Tantras of Innermost Unexcelled Cycle of Mengakdé

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The Tantras of Innermost Unexcelled Cycle of Mengakdé, a.k.a the Dzogchen Tantras, are a collection of tantras belonging to the "Innermost Unexcelled Cycle" of the Mengakdé class of Dzogchen teachings within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

The Rangjung Yeshe Dharma Dictionary states:

Regarding these Dzogchen Tantras, the names, numbers and the tantras themselves in these lists may vary from teacher-to-teacher, tradition-to-tradition, each one however being a complete teaching in and of itself. Some call for 17 tantras, while most call for 18, and some add, still, an additional tantra making the total 19.[1]

List of tantras

The list below is from the Appendix to "The Mirror of Mindfulness", translated by Erik Pema Kunsang.[1][2]

In this Appendix, Erik Pema Kunsang states:

The Innermost Unexcelled Cycle consists of seventeen tantras. These are eighteen when adding the Ngagsung Tromay Tantra, which is focused on the protective rites of Ekajati. According to the system of Padmakara, there are ninteen when including the Longsel Barwey Tantra.[2]

The eighteen tantras are:[1][2]

  1. Reverberation of Sound (sgra thal 'gyur སྒྲ་ཐལ་འགྱུར) explains how to reveal the level of nirmanakaya and how to accomplish the welfare of others through practices related to sound.
  2. Graceful Auspiciousness (bkra shis mdzes ldan gyi rgyud) teaches how to establish the nature of awareness and how to identify the basis of confusion and unmistaken wisdom.
  3. 'The Mirror of the Mind of Samantabhadra' (kun tu bzang po thugs kyi me long ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་མེ་ལོང)
  4. 'Blazing Lamp' (sgron ma 'bar ba སྒྲོན་མ་འབར་བ)
  5. 'The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva' (Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྙིང་གི་མེ་ལོང, Wylie: rdo rje sems dpa' snying gi me long)
  6. 'Self-arising Awareness' (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་ཤར, Wylie: rig pa rang shar)
  7. 'Inlaid with Jewels' (Tibetan: ནོར་བུ་ཕྲ་བཀོད, Wylie: nor bu phra bkod)
  8. 'Direct Introduction' (Tibetan: ངོ་སྤྲོད་སྤྲས་པ, Wylie: ngo sprod spras pa)
  9. 'Six Spaces of Samantabhadra' (Tibetan: ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཀློང་དྲུག, Wylie: kun tu bzang po klong drug)
  10. 'Without Letters' (Tibetan: ཡི་གེ་མེད་པ, Wylie: yi ge med pa)
  11. 'Lion's Perfect Expressive Power' (Tibetan: སེང་གེ་རྩལ་རྫོགས, Wylie: seng ge rtsal rdzogs)
  12. 'Necklace of Precious Pearls' (Tibetan: མུ་ཏིག་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ, Wylie: mu tig rin po che'i phreng ba)
  13. 'Self-liberated Awareness (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་གྲོལ, Wylie: rig pa rang grol)
  14. 'A Mound of Jewels' (Tibetan: རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྤུང་བ, Wylie: rin po che spung ba)
  15. 'Shining Relics of Enlightened Body' (Tibetan: སྐུ་གདུང་འབར་བ, Wylie: sku gdung 'bar ba)
  16. 'Kissing of the Sun and Moon' (Tibetan: ཉི་ཟླ་ཁ་སྦྱོར, Wylie: nyi zla kha sbyor)
  17. 'Self-existing Perfection' (Tibetan: རྫོགས་པ་རང་བྱུང, Wylie: rdzogs pa rang byung)
  18. Black Wrathful Shri Ekajati (dpal e ka dza ti nag mo khros ma'i rgyud) describes how to protect the practitioner against harms inflicted by others.

Tibetan source texts

The Seventeen Tantras are found in the Nyingma Gyubum (rnying ma rgyud 'bum), 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' (Tibetan: གཏིང་སྐྱེས་དགོན་པ་བྱང, Wylie: gting skyes dgon pa byang) Monastery in Tibet.[3]

English translations

For the English translations of various tantras, see:

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Rangjung a-circle30px.jpg The_Dzogchen_Tantras, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Tsele Natsok Rangdrol 1987, Appendix: The Dzogchen Tantras.
  3. ↑ Guarisco & McLeod (2005), p.520

Sources

  • Tsele Natsok Rangdrol (1987), The Mirror of Mindfulness, translated by Pema Kunsang, Erik, Rangjung Yeshe Publications 
  • Guarisco, Elio (trans.); McLeod, Ingrid (trans., editor); Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, Kon-Sprul Blo-Gros-Mtha-Yas (compiler) (2005). The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Six, Part Four: Systems of Buddhist Tantra. Ithaca, New York, USA: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-210-X

External links

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