2.3 Performance Tantras

Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Performance Tantras

(2.3) Performance Tantras

This section is devoted to the second of the four classes of tantra: Performance Tantra (སྤྱོད་རྒྱུད་, spyod rgyud, caryātantra), and begins with the the major work Enlightenment of Vairocana (རྣམ་སྣང་མངོན་བྱང་, rnam snang mngon byang, vairocanābhisambodhi, D.496). In east Asia this text is known as the Mahāvairocana Sūtra.

The texts in the Performance Tantra class are grouped according to their associations with three buddha-families (though note that the second of these groups actually contains no texts):

  1. The Tathāgata Family (དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་རིགས་, de bzhin gshegs pa’i rigs)
  2. The Lotus Family (པད་མའི་རིགས་, pad ma’i rigs)
  3. The Vajra Family (རྡོ་རྗེའི་རིགས་, rdo rje’i rigs)

Literature:

  • Dalton, Jacob. “A Crisis of Doxography: How Tibetans Organized Tantra During the 8th-12th Centuries.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 28:1 (2005): 115–181.
  • Mkhas-grub Dge-legs-dpal-bzang-po. Mkhas Grub Rje’s Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tantras: Rgyud Sde Spyiḥi Rnam Par Gźag Pa Rgyas Par Brjod. Translated by F. D. Lessing and Alex Wayman. Indo-Iranian Monographs 8. The Hague: Mouton, 1968.
  • Snellgrove, David L. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors, 2 vols. Boston: Shambhala, 1987.
  • Tadeusz Skorupski, “external link: The Canonical Tantras of the New Schools.” In external link: Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, edited by José Ignacio Cabezón and Roger R. Jackson, 95-110. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1996.
  • Williams, Paul and Anthony Tribe. “Tantric Texts: Classification and Characteristics.” In Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition, 202–217. New York: Routledge, 2000.