Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Seventeen Dzogchen Tantras & The Cina Valley (8th C.)

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Dzogchen Explorations

Okar Research

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Sri Simha deposited copies of the first three Dzogchen cycles in a rock cut crypt beneath the Bodhivriksha Temple of Sugnam in the land of Cina, near Mt Kailasa, south of Western Tibet (below Suvarnadwipa), comprising modern Kinnaur, which was known in ancient times as the valley of Cina.....

"In the literature and practice of Dzogchen, the Seventeen Tantras of the esoteric instruction cycle are a suite of tantras belonging to the textual division known as the "esoteric instruction cycle" ....also known variously as: Nyingtik, Upadesha or Menngagde)... They are associated with sacred literature first transmitted in the human realm by the quasi-historical Garab Dorje and passed according to tradition along with other tantras through various lineages of transmission by way of important Dzogchen figures such as Mañjuśrīmitra, Shri Singha, Padmasambhava, Jnanasutra, and Vimalamitra.......Sri Simha, or Simhaprabha as he may have been known, was born in a noble family in the Cina Valley... the territory of the Indian Kailasa, south of Western Tibet (below Suvarnadwipa), comprising modern Kinnaur, was known in ancient times as the valley of Cina..".....The Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa

"In Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Menngagde (man ngag sde), is the name of one of three scriptural and lineage divisions within Dzogchen teachings......Menngagde focuses on the knowledge of trekchö and the basis (gzhi). ..... Menngagde may also be known as Nyingthik. ......Germano & Gyatso note a similarity of practice between Chan-like formless meditations and Nyingthik/Menngagde:...."...the Seminal Heart or Nyingthik (snying thig) form of the Great Perfection (rdzogs-chen) movement, ...a syncretic Tantric tradition consisting of Chan-like practices of formless meditation combined with exercises that cultivated spontaneous visions of buddhas.".......Germano, David & Gyatso, Janet (2000). "Longchenpa and the Possession of the Dakinis."

"The Dharma Fellowship (2009) drawing on the work of Marcelle Lalou (1890–1967) holds the 'Five Peaked Mountain' of "the Land of Cina"...... a mountain near the Kinnaur Valley associated with the historical Suvarnadwipa (Sanskrit) nation also known as 'Zhang-zhung' in the Zhang-zhung language and the Tibetan language.....Apart from gold and matriarchy, the Golden Land of Suvarnadwipa (or Zangzung) was famous for manufacturing and exporting to India a peculiarly fine wool cloth known as cina-patti, or in other words, "fabric (patti) from Cina." Thus we find in Kautilya, for example, the mention of Cina as a valley within the territory of Suvarnadwipa, from whence cina-patti was brought to India. At present this same extra-fine cloth, no longer manufactured in Suvarnadwipa, but instead in Kashmir, is known as cashmere.".....The Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa

"Sri Simha divided the Pith Instruction into four sub-sections, and these are known as the Exoteric Cycle, the Esoteric Cycle, the Secret Cycle, and the Supreme Secret Cycle. Before his own death he deposited copies of the first three cycles in a rock cut crypt beneath the Bodhivriksha Temple of Sugnam (Sokyam) in the land of Cina. The texts of the Supreme Secret Cycle, however, he hid separately within the pillar of the "Gate of a Myriad Blessings"...... It is difficult, however, to clarify as to where these places in the Kinnaur Valley may have actually been. Perhaps future archeological work in the region will help one day to give us a better insight into the facts underlying the half-legendary and half-historical records of early Dzogchen?"...........Dharma Fellowship (2009). Biographies: Sri Simha, the Lion of Dzogchen.

"This series of teachings consist mainly of terma texts among which the Vima Nyingthig and seventeen Tantras hidden by Vimalamitra's student Tingzin Zangpo (Tib., ting 'dzin bzang po) and later revealed by the terton Donma Lungyal (Tib., dong ma lhung rGyal).".....

Seventeen Tantras of the Great Perfection (Tib. dzogchen gyü chu dün, རྫོགས་ཆེན་རྒྱུད་བཅུ་བདུན་, Wyl. rdzogs chen rgyud bcu bdun) of the Category of Pith Instructions, which were brought to Tibet by Vimalamitra and Guru Padmasambhava. Each tantra is not dependent upon the others but complete in itself......Rangjung Yeshe

'Self-existing Perfection'..... the Naturally Born Perfection.....rdzogs pa rang byung...how to prepare to be a suitable recipient of the teachings by means of the four empowerments.... Self-existing Perfection (Tib. dzogpa rangjung, རྫོགས་པ་རང་བྱུང་ , rdzogs pa rang byung).....Rangjung Yeshe....Naturally Born Perfection

'Reverberation of Sound' .....sgra thal 'gyur...the title of this tantra denotes the immutable, unconditioned, uncreated, 'primordial sound' (nada).....explains how to reveal the level of nirmanakaya and how to accomplish the welfare of others through practices related to sound..... (Tib. dra talgyur, སྒྲ་ཐལ་འགྱུར་ , sgra thal 'gyur), the root tantra (Tib. tsawé gyü, རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ , rtsa ba’i rgyud) of these seventeen tantras......Rangjung Yeshe...Penetration of Sound

'Self-arising Knowledge'.....rig pa rang shar....Tantra of Self-arising Awareness / Tantra of Self-manifest Awareness. This scripture teaches how to resolve the view, meditation, and action..... Self-liberated Primordial Awareness (Tib. rigpa rangdrol, རིག་པ་རང་གྲོལ་ , rig pa rang grol).....Rangjung Yeshe....Natural Arising of Awareness (rig pa rang shar) or Great Tantra of Self-Arising Awareness (rig pa rang shar chen po'i rgyud)

'Self-liberated Knowledge'.....rig pa rang grol...The Tantra of Self-Liberated Awareness. This scripture teaches how awareness is uncreated but is liberated by itself, how to control appearances, to grow familiar with the vajra chain, and to naturally free all of samsara and nirvana...... Rangjung Yeshe....Natural Liberation of Awareness

'The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva' ..... rdo rje sems dpa' snying gi me long...The Continuum of Vajrasattva's Heart-Mirror conveys how the 'lamps' (sgron ma) are the self-display of awareness.....The Tantra of the Mind Mirror of Vajrasattva...... This tantra teaches how the lamps are the self-display of awareness. By means of 21 pointing-out instructions, the different types of people recognize wisdom. It further teaches the four key points and how to practice...... (Tib. dorje sempa nying gi melong, རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྙིང་གི་མེ་ལོང་ , rdo rje sems dpa' snying gi me long)...... Rangjung Yeshe

'The Mirror of the Mind of Kun tu bzang po'.....kun tu bzang po thugs kyi me long....Though Buddhism is for the most part non-theistic, Dzogchen and other Buddhadharma traditions often personify attributes or qualities with a deity in textual discourse...Tantra of the Heart Mirror of Samantabhadra. This tantra shows how to identify and cut through pitfalls and errors and how to establish what is innate..... The Mirror of the Heart of Samantabhadra. ...... The Mirror of the Mind of Samantabhadra (Tib. kuntuzangpo tuk kyi melong, ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་མེ་ལོང་ , kun tu bzang po thugs kyi me long).....Rangjung Yeshe

'Necklace of Precious Pearls' .....mu tig rin po che'i phreng ba.....The Garland of Pearls, Mu tig ’phreng ba........Mu tig rin po che phreng ba’i rgyud: "The Tantra of the Precious Garland of Pearls"......(Tib. mutik rinpochei trengwa, མུ་ཏིག་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བའི་རྒྱུད་ , mu tig rin po che'i phreng ba).... Pearl Necklace, Pearl Garland Tantra..... Rangjung Yeshe

'Lion's Perfect Expressive Power' .....seng ge rtsal rdzogs...Tantra of the Perfected Lion. The scripture explains the degrees of progress and the signs that occur, how to stabilize awareness and increase the level of experience.... Lion's Perfect Expressive Power (Tib. sengé tsaldzog, སེང་གེ་རྩལ་རྫོགས་ , seng ge rtsal rdzogs)..........Rangjung Yeshe

'Shining Relics of Enlightened Body' .....sku gdung 'bar ba...Tantra of Shining Relics. This tantra describes the outer and inner signs of awareness reaching maturity which are manifest before and after the time of death in order to inspire and instill confidence in other persons..... (Tib. kudung barwa, སྐུ་གདུང་འབར་བ་ , sku gdung 'bar ba)....Rangjung Yeshe....Blazing Relics of the Buddha-Body

'Kiss of the Sun and Moon' .....nyi zla kha sbyor.... Union of Sun and Moon. This tantra shows which experience a person undergoes in the intermediate state, the bardo, after passing away. It teaches how to resolve one's master's oral instructions during the bardo of this life, how to stabilize awareness during the bardo of dying, how to attain enlightenment through recognizing awareness during the bardo of dharmata, and, if necessary, how to be assured a rebirth in a natural nirmanakaya realm during the bardo of becoming and there reveal buddhahood without further rebirths......Union of the Sun and Moon (Tib. nyi da khajor, ཉི་ཟླ་ཁ་སྦྱོར་ , nyi zla kha sbyor).....Rangjung Yeshe...Coalescence of Sun and Moon

'Blazing Lamp' .....sgron ma 'bar ba.....Tantra of the Radiant Lamp. This tantra teaches how to identify the "lamps" related to awareness, their terminology, analogies for how wisdom arises, the unity of awareness, how to clear misconceptions about self-cognizance, and how to practice.... (Tib. drönma barwa, སྒྲོན་མ་འབར་བ་ , sgron ma 'bar ba)....Rangjung Yeshe.

'Direct Introduction' ......ngo sprod spras pa.....This tantra is similar to showing a mirror to a maiden, for it describes (through various indications), how to apply essence of awareness in one's practice.....(Tib. ngotrö trepa, ངོ་སྤྲོད་སྤྲས་པ་ , ngo sprod spras pa)....Rangjung Yeshe.

'Great Auspicious Beauty' .....bkra shis mdzes ldan....teaches how to establish the nature of awareness and how to identify the basis of confusion and the unmistaken wisdom.....Tantra of the Great Graceful Auspiciousness.....(Tib. tashi dzeden, བཀྲ་ཤིས་མཛེས་ལྡན་ , bkra shis mdzes ldan).....Rangjung Yeshe.....Beauteous Good Auspices, Tantra of Graceful Auspiciousness

'Sixfold Expanse of Kun tu bzang po' .....kun tu bzang po klong drug......Tantra of the Six Spheres of Samantabhadra. This tantra teaches how to prevent rebirth in and purify the six realms, and manifest the pure realms of self-display.....Sixfold Expanse of Samantabhadra (Tib. kuntuzangpo long druk, ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཀློང་དྲུག་ , kun tu bzang po klong drug).....Rangjung Yeshe.....The Six Spheres , or Sixfold Expanse, or Six Spheres of Samantabhadra

'Without Letters' ..... yi ge med pa......Letterless Tantra......The Tantra of No Letters. This tantra describes the actual means of practice, how to abandon activities and live in places free from defects, the four ways of 'freely resting,' sustaining naturalness as well as the undefiled method of the main part of practice......(Tib. yigé mépa, ཡི་གེ་མེད་པ་ , yi ge med pa).....Rangjung Yeshe....Absence of Letters, Letterless Tantra and/or Tantra of No Letters

'Inlaid with Jewels' .....nor bu phra bkod.......Norbu Trako......Jewel Studded....Tantra of studded jewels.......Array of Jewels (Tib. norbu trakö, ནོར་བུ་ཕྲ་བཀོད་ , nor bu phra bkod)....Rangjung Yeshe.......Studded Jewels, Array of Fine Gemstones

'Piled Gems'.....rin po che spung ba....(Tib. rinpoche pungwa, རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྤུང་བ་ , rin po che spung ba)....Rangjung Yeshe.......Mound of Gemstones, Tantra of the Jewel Mound

The Practice of Dzogchen....by Longchen Rabjam

"The Mannagde level knows two types of training, the 'Two Paths of the Great Perfection' (rdzogs chen gi lam gnyis), and each of these can be practiced as a path in itself.......
1. Trekchod "Cutting Through Resistance" (khregs chod); also Trekchö, Trekchöd, Thregchod, Trek-chod The method of "cutting through to the essence", the "destruction of solidity". It involves the actualization of one's innermost awareness, one's primordial wisdom nature, one's primordial purity (ka dag); realizing the heart of enlightenment in the present moment. 2. Thogal (Tib., Thod-rGal) "direct approach", "All-Surpassing Realisation"; also Thodgal, Togal, Tögal The method of "direct crossing", with an emphasis on pure spontaneity or spontaneous presence (Tib., lhun-grub), and with practices that exhaust all defilements and fixations, so that the rainbow body can be realized within one lifetime."....http://yoniversum.nl/dakini/tantib93.html

"The Seventeen Tantras are amongst the texts known as the 'Supreme Secret Cycle' the Fourth Cycle and the most sacred tantras in the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition and the Dharma Fellowship (2009) provide a different historical location than Mount Wutai China for the location of concealment which is identified as near the Kinnaur Valley within the Kinnaur District: It is explained that Sri Simha divided the Pith Instruction into four sub-sections, and these are known as the Exoteric Cycle, the Esoteric Cycle, the Secret Cycle, and the Supreme Secret Cycle. Before his own death he deposited copies of the first three cycles in a rock cut crypt beneath the Bodhivriksha Temple of Sugnam (Sokyam) in the land of Cina. The texts of the Supreme Secret Cycle, however, he hid separately within the pillar of the "Gate of a Myriad Blessings".

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….May 2014

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