By Steven Neal Weinberger
The root tantra of the Yoga Tantra class is the Compendium of Reality of All Tathāgatas (དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་བསྡུས་པ་, de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi de kho na nyid bsdus pa, sarva-tathāgata-tattva-saṃgraha). The text is arguably the most important in Indian Buddhist tantra, as it contains two major tantric narratives – Śākyamuni’s enlightenment recast in tantric terms, and Vajrapāṇi’s subjugation of Maheśvara – that announce tantra as a new and distinct form of Buddhism.
The Compendium of Reality marks the emergence of mature Indian Buddhist tantra at the end of the seventh century, and it spawned a body of literary progeny that played an enduring role in the development of tantric Buddhism in India, Tibet, China, and Japan. Consolidated over time into traditions known in some Indian circles as Yoga Tantra, they spread as widely as Śrı Lanka, Southeast Asia, Khotan, Mongolia, and Sumatra.
The Compendium of Reality and its constellation of texts form the first Buddhist tantric corpus, as many later texts would amplify its practices and doctrines. The continued growth and development of tantric traditions associated with the Compendium of Reality resulted in subsequent phases of tantra later classified as Mahāyoga. While those tantras, which include the Guhyasamāja, Sarvabuddhasamayoga, and Guhyagarbha, exhibit strong non-monastic influence, the roots of their characteristic practices focusing on violence and sex reach back to the Compendium of Reality.
In Tibet, the Compendium of Reality and texts classified as Yoga Tantra played a central role in the transmission and development of Buddhism from the eighth through eleventh centuries, and continued to be influential even after the introduction of new tantric developments.
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