{"id":1595,"date":"2017-07-09T21:43:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T21:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/?p=1595"},"modified":"2018-08-30T21:35:08","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T21:35:08","slug":"kalacakra-mula-tantra-section-rediscovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/kalacakra-mula-tantra-section-rediscovered\/","title":{"rendered":"K\u0101lacakra-m\u016bla-tantra Section Rediscovered"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large section of the otherwise lost K<\/em>\u0101<\/em>lacakra-m<\/em>\u016b<\/em>la-tantra<\/em> has now been rediscovered. It is approximately three times as large as the only other section known, the Sekodde<\/em>\u015b<\/em>a<\/em>. It is the Para-guru-gu\u1e47a-dhara<\/em> section, the section on \u201cthe good qualities possessed by the best guru.\u201d This text is itself called a tantra in the one manuscript we now have, the Para-guru-gu\u1e47a-dhara-n\u0101ma-tantra<\/em>, since the tantra it comes from is not extant. Perhaps this title is the reason why it does not yet seem to have been noticed as a section of the K<\/em>\u0101<\/em>lacakra-m<\/em>\u016b<\/em>la-tantra<\/em>, although it became available in 2014. It had been out of circulation for centuries. What led me to it was a quoted verse that for long I could not trace.<\/p>\n

An intriguing verse from the K<\/em>\u0101<\/em>lacakra-m<\/em>\u016b<\/em>la-tantra<\/em> was quoted by the 16th-century Kagyu writer Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (dwags po bkra shis rnam rgyal) in his well-known text on meditation, Phyag chen zla ba<\/em>‘<\/em>i <\/em>‘<\/em>od zer<\/em>, \u201cMah\u0101mudr\u0101, the Moonlight,\u201d or \u201cMoonbeams of Mah\u0101mudr\u0101.\u201d This text was translated into English by Lobsang P. Lhalugpa and published in 1986 as Mah<\/em>\u0101<\/em>mudr<\/em>\u0101: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation<\/em>, by Takpo Tashi Namgyal (second edition published in 2006 as Mah<\/em>\u0101<\/em>mudr<\/em>\u0101<\/em>, The Moonlight: Quintessence of Mind and Meditation<\/em>, by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal). The verse is there introduced as \u201cThe K<\/em>\u0101<\/em>lacakra-m<\/em>\u016b<\/em>latantra<\/em> states:\u201d and is translated as follows (p. 181; 2nd ed. p. 183):<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The innate mind of sentient beings is luminous clarity;<\/p>\n

From the beginning it is detached<\/p>\n

From the absolute attributes of arising, ceasing, and settling.<\/p>\n

Since beginningless time it has been the primordial supreme Buddha,<\/p>\n

Because it has been unmodulated by cause and condition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The \u201cinnate mind\u201d is equated with \u201cluminous clarity\u201d (which obviously translates the Tibetan ‘<\/em>od gsal<\/em>, Sanskrit prabh<\/em>\u0101<\/em>svara<\/em>) and with the \u201cprimordial supreme Buddha\u201d (which is obviously the \u0101<\/em>di-buddha<\/em> or param<\/em>\u0101<\/em>di-buddha<\/em>). What is the Tibetan or Sanskrit term for this \u201cinnate mind\u201d that is also luminosity (or the clear light) and the \u0101<\/em>di-buddha<\/em>, I wondered. Is it also in the extant shorter (laghu<\/em>) K<\/em>\u0101<\/em>lacakra-tantra<\/em> or its Vimala-prabh<\/em>\u0101<\/em> commentary? The Tibetan text of this verse could be found in the 1978 publication, \u1e44es don phyag rgya chen po’i sgom rim gsal bar byed pa’i legs b\u015bad zla ba’i ‘od zer<\/em>, or in short, Phyag chen zla ba’i ‘od zer<\/em>, by Dwags-po Pan-chen Bkra-\u015bis-rnam-rgyal, \u201creproduced from rare prints from the Dwags-lha Sgam-po blocks\u201d (published at Bir, H.P., by D. Tsondu Senghe), folio side 169, lines 2-3:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

dus ‘khor rtsa rgyud las |<\/p>\n

sems can sems nyid ‘od gsal zhing |<\/p>\n

gdod nas skye ‘gag gnas bral te |<\/p>\n

thog ma med pa’i sngon rol nas |<\/p>\n

dang po mchog gi sangs rgyas te |<\/p>\n

rgyu med rkyen gyis ma bslad pa |<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Having the Tibetan text of this verse meant that it was possible to try to locate its source. So I checked the only known section of the K\u0101lacakra-m\u016bla-tantra<\/em>, the Sekodde\u015ba<\/em>, which consists of 174 verses, all of the K\u0101lacakra-m\u016bla-tantra<\/em> quotations found in the Vimala-prabh\u0101<\/em> commentary, and in the other two texts of the so-called bodhisattva-pi\u1e6daka<\/em> written by the bodhisattva kings of Sambhala, the Laghu-tantra-\u1e6d\u012bk\u0101<\/em> and the Hevajra-pi\u1e47\u1e0d\u0101rtha-\u1e6d\u012bk\u0101<\/em>, and also in N\u0101rop\u0101\u2019s Sekodde\u015ba-\u1e6d\u012bk\u0101<\/em>. I then asked the late Edward Henning to check the large database of Tibetan K\u0101lacakra texts that he had assembled. I even checked the extant (laghu<\/em>) K\u0101lacakra-tantra<\/em> for good measure, even though the meter is quite different. No results in any of these sources. Yet I knew that Dakpo Tashi Namgyal would not just make up this verse. It had to exist somewhere.<\/p>\n

In recent years the former Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center, now the Buddhist Digital Resource Center, has been assembling a very large database of electronically searchable Tibetan texts, including the entire Kangyur and Tengyur. A contact regarding the \u0101<\/em>di-buddha<\/em> at the 2017 Translation and Transmission Conference reminded me of my old search, so after I returned home I searched the BDRC database for this verse. It was nowhere found in the Kangyur or Tengyur, but it appeared in the collected writings (gsung <\/em>‘<\/em>bum<\/em>) of Gampopa (sgam po pa, 1079-1153), founding father of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. It was quoted twice by Gampopa in his Bstan bcos lung gi nyi <\/em>‘<\/em>od<\/em>, \u201cSunshine of Treatises and Scriptures,\u201d first as from the K<\/em>\u0101<\/em>lacakra-m<\/em>\u016b<\/em>la-tantra<\/em> (dus <\/em>‘khor rtsa rgyud <\/em>du), and then (with two additional preceding lines) as from the Bla ma<\/em>‘i yon tan yongs su bzung ba’i rgyud<\/em>. With this latter title, the text could be traced.<\/p>\n

The Bla ma<\/em>‘i yon tan yongs su bzung ba’i rgyud<\/em> is found in the collection of K\u0101lacakra texts called Dus ‘khor phyogs bsgrigs chen mo<\/em>, volume 4, pages 583-639. This set was published in Lhasa in 2012, although it did not become available until 2014. The first seven volumes of this set consist of Tibetan translations of Sanskrit texts, being either different translations than the ones found in the Kangyur and Tengyur, or in a few cases (such as this one) different texts that are not found there. Most of these texts (including this one) had been gathered from other monasteries and sealed away in the Nechu temple at Drepung Monastery around the 1650s under the direction of the Fifth Dalai Lama. They remained sealed away there until very recently (see the \u201cDrepung catalogue,\u201d 2 vols., 2004, where the Bla ma<\/em>‘i yon tan yongs su bzung ba’i rgyud<\/em> is no. 944, vol. 1, p. 105).<\/p>\n

The opening page of the Bla ma<\/em>‘i yon tan yongs su bzung ba’i rgyud<\/em> gives the original Sanskrit title, which as slightly corrected by me is Para-guru-gu\u1e47a-dhara-n\u0101ma-tantra<\/em>. This is followed by a Tibetan title, differing somewhat from the one found on the title page, that more closely matches the Sanskrit title: Gtso bo[r] bla ma\u2019i yon tan bzung pa zhes bya ba\u2019i rgyud<\/em>. Still nothing tells us that this text is from the K\u0101lacakra-m\u016bla-tantra<\/em>. Although this volume had been on my shelf since 2015, I had never checked the colophon.<\/p>\n

The colophon on the last page (folio side 639, lines 3-4) tells us that this text, there titled Gtso bor bla ma\u2019i yon tan bzung pa<\/em>, was extracted from the K\u0101lacakra-m\u016bla-tantra<\/em> (whose proper name is the Param\u0101di-buddha<\/em>): dpal dang po mchog gi sangs rgyas rtsa ba’i rgyud chen po nas ‘byung pa. It also tells us that this text is a separate section of the tantra: bkol ba dum bu’i rgyud. The verse quoted from it first by Gampopa when this text was still available in Tibet, and then probably quoted from him by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal four centuries later when this text was no longer available there, is found near the beginning on folio sides 584-585. At last the verse quoted from the K\u0101lacakra-m\u016bla-tantra<\/em> that I had long ago seen in Lobsang Lhalungpa\u2019s translation of Dakpo Tashi Namgyal\u2019s text had been traced to its source. The source turned out to be a long lost section of the K\u0101lacakra-m\u016bla-tantra<\/em>, and it has recently become available again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A large section of the otherwise lost K\u0101lacakra-m\u016bla-tantra has now been rediscovered. It is approximately three times as large as the only other section known, the Sekodde\u015ba. It is the Para-guru-gu\u1e47a-dhara section, the section on \u201cthe good qualities possessed by the best guru.\u201d This text is itself called a tantra in the one manuscript we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kalacakra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1595"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}