By Steven Neal Weinberger
This section contains Yoga Tantras that Situ Penchen’s catalog classifies as focusing on “wisdom” or “insight” (ཤེས་རབ་, shes rab, prajñā), rather than on “methods” (ཐབས་, thabs, upāya). These are primarily tantric Perfection of Wisdom (ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་, shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa, prajñāpāramitā) texts.
The key texts in this group are related to the Mode of the Perfection of Wisdom in 150 Stanzas (D.491), one of the major works in the Yoga Tantra class. Though it is not explicitly related to the root Yoga Tantra The Compendium of Reality of All Thus-Gone Ones (D.481), it is included in the Yoga Tantra class because of its relation to the Śrī Paramādya Tantra (D.489–D.490), which reads as an expanded tantric version of the Mode of the Perfection of Wisdom. In China, Mode of the Perfection of Wisdom texts along with their associated practices constituted an important tantric cycle and served as the basis for an entire ritual and philosophical system. This system is still employed by the Shingon sect in Japan, where it and the texts on which it is based are referred to by the general term Rishukyō.
Three texts in this section appear to be expanded tantric versions of the Mode of the Perfection of Wisdom (D.491). The first two of these (D.489–D.490) are actually two parts of a single work, the Śrī Paramādya Tantra; these two in fact appear in the Collected Tantras of the Ancients (རྙིང་མ་རྒྱུད་འབུམ་, rnying ma rgyud ’bum) grouped together as a single text. The Vajra Essence Ornament Tantra (D.492) is also an expanded Mode of the Perfection of Wisdom text.
Related to these is the Twenty-Five Doors of the Perfection of Wisdom (D.493), which may be drawn from the Vajra Essence Ornament Tantra (D.492), as it presents the twenty-five “doors” of the perfection of wisdom found there.
The section concludes with two minor texts: King of Tantra, Array of the Secret Ornament of Exalted Body, Speech, and Mind of All Tathāgatas (D.494), and the Secret Jewel Drop Sūtra (D.495).
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