Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Explanatory [Tantras]

(2.2.1.2) Explanatory [Tantras]

By Steven Neal Weinberger

This section contains the three principal Yoga Tantra explanatory tantras, which offer commentary and expansions on the root tantra, Compendium of Reality of all Thus-Gone Ones (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, D.481).

1. The first of these is the Vajraśekhara Tantra (རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩེ་མོ་, rdo rje rtse mo, D.482), which expounds upon the Compendium of Reality in its entirety. The text exists only in Tibetan translation, and appears to be a compilation of two independent works, the second of which is incomplete in its extant version.
2. Second is the All Secret King of Tantra (ཐམས་ཅད་གསང་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་, thams cad gsang ba zhes bya ba rgyud kyi rgyal po, sarvarahasya-nāma-tantrarāja, D.483), which expands upon the first section of the Compendium of Reality. Butön Rinchendrup (བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབ་, bu ston rin chen grub, 1290-1364) classifies the All Secret Tantra as an explanatory tantra of the first section of the Compendium of Reality—the Vajradhātu section. This identification is likely made at least in part on the basis of the All Secret Tantra’s explanation of the five manifest enlightenments (མངོན་བྱང་ལྔ་, mngon byang lnga, pañcābhisaṃbodhi), since the locus classicus of the five manifest enlightenments—one of the central practices of the Yoga Tantra system as a whole—is the narrative of Śākyamuni’s enlightenment at the beginning of the first section of the Compendium of Reality. The inclusion of the All Secret Tantra within the Yoga Tantra corpus is contested, however, as it is classified as Highest Yoga Tantra in some systems.
3. The third of the explanatory tantras is the Conquest over the Three Worlds Great King of Procedures (འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ་རྟོག་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་, ’jig rten gsum las rnam par rgyal ba rtog pa’i rgyal po chen po, trailokyavijaya-mahākalparāja, D.484), which expands on the similarly-named second section of the Compendium of Reality; both the Compendium of Reality and the Conquest over the Three Worlds contain the fundamental tantric narrative of Vajrapāṇi's subjugation of Maheśvara (also known as Mahādeva or Śiva).

Literature: An English translation of the All Secret King of Tantra can be found in Alex Wayman, “The Sarvarahasyatantra,” in Acta Indologica VI: Mysticism (1984), 521-69. Studies of the Maheśvara subjugation narrative include:

• Guiseppe Tucci, Indo-Tibetica, Reale Accademia d’Italia Studi e Documenti I (Rome: Reale Accademia d’Italia, 1932), vol. 1, 135-145
• Rolf A. Stein, “La soumission de Rudra et autres contes tantriques,” Journal Asiatique 283: 1, pp. 121-160
• Ronald M. Davidson, “Reflections on the Maheśvara Subjugation Myth: Indic Materials, Sa-skya-pa Apologetics, and the Birth of Heruka,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14, no. 2 (1991): 197-235
• Ronald M. Davidson, “The Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi’s Subjugation of Śiva,” in Religions of India in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr., 547-55 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995)
• Nobumi Iyanaga, “Récits de la soumission de Maheśvara par Trailokyavijaya – d’après les sources chinoises et japonaises,” in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein, ed. Michel Strickmann, Mélanges chinois et bouddhiques vol. 22 (Brussels: Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 1985), 633-745.

See also:

• Weinberger, Steven Neal. “Explanatory Tantras.” In “The Significance of Yoga Tantra and the Compendium of Principles (Tattvasaṃgraha Tantra) within Tantric Buddhism in India and Tibet,” 94ff. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia, 2003.