Vimalaprabhā

विमलप्रभा

Vimalaprabhā

དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད།

dri ma med pa'i 'od

Stainless Light

Commentary of Kālacakratantra

D1347

SOURCE TEXT

A crucial commentary to the Kālacakra Tantra purported to have been written by Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka, the fabled Second King of Shambhala also known as Kulika Puṇḍarīka, though in the Tibetan tradition the work is sometimes attributed to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara whom Puṇḍarīka was considered to be an emanation of. In the Tibetan tradition it is counted among the Three Cycles of Bodhisattva Commentaries (Sems 'grel skor gsum), which are a trilogy of canonical commentaries attributed to the transcendent Bodhisattvas Vajrapaṇi, Vajragarbha, and Avalokiteśvara on the Cakrasamvara, Hevajra, and Kālacakra Tantras, respectively.

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Recensions of This Text

Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka (Rigs ldan Pad+ma dkar po), Avalokiteśvara (attributed). Vimalaprabhā. (Stainless Light). Recension information:

Sanskrit

विमलप्रभा-नाम-मूलतन्त्रानुसारिणी-द्वादशसाहस्रिका-लघुकालचक्रतन्त्रराज-टीका. vimalaprabhā-nāma-mūlatantrānusāriṇī-dvādaśasāhasrikā-laghukālacakratantrarāja-ṭīkā. Vimalaprabhāṭīkā of Kalki Śrī Puṇḍarīka on Śrī Laghukālacakratantrarāja by Śrī Mañjuśriyaśa. Edited by Samdhong Rinpoche; Vrajavallabh Dwivedi; S.S. Bahulkar. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. 3 vols., 1986; reprint (1994). Sanskrit manuscripts from Tibet Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakra-tantra, Pañcarakṣā. Edited by Chandra, Lokesh. Sata-pitaka series. Indo-Asian literatures, vol. 629 = Śatapiṭakam. New Delhi : International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 2010..

Tibetan

བསྡུས་པའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་འགྲེལ་བཤད། རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་འཇུག་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད་ཅེས་བྱ་བ། (bsdus pa'i rgyud kyi rgyal po dus kyi 'khor lo'i 'grel bshad, rtsa ba'i rgyud kyi rjes su 'jug pa stong phrag bcu gnyis pa dri ma med pa'i 'od ces bya ba). BCRD Link: http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/index.php?id=7daecacd7ce54e32897ae0d2e3469de8&enc=sanskrit_romanized_title_4_search&coll=tengyur Derge 1347, rgyud, tha 107b1-277a7; da 1b1-297a7 (vol. 11), translated by Tshul khrims dar, Zhang ston Mdo sde dpal, Shong ston Rdo rje rgyal mtshan, and Blo gros rgyal mtshan. Also appears in Q 2064, rgyud 'grel, ka 1a1-195b6; kha 1a1-297a6 (vol. 46, p.121); N 858, rgyud 'grel, ka 1b1-190b7; kha 1b1-304a3 (vol. 2).

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 

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

Meditative Tradition 

What is Buddha-nature?

Tathāgatagarbha as Mind's Luminous Nature 

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Sanskrit ~ Tibetan
Canonical Genre	~ Kangyur · Tantra · rgyud
Literary Genre	~ Commentaries - 'grel pa
Commentary of	~ Dus kyi 'khor lo

Kālacakra - Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered. Skt. कालचक्र Tib. དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ། Ch. 時輪

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

In Sanskrit, "Stainless Light," the most important commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra',' attributed to Puṇḍarīka.

In Sanskrit, "Stainless Light," the most important commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra',' attributed to Puṇḍarīka.

In Sanskrit, "Stainless Light," the most important commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra',' attributed to Puṇḍarīka.

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

BCRD - The Buddhist Canons Research Database a project of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS) and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies (CCBS) http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/

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

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་

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

tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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་

Jonang - The Jonang tradition was established by Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a thirteenth-century Sakya monk famous for his Zhentong teachings. The Jonang teachings and monasteries were suppressed in Tibet in the seventeenth century but survived in Amdo. Tib. ཇོ་ནང་

Geluk - The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama. Tib. དགེ་ལུགས་