Seventeen tantras
Encyclopedia
In Tibetan Buddhism, specifically in the literature and practice of Dzogchen
, the seventeen tantras of the esoteric instruction cycle are a suite of tantra
s belonging to the textual division known as the "esoteric instruction cycle" (also known variously as: Nyingtik, Upadesha or Menngagde
).
, nonetheless share in the treasure tradition. They are associated with sacred literature first transmitted in the human realm by the quasi-historical Garab Dorje
(Fl. 55 CE) and passed according to tradition along with other tantras through various lineages
of transmission
by way of important Dzogchen figures such as Mañjuśrīmitra
, Shri Singha, Padmasambhava
, Jnanasutra
and Vimalamitra
.
Kunsang (2006) holds that Shri Singha brought the Secret Mantra teachings from beneath the Vajra Throne of Bodhgaya to the 'Tree of Enlightenment in China' , where he concealed them in a pillar of the 'Auspicious Ten Thousand Gates Temple' . Shri Singha conferred the Eighteen Dzogchen Tantras (Tibetan: rdzogs chen rgyud bco brgyad) upon Padmasambhava
. The eighteen are The Penetrating Sound Tantra (Tibetan: sgra thal ‘gyur), to which was appended the Seventeen Tantras of Innermost Luminosity (Tibetan: yang gsang 'od gsal gyi rgyud bcu bdun). It should be mentioned here that the Dharma Fellowship (2009) drawing on the work of Lalou
(1890–1967) holds the 'Five Peaked Mountain' of "the Land of Cina" (where Cina isn't China but a term for the textile cashmere
) the Five Peaked Mountain which Kunsang and others have attributed to Mount Wutai in China is instead a mountain near the Kinnaur Valley associated with the historical Suvarnadwipa (Sanskrit) nation also known as 'Zhang-zhung' in the Zhang-zhung language
and the Tibetan language
.
The Seventeen Tantras are amongst the texts known as the 'Supreme Secret Cycle' the Fourth Cycle and the most sacred tantras in the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition and the Dharma Fellowship (2009) provide a different historical location than Mount Wutai China for the location of concealment which is identified as near the Kinnaur Valley within the Kinnaur District
:
It is with Vimalamitra (fl. 8th century) that this collection of 'Seventeen Tantras, which are but a portion of Garab's revelation may have first been given their specific enumeration and nomenclature as it was Vimalamitra's disciple, Nyangban Tingzin Zangpo, who concealed the Seventeen Tantra subsequent to Vimalamitra's journey to China, particularly Mount Wutai, for later discovery by Neten Dangma Lhungyal in the Eleventh Century that they enter history in their current evocation, as Gyatso (1998: pp. 153–154) relates thus:
The Vima Nyingtik
itself consists of 'tantras' (rgyud), 'agamas' (lung), and 'upadeshas' (man ngag), and the tantras in this context are the Seventeen Tantras.
) is appended to the seventeen by Shri Singha; and Nineteen Tantras with Padmakara's annexure of the 'Longsel Barwey Tantra' (Tantra of the Blazing Space of Luminosity). Samantabhadri is associated with the Longsel Barwey and its full name is 'Samantabhadri's Tantra of the Blazing Sun of the Brilliant Expanse' .
According to the seventeen-fold classification, in no particular order, they are as follows:
' , volumes 9 and 10, folio numbers 143-159 of the edition edited by 'Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche' commonly known as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (Thimpu, Bhutan, 1973), reproduced from the manuscript preserved at 'Tingkye Gonpa Jang' Monastery in Tibet.
and these selfsame texts have been uploaded onto Wikisource.
The Seventeen Tantras are quoted extensively throughout Longchenpa
's (1308 - 1364?) 'The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding' rendered in English by Barron
and Padma Translation Committee (1998). This work is one of Longchenpa's Seven Treasuries
and the Tibetan text in poor reproduction of the pecha has been graciously made available online by Dowman and Smith
.
, a collection of seven works, some with auto-commentaries, by the Tibetan Buddhist philosopher and exegete Longchenpa
. The Tegchö Dzö is a commentary on the Seventeen Tantras
.
Cuevas (2003: p. 62) comments on the traditional perspective of the Nyingma
tradition in the attribution of the Seventeen Tantras to the revelation of Garap Dorje and says:
Dzogchen
According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...
, the seventeen tantras of the esoteric instruction cycle are a suite of tantra
Tantra
Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
s belonging to the textual division known as the "esoteric instruction cycle" (also known variously as: Nyingtik, Upadesha or Menngagde
Menngagde
In Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Menngagde , , is the name of one of three scriptural and lineage divisions within Dzogchen, teachings...
).
History and tradition
The seventeen tantras, though not traditionally classified as a treasureTerma (Buddhism)
Terma are key Tibetan Buddhist and Bön teachings, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a...
, nonetheless share in the treasure tradition. They are associated with sacred literature first transmitted in the human realm by the quasi-historical Garab Dorje
Garab Dorje
Garab Dorje was the semi-historical first human teacher of the Ati Yoga or Great Perfection teachings according to Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Prior to Prahevajra, the Nyingma hold that the Dzogchen teachings had been expounded only in celestial realms and the 'pure lands' of the Buddhas,...
(Fl. 55 CE) and passed according to tradition along with other tantras through various lineages
Lineage (Buddhism)
An authentic lineage in Buddhism is the uninterrupted transmission of the Buddha's Dharma from teacher to disciple.The transmission itself can be for example oral, scriptural, through signs, or directly from one mind to another....
of transmission
Dharma transmission
Dharma transmission refers to "the manner in which the teaching, or Dharma, is passed from a Zen master to their disciple and heir...
by way of important Dzogchen figures such as Mañjuśrīmitra
Mañjusrimitra
Mañjuśrīmitra was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen.-Nomenclature and etymology:...
, Shri Singha, Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
, Jnanasutra
Jnanasutra
Jnanasutra . is a Vajrayana Dzogchenpa who was a disciple of Sri Singha. Jnanasutra was a spiritual brother of Vimalamitra, another principal disciple of Sri Singha.-Disambiguation:...
and Vimalamitra
Vimalamitra
Vimalamitra ), an 8th century Indian adept, is key to the history of Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen practice. He lived equally in China, Oddiyana and Tibet, but was known as the "Sage of Kashmir". According to tradition, he was born in Western India and travelled to China to become a disciple of Shri...
.
Kunsang (2006) holds that Shri Singha brought the Secret Mantra teachings from beneath the Vajra Throne of Bodhgaya to the 'Tree of Enlightenment in China' , where he concealed them in a pillar of the 'Auspicious Ten Thousand Gates Temple' . Shri Singha conferred the Eighteen Dzogchen Tantras (Tibetan: rdzogs chen rgyud bco brgyad) upon Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
. The eighteen are The Penetrating Sound Tantra (Tibetan: sgra thal ‘gyur), to which was appended the Seventeen Tantras of Innermost Luminosity (Tibetan: yang gsang 'od gsal gyi rgyud bcu bdun). It should be mentioned here that the Dharma Fellowship (2009) drawing on the work of Lalou
Marcelle Lalou
Marcelle Lalou was a 20th-century French Tibetologist. Her major contribution to Tibetology was the cataloging of the entire Pelliot collection of Old Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang at the Bibliothèque Nationale...
(1890–1967) holds the 'Five Peaked Mountain' of "the Land of Cina" (where Cina isn't China but a term for the textile cashmere
Cashmere
Cashmere may refer to:* Cashmere wool, wool from the Cashmere goatPlaces* Another term for Kashmir, a region of the Indian subcontinent* Cashmere, New Zealand, a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand* Cashmere, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia...
) the Five Peaked Mountain which Kunsang and others have attributed to Mount Wutai in China is instead a mountain near the Kinnaur Valley associated with the historical Suvarnadwipa (Sanskrit) nation also known as 'Zhang-zhung' in the Zhang-zhung language
Zhang-Zhung language
Zhang-Zhung is an extinct Tibeto-Burman language that was spoken in what is now western Tibet. The term 'Zhang-zhung language' has been used to refer to two different entities. The first 'Old Zhang-zhung' refers to the language which appears in a small number of documents preserved in Dunhuang. The...
and the Tibetan language
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
.
The Seventeen Tantras are amongst the texts known as the 'Supreme Secret Cycle' the Fourth Cycle and the most sacred tantras in the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition and the Dharma Fellowship (2009) provide a different historical location than Mount Wutai China for the location of concealment which is identified as near the Kinnaur Valley within the Kinnaur District
Kinnaur district
Kinnaur is one of twelve administrative districts of Himachal Pradesh, India. The district is itself divided into three administrative areas – Pooh, Kalpa, and Nichar – and has five Tehsils or counties. The administrative headquarter for Kinnaur district is at Reckong Peo. Due to the...
:
It is explained that Sri Simha divided the Pith Instruction into four sub-sections, and these are known as the Exoteric Cycle, the Esoteric Cycle, the Secret Cycle, and the Supreme Secret Cycle. Before his own death he deposited copies of the first three cycles in a rock cut crypt beneath the Bodhivriksha Temple of Sugnam (Sokyam) in the land of Cina. The texts of the Supreme Secret Cycle, however, he hid separately within the pillar of the "Gate of a Myriad Blessings".
It is with Vimalamitra (fl. 8th century) that this collection of 'Seventeen Tantras, which are but a portion of Garab's revelation may have first been given their specific enumeration and nomenclature as it was Vimalamitra's disciple, Nyangban Tingzin Zangpo, who concealed the Seventeen Tantra subsequent to Vimalamitra's journey to China, particularly Mount Wutai, for later discovery by Neten Dangma Lhungyal in the Eleventh Century that they enter history in their current evocation, as Gyatso (1998: pp. 153–154) relates thus:
"By the eleventh century, both Bonpos and Buddhists were presenting texts they claimed to have unearthed from the place where those texts had been hidden in the past. Among the earliest Buddhist materials so characterized were the esoteric Nyingtig, or "Heart Sphere", teachings, including the seventeen Atiyoga tantras, which were associated with Vimalamitra, an Indian Great Perfection master invited to Tibet, according to some accounts, by Trisong Detsen in the eighth century. Vimalamitra's Tibetan student, Nyangban Tingzin Zangpo, was said to have concealed these teachings after the master went to China. The discoverer was Neten Dangma Lhungyal (eleventh century), who proceeded to transmit these teachings to Chetsun Senge Wangchuk, one of the first accomplished Tibetan Buddhist yogins, and to others. The Nyingtig materials were at the heart of the Great Perfection Buddhism and had considerable influence upon Jigme Lingpa, who labelled his own Treasure with the same term."
The Vima Nyingtik
Vima Nyingtik
Vima Nyingthig or "Vimalamitra's Seminal Heart" is a practice lineage of Mantrayana. It is one of the nyingthig or seminal heart teachings of the Mennagde cycle of Dzogchen and was codified and collated by Longchenpa in the fourteenth century...
itself consists of 'tantras' (rgyud), 'agamas' (lung), and 'upadeshas' (man ngag), and the tantras in this context are the Seventeen Tantras.
Enumeration of the Seventeen Tantras
Though they are most often referred to as the Seventeen Tantras, other designations are as Eighteen Tantras when the 'Ngagsung Tromay Tantra' (otherwise known as the 'Ekajaṭĭ Khros Ma'i rGyud' and to do with the protective rites of EkajatiEkajati
Ekajaṭī or Ekajaṭā, , also known as Māhacīna-tārā, one of the 21 Taras, is one of the most powerful and fierce goddesses of Indo-Tibetan mythology...
) is appended to the seventeen by Shri Singha; and Nineteen Tantras with Padmakara's annexure of the 'Longsel Barwey Tantra' (Tantra of the Blazing Space of Luminosity). Samantabhadri is associated with the Longsel Barwey and its full name is 'Samantabhadri's Tantra of the Blazing Sun of the Brilliant Expanse' .
According to the seventeen-fold classification, in no particular order, they are as follows:
- 'Self-existing Perfection'
- 'Without Letters'
- 'Self-arising Primordial Awareness'
- 'Self-liberated Primordial Awareness'
- 'Piled Gems'
- 'Shining Relics of Enlightened BodyShining Relics of Enlightened BodyShining Relics of Enlightened Body is numbered amongst the 'Seventeen Tantras of Menngagde' within Dzogchen discourse and is part of the textual support for the Vima Nyingtik.-Translation:...
' - 'Reverberation of SoundReverberation of SoundThe Reverberation of Sound, or Drataljur , is the root tantra of the Seventeen Tantras of the Upadesha-varga.These Seventeen Tantras are to be found in the Canon of the Ancient School, the 'Nyingma Gyubum' , volumes 9 and 10, folio numbers 143-159 of the edition edited by 'Jamyang Khyentse...
' - 'Great Auspicious Beauty'
- 'The Mirror of the Heart of VajrasattvaThe Mirror of the Heart of VajrasattvaThe Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva is numbered amongst the 'Seventeen Tantras of Menngagde' within Dzogchen discourse and is part of the textual support for the Vima Nyingtik....
' - 'The Mirror of the Mind of Samantabhadra'
- 'Direct Introduction'
- 'Necklace of Precious Pearls'
- 'Sixfold Expanse of Samantabhadra'
- 'Blazing Lamp'
- 'Union of the Sun and MoonUnion of the Sun and MoonThe Union of the Sun and Moon is one of the 'Seventeen tantras of the esoteric instruction cycle' which are a suite of tantras known variously as: Nyingtik, Upadesha or Menngagde within Dzogchen discourse....
' - 'Lion's Perfect Expressive Power'
- 'Array of Jewels'
Text sources, versions and variations
These Seventeen Tantras are to be found in the Canon of the Ancient School, the 'Nyingma GyubumNyingma Gyubum
'Nyingma Gyubum' is the 'Collected Tantras of the Ancients', that is the Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga Tantras of the Nyingma.-Canonization:The Nyingma Gyubum of the Nyingma was a dependent arising resulting from the 'normalization' of the Kangyur and Tengyur by the Sarma traditions which for the...
' , volumes 9 and 10, folio numbers 143-159 of the edition edited by 'Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche' commonly known as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (Thimpu, Bhutan, 1973), reproduced from the manuscript preserved at 'Tingkye Gonpa Jang' Monastery in Tibet.
Adzom Chögar redaction
This 'Adzom Chögar redaction' of the versions of the Seventeen Tantras were secured from Jim Valby who transcribed these texts into Wylie transliterationWylie transliteration
The Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English language typewriter. It bears the name of Turrell V. Wylie, who described the scheme in an article, A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription, published in 1959...
and these selfsame texts have been uploaded onto Wikisource.
English translations
None of these works as yet has been completely translated into English and made generally available.The Seventeen Tantras are quoted extensively throughout Longchenpa
Longchenpa
Longchen Rabjampa, Drimé Özer "Longchenpa" was a major teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Along with Sakya Pandita and Je Tsongkhapa, he is commonly recognized as one of the three main manifestations of Manjushri to have taught in Central Tibet...
's (1308 - 1364?) 'The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding' rendered in English by Barron
Richard Barron
Richard Barron is a Canadian-born translator who specializes in the writings of Longchenpa. He has served as an interpreter for many lamas from all from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, including his first teacher, Kalu Rinpoche...
and Padma Translation Committee (1998). This work is one of Longchenpa's Seven Treasuries
Seven Treasuries
The Seven Treasuries are a collection of seven works, some with auto-commentaries, by the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Longchenpa.-Texts of the Seven Treasures:...
and the Tibetan text in poor reproduction of the pecha has been graciously made available online by Dowman and Smith
E. Gene Smith
E. Gene Smith was a scholar of Tibetology, specifically Tibetan literature and history.-Biography:Ellis Gene Smith was born in Ogden, Utah to a traditional Mormon family...
.
Traditionial and external scholarship
'Tegchö Dzö' "Treasury of the Sublime Vehicle'" is one of the Seven TreasuriesSeven Treasuries
The Seven Treasuries are a collection of seven works, some with auto-commentaries, by the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Longchenpa.-Texts of the Seven Treasures:...
, a collection of seven works, some with auto-commentaries, by the Tibetan Buddhist philosopher and exegete Longchenpa
Longchenpa
Longchen Rabjampa, Drimé Özer "Longchenpa" was a major teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Along with Sakya Pandita and Je Tsongkhapa, he is commonly recognized as one of the three main manifestations of Manjushri to have taught in Central Tibet...
. The Tegchö Dzö is a commentary on the Seventeen Tantras
Seventeen tantras
In Tibetan Buddhism, specifically in the literature and practice of Dzogchen, the seventeen tantras of the esoteric instruction cycle are a suite of tantras belonging to the textual division known as the "esoteric instruction cycle" .-History and tradition:The seventeen tantras, though not...
.
Cuevas (2003: p. 62) comments on the traditional perspective of the Nyingma
Nyingma
The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as Nga'gyur or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century...
tradition in the attribution of the Seventeen Tantras to the revelation of Garap Dorje and says:
"The seventeen interrelated Dzokchen Nyingthik scriptures are accepted by tradition as divine revelation received by the ... mystic Garap Dorje. The Seventeen Tantras nevertheless betrays [sic] signs of being compiled over a long period of time by multiple hands. The precise identity of these unknown redactors is a riddle that I hope may soon be solved. Whatever the case, we must accept that the collection in the form it is known to us today consists of several layers of history reflecting diverse influences."