Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > The Stainless Light, Extensive Commentary on The Wheel of Time [Tantra]

(4) Stainless Light, the Extensive Commentary on the Wheel of Time Tantra

By Chris Hatchell

This section contains a single text, Puṇḍarīka’s Stainless Light (དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད་, dri ma med pa’i ’od, vimalaprabhā), the most important commentary on the Wheel of Time (དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་, dus kyi ’khor lo, kālacakra) tantra. As a commentarial work, one would expect to find this text in the Tengyur, and indeed it does appear there (D.1358). Yet as a mark of its towering importance in the Tibetan tradition, it is appended to the end of Kangyur as well.

The edition that appears here is based on the translation produced in the eleventh century by the Kashmiri paṇḍit Somanātha, who worked with the Tibetan Dro Gelong Sherap Drak (འབྲོ་དགེ་སློང་ཤེས་རབ་གྲགས་, ’bro dge slong shes rab grags). The colophon in the Degé edition records that this was later revised by Zhangtön Dodepel (ཞང་སྟོན་མདོ་སྡེ་དཔལ་, zhang ston mdo sde dpal) and Tsültrim Dar (ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་དར་, tshul khrims dar).

One unusual issue with the Degé Kangyur version of Stainless Light is that the chapters are out of order. As they appear here, they are ordered:

• 1. The Chapter on the World System (འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་གྱི་ལེའུ་, ’jig rten khams gyi le’u)
• 2. The Inner Chapter (ནང་གི་ལེའུ་, nang gi le’u)
• 4. The Chapter on Practice (སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ལེའུ་, sgrub thabs kyi le’u)
• 3. The Chapter on Initiation (དབང་གི་ལེའུ་, dbang gi le’u)
• 5. The Chapter on Gnosis (ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ལེའུ་, ye shes kyi le’u)

Putting chapter four before chapter three is not a doctrinal issue or an attempt to re-organize the text, but appears to be an artifact of the process of carving and printing. As a further oddity, the fifth chapter, on Gnosis, is not placed in vol. 102 with the preceding four chapters, but is found in vol. 103 with the Table of Contents for the entire Kangyur (though note that the marginal title of this chapter still lists it as being part of vol. 102). This placement of the Gnosis chapter in the Table of Contents volume is mentioned in Situ’s catalog (Kangyur vol. 103, p. 156b.7).

Literature:

• Gyatso, Tenzin, and Jeffrey Hopkins. The Kālacakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation for the Stage of Generation. London: Wisdom Publications, 1989.
• Khedrup Norsang Gyatso. The Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kālacakra Tantra. Translated by Kilty, Gavin. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004.
• Newman, John. "The Outer Wheel of Time: Vajrāyana Buddhist Cosmology in the Kālacakra Tantra." Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1987.
• Wallace, Vesna. The Inner Kālacakratantra: A Buddhist View of the Tantric Individual. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Wallace, Vesna. The Kālacakratantra: The Chapter on the Individual Together with the Vimalaprabhā. New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2004.
• Wallace, Vesna. The Kālacakratantra: The Chapter on the Sādhanā Together with the Vimalaprabhā Commentary. New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2010.