Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Father Tantras that Primarily Teach Methods

(2.1.3) Father Tantras that Primarily Teach Methods

Following the Kālacakra materials, Situ's catalog classifies the remaining tantras of the “Highest Yoga” class by dividing them between “Mother” and “Father” tantras. According to this traditional scheme, Mother Tantras are those that primarily focus on “wisdom” or “insight” (ཤེས་རབ་, shes rab, prajñā), while Father Tantras primarily focus on “methods” (ཐབས་, thabs, upāya). Here in the Father Tantra section, the most significant texts are perhaps the Guhyasamāja Tantra (D.443) and its associated works, and the Māyājāla Tantra (D.468).

As a whole, the individual Father Tantra texts are arranged according to their associations with six buddha-families (though note that the third and fifth of these groups actually contain no texts):

1. Akṣobhya Family (མི་བསྐྱོད་པའི་རིགས་, mi bskyod pa’i rigs)
2. Vairocana Family (རྣམ་སྣང་གི་རིགས་, rnam snang gi rigs)
3. Precious Family (རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རིགས་, rin po che’i rigs)
4. Lotus Family (པད་མའི་རིགས་, pad ma’i rigs)
5. Karma Family (ལས་ཀྱི་རིགས་, las kyi rigs)
6. Vajradhara Family (རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གི་རིགས་, rdo rje ’chang gi rigs)