Nirakara and Shentong Buddhism, Tara, Sadhanas, Sanskrit culture

[shaberon]

This has reached a high level of technical difficulties.


I quickly discovered that the important work by H. H. III Karmapa is no longer hosted; it is published by Tsadra, who lists it under the heading Luminosity of which there are not ten texts.

Well, we are going through a thing where that more or less is the main subject, and that the institution per se is not going to make this easy.

Our aim is to re-instate this, and challenge the Chinese translation "Buddha nature is in all beings", to saying, it is in that experience. Anyone could do it, but they have not.

It is already difficult because Tibet is trying to make sense of this lineage:


In his description of the diffusion of zhentong, [Jamgon] Kongtrul Lodro Taye
claims that it goes back to Nagarjuna's and Maitreya's commentaries of the
final dharmacakra (i.e., Nagarjuna's collection of hymns and the Maitreya
works except the Abhisamayalamkara), which were further commented
upon by Asanga, Vasubandhu, Candragomin, Santipa, and Sajjana. Both
Ngog Loden Sherab and Tsen Kawoche are mentioned as having received
these teachings from Sajjana.



They regularly use "Santipa" as shorthand for Ratnakarasanti. Around him, you see late figures involved with conveying the transmission to Tibet and hence to the Karmapa line.

Before this group is some five hundred years' gap with only Candragomin in between.


Kongtrul is talking about a Sutra lineage, while we have seen that Ratnakarasanti promotes an evolved tantric commentary saying it is rooted in Khasama Tantra, that it is like a common origin or explanation of multiple individual tantras. And so I checked and the "Khasama" I linked in a recent post is not the correct article. It is a brief, related text, Toh 386:

Ratnākaraśānti's commentary, the Khasamatantraṭīkā, Toh 1424, is not a. commentary on this text, but on the Yathālabdhakhasamatantra, Toh 441.

And on 84,000 it remains unpublished.


I find that two servers of important materials have gone away. Until recently, we had available the larger version as:



Vajrasatva Khasam Anta Mahātantra


Which 84,000 knows well enough when describing tantras by Six Families:

(a) Those in which the six families are taught to be equal (rigs drug ka mnyam par ston pa, Toh 366 and 367), the tantras of Ḍākinījālaśaṃvara.


(g) The Vajradhara family (rdo rje ’chang gi rigs), here a single tantra, the Extant Khasama Tantra (Toh 441).

It is exactly the main practice according to Ratnakarasanti:


G. Tucci publishes the Sanskrit and the Tibetan versions of a part of Ratnakara
santi's commentary to the Khasama-Tantra. This passage, worthy of attention from
the point of view of Buddhist dogmatics, treats of the âsraya-paravrtti («révolution
■of the support»). The publication of the Sanskrit version is based on two Nepalese
manuscripts and that of the Tibetan one on the Sde-dge and the Snar-thañ éditions
•of the Tanjur. (Ratnâkarasânti on Âsraya-parâvrtti)



Asanga has taken this kernel from Samdhinirmocana Sutra and to it he adds terminology that the Skandhas revolve or transmute into Wisdoms, and this idea is carried forward by Candragomin and the tantras. And so this is a peculiarly Buddhist doctrine, unlike the senses or mind in general terms are referred to by anyone. If you do not follow this doctrine, then, you are doing Upanishadic or some other kind of yoga.


A lot of the gap can be filled by recognizing Khasama as a major substrate of Vikramasila:


For instance, while explaining the first
stanza of the Cakrasaṃvaratantra:

athāto rahasyaṃ vakṣye samāsān na
tu vistarāt | śrīherukasaṃyogaṃ [sic] sarvakāmārthasādhakam ||


Jayabhadra, the author of the oldest available commentary in
Sanskrit on this work, explains that the phrase athātaḥ indicates
that the teaching which is about to be imparted is given
immediately after the preaching of the mūlatantra. Therefore, it is
understood that the laghutantra which we have access to should
be seen as a direct continuation of the deeper and more extensive
preaching of the mūlatantra (i.e. the Khasamatantra) and that the
preacher remains the same.


He says:

Immediately after [the teaching of the mūlatantra], I shall
concisely, and not at length [ as in the Khasama], teach the
secret [Heruka], namely the union [with Vajravārāhī] of the
glorious Heruka, [i.e. the Bhagavān] who realizes the aim,
i.e. the desire of all [people].

While commenting on the same text, Bhavabhaṭṭa more or less
follows the interpretation of his predecessor; the main difference
between the two being that, according to Bhavabhaṭṭa, the
Khasamatantra is, in turn, derived from a larger scripture.




The same logic then looks at Ratnakarasanti's Mahamaya commentary, the Gunavati, as well as at Namasangiti, finding "Therefor..." as their motif, and so, that makes them "further details" on something previously mentioned.

And so that one was a hugely important resource for us that has simply vanished.

I have excerpted it so heavily, I have almost reproduced the entire text.


Maybe not quite; but unlike Luminous Heart, I can't seem to find any traces that this Khasama existed. I *may* have copies of these on a messed up computer.


We also found that the term "khasama" occurs in Maitri's copy of Saraha's songs. Bits and pieces of these songs really are the foundation of the tantras. Similarly it also seems to come from Luipa. Recently this concept resulted in a wide study of Apabrahmsa Verses:

This trope occurs in the Hevajra Tantra, the Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra, the Abhayapaddhati, the Buddhakapāla sādhanā in the Sādhanāmālā, the Kṛṣṇayamāri Tantra, and the Khasama Tantra.

That might be at a minimum, but again one can more or less see Khasama as a torch that is passed to those more specific practices; that other practices are not other than Vajrasattva with a focus in some particular Family.

One of the things that helped me get started is off the rails a bit. Somewhere around 1981, David Reigle began trying to take HPB "seriously" in terms of the technical or accurate meaning of whatever she said. Consequently, he has an archive of Sanskrit Buddhist publications on his site Prajnaquest that is still running. But he has become a literalist. And so he goes through with Kalachakra and even to Suddha Dharma Mandala. This is a different direction than if we follow her attempts to narrow down "esoteric school" and it comes to certain terminology of Yogacara. I am only following the inner meaning, as closely as possible to the actual lineage and teachings. External texts are merely comparative and there are others that work better.



The realistic Ratnakarasanti is a late discovery by scholarship, ca. 2,000s. His work is extensive enough to merit a project being done in Austria in conjunction with some Japanese in Germany who have been focusing this for about twenty years. As research, it is more like "linguistic proof" about why mandala practices and the like are the real advent of Buddhism.

This would be almost exactly what we are getting at as per J Omi 2021:

In the Khasamā and the Guṇavatī, Mahāmāyā is interpreted as a Super-goddess who integrates other goddesses, and this interpretation of Ratnākaraśānti serves as one piece of evidence to support the author’s hypothesis regarding the relationship of Mahāmāyā described in the Devīmāhātmya and in the MMT (especially, chap. 1).

Yes, we have covered that. Mahamaya is not a Heruka Yoga, but is an adaptation of Mahalakshmi in her well-known aspect of Mahamaya.

It may have a final step of Heruka, but this is an example of something tuned to those who have a bit of experience or are able to begin recognizing the Families as something beyond words.


This formula would have been of great value to me personally. That is to say, I understand the teaching about taking Five Buddhas and swirling away the world of form by an inner yoga process, but among them I only understand Tara from the view of her standing after flattening the Skandhas. I understand her as this kind of Victory moment, who, in turn, uses a kind of switch or lever that unleashes Asraya Paravrtti in the tantric sense. That is Yoga Siddhi effectively on its own with effectively little awareness of other Families other than as cookie-cutter pieces. Mahamaya would have supplemented it almost perfectly.


We have already covered this extensively, because most of the plain text and the pre-publication translations remain intact and available. Then I caused confusion by posting a Khasama that is not the real thing, but only two chapters that class Dakinis by Sky, Horizon, and Underworld. That's not quite the starting point, and, of course this is also the point about understanding hundreds of titles, because the big archives are just a database list. It is like IVC seals. We are better off finding the way they are self-organized.


The text's example from Vairotsana Lotsawa perhaps intends the section Vast Space of Vajrasattva in Original Perfection as transmitted from Sri Simha to King Trisong Dentsen of Tibet. It is not shown in that preview. The collection is the main basket of Dzogchen.


Ok--here is what I was confused about. The larger text exists although Wilkinson 2015 translated "Khasama" and published it as Vajrasattva Equal to the End of the Sky:

This is a Tantra of the Great Perfection tradition of Buddhism, and is a thorough presentation of instantaneous enlightenment, translated from a Tibetan manuscript first translated into Tibetan in the 8th Century by Vairochana Raksita. The text presents itself as an esoteric work of Buddhism, but contains ideas that are considered unorthodox by most Buddhist traditions, such as an eternal luminescent wisdom. It is possible that Gnostic or Upanishadic thinking are elements. Scholars interested in the early period of Buddhism in Tibet and the history of Indian philosophy, those interested in possible connections between Buddhist and non-Buddhist tradition, and those who wish to read authentic source material on the Great Perfection will be most interested. The Tantra is a brilliant elucidation of Sudden Enlightenment, which will make it of particular interest to those interested in the debate regarding whether enlightenment is sudden or gradual.

Well, no, I'm not really trying to debate that. I'm pointing out that this citation is about the origin of Dzogchen from Sri Simha, and this text is concordant to the Sarma transmission as in the chart we linked. It goes for about two hundred pages using the main format of Nine Spaces and Nine Treasures and then Luminosity, relying on familiar terms such as Akanistha and Svasamvedana.


With that in mind, the same author then translates Ten Tantras of the Great Perfection which illuminates the luminous. Same basket as the prior link from Keith Dowman.

We could probably say Ratnakarasanti steers this author's view in the opposite direction by tying Luminosity to Prajnaparamita Sutra.


To train in Yoga rather obviously is to assert Vajrasattva on this "possibly foreign" practice that is not supported by -- probably not even recognized by -- dominant factions. That would be the main point. That Illumination and Gnosis is Vajrasattva, who is the necessary and required training vehicle. If you follow the expressions closely, they are not talking about an Ista Devata or Adhi Devata, that is, a tutelary deity, or of one's preference, etc., because most of the training is to use Vajrasattva as the bridge to it. Therefor the Preliminaries are about using Vajrasattva at all.


Having an important "root tantra" is not the same as the textual and popular origin.

This is shortly after Candragomin in a Vajrayana review:

Subhakarasimha descended from the Sakya prince Amritodana, an uncle of Sakyamuni Buddha. Due to unrest in Magadha (Central India), his ancestors, centuries earlier, had moved eastwards, eventually becoming the rulers of Kalinga (Odra), modern Orissa in the east. Subhakarasimha’s father was King Buddhakara of Kalinga. When the elder son of the family inherited the throne in circa 680 A.D., Prince Subhakarasimha entered a monastery in Caritra on the seacoast of Kalinga. Eventually he graduated to the great University of Nalanda in Central India and, as a disciple of the Master Dharmagupta, became a learned expert in the Mahavairocana-tantra.

Pei, in the Wen-yuan ying-huo reports that he [Subhakarasimha] was commissioned to teach the profound Mahavairocana-tantra to the son of the khatun of Uddiyana...This boy must have been the young Indrabhuti, the king of Udiyana who figures so prominently in the biography of Lord Padmasambhava.

It is fully in China from I tsing 725.

Vairocana Abhisambodhi is a large Yogacara text of the 600s:

a dialogue between Mahavairocana Buddha and his disciple Vajrasattva

this is still relied upon by Naro and Ratnakarasanti.

From having abbreviated it as "VAT", the text does not call itself a tantra.

It is a "tantric description" found in a Sutra.


And there is another important early dispensation. There is a new Sanskrit Paramadya, at least in part. The manuscript doesn't give us any way to absolutely date its origin. It has Gatekeepers' Mantra, pieces of 100-syllable mantra, and Mahamudra terms. Its repeated self-assertion sums up as:


(sarvabuddhasamāyoga pāda ab=vajrasattvasādhana)


with even another very clever tantric reprisal:


(subhāṣitasaṁgraha,mūlasūtra=sarvabuddhasamāyoga)


It seems to be mostly a Mandala Vidhi format with references mainly to SBS.


We can readily find text that increases Vajrasattva from Prajna-Upaya to Mahasukha-Unwasted Vajra, or Bliss.

Most reviews have been on "the" or "a" Paramadya mandala, making it unclear what the text really is.

Anandagarbha's commentary confirms Paramadya is a large work with over thirty mandalas:


As this has three main sections which may have been independent tantras joined together, there is a similar retinue around the evolving central figure which represents Outer Vajra Family, Vajrasattva, and then Mahasukhamahavajra.


It has been suggested the tantric Gauris' mantras derive from the retinue of its Vajrajvalanalarka mandala. Tri-samaya and Five Secrets are part of its pata or instructions. In Paramadya, Trailokyavijaya absorbs Vajrajvalanalarka (perhaps Candisvara or Mahesvara Subjugation).


We find the unusual information:

Maniratnakula = Akasagarbha

and:

For example, the deities Vajranarayana, [Vajra]candisvara,
and Vajrapadmodbhava, that is to say, Vajrayanist transformations of Visnu, Rudra,
and Brahma, together with their consorts Vajrasri, Vajragauri, and Vajratara, join
Akasagarbha and Khavajrini to form the retinue of Vajrasattva in the central sec-
tion of the abridged Mandala (bsdus pa'i dkyil 'khor) of the Yogatantra Paramadya,
a text with which the Sarvabuddhasamayoga is closely related.



In other words, you see Sky = Jewel Family deities, and that this work is usually classed as a Guna -- Qualities or Jewel Family Tantra. This is like an introduction, and, it seems to have four, with no clear classification of Karma Family, who will usurp the position.

I would suggest it is valid as a form of Bhava, which is the cultivation of a personal connection to the teachings such as Dharma terms and deities. When this was composed, there simply would have been nothing known as Jewel Family. So there is a field of motion from Paramadya to SBS, if the point of the latter is Six Families Equally. If someone is more comfortable with numerology, then Buddhism could be extrapolated in many small steps. Generally the Three Jewels are familiar to a Buddhist audience, making them relatively easy to deify as Buddha or Vairocana, Akshobhya, and Amitabha. No one's going to know six courts with multiple aspects overnight. And yes, the primary outcome here is Mahasukha Vajrasattva, who is addressed as such by Sadaksari Mahavidya.

If it absorbs a flaming deity, this is like Mahabala of the Dharani system. We found the same move in, I think, varieties of Humkara retinues. It perhaps explains the fiery portion of the SBS Assembly.

Paramadya is the sublimation of Sutra-based Prajnopaya, Wisdom and Method, to Mahasukha and Vajra.

Therefor it is a Mahamudra genre, just like Khasama being in Saraha's songs. It's unclear and incomplete, which is why there are so many transitional materials until the final review by King Ramapala, for example.


That seems to evade recognition. There has been a lot of rifling of tantras and comparison if not competition about their masters, while it is really Mahamudra that shapes "tiered personal experiences" and is the basis or equivalent of "higher initiations". It's not any particular tantra, it's how they work in this scale. If you were to say Khasama begins it and Hevajra sits at the top, all the other material about Two Siddhis or Generation and Completion Stage is Yoga or what we are focusing.


Sachen identifies dakinijalasamvara with Sri Khasama Adi Tantra, "the legendary root text of this tradition".

It's the same Vajrasattva.


I had left this thread on the backburner with the notice that things like the SBS and Dakarnava and I think the rest of Vajradaka are in translation. And now I find holes gouged from our source texts. Kagyu can primarily only reflect the fact that something we are discussing went there. The subject under discussion primarily is that Khasama that is obscured by its own title and we sat here for at least a few years with it pinned here and there. It was mostly very readable and an excellent arena of focus. Currently it is reduced to excerpts I took. This makes it worth re-compiling.

That's rough, because we want to be open source, and that probably is the most-needed thing to be available.

Let me see what can be culled and figure out how to do this while lacking this crucial work.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by shaberon (here)
And now I have done this work with entirely open-source materials, I go to look for H. H. III Karmapa and Luminous Heart, and it won't come up. It of course was on a foreign server. Because it is a modern translation, it has a new set of rights so nobody here can post more than a reference. If Avalon mods had the capability to restore this, I would say, please, but I'm not actually expecting that.

Is this it?

https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Lum...%20Karmapa.pdf

[shaberon]

Yes Bill...very good mind of you sir.

Recommended to all. The "copyrighted" stuff in there is that it begins with a dense, detailed history of Yogacara.

It's where we find the Tibetan expression Shentong; Dolpopa had been a follower of H. H. III Karmapa and runs with it.

Again, this particular crowd at Tsadra focuses Tibetan records of things that are not from Tibet. Both there and in China, we encounter difficulties in translation. This particular author, Brunnholzl, has been taken in as a kind of official mouthpiece, with his work being used in Buddhist universities. This is what we will mainly review, in that the Chinese Hsin for Sanskrit Garbha has given us the platitude:


Buddha Nature is in all beings.


The whole point, however, is self-definitive:


Buddha Nature is in those who are on the Mahayana Path.


The justification for this is, in terms of practice, grounded in the other book that will be harder to replace, the Khasama Tantra, or Vajrasattva Equal to the End of the Sky.

That is to say, to join and develop the exalted and refined mindset, rather than to criticize it externally or pour words on it to validate something else.


Perhaps there will be a way to replace it later on. For the time being, this is going to be a limited selection from our missing Khasama.


From all the advanced materials, the ones I would say are probably "most readable" are Khasama and Vajra Rosary. In terms of directness about what primarily amounts to Guru Yoga, these would be the ideal set. My position is damaged when step one is no longer there.

I knew what it was by reputation, I found it and read it a few years ago; now no one else can. Not by the preferred method, that is, to post the thing we are talking about.

I don't need it because my Vajrasattva is over three decades old. I find it highly valuable as a resource useful to others. I want most of what I am saying to not be what I am saying. It should be primary sources to a large degree.


There are two kinds of tantric Vajrasattva, there is one in the Dohas, there is probably one directly addressed by King Indrabhuti, which should have been extant by 750. Could they reach back to the age of the Vairocana Abhisambodhi Sutra?


VAS has a Divine Stupa for Vajrapani, in Secret Mandala XIII.74, with Mamaki and Vajrasrnkhala being its first inhabitants. The commentary refers to Skandhas and Elements dissolved by Bodhicitta. It uses the same mandala in an external version, one with Mudras, and the secret or inner kind. "Transformation into Vajrasattva" is standard in it. This also has Aparajita and Aparajita, who is "striking" (tadita), or such is her mantric epithet. When it means "striking the ground" it can also mean "lightning". That is possible, but, her images are usually called Slapping Aparajita.


Comparatively, the main result in Paramadya is Mahasukha, which sounds like it would be after or beyond the above. However, the Sutra is massive and readily available.

The early texts seem to share common ground with Tri-samaya Raja, i. e. based on Vairocana and Vajrapani.

Well, Vairocana is about Buddha's Enlightenment. to which Paramadya contributes Bliss. There we have a goddess called Kha Vajrini and we are concerned about an additional text on the nature of Sky. What remains is at least a decent reference.




In Khasama Tantra, Sattvavajra addresses Tathagata Vajrasattva, who refers to the Cuckoo and Samantabhadra as the gift-waves of the reality he expresses.

Interestingly it uses system of Nine and if is related to sadhanas, I would suggest it is to Picuva Marici, because the text does not use dakinis or anything like that, but, Marici is the speaker of the end of the first chapter, with a flock of subtly ornamented birds, Emanations of Light Rays, The goddess of mental pleasure. The text regularly threatens you with falling on a Vajra Needle.

It speaks of Nine Spaces, Nine Treasuries, Nine Realities, all the way through itself, with the major emphasis being on self-luminosity, which is Akanistha. It mentions svasamvedana or reflexive awareness.

Nine is the very subject:


The Tantra on the Nine Spaces that is Equal to the Sky,[29]

[29] Nam mkha’ mnyam pa klong dgu’i rgyud

It tells you to make your own commentary, which, we may have to, because it does not technically give them, but refers to them:


The nine spaces
Are the spaces of the root of the mind itself,
Yet they have no mind.

They sound like Spaces of the Winds, or perhaps the Nine Ways or Moods that Vajra Rosary says they convey through six chakras.

Nine Treasuries is mDzod dgu and then:


The nine jeweled spaces[33] are luminescent in our hearts.

[33] gLong


I would guess it is a spelling of Lung as in Longda instead of Lungta. I'm not good at this language.


The Five Dhyani Buddhas are spoken to, and then Vajrasattva is the main speaker of most of the subjects.



After the Five are finished, the end of Chapter One with Marici's statement is:


Then the blessings of heroic compassion
Showed themselves in a body,
Using their five lights,
As a force of encouragement for people
At the end of the dominion of desire
Who have three names,
For there were three omens.
From atop the throne of a Dharma wheel,
Beneath a shining firmament of blazing jewels,
Vajra proclaimed the unspoken.
Princely people,
Having the resolve of awareness,
Understood what it means,
And that very moment
Was the instant of the ending of time for them.
So it was that the twenty thousand volumes
On the nine spaces[20]

[20] kLong dgu

Were disseminated in the abodes of the fortunate gods.
Then, through the blessings of their compassion,
A flock of subtly ornamented birds,
Emanations of Light Rays,[21]

[21] ‘Od zer can

The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.
She was invested with empowerment
With the vase of royal investiture,
From seven fortunate children who were also emanations,
And met with the Bodhicitta without hindrance.
This wheel of secrets is a treasure of awareness.
It is most significant,
And does not require the assembly of the pieces of signs.
We achieve it by settling into whatever pleases us,
Without looking for anything.
Innumerable Victorious Ones have brought this together
From out of their perfect stores,
And proclaimed its teaching broadly.
There is nothing that is not included in the Nine Spaces.
The fortunate, those who know compassion,
Will understand this instantaneously.
Their bodies will fill the great expanse[22] of the vajra sky.

[22] Kyel po che

They will cut through the complications
Of there being a middle and extremes.
They will carry a wheel of wisdom lamps,
Without being given them.
Their luminescence is unspeakable.
Their inspiration equals the end of the sky.
They are primordially cleansed
From the complications made by definitions.
In the wheel of self-illuminating awareness
They are skilled in the methods
Of thought, speech, and practice.
In the wheel of the awareness of equanimity,
They lay things out with definitions and grammar.
From out of the wheel of self-occurring wisdom
Their fabulous compassion naturally arises.
The Tathagata Vajrasattva
Rises up from out of the wheel of self-occurring secrecy,
As do the teachings on the Nine Spaces,
And demonstrates how the self-occurring
Is clear by itself.
It explains things to itself.
It teaches itself.
It gathers itself,
And brilliantly comes together,
Dwelling as one with the uncontrived circle.[23]

[23] Thig le

The proclamations on awareness are clear by themselves,
And are beyond speaking.
This is well known as the Tantra on Effortless Perfection.[24]

[24] Bya bral rdzogs pa’i rgyud



I only know about enough Tibetan to say Ozercan = Marici and Thigle = Bindu.


The most specific way I can find Nine Spaces described so far is in the Heart, which suggests eight spokes and an axis, or the mystical way of counting Ten Winds.

In our school there is a joke that "Effortless" is taken too literally by some other schools. So as well as the "Perfection" sub-title, we also see what looks like Mahayoga texts raining into Heaven. It could be this Chapter One sits by itself in the "Great Perfection" basket. I am not sure. Textually let's say it conforms to almost any Mahayoga origin myth, although it supports none of them in detail.

It is still seen as hugely important in India at the end of the Sarma period. Why it is not standardized into the Ngondro escapes me. You are training Vajrasattva as a Samaya deity and these texts are very beneficial in bringing him to life.

Parasol is a female Khasama. Both Parasol and Cunda take a role like "Vajrasattva's sister".

Marici sadhanas are a near-total Yoga on their own, and neither Khasama nor her elaborate their "system of nine", which would house virtually anything studied by anyone even up to Vajra Rosary, which is like "advanced Khasama".

The Khasama regularly threatens you with falling on a Vajra Needle.

Marici uses this as one of her main weapons to prevent that.



As Khasama delivers his word/texts, the devotees "get it", and:


And that very moment
Was the instant of the ending of time for them.

Then, through the blessings of their compassion,
A flock of subtly ornamented birds,
Marici,
The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa...


She went to Amaravati or a lake in Orissa, which is an early site of Padmasambhava.

Nine Nets appear to be a symbol of Sampatti with Lakshmi or Sri Devi Dudsolma, whereas Marici is in this early text referring to Vajrasattva and Spaces. She does have nine-fold symbolism on one of her rarest, least explained, and most mistaken forms, Picuva Marici. This name is not even a word, and scholars have spent centuries trying to pin it down, even to the extent some believe it to be an anagram.

I think it may be short for something like "Picuvaktra". But we see what is important that is going on here. Marici is in this "root tantra", at a geographical location, Dhanakosa, which is famous with Padmasambhava and the Mahayoga texts, but Marici is hardly known in Tibet.

She is primarily known in the Sadhanamala. She has a powerful yet unwritten role with Vajravarahi and Chakrasamvara. This is why this is one of the most excellent Dharani goddesses. Again this is saying that a "Kriya deity" perhaps explains at a Kriya level, but that deity is not limited. It does this to become accessible. Marici does not become invalid because one's practice ability grows; rather, her forms closely match step with the pattern.

She is widely known in China. That's because what I mean by "Dharani system" is in the thousands, and that is mostly what they have; and is equivalent to older practices described by Asanga as "inadequate"; but what he does is to sort of sculpt and comment it. Then you start to have something more like a pantheon that is inter-related and functional.


That's basically it; I have not transcribed this tantra, I have simply noted its main subjects and shown this unexpected appearance of Marici in Chapter One.



The term "khasama" is with a possible reference to the symbol "Inverted Stupa", such as in Maitri's Saraha songbook, Nadi Jala is perhaps a name of it:


yathā nadyāṃ jalaṃ saiva taraṅgo nānyaḥ tathā bhavasamāvaśuddhitvāt śāntirūpameva khasamarūpaṃ nānyaḥ |



"Nadi Jala" may also mean "subtle body" in general. This seems to be a linguistic parallel of "khasama" that does not directly mean Vajrasattva, and I am not sure it is really an epithet of him, either. This line is perhaps a generically-worded "dakinijalasamvara".


The Khasama translator Wilkinson has a long article on Tibetan Maha Akasa Karikas from Vairocana and others and extensive dealings with objections and so forth. I'm not sure it is directly useful although several texts also have Sanskrit titles.

PD Szanto has recently covered Jnanapada on Svasamvedana even on the level of Conventional Truth:


Samantabha-
dra states the siddhānta, the final point of view that he is aiming to prove
in this first stage, namely, the self-awareness of all cognitions.

From this perspective, perception, which is self-
aware, a-conceptual, and non-erroneous,
is the only reality. It man-
ifests with images, which are conceptually formed through the aspects
of apprehended and apprehender and are not real. In order to support
his standpoint, Samantabhadra quotes two verses by Dharmakīrti (be-
tween 550–660):

Pramāṇaviniścaya 1.38, a verse that was very popular
in the literature of the tradition of logic and epistemology (pramāṇa), and
Pramāṇavārttika Pratyakṣa° 354.

This view is a key doctrine in the Buddhist logico-epistemological tradition.

‘‘Direct
perception is devoid of conceptual construction.” That cognition which has no concep-
tual construction is direct perception. Then, what indeed is this conceptual construction?
‘‘The connection with designations, universals, etc.”



That's roughly similar to some of what is in the Maha Akasa Karikas.

Also correct that this Jnanapada lineage of Guhyasamaja is notably different from the Arya lineage upheld by the mainstream schools; newer and better information about this makes the case that Jnanapada was a lynchpin about steering the narrative directly into Yoga.



As a quick reminder:


Texts informing the SBS The Trisamayarājakalpa (Tōh. 502; also alluded to, along with other
kalpas), the so-called 'longer' Paramādya/mantrakalpakhaṇḍa (Tōh. 488), the Vajramaṇḍālaṃkāra
(Tōh. 490; parallel - but not dependence - already noted by Tanaka 2007).


among its commentaries:

Tōh. 1660 by *Pramuditavajra is probably the latest,
refers to Ānandagarbha (not traceable in Tōh. 1662) and *Praśāntamitra; also discusses the
caturthābhiṣeka and refers to (amongst others) the Herukābhidhāna and a commentary of it, the
Catuṣpīṭha, and the Vajraḍāka.


It took me a while to figure this out, but, Initiation, Abhiseka as above, is a formal thing with its own bundle of doctrine which is attempting to induce Mahamudra. On the other hand, the Mahamudra system is...self-referential. Scrolling back to the Khasama quote, Marici has the Vase of Initiation. And so, yes, that is what we are going to do, is train a Yoga meditation doing a Vase Initiation it could be with Marici, and there are other possibilities, but the idea is to learn this type of sadhana while trying to "get" Mahamudra because you can't learn it.

That is Sahajayana or Sutra Mahamudra.

This again is a subject where, I think, there are five reported styles of Seals and Initiations, and again we have a boil-it-down process resulting in the one given through Maitri.


SBS Dakini Jala is effectively the pattern from which all the tantras driven by Khasama are designed:


Several passages appropriated by scriptures: Herukābhidhāna, Vajraḍāka,
Caturyoginīsaṃpuṭa, Abhidhānottara, Saṃpuṭodbhava, Ḍākārṇava, etc. Quoted with or without
attribution (sometimes simply incorporated) by the following early (i.e. 9th c.) works: Āt-
masādhanāvatāra, Sūtaka, Jñānasiddhi, Anonymous Tantric Treatise (NAK 3-737 = NGMPP A 37/4),
Nāmamantrārthāvalokinī, Cittaviśuddhiprakaraṇa, Svādhiṣṭhānakramaprabheda, Pradīpoddyotana, Va-
jrasattvaniṣpādanasūtra, Tattvasiddhi, Pañcakrama, Viṃśatividhi of Nāgabuddhi, Sārdhatriśatikā of
Dīpaṃkarabhadra, etc..


It's not that hard to see most of this is intended to work together, and Kalachakra is unnecessary to it. And so I will be working on over a thousand years of developing literature that are simply under the hood of Luminous Heart. This removes or replaces a good deal of what is considered Tibetan Buddhism, because the popular version comes from Atisha and has deviations in several key elements.

[shaberon]

I am pleased that Luminous Heart is available in our Library.

It also has the real book of Orthodox Hesychasm, which I take as pretty similar to a stage or two of Yoga.


The work of H. H. III Karmapa is, in one sense, "the subject", except it is the last thing. He has received Dharma entirely of a Sanskrit culture:









Tsadra has piles of articles about what would be Sanskrit Dhatu:

de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos
The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart

SOURCE TEXT

The Third Karmapa's treatise on buddha-nature written in verse, which is essentially a synopsis of the Uttaratantra. According to Schaeffer, "This verse text (De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa, or De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa) blends scriptural quotations from both sūtra and tantra with Rang byung's own words, creating an evocative picture of the relation between the primordially pure enlightened state- symbolized by the Enlightened Heart (snying po)- human existence, and Buddhahood. While Rang byung has relied heavily on the Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra, (known in Tibet as the Uttaratantra, or Rgyud bla ma), the syncretism of various strands of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna apparent in the text is particular to Tibet. Tathāgatagarbha, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Mahāmudrā, and Annuttarayogatantra all coalesce in this work, which is a testament to the hundreds of years of appropriation and synthesis of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist thought that preceded it. - Kurtis Schaeffer, from the introduction to The Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood.

You see what has happened. Some seven hundred years later, he relies heavily on what the site usually calls the Uttaratantra which we usually abbreviate as RGV. On the one hand, "uttaratantra" is really just a class of literature, "continued explanation", whereas Ratna Gotra really is the subject, the seed or lineage of Mahayana ripening this Dhatu.

By using the actual title instantly refutes the translation on the site.

Our point is to take the original terms like Dhatu and understand it, reducing or eliminating the translation.

This Treatise in turn is commented by multiple Tibetans, the Eighth, Ninth, and Fifteenth Karmapas, Jamgon Kongtrul, and Brunnholzl himself.

I didn't know anything about this. Obviously I knew I had been to a Kagyu center, but, it wasn't particularly informative. I discovered this literature by distilling the realistic things HPB said, that is, a strong stance of Yogacara against Prasangika, which, despite mistakes is enough to show us where she was trying to go, and, a secret book of Maitreya would be correct for RGV. The idea that the text itself is secret is risible, but it is effectively correct because not used and unknown outside its narrow stripe.


Buddhist sadhanas are in Sanskrit.

In the wake of Asanga seeking spiritual practices that were simply more powerful, we reach a point where there is no longer such a thing as a sadhana without Vajrasattva. We see there is a Sutra where he is the interlocutor to Vairocana, a Dhyani Buddha. And then there is in fact a stamp on what we still use, Vajrasattva Heart Mantra:

The earliest occurrence in the Chinese Canon, which is really the only candidate for the earliest literary use of the mantra, since only the Chinese dated their texts, is in T.866, a collection of mantras related to the Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṃgraha (STTS). T.866 was translated into Chinese by Vajrabodhi (ca 671-741) in 723 CE.

So, of course, it is thought to be relevant or composed by 700, possibly before.

Candragomin is able to refer to Namasangiti as well as a Five Buddha Crown centered on Amoghasiddhi, who is also listed in a Paramadya retinue as being Multi-colored. Vajrasattva does not appear as a major subject of his. Therefor STTS has a strong chance of being the mantra's origin.


It's weird looking back at myself and the rest of the world meditating without Vajrasattva, where were we...adrift in the ether...but yes he has an origin point in time and must have spread.

If Vajrasattva collectively embodies the tantras, then, the syncretism of H. H. III Karmapa essentially consists of three psychological terms, along with Mahamudra, and Vajrasattva. And I suppose the tantras are different liturgies where you do Mahamudra.

As far as I can tell, ultimately, I am posting a very technical Mahamudra argument. Kagyu has this interesting inspiration:

It is noteworthy that Marpa the Translator, the great Tibetan Vajrayāna lama/guru who came down to India and became a disciple of sage Nāropa and others (see below), had his first major “decisive experience” of enlightenment in a spectacular dream of Saraha. In this dream, Saraha appeared in celestial splendor, blessed Marpa’s faculties of body, speech and mind, and sang a song of profound instruction.

I'm trying to come up with a way to title a thread that will combine something general and familiar with something about a specific kind. It could be Ratna Gotra at Vikramasila, or Mahamudra of King Ramapala, which may be true, but are not familiar enough to make sense to the public.

The expression Subtle Yoga is perhaps adequate. Vajrasattva is a Gnosis Body made of Mantra and Life Wind which should be understandable. These are the cause for the result called Luminosity. This seems to be the right kind of phrasing.