Tantra Doxcat

Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Secret Mantra

(2) Secret Mantra

By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)

Secret Mantra is the second of the Kangyur's two main divisions, and contains the esoteric scriptures, or tantras (D.362-D.852). The main part of the tantra section (D.362-D.833) comprises twenty volumes, though the Degé edition of the Kangyur contains an additional three-volume section labeled Ancient Tantras (རྙིང་རྒྱུད་, rnying rgyud, D.834-D.852).

The tantra section proper is organized first by the hierarchical scheme of topical classification commonly known as the Four Classes of Tantra (རྒྱུད་སྡེ་བཞི་, rgyud sde bzhi), which was formalized for the Tibetan tradition by Butön Rinchendrup (བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབ་, bu ston rin chen grub, 1290-1364). The Degé Kangyur orders these four classes from highest to lowest, beginning with Highest Yoga Tantra (བླ་མེད་རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱུད་, bla med rnal ’byor rgyud, anuttarayogatantra) in seven volumes (D.362-D.480). This is followed by Yoga Tantra (རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྒྱུད་, rnal ’byor rgyud, yogatantra) in two-and-a-half-volumes (D.481-D.495), Performance Tantra (སྤྱོད་རྒྱུད་, spyod rgyud, caryātantra) in one volume (D.496-D.503), and finally Action Tantra (བྱ་རྒྱུད་, bya rgyud, kriyātantra) in ten volumes (D.504-D.814).

The most prominent tantras in the Tibetan tradition begin each of these sections, such as the Recital of the Names of Manjushri (འཇམ་དཔལ་མཚན་བརྗོད་, ’jam dpal mtshan brjod, mañjuśrīnāmasaṁgīti, D.362, beginning the Highest Yoga class), the Compendium of Principles (དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་བསྡུས་པ་, de kho na nyid bsdus pa, tattvasaṁgraha, D.481, beginning the Yoga class), the Enlightenment of Mahāvairocana (རྣམ་སྣང་མངོན་བྱང་, rnam snang mngon byang, mahāvairocanābhisambodhi, D.496, beginning the Performance class), and the Three Commitments (དམ་ཚིག་གསུམ་བཀོད་, dam tshig gsum bkod, trisamayavyūha, D.504, beginning the Action class). The major tantras and then ancillary works follow in each section. Note that some of the works in the Tantra section (for example, most of D.693-D.810) are not strictly tantras, but rather dhāraṇīs, or ritual spells, which may be classed in the tantra or sūtra sections.

The main Tantra section concludes with with a short collection of dedications, aspirational prayers, and good-luck prayers (D.815-D.833). These works, however, are followed by three related sections that might well be considered an extension of the Tantra collection, namely the Ancient Tantras (རྙིང་མའི་རྒྱུད་, rnying ma’i rgyud, D.834-D.852), the Collected Spells གཟུངས་འདུས་, gzungs ’dus, D.854-D.1118), and the Stainless Light commentary on the Wheel of Time Tantra (D.853). The Ancient Tantra section is not included in Situ Panchen's catalog, though the latter two sections are. Here in the THL Catalog, we have placed the Ancent Tantras in the main Tantra section. However, we have given the Collected Spells and the Wheel of Time Commentary their own independent sections, as Situ’s catalog separates them from from the Tantra section, treating them something like appendices.

Literature:

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