Bkra shis mdzes ldan chen po'i rgyud

བཀྲ་ཤིས་མཛེས་ལྡན་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུད།

bkra shis mdzes ldan chen po'i rgyud

The Tantra of Great Graceful Auspiciousness

SOURCE TEXT

One of the seventeen tantras belonging to the Unsurpassable Secret Cycle (ཡང་གསང་བླ་མེད་ཀྱི་སྐོར་) or Seminal Heart (སྙིང་ཐིག་) series of the Secret Instruction Class (མན་ངག་སྡེ་) of Dzogchen teachings, this was considered to have been passed down from Vimalamitra in the 8th century although modern scholars consider this be a Tibetan composition of later period. The tantra explains the different manners in which empirical experiences appear from the ground reality or luminous awareness, also called the youthful vase body.

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Recensions of This Text

Bkra shis mdzes ldan chen po'i rgyud.

1. In Rdzogs chen rgyud bcu bdun, Vol. 2: 93-104. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2016.
2. In rgyud bcu bdun/（a 'dzom par ma), Vol. 1: 207-232. Dkar mdzes bod rigs rang skyong khul, Dpal yul rdzong: A 'dzom chos sgar, 2000.
3. In Collected Tantras of the Nyingma: The mTshams-brag Manuscript of the rñying ma rgyud 'bum. Thimpu, Bhutan: National Library, Royal Government of Bhutan, 1982.
4. In Rnying ma rgyud 'bum/（sde dge par ma). Sde dge: Sde dge par khang chen mo, n.d.

Philosophical positions of this text

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Does this text belong to definitive or provisional meaning?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

Yes 

To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?

(Fourth Turning) 

Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?

1 

What is Buddha-nature?

Tathāgatagarbha as Mind's Luminous Nature 

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Tibetan

Dzogchen - Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition. Skt. महासन्धि Tib. རྫོགས་ཆེན།

tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt. तन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད། Ch. 密宗

gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib. རྙིང་མ་

neyārtha - Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true. Skt. नेयार्थ Tib. དྲང་དོན་

triyāna - Commonly seen in a Mahāyāna context, the three vehicles are the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna. Skt. त्रियान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་ Ch. 三乗