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

(2.4) Action Tantras

This section is devoted to the first (and lowest) of the four classes of tantra: “Action Tantra” (བྱ་རྒྱུད་, bya rgyud, kriyātantra), and begins with the major work, the Three Commitments (དམ་ཚིག་གསུམ་བཀོད་, dam tshig gsum bkod, trisamayavyūha, D.504). The tantras in this class are organized into two groups.

1. Individual Action Tantras (བྱ་བ་སོ་སོའི་རྒྱུད་, bya ba so so’i rgyud), and
2. General Action Tantras (བྱ་བ་སྤྱིའི་རྒྱུད་, bya ba spyi’i rgyud).

The first category is composed of Action Tantra works that are each related to a particular Buddha family, and contains the majority of the Action Tantras. The “General Action Tantras” section contains four works that treat Action Tantra in general, and that are not directly affiliated with a particular Buddha family.

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, “The Canonical Tantras of the New Schools.” In 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.