibetan Studies, edited by Ronald M. Davidson and Christian K.Wedermeyer (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2006), 201227.

3 On this, see Klaus-Dieter Mathes, The Collection of Indian Mahmudr Works (Tib. Phyag rgyachen po rgya gzhung) Compiled by the Seventh Karmapa Chos grags rgya mtsho, inMahmudr andthe Bka brgyud Tradition: Proceedings from the Eleventh Seminar of the International Associationof Tibetan Studies, edited by Matthew Kapstein and Roger Jackson (Leiden/Boston: Brill, forthcoming2011).

2Jackson:Two Bka gyur Works in Mahmudr Canons


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Oral Lineage (Mar pa bka brgyud) section of his compendious Treasury ofInstructions(Gdams ngag mdzod).

A survey of the various Great Seal canon-lists4 reveals that nearly every text

contained in them comes from (or has its equivalent in) the Translation of Treatises.This is despite the fact that the term Great Seal almost certainly originated invarioustantras (rgyud) contained in theTranslation of the Word,5 and despite thefact, as well, that Tibetan writers on the Great Seal extensively quote Translationof the Word texts both the Mantra Vehicle and the Stra Vehicle in theirdiscussions of the topic. Certain Great Seal canon-lists do, however, containexceptions to theTranslation-of-Treatises-only trend. To be precise, in all the listsI have surveyed, there appear just one stra (mdo) and one tantra from theTranslation of the Wordthat are deemed canonical for Great Seal traditions. We

might expect that if there were a single stra canonized by Great Seallineage-holders, it would be a Perfection of Wisdom (Prajpramit; Shes rab gyi

pha rol tu phyin pa) text like theEight Thousand(Aashasrik;Brgyad stong),or the oft-quotedKing of Concentrations(Samdhirja;Ting nge dzin rgyal po)orJewel Cloud(Ratnamegha;Dkon mchog sprin)stras. And we might expectthat if there were onetantrauniquely authoritative in Great Seal circles, it would

be a foundational text such as theMajurnmasagti, or the root or explanatorytantrarelated to a great system like theSecret Communion(Guhyasamja;Gsangbai dus),Wheel of Pledges(Cakrasavara;Sdom pai khor lo),Hevajra(Kyei

Rdo Rje), orWheel of Time(Klacakra;Dus pai khor lo). In fact, however, theonlystrathat appears in any Great Seal canon-list I have seen is the important

but little-studiedNoble Mahyna Stra Called The Gnosis of the Moment ofPassing Away(Phags pa da ka ye shes shes bya ba theg pa chen poi mdo,rya-tajna-nma-mahyna-stra; hereafter, the Gnosis of the Moment ofPassing Away[tajna;Da ka ye shes]),6 while the soletantrathus digniedis the relatively obscureRoyal Tantra on the Glorious Unpolluted(Rgyud kyi rgyal

po dpal rnyog pa med pa zhes bya ba, r-anvila-tantra-rja; hereafter, theUnpolluted[Anvila;Rnyog pa med pa]).7

The source of the canonical status of the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Awayand theUnpollutedseems to be a collection of texts transmitted in eastern India

by Maitrpas great disciple Vajrapi to the Tibetan master Nag po sher dad mnga

4 See Roger R. Jackson, The Indian Mahmudr Canon(s): A Preliminary Sketch, IndianInternational Journal of Buddhist Studies9 (2008), 15184.

5 See Roger R. Jackson, Mahmudr,Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, ed. Lindsay Jones(Detroit: Wadsworth Gale 2005) vol. 8, 55965601.

6 A. W. Barber, ed., The Tibetan Tripiaka: Taipei Edition (Taipei: SMC Publising, 1991) 11:410/305(1)410/306(1);Bka gyur, Mdo sde, tha, 153a1153b1, Thoku #122 (Peking #790). Thestra also is known as theAtyayajna; see Tadeusz Skorupski,A Catalogue of the Stog Palace Kanjur(Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1985), 127n1. There is no major semanticdistinction betweentajnaandAtyayajna; I will refer here to the former because I have utilizedthe Sde dge edition.

7 Barber, ed., The Tibetan Tripiaka, 16: 169/518(3)270/522(3); Bka gyur, Rgyud bum, ga,259b3261b3; Thoku #414 (Peking #58). In the notes, it will be designated simply as theUnpolluted.

3Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 5 (December 2009)


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ris (eleventh century). This collection, which is identied by Gos lo ts ba gzhonnu dpal (13921481) in theBlue Annals(Deb ther sngon po) as the Ten Dharmasof the Great Seal,8 consists of theKing Dohkoa(Rgyal poi do ha) andPeople

Dohkoa(Dmangs do ha) of Saraha; the same authorsBody Vajragti(Lus rdorjei glu),Speech Vajragti(Ngag rdo rjei glu),Mind Vajragti(Sems rdo rjeiglu), andBody-Speech-Mind Vajragti(Lus ngag sems rdo rjei glu) collections;verses on stages of the path by Vajrapi himself; and, most importantly for our

purposes, theGnosis of the Moment of Passing Away, theUnpolluted tantra, anda commentary on the latter by Kumracandra (Gzhon nu zla ba; eleventh century?),theCommentary on the Tantra Called The Glorious Unpolluted(Dpal rnyog

pa med pa zhes bya bai rgyud kyi grel ba;r-anvilamahtantra-k; hereafter,Anvila-tantra-k).9 TheGnosis of the Moment of Passing Away, so far as I can

ascertain, appears in no other list but this. The Unpollutedand Kumracandrascommentary upon it are the rst two texts contained in the Seventh Kar ma pasExtensive Collection of Great Seal Texts, and the Unpolluted without thecommentary is the rst text listed under the Common Great Seal Cycle (Thun mong

phyag chen skor) in the Marpa Oral Lineage section of the Treasury of Instructions.

In what follows, I will provide a translation and brief discussion of the Gnosisof the Moment of Passing Away, a synopsis and brief discussion of the Unpolluted,and some concluding reections on the placement of these texts in selected GreatSeal canon-lists and what that placement may tell us about Tibetan conceptions of

the Great Seal.

Translation of theGnosis of the Moment of Passing Away

[153a1] In the Indian language: rya-tajna-nma-mahyna-stra; in theTibetan language:Phags pa da ka ye shes shes bya ba theg pa chen poi mdo(The Noble Mahyna Stra Called The Gnosis of the Moment of Passing

Away).

I prostrate to all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus I have heard at one [2] time: The Blessed One (Bcom ldan das,Bhagavan) was dwelling in the palace of the king of gods in the Highest Heaven(Akaniha; Og min), teaching theDharmato the whole entourage.

The bodhisattva-mahsattva (byang chub sems dpa sems pa chen po)Akagarbha (Nam mkhai snying po) prostrated to the Blessed One and said, OBlessed One, how should a bodhisattva see things at the time of death?

The Blessed One said, O Akagarbha, at the time of death a bodhisattvashould meditate on the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Away.

8 Gos lo ts ba gzhon nu dpal,The Blue Annals: Deb ther sngon po (New Delhi: InternationalAcademy of Indian Culture, 1974), chap. 11, fol. 12b; George N. Roerich,The Blue Annals(Delhi:Motilal Banarsidass 1976), 865. See also Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Dreaming the Great Brahmin: TibetanTraditions of the Buddhist Poet-Saint Saraha(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 65.

9 Barber, ed.,The Tibetan Tripiaka, 22: 78/543(7)80/560(1);Bstan gyur,rgyud, ja, 271b7280b1;Thoku 1204 (Peking 790).



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In that regard, because alldharmas are naturally pure, the Gnosis [4] of theMoment of Passing Away should be clearly meditated on as the recognition (du

shes,saj) of entitylessness (dngos med,avastutva).

Because alldharmas are collected within the awakening mind (byang chubsems,bodhicitta), it should be clearly meditated on as the recognition of greatcompassion (thugs rje chen po,mahkru).

Because all dharmas are naturally luminous, it should be [5] clearly meditatedon as the recognition of non-objectication (mi dmigs pa,niralambana).

Because alldharmas are impermanent, it should be clearly meditated on asthe recognition of non-attachment (mi chags pa,virga) to anything at all.

Because it is the gnosis of the realization of mind, it should be clearlymeditated on as the recognition of not seeking Buddha elsewhere.

The Blessed One [6] then spoke in verse:

Alldharmas are naturally pure,So meditate on the recognition of entitylessness.They are utterly possessed of awakening mind,So meditate on the recognition of great compassion.Dharmas are naturally luminous,So meditate on the recognition of non-objectication,All entities are impermanent,So meditate on the recognition of non-attachment.

Mind is the cause for gnosis to arise,So do not seek Buddha elsewhere.

The Blessed One said this, and the bodhisattva [153b1] Akagarbha andeveryone else in the assembled entourage rejoiced and openly praised the discourseof the Blessed One.

This completes The Noble Mahyna Stra Called The Gnosis of the Momentof Passing Away.

Comments on theGnosis of the Moment of Passing Away

TheGnosis of the Moment of Passing Awayis found only in Tibetan translation.Its translators are not identied, but it apparently was available in Tibet during theearly period of Buddhism there.10 The original Sanskrit text is not extant, nor wasit ever translated into Chinese.11 In both the Sde dge and Peking editions of theTranslation of the Word, theGnosis of the Moment of Passing Awayis preceded,with only one intervening text, by the lengthy and very important The Noble

Mahyna Stra Called The Great Parinirva(Phags pa yongs su mya nganlas das pa chen theg pa chen poi mdo;rya-mahparinirva-nma-mahyna-

stra; hereafter,Nirva-stra). In some Tibetan circles theNirvais countedas one of ve great Mahynastras that are said to contain a hundred thousand

10 See Marcelle Lalou, Les Textes Bouddhiques au Temps du Roi Khri-so-lde-bcan, JournalAsiatique(1953), 325 (item #270)

11 Hajime Nakamura, Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes (Delhi: MotilalBanrasidass, 1987), 173n32.



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instances (bum) of some basic category. The Five Hundred-Thousands(Bumlnga)arethePerfection of Wisdom in a Hundred Thousand Verses (atashasrik-

prajpramit;Rgya stong phar phyin), which is the hundred thousand of mind,

theNirva, which is the hundred thousand of speech, theJewel-Heap (Ratnaka,Dkon brtsegs), which is the hundred thousand of body, the Flower Garland(Avatasaka;Phal po che), which is the hundred thousand of auspiciousness, andtheDescent to Lanka(Lakvatra;Lang kar gshegs pa), which is the hundredthousand of activity.12 Each of these, notes Donald Lopez, was regarded as havinga condensed version, which the Tibetans called theFive Royal Stras(Rgyal poimdo lnga), because they were recited in the religious services of the early kings.13

According to Bstan dar lha ram pa, for theatashasrikthe condensedstraistheHeart Stra(Prajpramit-hdaya;Shes rab pha rol tu phyin pai snying

po); for the Nirva, the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Away; for theJewel-Heap,theAdamantine Triumph (Vajravidra;Rdo rje rnam par joms pa;on ablution); for the Flower Garland, the Vows of Good Conduct(Bhadracarpraidhna; Bzang poi spyod pai smon lam; with its famousseven-limbed prayer);14 and for the Descent to Lanka, the Teaching onTransgression(pattideana;Ltung ba bshags pa; a confessionstra).15 I haveencountered no evidence that these categories are Indian, but it is possible thattheir prominence at the Tibetan court reects their status in India. Certainly, theGnosis of the Moment of Passing Away had sufcient importance there that it came

to the attention of Vajrapi, even if we do not know how or why he singled it out.TheGnosis of the Moment of Passing Aways association with theNirva-

stra in Tibet (if not in India) probably is based on the fact that it describesmeditations to be practiced by a bodhisattva at the time of death, just as theNirva-

stra contains the Buddhas death-bed instructions to his followers. Thoseinstructions famously include signicant expositions of the Buddha-nature(Buddhadhtu;Sangs rgyas kyi khams) doctrine, so theGnosis of the Moment of

Passing Aways contention thatdharmas are pure, possessed of awakening mind,and luminous, and that Buddha should not be sought outside the mind, might well

be taken as aligning the two stras doctrinally. At the same time, theframe-narratives of the two are utterly different: the Nirva-stra, like its Plicounterpart theSutta on the Great Final Nibbnais set in Kuingara and has the

blacksmith Cunda as the Buddhas initial interlocutor, while the Gnosis of theMoment of Passing Away is set in the Highest Heaven and has the Buddha indiscussion with the bodhisattva Akagarbha.

12 See Donald S. Lopez, Jr.,The Heart Stra Explained: Indian and Tibetan Commentaries(Albany:State University of New York Press, 1988), 29. Lopez is citing the Mongolian Virtuous Tradition (Dgelugs pa) master, Bstan dar lha ram pa (17591831).

13 Lopez,The Heart Stra Explained, 30.14 Although theVows of Good Conductactually forms a small part of theGaavyha-stra, which

in turn is contained within theFlower Garland, it often has functioned as an independent text.15 Lopez,The Heart Stra Explained. I have not yet substantiated Bstan dar lha ram pas claim in

earlier sources.



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Although theGnosis of the Moment of Passing Aways importance is suggestedby its apparent popularity as a ritual text in early Tibetan Buddhism and its inclusionin Vajrapis Great Seal text-collection, there is no extant Indian commentary

upon it, and it seems never to have gained great currency in Tibetan Great Sealcircles. It is quoted only once in Dwags po bkra shis rnam rgyals (151287)compendious and authoritativeMoonbeams of the Great Seal(Phyag chen zla baiod zer),16 while many other Mahynastras are cited far more frequently. And,as best I can ascertain, only four Tibetan commentaries were written upon it, all

by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Virtuous Tradition (Dge lugs pa) scholars;the longest of them (thirty-three folios) is by the Seventh Dalai Lama, Skal bzangrgya mtsho (170857).17

Even if the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Away did not attain the prominence

envisioned for it by Vajrapi when he transmitted it to Nag po sher dad mngaris, it is undeniable that the themes it so succinctly expounds are consonant withthe central concepts of much Great Seal discourse. That dharmas are naturally

pure (hence the Buddhas exhortation to recognize entitylessness), possessed ofawakening mind (hence great compassion), and luminous (hencenon-objectication), that entities are impermanent (hence non-attachment), andthat mind is the source of gnosis (hence the advice to seek Buddha there): all theseare familiar claims in Great Seal literature, from the latter days of Buddhism inIndia right down to the present day. Thus, while there is nothing especially

distinctive about the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Aways presentation of GreatSeal themes (and while, like otherstras, it nowhere utilizes the term Great Seal),it remains a clear, concise, and easily memorized prcis of those themes, and wecan well understand why both early Tibetan kings and Vajrapi regarded it ashighly as they apparently did.

Synopsis of theUnpolluted

Following a translators homage to Vajrakin (Rdo rje mkha gro ma), the tantra,

without any narrative frame, moves directly into its exposition, all of which is inverse. It begins thusly:

Those desiring to benet sentient beings

Should explain the Unpolluted.

It is non-appearing and unexemplied,

And transcends the realm of words.

16 The passage quoted is: Because it is the gnosis of the realization of mind, it should be clearlymeditated on as the recognition of not seeking Buddha elsewhere. See Dvags po Bkra shsis rnamrgyal,es don phyag rgya chen poi sgom rim gsal bar byed pai legs bad zla bai od zer(Delhi:Karma chos phel, 1974), 168a6 (335).

17 In the TibetanBuddhist Resource Centers (TBRC) catalogue, it is W2618. The othercommentaries,all covering fewer that ten folios, are by Grags pa bshad sgrub (16751748; TBRC W12915), kyayongs dzin dbyangs can dga bai blo gros (17401827; W1963), and Dngul chu dharmabhadra(17721851; W6574). I have not had an opportunity to examine these commentaries.



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It is peace, non-self, and purity,

Signless and bereft of a basis for signs.

Naturally Buddha, this is the way.18

After promising to teach in order to benet the deluded, the author remarkscritically onyogs (rnal byor pa) who are obsessed with emptiness, drops (thigle,bindu), or Vaiava (Khyab jug pa) practices. There follows a further seriesof philosophical observations:

Since cause and effect are not established,

There is no meditation and no awakening.

Rejection of the belief in causes

Is self without beginning or end.

From the gnosis [seeing through] illusion

Various aspects are revealed.19

The author then describes various yogs who are involved in proper tantricpractice, noting those who by nature are wrathful or peaceful, form seals (mudr;phyag rgya), tremble and quake, sing and dance, play cymbals, chant mantras(sngags), drawmaalas (dkyil khor), and investigate the senses and the body.

The text shifts next to an analysis ofmaalas. It describes body, speech, andmind as amaalaof colored powder and the aggregates (skandha;phung po) asamaalaof collections, and adds that

The puremaalaof mind

Is to be meditated upon as without intrinsic nature (svabhva;rang bzhin).20

The symbolic import of the four sides and center of a maala: the rst (east)side is related to the mirror-like realization, the south21 to discerning realization,

the north to especially superior activity and effort, the west (the side ofnon-propensity) to the gnosis of equality, and the center to the domain of gnosis.The four doors of themaalaare identied with the four mindfulnesses, and thefour sides with four types of pure giving. At the center of the maala isAkobhya. The various architectural features of themaalaand ornaments worn

by deities also have symbolic equivalents: the porticos are the limbs ofconcentration; necklaces are suchness (tathat; de bzhin nyid); the bell and necklace

18 Unpolluted, 259b45.19 Unpolluted, 259b67.20 Unpolluted, 260a3.21 The text reads east (shar), but since the rst side is the east, this may be a mistake. In his

commentary, Kumracandra clearly associates discerning realization (or gnosis) with the south; seeAnvila-tantra-k, 275a7.



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bring realization of ones queen;22 the victory banners are garlands; the canopiesare entities when viewed conventionally and mind when understood ultimately;clothes are just the various aspects of what appears; jeweledvajras (rdo rje) are

realizations; the sun and moon are method and wisdom. In short,A mind in aspect like avajra

Is marked by joyful gnosis (dga bai ye shes,nandajna).23

And,

The arising ofvajrabody, speech, and mind

Is taught as occurring in themaala.24

The text continues with a description of the symbolism of a re-offering ritual(Sbyin sreg; Homa), which is said to be for the satisfaction of the gods. There-pit is described as a mind without concepts and the rewood as the veaggregates and anything that arises. Consecration is dened as the stabilization of

body, speech, and mind. As for thoughts,

Discourse about thoughts

Has been described by the Lord of Secrets:

They are unarisen and do not appear,

Bereft of signs or a basis for signs.25

That, in turn, is said to be the true meaning ofmantra.

The next topic, the explanation of deities, is introduced by the observation that

Whatever is the steadfast nature

Of the aggregates, sense-bases (yatana;skye mched), and sense-elds (dhtu;khams)

Is perfect awakening and liberation.26

Furthermore,

If we examine mind more closely,

It rightly is explained as the deity.

22 Kumrracandra interprets this as connoting the four moments and four joys of completion-stagepractice; seeAnvila-tantra-k, 276a12.

23 Unpolluted, 260b2.24 Unpolluted, 260b3.25 Unpolluted, 260b67.26 Unpolluted, 260b7.



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Through the seals of body, speech, and mind

It rightly is taught as reality.27

The text turns next to an explanation of the yoga of requesting the deity. Thepractitioner is instructed to adopt the lotus posture and gaze at the tip of the nose.Then,

Through the yoga of your own nature,

You should settle on seeing reality.

With your hands joined together

Deliberately at your heart,

You [abide] in the non-conceptual nature.28

When the mind wanders, the text adds, the lord of all the assembled Buddhaswill arise, and bestow a blessing. The yoga of all those Buddhas is said to involve

bestowing attainments of body, speech, and mind, mastering method and wisdom,arousing compassion for the sake of beings, and attaining a Buddhas awakening.As for themaalaat the tip of the nose, it is that place in which all that ismerely shaped is unmade.

The author goes on to speak of vows (samaya;sdom pa). Success in keeping

vows is said to be assured by by strong aspiration to the non-conceptual, Thevows are then associated with the ve nectars (pacmta;bdud rtsii lnga) hereblood, semen, esh, feces, and urine each of which has a symboliccorrespondence, and each of which is asserted to be a food that must be consumed.Thus, blood is the concept of an existent sentient being, and its consumption therecognition that there is no such thing. Semen is whatever arises fromdharmas,its consumption the recognition that there is no arising. Flesh is the equalizationof all entities,29 its consumption their transcendence through the yoga ofnon-objectication. Urine is a mind that drips or leaks (dzag pai sems), its

consumption the sealing of that mind. Feces are the mind ascertaining right andwrong, its consumption the realization of the nature of all dharmas. In the end,through understanding the meaning of the vows, the self-nature of every Buddhacomes to be.

That completes thetantras expository section. The text concludes with a proseafterword:

This completes The Unpolluted Analysis of the Vow of the kin-Net(Mkhagro ma dra ba sdom pai brtag pa rnyog pa med pa), the great stages of training

by the tantric blessing called possessing the realization of the glorious holy bliss.

27 Unpolluted, 260b7261a1.28 Unpolluted, 261a12.29 The equalization ofdharmas on the basis of their common emtptiness is usually an activity that

is encouraged; I surmise that the focus here is not on equalization, but on the conceptualization, orobjectication, ofdharmas.



14/27

It was translated by the Indian master Gayadhara (eleventh century) and theTibetan translator (lo ts ba), the fully-ordained monk (bhiku;dge slong) kyaye shes (eleventh century).30

Comments on theUnpolluted

TheUnpollutedcontains relatively straightforward vocabulary, but its syntax issometimes opaque, so the synopsis above must be taken as provisional.Unfortunately, I know of no Tibetan commentary on the tantra, and while thesingle Indian commentary that is extant, by Kumracandra, links theUnpollutedto themes in the Yogin Tantras (Rnal byor mai rgyud) and Mahyna soteriologyin interesting ways, it provides neither an outline nor a word-by-word explanationof the text. Indeed, it signals its discussion of various passages simply by giving

a short phrase from the root-text, followed by et cetera (la sogs pa). Severaldozen such phrases are selected, and Kumracandras discussions of them often

bear scant relation to the original text and ignore signicant passages containedin it. Most notably, his analysis of the many tantric elements of the text is quiteskimpy: he omits entirely the passages on the re-offering and the ve nectars,and interprets most other tantric themes primarily along the lines of standard laterMahyna gnoseology and soteriology. As a result, the reader looking forclarication of the Unpolluteds syntactic challenges or deeper tantric meaningcomes away frustrated.

Though he nowhere says so, it is likely that Kumracandra associated theUnpollutedwith the Wheel of Pledges corpus, for his commentary includes scatteredreferences to theWheel-of-Pledges-related terms and names, including the four

joys (dga bzhi) and Vajrayogin. Given this, and the reference to the kin-netand glorious holy bliss in the tantras afterword, it is understandable that theUnpollutedfound its way into the section of theTranslation of the Worddevotedto theWheel of Pledgestexts. Indeed, at some point, it joined a corpus called theThirty-Two Uncommon Explanatory Tantras (Thun mong ma yin pai bshad rgyudra li sum bcu so gnyis) of theWheel of Pledges, as witnessed by Bu ston rin chengrub (12901364) in his inuential overview of the tantras, Beautifying the

Precious Tantras: A General Exposition of the Tantras(Rgyud sde spyii rnampar gzhag pa rgyud sde rin po chei mdzas rgyan),31 and two centuries later by theBrug pa bka brgyud scholar Rgod tshang ras chen sna tshogs rang grol(1482-1556) in his Wheel of Pledges commentary, The Supreme Medicine of GreatGnosis: A Nectar Feast of the Great Vehicle: A General Explanation of the BlessedOne, Cakrasavara(Bcom ldan das dpal khor lo sdom pai spyi bshad thegmchog bdud rtsii dga ston ye shes chen poi sman mchog).32

30 Unpolluted, 261b23.31 In Lokesh Chandra, ed.,The Collected Works of Bu-ston (New Delhi: International Academy of

Indian Culture, 1966) vol. ba, 429-36. Thanks to David Gray for this reference.32 Thanks to Marta Sernesi for this reference.



15/27

Notwithstanding this tradition, the only evidence of thetantras afliation withthe Wheel of Pledges that is obvious in the tantra itself comes from the translatorshomage to Vajrakin and from the afterword. A homage to Vajrakin, however,

only narrows the possibilities to the Yogin Tantras, and is, besides, a later addition.It also is possible that the afterword was added later. The main text of the tantra,as the synopsis above should make clear, is a mixture of gnostic pronouncementsabout reality and quasi-systematic expositions of the symbolic and meditativesignicance of a variety of tantric themes, including the maala, joyful gnosis,re-rituals, deity, consecration, vows, and the ve nectars. These themes, however,are treated rather generally. Deities, consecrations, and vows are common featuresof all tantric (and many non-tantric) traditions. The maala that is described seemsto be a variation of the Akobhyamaalafound in many tantric systems; it is not

at all like themaalas of kins that one commonly encounters in theWheel ofPledges(andHevajra) literature. Indeed, the only deities directly mentioned byname in thetantraare Akobhya, Innite Light (Amitbha; Od dpag med), andthe Lord of Secrets (Guhyapati; Gsang bdag; usually taken to be Vajrapi), all ofwhom are widespread in tantric literature. The references to joyful gnosis,re-offerings, and the ve nectars do not narrow the eld much, since these are acommon feature ofYogin(and sometimesGreat Yoga[Mahyoga;Rnal byorchen poi])tantras. At the same time, thetantralacks many of the references onewould expect in a Yogin Tantra, for instance to female deities or the four moments

and joys. As noted above, the commentator Kumracandra reads some of theseinto the text, but that does not assure us that they were originally intended. Theseuncertainties aside, it is clear that the Unpollutedhas been associated with theWheel of Pledgesfor a very long time, and there is no grounds in the text to assignit to any other tantric corpus, so its traditional afliation seems reasonable, ifnot-self-evident.

If theUnpolluteds connection to theWheel of Pledgescorpus to which it isassigned seems tenuous, its status as a text related to the Great Seal is no less

problematic. AlthoughYogin Tantras are replete with signicant references to

the Great Seal, theUnpollutednowhere mentions the term. It does contain threereferences to seals one to the natural form assumed by certain practitioners;another in the context of the seals of body, speech, and mind that assure that themind is both deity and reality; and the last in relation to the sealing of a mind thatdrips or leaks33 - but the Great Seal never appears. Yet theUnpollutedremains thesoletantraincluded in a major listing of canonical Indian Great Seal texts. Why?We probably never will know, but its status, as we have seen, is almost certainlydue to its inclusion among the Ten Dharmas of the Great Seal transmitted to Nag

po sher dad mnga ris by Vajrapi. Vajrapis respect for the text, in turn, is

probably based on its importance to his teacher Maitrpa. According to theDharmaHistory (Chos byung) of Padma dkar po (152792), when Maitrpa failed to believethe teachings on the Great Seal granted him by abari, it was prophesied that hewould spend twelve days on Dharma-Preaching Isle (Chos bshad pai gling), so

33 The terms are found atUnpolluted259b7, 261a1, and 261b1, respectively.



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as to develop faith in the sky-likeUnpolluted, the ocean-likeSecret Communion,the gnosis-likeHevajra, the blessing-like Wheel of Pledges, and the key-likeLitanyof Names(Nmasagti;Mtshan yang dag par brjod pa) in short, the entire

dharmacycle of essential accomplishment that shows the ultimate meaning.34

Itis unclear from Padma dkar pos account whether Maitrpa ever did visitDharma-Preaching Isle, and in any case, bad student that he was, Maitrpa wouldforget most of what he had been taught. What is signicant here, though, is thattheUnpollutedis put on a par with, and distinguished from, several of the mostimportant Indian tantric sources. Similarly, Dwags po bkra shis rnam rgyal liststheUnpollutedamong the Tantras of Essential Meaning (Snying po don gyirgyud) belonging to the highest yogatantraclass, transmitted by Vajra-Holder (Vajradhara; Rdo rje chang) to the deity Vajrapi, along with the Drop of the

Great Seal(Mahmudrtilaka;Phyag chen thig le)andtheNonabiding(Aprasaha;Rab tu mi gnas pa)tantras.35 The assertions by Padma dkar po and Bkra shis rnamrgyal may be later inventions that help to account for the Unpolluteds exaltedstatus in Great Seal traditions, but the fact that Vajrapi singled out the text forspecial attention indicates at the very least that it probably was important toMaitrpa, and perhaps to other teachers for whom the Great Seal was a centralconcept.

In his commentary, Kumracandra identies three places in the Unpollutedwhere the Great Seal is the implied topic. The rst passage, already cited, is that

which explains:

Since cause and effect are not established,

There is no meditation and no awakening;

Rejection of the belief in causes

Is self without beginning or end,

From the gnosis [seeing through] illusion

Various aspects are revealed.36

According to Kumracandra, these verses connote the Great Seal, which is agnosis that sees the illusory nature of all dharmas, and is a supernal knowledgethrough which things are emanated.37

34 Padma dkar po,Chos byung, 147a35, inTibetan Chronicle of Padma-dkar-po, edited by LokeshChandra (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1968), 293. For translations of therelevant passage, see Mark Tatz, The Life of the Siddha-Philosopher Maitrgupta,Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society107, 4 (1987) 705; and Karl Brunnhlzl,Straight from the Heart: BuddhistPith Instructions(Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2007) 129.

35 Bkra shis rnam rgyal, Phyag chen zla bai od zer, 103b6104a1 (2078); see Lhalungpa,Mahmudr, 116. I have not been able to identify theNonabiding(Aprasaha;Rab tu mi gnas pa),though there is a text in theBstan gyur, attributed to Maitrpa, entitledAprasahapraka(Rab tu mignas pa gsal bar ston pa; Thoku #2235, Peking #3079).

36 Unpolluted, 259b7.37 Kumracandra,Anvila-tantra-k, 274b24.



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The second passage, also cited above, is that in which the tantraspecicallyrefers to the seals of body, speech, and mind:

If we examine mind more closely,It rightly is explained as the deity.

Through the seals of body, speech, and mind

It rightly is taught as reality.38

The term seals, says Kumracandra, means the Great Seal, and that is perfectawakening.39 The third passage comes at the very end of the tantra, where theunderstanding the explanation of vows is said to be that through which theself-nature of every Buddha comes to be.40 Vows, Kumracandra explains, entail

gnosis and realization, and those, in turn, are the Great Seal.41

Quite apart from these implicit references to the Great Seal identied byKumracandra, it is easy to detect, in other philosophical passages in the Unpolluted,themes that came to characterize the Great Seal in the later Indian tradition, whereit refers to the nature of mind and reality, various meditative techniques focusedon the mind, and the supreme realization at the culmination of the Buddhist path.Thus, the insistence that the unpolluted mind/reality is invisible, ineffable, signless,and naturally awakened; that in it there is no cause or effect, meditation orawakening; that all thoughts and dharmas are unarisen; that yoga should be focusedon abiding in ones non-conceptual nature; that vajra-mind is characterized by

joyful gnosis; and that the very nature of the aggregates, sense-bases, andsense-elds is perfect awakening: all these are ideas with which the term GreatSeal came to be associated, especially as the discursive traditions of the GreatYoga andYogin Tantras increasingly assimilated terms and concepts found inmainstream Mahyna Buddhism. Thus, while theUnpollutednever mentions theGreat Seal, it certainly is replete with passages that are consonant with Great Sealdiscourse as it existed at the time of Maitrpa and Vajrapi, and while we mightstill be surprised that it was singled out for canonization by Vajrapi in

preference to other, more famous, texts, it certainly was a reasonable choice evenif in Tibetan tradition it has been listed more often than it has been read.

Conclusion

TheGnosis of the Moment of Passing Away straand theUnpolluted tantraarethe only two Translation of the Wordtexts to appear in signicant Indian or Tibetanlists or collections of canonical Indian Great Seal works. Although it is lesssurprising in the case of the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Away than of the

Unpolluted, neither text mentions the term Great Seal. Neither text received much

38 Unpolluted, 260b7261a1.39 Kumracandra,Anvila-tantra-k, 277a2.40 Unpolluted, 231b2.41 Kumracandra,Anvila-tantra-k, 280a3.



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commentarial attention in India or Tibet, nor was either cited with frequency inimportant works on the Great Seal certainly far less than suchstras as theKingof ConcentrationsorJewel Cloudand suchtantras as theHevajraor theWheel of

Time. At the same time, both the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Away andUnpolluted discuss topics such as the natural purity of mind, the ultimatenon-existence of alldharmas, and the necessity for non-conceptual meditation asthe path to nal gnosis that had become closely associated with Great Sealdiscourse by the late period of Indian Buddhism. As a result, their inclusion inGreat Seal canons is perfectly reasonable though far from obvious, given theirrelative obscurity.

Indeed, their appearance in Great Seal canon-lists seems entirely to be a resultof their having been singled out by the eleventh-century Indian master Vajrapi

for inclusion in a corpus of ten Great Seal texts that he transmitted to his visitingTibetan student Nag po sher dad mnga ris. Vajrapis inclusion of the Unpolluted

perhaps can be explained by the fact that the text may have been one of a numberoftantras important to his master, Maitrpa. His inclusion of the Gnosis of the

Moment of Passing Awayis less easily explained, but if the text was known inIndia, as it seems to have been in Tibet, as a distillation of the teachings of the

Nirva-stra, then it may have been sufciently famous and imbued with GreatSeal themes to draw Vajrapis attention. On a more practical note, both theGnosis of the Moment of Passing AwayandUnpollutedare short texts, relatively

easy to memorize and transport. Finally, even though both texts have been largelyneglected in Tibet, theUnpolluted, at least, has continued to appear occasionallyin Tibetan lists and anthologies of Great Seal texts. This may be attributed to afairly obvious point: because it is (like the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing Away)aTranslation of the Wordtext in an ocean ofTranslation of Treatisesmaterial, itis the word of the Buddha, and so adds to any collection of which it is part thenecessary authority of the words of the Buddha even if, in teaching it, he neveruttered the word whose contemplation it (and the Gnosis of the Moment of Passing

Away) are supposed to authorize.



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Glossary

Note: these glossary entries are organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. All entrieslist the following information in this order:THL Extended Wylietransliterationof the term,THL Phoneticrendering of the term, the English translation, theSanskrit equivalent, the Chinese equivalent, other equivalents such as Mongolianor Latin, associated dates, and the type of term.

Ka

TypeDatesOtherEnglishPhoneticsWylie

PersonKarmapakar ma pa

TextSan.HevajraKy Dorjkyei rdo rje

TextSan.RatnameghaJewel CloudKnchok Trindkon mchog sprin

TextSan.RatnakaJewel-HeapKntsekdkon brtsegs

TermSan.maalakyinkhordkyil khor

Textual GroupFour DharmaOrdinances

Kaklgyi Chzhibka bskul gyi chosbzhi

TextTranslation of theWord

Kangyurbka gyur

LineageWord LineageKagybka brgyud

OrganizationKagypabka brgyud pa

AuthorTrashi Namgyelbkra shis rnam rgyal

Person170857Kelzang Gyamtsoskal bzang rgya mtsho

TermSan.yatanasense-basekyechskye mched

Kha


TermSan.dhtusense-eldkhamkhams

LineageSan.VaiavaKhyap Jukpakhyab jug pa

TextUnpollutedAnalysis of the Vowof the kin-Net

Khandroma DrawaDomp Takpa NyokpaMepa

mkha gro ma dra basdom pai brtag parnyog pa med pa

Ga


Person16751748Drakpa Shedrupgrags pa bshad sgrub

Textual GroupSevenAccomplishmentTexts

Druppa Dedngrub pa sde bdun

TermSan.nandajnajoyful gnosisgaw yeshdga bai ye shes

Termfour joysgapzhidga bzhi

OrganizationVirtuous TraditionGelukpadge lugs pa

TermSan.bhikufully-ordainedmonk

gelongdge slong

Person13921481G Lotsawa ZhnnuPel

gos lo ts ba gzhonnu dpal

Person1482-1556Gtsang RechenNatsok Rangdrl

rgod tshangras chen sna tshogsrang grol

http://www.thlib.org/reference/transliteration/#essay=/thl/ewts/http://www.thlib.org/reference/transliteration/#essay=/thl/phonetics/http://www.thlib.org/reference/transliteration/#essay=/thl/phonetics/http://www.thlib.org/reference/transliteration/#essay=/thl/ewts/


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TextSan. atashasrik-prajpramit

Perfection ofWisdom in aHundred ThousandVerses

Gyatong Parchinrgya stong phar phyin

TextKing DohkoaGyelp Dohargyal poi do haTextFive Royal StrasGyep Do Ngargyal poi mdo lnga

Person170857Seventh DalaiLama

Gyelwa Dnpargyal ba bdun pa

TermSan.tantragyrgyud

TextSan.Anvila-tantra-rja

The Royal Tantraon the GloriousUnpolluted

Gykyi Gyelpo PelNyokpa Mepa

rgyud kyi rgyal podpal rnyog pa med pa

TextSan.r-anvila-tantra-rja

The Royal Tantraon the Glorious

Unpolluted

Gykyi Gyelpo PelNyokpa Mepa

Zhejawa

rgyud kyi rgyal podpal rnyog pa med pa

zhes bya baTextBeautifying the

Precious Tantras:A GeneralExposition of theTantras

Gyd Chi NamparZhakpa GydRinpoch Dzegyen

rgyud sde spyii rnampar gzhag pa rgyudsde rin po chei mdzasrgyan

Textual GroupGybumrgyud bum

TextSan.AashasrikEight ThousandGyetongbrgyad stong

Nga


TextSpeech VajragtiNgak Dorj Lungag rdo rjei gluPerson17721851Nglchu

Dharmabhadradngul chudharmabhadra

TermSan.avastutvaentitylessnessngmdngos med

TermSan.mantrangaksngags

DoxographicalCategory

San.MantraynaMantra VehicleNgak Tekpasngags theg pa

Ca


Buddhist deitySan.BhagavanBlessed OneChomdendbcom ldan das

TextThe SupremeMedicine of GreatGnosis: A NectarFeast of the GreatVehicle: A GeneralExplanation of theBlessed One,Cakrasavara

Chomdend PelKhorlo DompChishTekchok Dtsi GatnYesh ChenpMenchok

bcom ldan das dpalkhor lo sdom paispyi bshad thegmchog bdud rtsiidga ston ye shes chenpoi sman mchog

Cha


TermSan.dharmateachingchchosPerson14541506Chdrak Gyamtsochos grags rgya mtsho

TextDharma HistoryChnjungchos byung

PlaceDharma-PreachingIsle

Chshep Lingchos bshad pai gling



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Ja


Person181399Jamgn KongtrlLodr Tay

jam mgon kong sprul

blo gros mtha yasNya


TextSan.AnvilaUnpollutedNyokpa Meparnyog pa med pa

Textual GroupSixfold Cycles ofEssentials

Nyingpo Kor Druksnying po skor drug

Textual GroupTriple Cycle ofEssentials

Nyingpo Korsumsnying po skor gsum

Textual GroupTantras of EssentialMeaning

Nyingpo Dngyi Gysnying po don gyirgyud

Ta


TextSan.SamdhirjaKing ofConcentrations

Tingng Dzin Gyelpoting nge dzin rgyalpo

TextSan.pattideanaTeaching onTransgression

Tungwa Shakpaltung ba bshags pa

TextTranslation ofTreatises

Tengyurbstan gyur

Person17591831Tendar Lharampabstan dar lha ram pa

Tha


TermSan.bindudroptiklthig le

TermSan.mahkrugreat compassiontukj chenpothugs rje chen po

TextCommon GreatSeal Cycle

Tnmong ChakchenKor

thun mong phyag chenskor

Textual GroupThirty-TwoUncommonExplanatoryTantras

Tnmong MayinpShegy RaliSumchusonyi

thun mong ma yin paibshad rgyud ra li sumbcu so gnyis

Da


TextSan.KlacakraWheel of TimeDp Khorlodus pai khor lo

TermSan.tathatsuchnessdezhinnyide bzhin nyid

TextBlue AnnalsDepter Ngnpodeb ther sngon po

Textual GroupEight DohTreasuries

Doha Dz Gydo ha mdzod brgyad

Person151287Dakpo TrashiNamgyel

dwags po bkra shisrnam rgyal

TermSan.pacmtave nectarsdtsi ngabdud rtsii lnga

PersonSan.SarahaDannmda bsnun

TermSan.stradomdo

Textual GroupDodmdo sde


San.StraynaStra VehicleD Tekpamdoi theg pa



22/27

TextSan.tajnaGnosis of theMoment of PassingAway

Daka Yeshda ka ye shes

TermSan.sajrecognitiondushdu shes

TermSan.vajradorjrdo rje

Buddhist deitySan.VajrakinDorj Khandromardo rje mkha gro ma

Buddhist deitySan.VajradharaVajra-HolderDorj Changrdo rje chang

TextSan.VajravidraAdamantineTriumph

Dorj Nampar Jompardo rje rnam parjoms pa

PlaceDegsde dge

TermSan.samayavowdompasdom pa

TextSan. CakrasavaraWheel of PledgesDomp Khorlosdom pai khor lo

Na


Personeleventhcentury

Nakpo Sherd Ngarinag po sher dadmnga ris

Buddhist deitySan.AkagarbhaNamkh Nyingponammkhai snying po

TextSan.MahyogaTantra

Great Yoga TantraNenjor Chenp Gyrnal byor chen poirgyud

TermSan.yognenjorparnal byor pa

TextSan.Yogin TantraNenjorm Gyrnal byor mai rgyud

Termmaala at the tip

of the nose

narts kyinkhorsna rtsei dkyi khor

Pa


Person152792Pema Karpopadma dkar po

TextSan.r-anavilamahtantra-k

Commentary on theTantraCalledTheGloriousUnpolluted

Pel Nyokpa MepaZhejaw GykyiDrelwa

dpal rnyog pa med pazhes bya bai rgyudkyi grel ba

Pha


TextSan.AvatasakaFlower GarlandPelpochphal po che

TermSan.skandhaaggregatepungpophung po

TermSan.mudrsealchakgyaphyag rgya


San.MahmudrGreat SealChakgya Chenpophyag rgya chen po

Textual GroupTen Dharmas of theGreat Seal

Chakgya Chenp ChChu

phyag rgya chen poichos bcu

Textual GroupExtensiveCollection of GreatSeal Texts

Chakchen Gyazhungphyag chen rgyagzhung


San.Mahmudrsiddhi

Great SealAttainment

Chakchen Drupphyag chen sgrub

TextSan.Mahmudrtilaka

Drop of the GreatSeal

Chakchen Tiklphyag chen thig le

TextMoonbeams of theGreat Seal

Chakchen Daw zerphyag chen zla baiod zer



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Textual GroupCycle of LesserTexts

Tramo Korphra mo skor

TextSan.rya-tajna-nma-

mahyna-stra

The NobleMahyna Stra

Called The Gnosisof the Moment ofPassing Away

Pakpa Daka YeshShejawa Tekpa

Chenp Do

phags pa da ka yeshes shes bya ba theg

pa chen poi mdo

TextSan.rya-mahparinirva-

The NobleMahyna StraCalled The GreatParinirva

Pakpa YongsuNyangenl DepaChenTekpa Chenp Do

phags pa yongs sumya ngan las das pachen theg pa chenpoi mdo

nma-mahyna-stra

Ba


Person12901364Butn Rinchendrupbu ston rin chen grub

OrganizationBnbonTermSan.bodhicittaawakening mindjangchup sembyang chub sems

TermSan.bodhisattva-mahsattva

Jangchup SempaSempa Chenpo

byangchub sems dpasems pa chen po

Termhundred thousandinstances

bumbum

TextFiveHundred-Thousands

Bumngabum lnga

LineageDrukpa Kagybrug pa bka brgyud

RitualSan.homare-offering ritualjinseksbyin sreg

Ma


LineageMarpa OralLineageMarpa Kagymar pa bka brgyud

TermSan.virganon-attachmentmichakpami chags pa

TermSan.niralambananon-objecticationmimikpami dmigs pa

TextPeople DohkoaMang Dohadmangs do ha

TextTreasury ofInstructions

Damngak Dzgdams ngag mdzod

Tsha


TextSan.NmasagtiLitany of NamesTsenyang DakparJpa

mtshan yang dag parbrjod pa

Dza


Termmind that drips orleaks

dzakp semdzag pai sems

Zha


Personeleventhcentury?

San.KumracandraZhnnu Dawagzhon nu zla ba

Za


TextSan.Bhadracarpraidhna

Vows of GoodConduct

Zanp ChpMnlambzang poi spyod paismon lam



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A


PlaceSan.AkanihaHighest [Heaven]Okminog min

Buddhist deitySan.AmitbhaInnite Light Pakmod dpag medYa


Textual GroupTwenty-Five Textson Unthinking

Yila MijepaNyishutsanga

yid la mi byed pa nyishu rtsa lnga

Ra


TermSan.svabhvaintrinsic naturerangzhinrang bzhin

TextSan.AprasahaThe NonabidingRaptu Mineparab tu mi gnas pa

TextSan.Aprasahapraka

Raptu Minepa SelwarTnpa

rabtumignaspagsalbar ston pa

La


Termet ceteralasokpala sogs pa

TextSan.LakvatraDescent to LankaLangkar Shekpalang kar gshegs pa

TextBody-Speech-MindVajragti

L Ngak Sem DorjLu

lus ngag sems rdorjei glu

TextBody VajragtiL Dorj Lulus rdo rjei glu

Termtranslatorlotsawalo ts baSha


Termeastsharshar


San.Prajpramit

Perfection ofWisdom

Sherapgyi ParltuChinpa

shes rab gyi pha rol tuphyin pa

TextSan.Prajpramit-hdaya

Heart StraSherap ParltuChinp Nyingpo

shes rab pha rol tuphyin pai snying po

Sa


TermSan. buddhavacanaword of the BuddhaSanggyekyi Kasangs rgyas kyi bka

TermSan.buddhadhtuBuddha-natureSanggyekyi Khamsangs rgyas kyi khams

Buddhist deitylord of all theassembled buddhas

Sanggy TamchDp Dak

sangsrgyas thams caddus pai bdag

TextMind VajragtiSem Dorj Lusems rdo rjei glu

Buddhist deitySan.GuhyapatiLord of SecretsSangdakgsang bdag

TextSan.GuhyasamjaSecret CommunionSangw Dgsang bai dus

Ha


Termyoga of requestingthe deity

lhala sltap nenjorlha la gsol btab rnalbyor



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A


Person17401827Akya YongdzinYangchen GawLodr

kya yongs dzin

dbyangs can dga baiblo gros

Sanskrit

TypeDatesSanskritEnglishPhoneticsWylie

Buddhist deityAkobhya

TextAnvila-tantra-k

TextAtyayajna

Buddhist deitykin

TextGaavyha-straSplendid ArraySutra


Gayadhara

PlaceKuingara


Maitrpa

TextMajurnmasagti

TextNirva

TextNirva-stra

Personabari


kya ye shes

Textatashasrik


Vajrapi

Buddhist deityVajrayogin

Pali


PersonPli.CundaPli.

TextPli.Mahparinibbna-sutta

Sutta on the GreatFinal Nibbna



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. Mahmudr.Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition, ed. LindsayJones. Vol. 8: 55965601. Detroit: Wadsworth Gale 2005.

Kumracandra.r-anvilamahtantra-k[Dpal rnyog pa med pa zhes bya bairgyud kyi grel ba; Commentary on the Tantra Called The GloriousUnpolluted]. In The Tibetan Tripiaka, edited by A. W. Barber. Vol. 22:78/543(7)80/560(1). Taipei: SMC Publising, 1991. [Bstan gyur,rgyud, ja,271b7280b1; Thoku 1204 (Peking 790).]



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