Old Tantras
Seventeen works representing a small selection of the many “inner” class tantras of the Ngagyur Nyingma (“earlier translation”) tradition (Toh 828-844).
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read translations in this section are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility, and hence consequences, of reading these texts and/or sharing them with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lie in the hands of readers. See “Unrestricted access” below.
Texts: 25 | Published: 0 | In Progress: 5 | Not Begun: 20 |
Texts in this Section
The Sovereign, All-Creating Mind of Enlightenment
བྱང་སེམས་ཀུན་བྱེད་རྒྱལ་པོ། · byang sems kun byed rgyal po/
bodhicittakulayarāja
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- sarvadharmamahāśantibodhicittakulayarāja
- chos thams cad rdzogs pa chen po byang chub kyi sems kun byed rgyal po/
- 《一切法大圓滿菩提心普作王》
The Sūtra of All-Gathering Awareness (or The Sūtra that Gathers All Intentions)
ཀུན་འདུས་རིག་པའི་མདོ། (མདོ་དགོངས་པ་འདུས་པ།) · kun 'dus rig pa'i mdo/ \(mdo dgongs pa 'dus pa/\)
samājasarvavidyāsūtra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- [Note: translated from Burushaski, a language of the Hunza, Nagar, and Yasin valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan. Despite its initial title, which is similar to that of Toh 831, this text is commonly referred to by the title given in the chapter colophons, mdo dgongs pa 'dus pa, The Sūtra that Gathers All Intentions.]
- sarvatathāgatacittajñānaguhyārthagarbhavyūhavajratantrasiddhiyogāgamasamājasarvavidyāsūtramahāyānābhisamayadharmaparyāyavivyūhanāmasūtra
- de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi thugs gsang ba'i ye shes don gyi snying po rdo rje bkod pa'i rgyud rnal 'byor grub pa'i lung kun 'dus rig pa'i mdo theg pa chen po mngon par rtogs pa chos kyi rnam grangs rnam par bkod pa zhes bya ba'i mdo/
- sangs rgyas kun gyi dgongs pa 'dus pa'i mdo chen po/
- spyi mdo dgongs pa 'dus pa/
- 《總集明經》(意總集經)
The Lightning Wheel of Magnificent Gnosis
ཡེ་ཤེས་རྔམ་པ་གློག་གི་འཁོར་ལོ། · ye shes rngam pa glog gi 'khor lo/
jñānāścaryadyuticakra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi gsang ba/ gsang ba'i mdzod chen po mi zad pa gter gyi sgron ma/ brtul zhugs chen po bsgrub pa'i rgyud/ ye shes rngam pa glog gi 'khor lo zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo/
- sarvatathāgataguhyamahāguhyakośākṣayanidhidīpamahāpratapasādhanatantrajñānāścaryadyuticakranāmamahāyānasūtra
Tibetan translation:
- t. vajrvisramitra
- vairocanaraksita
The Sūtra of All-Gathering Awareness
ཀུན་འདུས་རིག་པའི་མདོ། · kun 'dus rig pa'i mdo/
vajrakulatantrapiṇḍārthavidyāyogasiddha
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- sarvatathāgatacittaguhyajñānārthagarbhakrodhavajrakulatantrapiṇḍārthavidyāyogasiddhanāmamahāyānasūtra
- de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi thugs gsang ba'i ye shes don gyi snying po khro bo rdo rje rigs kun 'dus rig pa'i mdo rnal 'byor grub pa'i rgyud ces bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo/
- 《總集明經》
- rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po rdo rje bkod pa kun 'dus rig pa'i mdo/
The Secret Nucleus Definitive With Respect to the Real [the 22 chapter Guhyagarbha tantra]
གསང་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ། · gsang ba'i snying po de kho na nyid rnam par nges pa/
guhyagarbhatattvaviniścaya
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- dpal gsang ba'i snying po de kho na nyid rnam par nges pa/
- śrīguhyagarbhatattvaviniścaya
The Magical Net of Vajrasattva, the Mirror of All Secrets
རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲ་བ་གསང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་མེ་ལོང། · rdo rje sems dpa'i sgyu 'phrul dra ba gsang ba thams cad kyi me long/
vajrasattvamāyājālaguhyasarvādarśa
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- vajrasattvamāyājālaguhyasarvādarśanāmatantra
- 《金剛薩埵幻化網一切秘密之鏡》
- rdo rje sems dpa'i sgyu 'phrul dra ba gsang ba thams cad kyi me long zhes bya ba'i rgyud/
The Secret Nucleus Definitive With Respect to the Real [the "80 chapter" Guhyagarbha tantra]
གསང་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ངེས་པ། · gsang ba'i snying po de kho na nyid nges pa/
[no Sanskrit title]
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- brgyad cu pa/
- [Note: commonly referred to as the "80 chapter" tantra (brgyad cu pa) although in fact it has 82 chapters]
The Noble Lasso of Methods, the Lotus Garland
ཐབས་ཀྱི་ཞགས་པ་པདྨོའི་ཕྲེང་བ། · thabs kyi zhags pa pad+mo'i phreng ba/
[no Sanskrit title]
Summary
Reconstructed stemmatic edition of the tantra together with its Tengyur commentary (G 2716, Q 4717; not found in Degé) in a restored version, IOLTibJ321.
Title variants
- 'phags pa thabs kyi zhags pa pad+mo'i phreng zhes bya ba/
- thabs kyi zhags pa pad+mo'i phreng ba don bsdus pa'i rgyud/
- The Noose of Methods, the Lotus Garland Synopsis Tantra
The Tantra of the Great Magical Net of the Goddess
ལྷ་མོ་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་དྲ་བ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུད། · lha mo sgyu 'phrul dra ba chen po'i rgyud/
devījālamahāmāyātantra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- lha mo sgyu 'phrul dra ba chen po zhes bya ba'i rgyud/
- devījālamahāmāyātantranāma
The Great Guru, from The Secret Nucleus Definitive With Respect to the Real
གསང་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ངེས་པའི་བླ་མ་ཆེན་པོ། · gsang ba'i snying po de kho na nyid nges pa'i bla ma chen po/
[no Sanskrit title]
The Secret Tantra of the Wheel of Mañjuśrī's Four Activities
འཇམ་དཔལ་ལས་བཞི་འཁོར་ལོ་གསང་བའི་རྒྱུད། · 'jam dpal las bzhi 'khor lo gsang ba'i rgyud/
mañjuśrīkarmacatuścakraguhyatantra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- 'phags pa 'jam dpal las bzhi 'khor lo gsang ba'i rgyud/
- āryamañjuśrīkarmacatuścakraguhyatantra
The Great Tantra of Aśvottama's Display
རྟ་མཆོག་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་ཆེན་པོ། · rta mchog rol pa'i rgyud chen po/
aśvottamavīṇāsamatāmahātantra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi dgongs pa bla na med pa gsang ba rta mchog rol pa'i rgyud chen po zhes bya ba/
- sarvatathāgatabuddhānuttaraguhyaśvottamavīṇāsamatāmahātantranāma
- [Note: title translated on the basis of the Tibetan. The Sanskrit is dubious.]
The Most Profound Secret Tantra of Śrī Heruka's Compassionate Display
དཔལ་ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་སྙིང་རྗེ་རོལ་པའི་རྒྱུད་གསང་བ་ཟབ་མོའི་མཆོག། · dpal he ru ka snying rje rol pa'i rgyud gsang ba zab mo'i mchog/
śrīherukakaruṇakrīḍitatantraguhyagambhīrottama
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- dpal he ru ka snying rje rol pa'i rgyud gsang ba zab mo'i mchog ces bya ba/
- śrīherukakaruṇakrīḍitatantraguhyagambhīrottamanāma
[This text has eight chapters, laid out as separate texts in Degé, and numbered 841 (1-8) in Toh, but here all included under this title]
The Sap of the Five Amṛtas, Quintessence of Great Accomplishment
ཐམས་ཅད་བདུད་རྩི་ལྔའི་རང་བཞིན་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཆེན་པོ་ཉེ་བའི་སྙིང་པོ། · thams cad bdud rtsi lnga'i rang bzhin dngos grub chen po nye ba'i snying po/
sarvapañcāmṛtasārasiddhimahadgatahṛdaya
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- thams cad bdud rtsi lnga'i rang bzhin/ dngos grub chen po nye ba'i snying po mchog
Homage to Brahmā and Other Sages, Deities, Nāgas, and Human Bodhisattvas
ཚངས་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་དྲང་སྲོང་དང་ལྷ་དང་ཀླུ་དང་མིའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། · tshangs pa la sogs pa drang srong dang lha dang klu dang mi'i byang chub sems dpa' rnams la phyag 'tshal lo/
amṛtarasāyana [Toh.]
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- amṛtarasāyana/ tanajhaya/ praśastapramaṇaśrīkranapraśastayanamo
- [This chapter and others appear to be named by their expressions of homage. See also their colophon titles.]
Homage to the Blessed One, the Great King of Non-Duality
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་གཉིས་མེད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། · bcom ldan 'das gnyis med kyi rgyal po chen po la phyag 'tshal lo/
prajñābhagavānmahārāja
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- prajñābhagavanmahārājā
[Liberating the Five Great Fruits??]
འབྲས་བུ་ཆེན་པོ་ལྔ་བསྒྲལ་བ། · 'bras bu chen po lnga bsgral ba/
uttāraṇamahādarapañca
Homage to the Sugatas of the Five Families
རིགས་ལྔ་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། · rigs lnga bde bar gshegs pa la phyag 'tshal lo/
kulapañcabuddhaya namaḥ
Homage to Amṛtakuṇḍalī
བདུད་རྩི་འཁྱིལ་བ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། · bdud rtsi 'khyil ba la phyag 'tshal lo/
amṛtakuṇḍalyai namaḥ
Transmission of the Vase of Amṛta
བདུད་རྩི་བུམ་པའི་ལུང། · bdud rtsi bum pa'i lung/
amṛtakalaśasiddhi
Homage to the Blessed Mañjuśrī the Intelligent
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་འཇམ་དཔལ་རྣོན་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། · bcom ldan 'das 'jam dpal rnon po la phyag 'tshal lo/
bhagavādmañjuśrītīkṣṇāya namaḥ
A Fragment from the Vajrakīlaya Root Tantra
རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་དུམ་བུ། · rdo rje phur pa rtsa ba’i rgyud kyi dum bu/
[no Sanskrit title]
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- rdo rje khros pas zhe sdang gcod/
- [Note: not mentioned in Toh, and has no initial title. It is an extract from Toh 439, and represents Vajrakīlaya in this sequence of 8 texts (838-844) on the "eight classes of accomplishment" (sgrub sde brgyad) of Mahāyoga.]
Tantra of the Flaming Ḍākinī
མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་མེ་ལྕེ་འབར་བའི་རྒྱུད། · mkha' 'gro ma me lce 'bar ba'i rgyud/
ḍākinyagnijihvājvālātantra
Root Tantra of Vajramantrabhīru
དྲག་སྔགས་འདུས་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད། · drag sngags 'dus pa rdo rje rtsa ba'i rgyud/
vajramantrabhīrusandhimūlatantra
Summary
No summary is currently available.
Title variants
- vajramantrabhīrusandhimūlatantranāma
The Tantra of Lokastotrapūja
འཇིག་རྟེན་མཆོད་བསྟོད་སྒྲུབ་པ་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད། · 'jig rten mchod bstod sgrub pa rtsa ba'i rgyud/
lokastotrapūjakalpamūlatantra