Highest Yoga Tantra
| Four classes of tantra |
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| Three outer classes |
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| Inner class |
Highest Yoga Tantra (Skt. Niruttara-yoga tantra; T. rnal 'byor bla na med pa'i rgyud རྣལ་འབྱོར་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་རྒྱུད་ / bla na med pa'i rnal 'byor gyi rgyud བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་རྒྱུད་) is the highest of the four classes of tantra according to the Sarma schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Also known as Anuttarayoga tantra (see below).
Highest Yoga Tantras are commonly divided into:
These three divisions roughly correspond to the three inner tantras of the Nyingma school.
Divisions
Mother Tantras
The Mother Tantras (Tib. མ་རྒྱུད་, Wyl. ma rgyud) of the Sarma tradition are divided into:
- the Heruka Class, which includes the Chakrasamvara Tantra and Hevajra Tantra;
- the Permanence Class; and
- the Vajrasattva Class, which includes the Kalachakra Tantra.
The Mother Tantras are also sometimes categorized in six classes.
Further Reading:
- Ringu Tulku, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great (Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 2006), pages 86-93.
Father Tantras
The Father Tantras (Tib. ཕ་རྒྱུད་, pa gyü, Wyl. pha rgyud) of the the Sarma schools are divided into the
- Desire Class, which includes the Guhyasamaja Tantra;
- Anger Class, which includes the Yamantaka Tantra; and
- Ignorance Class, which includes the Manjushri Tantra.
Further Reading:
- Ringu Tulku, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great (Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 2006), pages 79-86.
Non-dual Tantras
Non-dual Tantras (Skt. advaya tantra; Tib. གཉིས་མེད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུད་, nyimé kyi gyü, Wyl. gnyis med kyi rgyud) - include tantras such as the Kalachakra Tantra. The Sakya tradition considers Hevajra Tantra to be a non-dual tantra.
Notable tantras of this class
Highest yoga tantras which became prominent in Tibet include:
- Cakrasaṃvara Tantra
- Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti (Reciting the names of Manjushri)
- Sampuṭodbhavaḥ (Emergence from Samputa)
- Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra
- Guhyasamāja (Esoteric Community)
- Vajramahābhairava Tantra (Great Vajra Terrifier Tantra)
- Hevajra Tantra
- Kṛṣnayamāri Tantra (Black Yamari)
- Raktayamāri Tantra (Red Yamari)
- Mahāmāyā Tantra
- Mahākāla Tantra
- Kālacakra Tantra
- Ekajaṭa Tantra
On the term "Anuttarayoga"
In spite of the popularity of "Anuttarayoga" as a so-called 'back translation' from the Tibetan rnal 'byor bla na med pa into Sanskrit, scholars now prefer the term niruttara-yoga as this is better attested in original Sanskrit sources.[1]
Comparison with the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition
The 14th Dalai Lama states: "old translation Dzogchen and new translation niruttara-yoga tantra offer equivalent paths that can bring the practitioner to the same resultant state of Buddhahood".[2]
Alternative translations
- Unexcelled Yoga Tantra (James Gentry, 84.000)
- Unsurpassed Yoga Tantra
See also
Notes
- ↑ See Jacob Dalton, "A Crisis of Doxography: How Tibetans Organized Tantra During the 8th-12th Centuries" in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies vol. 28 No. 1, 2005, p. 152, n. 84, where he calls this "a time-honoured mistake that needs to be abandoned". niruttara (निरुत्तर) means having no superior.
- ↑ Gyatso, Tenzin; Alexander Berzin (1997). The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra. New York: Snow Lion Publications. p. 243.
Further reading
Print publications:
- Daniel Cozort, Highest Yoga Tantra (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2005).
- Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, The World of Tibetan Buddhism (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995), '19. Advanced Tantric Practice: Highest Yoga Tantra'.
- Ringu Tulku, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great (Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 2006)
Web publications:
Highest Yoga Tantra, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
Highest Yoga Tantra, Wikipedia
