Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod

མདོ་རྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད།

Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod

Treasury of Precious Sūtras and Tantras

SOURCE TEXT

In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a Buddhist yogi-scholar of eastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a lay practitioner for laypeople, it was intended to be accessible, informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of great perfection. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

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Translations of This Text

Book

The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Book 14

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In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a Buddhist yogi-scholar of eastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a lay practitioner for laypeople, it was intended to be accessible, informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of great perfection. Choying Tobden Dorje’s magnum opus appears in English here for the first time. An Overview of Buddhist Tantra is the fourteenth volume from this collection and the first in the series to focus on tantra. Whereas previous volumes presented the general exoteric teachings of Buddhism, this work outlines the esoteric practice of tantra according to the Nyingma system. The author defines the parameters of tantra by dividing the work into outer and inner tantras, and concludes with explaining the result of the tantric path—enlightenment itself. Designed to be a companion for dedicated practitioners who receive direct instructions from a qualified teacher, this work is a comprehensive manual that provides the foundation for understanding the genuine and profound teachings of Buddhist tantra. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Zangpo, Ngawang (Hugh Leslie Thompson) trans. The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Book 14: An Overview of Buddhist Tantra. By Chöying Tobden Dorje (chos dbying stobs ldan rdo rje). Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2017.

Zangpo, Ngawang (Hugh Leslie Thompson) trans. The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Book 14: An Overview of Buddhist Tantra. By Chöying Tobden Dorje (chos dbying stobs ldan rdo rje). Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2017.;The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Book 14;Nyingma;Chöying Tobden Dorje;ཆོས་དབྱིངས་སྟོབས་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེ་;chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje;a lags rgyal po;ཨ་ལགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་;Alak Gyalpo; Ngawang Zangpo;The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Book 14: An Overview of Buddhist Tantra

Book

The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17. Vol. 1, The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga

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In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a yogin and scholar of northeastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a mantra practitioner for the benefit of mantra practitioners living among the lay community, it was intended to be informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of great perfection. Choying Tobden Dorje’s magnum opus appears in English here for the first time. Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga is presented in two volumes and concerns the first of the three classes of inner tantra. It presents the entire text of the Guhyagarbha Tantra, in Tibetan and English, together with the interlinear sections of one of its most important commentaries, Dispelling the Darkness of the Ten Directions, by the outstanding fourteenth-century master Longchen Rabjam. Also included is Choying Tobden Dorje’s rewriting of Candragomin’s inspirational Extensive Commentary on the Sublime Litany of the Names of Manjushri. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Dorje, Gyurme, trans. The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga. Vol. 1. By Chöying Tobden Dorje (chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje). Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2016.

Dorje, Gyurme, trans. The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga. Vol. 1. By Chöying Tobden Dorje (chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje). Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2016.;The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17. Vol. 1, The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga;Nyingma;Chöying Tobden Dorje;ཆོས་དབྱིངས་སྟོབས་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེ་;chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje;a lags rgyal po;ཨ་ལགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་;Alak Gyalpo; Gyurme Dorje;The Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra, Books 15 to 17: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga. Vol. 1.;chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje

Recensions of This Text

Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod. (Treasury of Precious Sūtras and Tantras). Recension information:

Tibetan	Chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje. མདོ་རྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད།, (Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod). In Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod. 5 Volumes. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2000. In Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod. 13 Volumes. No publication data.

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?

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

Madhyamaka 

Do buddha-nature teachings belong to the zhentong or rangtong view of emptiness?

Rangtong 

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

1 

Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?

Meditative Tradition 

What is Buddha-nature?

Tathāgatagarbha as the Unity of Emptiness and Luminosity 

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ mdo rgyud mdzod ~ མདོ་རྒྱུད་མཛོད་
Literary Genre	~ Encyclopedias - bshad mdzod

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་

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

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

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

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

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་

Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་

prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明