The Glorious King of Tantras That Resolves All Secrets
Glossary
Toh 384
Degé Kangyur, vol. 79 (rgyud ’bum, ga), folios 187.a–195.b
- Gayādhara
- Śākya Yeshé
Imprint
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2012
Current version v 2.20.16 (2024)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.25.1
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.
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 this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 3.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license.
Table of Contents
Summary
As its title suggests, this tantra is specifically concerned with the proper interpretation, or “resolution,” of the highly esoteric or “secret” imagery and practices associated with deity yoga in both its development and completion stages as described in the Yoginītantra class of tantras. The work is organized according to a dialogue between the Buddha and Vajragarbha—the lead interlocutor throughout many of the Yoginītantras—and the Buddha’s responses give particular attention to the specifications of the subtle body completion-stage yoga involving manipulations of the body’s subtle energy channels, winds, and fluids in conjunction with either a real or imagined consort. The tantra sets its interpretation of these common Yoginītantra themes and imagery within the wider context of the four initiations prevalent in this class of tantras. In resolving the secrets connected with each initiation, the text elaborates the different levels of meaning connected with each initiation’s contemplative practices.
Acknowledgments
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. The principal translator for this text was James Gentry, who also wrote the introduction. Andreas Doctor edited the translation and compared it with the original Tibetan.
The Dharmachakra Translation Committee would like to thank Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche for suggesting this tantra for translation, and Khenpo Sangyay Gyatso for his generous assistance with the resolution of several difficult passages.
This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Text Body
Bibliography
Indian Texts in Tibetan Translation
Collections
D: Degé Kangyur, facsimile edition of the 1733 redaction of si tu chos kyi ’byung gnas, Delhi, 1978. Numbers from Tōhoku (Toh.) catalogue (Tokyo, 1934).
K: Peking Kangyur, original wood-block print prepared in 1684/1692 under the Kangxi emperor. Rare text collection at Harvard-Yenching Library.
Individual Texts
dpal gsang ba thams cad gcod pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po (Śrīguhyasarvacchindatantrarāja) (C). Choné Kangyur, vol. 4 (rgyud ’bum, nga), folios 4b.5–13b.3.
dpal gsang ba thams cad gcod pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po (Śrīguhyasarvacchindatantrarāja) (D). Toh 384, Degé Kangyur, vol. 79 (rgyud ’bum, ga), folios 187a.2–195b.7.
dpal gsang ba thams cad gcod pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po (Śrīguhyasarvacchindatantrarāja) (K). PTT. 29, Peking Kangxi Kangyur, vol. 4 (rgyud ’bum, nga), folios 4a.8–13a.3.
dpal gsang ba thams cad gcod pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po (Śrīguhyasarvacchindatantrarāja) (S). Stok Palace (stog pho brang bris ma) Kangyur, vol. 93 (rgyud ’bum, kha), folios 450a.4–461a.4.
dpal gsang ba thams cad gcod pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po (Śrīguhyasarvacchindatantrarāja) (U). Urga Kangyur, vol. 80 (rgyud ’bum, ga), folios 187a.2–195b.7.
dpal gsang ba thams cad gcod pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po (Śrīguhyasarvacchindatantrarāja) (J and Y). bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006-9, vol. 79, pp. 538–60.
Other Tibetan Texts
Butön (bu ston rin chen grub). chos ’byung [“History of the Dharma”] bde bar gshegs pa’i bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas gsung rab rin po che’i mdzod. In gsung ’bum / rin chen grub, vol. 24 (ya), pp. 619–1042. Lhasa: zhol par khang, 2000. (BDRC W1934)
Gö Lotsāwa Zhönupal (’gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal). deb ther sngon po. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1974. Translated by George Roerich, with help from Gendun Chöphel, as The Blue Annals. Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1949. Reprinted Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1988.
Longchenpa (klong chen rab ’byams pa dri med ’od zer). dpal gsang ba de kho na nyid nges ’grel phyogs bcu mun gsel. In rnying ma bka’ ma rgyas pa, vol 26. Kalimpong: Dupjung Lama, 1982–87.
Modern Sources
Dalton, Jacob. “A Crisis of Doxography: How Tibetans Organized Tantra during the 8th-12th Centuries.” In Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 28.1 (2005): 115–81.
Davidson, Ronald (2005). Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
______(2002). Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia University Press.
______ (2000). “Gsar ma Apocrypha: The Creation of Orthodoxy, Gray Texts, and the New Revelation.” In The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism, edited by Helmut Eimer and David Germano, 202–24. Leiden: Brill.
Gibson, Todd. “Inner Asian Contributions to the Vajrayāna.” Indo-Iranian Journal 40 (1997): 37–57.
Gray, David. The Cakrasamvara Tantra: A Study and Annotated Translation. New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York, 2007.
Harrison, Paul, and Helmut Eimer. “Kanjur and Tanjur Sigla: A Proposal for Standardisation.” Transmission of the Tibetan Canon, edited by Helmut Eimer, xi–xiv. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997.
Isaacsson, Harunaga. “Tantric Buddhism in India (from c. A.D. 800 to c. A.D. 1200).” In Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Band II. Hamburg, 23–49. Internal publication of Hamburg University, 1998.
Sanderson, Alexis (2001). “History through Textual Criticism in the study of Śaivism, the Pañcarātra and the Buddhist Yoginītantras.” In Les Sources et le temps. Sources and Time: A Colloquium, Pondicherry, 11-13 January 1997, edited by François Grimal, 1-47. Publications du département d’Indologie 91. Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry, École Française d’Extrême-Orient.
______(1995a). “Vajrayāna: Origin and Function.” In Buddhism into the Year 2000. International Conference Proceedings. Bangkok and Los Angeles: Dhammakāya Foundation, 1995a.
______(1995b). “Pious Plagiarism: Evidence of the Dependence of the Buddhist Yoginītantras on Śaiva Scriptural Sources.” Unpublished lecture given in Leiden, April 11, 1995.
Snellgrove, David (1988). “Categories of Buddhist Tantras.” In Orientalia Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata. Edited by R. Gnoli and L. Lanciotti, 1353–84. Serie Orientale Roma 56.3. Rome : Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Orient.
______(1987). Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. London: Serindia Publications, 1987.
______(1959). Hevajra Tantra. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
accomplishment
- dngos grub
- དངོས་གྲུབ།
- siddhi
action seal
- las kyi phyag rgya
- ལས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- karmamudrā
adornment
- rgyan
- རྒྱན།
- ābharaṇa
- vibhūṣaṇa
- maṇḍana
affliction
- nyon mongs pa
- ཉོན་མོངས་པ།
- kleśa
Akṣobhya
- mi bskyod pa
- མི་བསྐྱོད་པ།
- akṣobhya
ambrosia
- bdud rtsi
- བདུད་རྩི།
- amṛta
Amitābha
- ’od dpag med
- འོད་དཔག་མེད།
- amitābha
Amoghasiddhi
- don grub
- དོན་གྲུབ།
- amoghasiddhi
apprehended
- gzung ba
- གཟུང་བ།
- grāhya
apprehending
- ’dzin pa
- འཛིན་པ།
- grah
awareness
- rig pa
- རིག་པ།
- saṃvedana
blessed one
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavān
Brahma confluence
- tshangs mdo
- ཚངས་མདོ།
- —
buddha
- sangs rgyas
- སངས་རྒྱས།
- buddha
Butön
- bu ston rin chen grub
- བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབ།
- —
central deity
- gtso bo
- གཙོ་བོ།
- maṇḍaleśa
chakra
- ’khor lo
- འཁོར་ལོ།
- cakra
channels
- rtsa
- རྩ།
- nāḍī
completion stage
- rdzogs rim
- རྫོགས་རིམ།
- sampannakrama
consciousness
- rnam shes
- རྣམ་ཤེས།
- vijñāna
- jñāna
cyclic existence
- ’khor ba
- འཁོར་བ།
- saṃsāra
ḍākinī
- mkha’ ’gro ma
- མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ།
- ḍākinī
demon
- bdud
- བདུད།
- māra
development stage
- bskyed rim
- བསྐྱེད་རིམ།
- utpattikrama
dharma body
- chos sku
- ཆོས་སྐུ།
- dharmakāya
disk
- dkyil ’khor
- དཀྱིལ་འཁོར།
- maṇḍala
Drokmi
- ’brog mi shAkya ye shes
- འབྲོག་མི་ཤཱཀྱ་ཡེ་ཤེས།
- —
eight great charnel grounds
- dur khrod chen po brgyad
- དུར་ཁྲོད་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད།
- aṣṭa mahāśmaśānāni
emanation body
- sprul pa’i sku
- སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ།
- nirmāṇakāya
Endless Torment
- mnar med
- མནར་མེད།
- avīci
enjoyment body
- longs spyod rdzogs pa’i sku
- ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ།
- saṃbhogakāya
enlightened body, speech, and mind
- sku gsung thugs
- སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས།
- kāyavākcitta
Equipoise
- mnyam bzhag
- མཉམ་བཞག
- samāhita
factors of enlightenment
- byang chub kyi yan lag
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག
- bodhyaṅga
fruition
- ’bras bu
- འབྲས་བུ།
- phalatva
- phalatā
Gayādhara
- ga ya dha ra
- ག་ཡ་དྷ་ར།
- gayādhara
gnosis
- ye shes
- ཡེ་ཤེས།
- jñāna
great seal
- phyag rgya chen po
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahāmudrā
Hayagrīva
- rta mgrin
- རྟ་མགྲིན།
- hayagrīva
Heruka
- he ru ka
- ཧེ་རུ་ཀ
- heruka
initiation
- dbang
- དབང་།
- abhiṣeka
innate
- lhan skyes
- ལྷན་སྐྱེས།
- sahaja
inner heat
- gtum mo
- གཏུམ་མོ།
- caṇḍālī
Interdependent origination
- rten cing ’brel ba
- རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བ།
- pratītyasamutpāda
joy
- dga’ ba
- དགའ་བ།
- tuṣṭi
- nandana
knowledge-holder
- rig pa ’dzin pa
- རིག་པ་འཛིན་པ།
- vidyādhara
listener
- nyan thos
- ཉན་ཐོས།
- śrāvaka
major and minor marks
- mtshan dpe
- མཚན་དཔེ།
- lakṣaṇavyañjanāni
maṇḍala
- dkyil ’khor
- དཀྱིལ་འཁོར།
- maṇḍala
mantra
- sngags
- སྔགས།
- mantra
mantra garland
- sngags phreng
- སྔགས་ཕྲེང་།
- mantramālā
- mantrāvali
mental activity
- spros pa
- སྤྲོས་པ།
- prapañca
Mount Meru
- ri rab
- རི་རབ།
- sumeru
nature
- rang bzhin
- རང་བཞིན།
- prakṛti
- svabhāva
nonobservations
- mi dmigs pa
- མི་དམིགས་པ།
- anupalabdhi
obstructing forces
- bgegs
- བགེགས།
- vighna
Pāṇḍaravāsinī
- gos dkar mo
- གོས་དཀར་མོ།
- pāṇḍaravāsinī
prātimokṣa
- so sor thar pa
- སོ་སོར་ཐར་པ།
- prātimokṣa
Ratnasambhava
- rin chen ’byung gnas
- རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་གནས།
- ratnasambhava
relative
- kun rdzob
- ཀུན་རྫོབ།
- saṃvṛti
Rudra
- ru dra
- རུ་དྲ།
- rudra
samaya vows
- dam tshig
- དམ་ཚིག
- samaya
seal
- phyag rgya
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- mudrā
Secret Guardian of Bliss
- gsang ba bde skyong
- གསང་བ་བདེ་སྐྱོང་།
- —
self-awareness
- rang rig
- རང་རིག
- svasaṃvedana
- svasaṃvedana
seminal drop
- thig le
- ཐིག་ལེ།
- bindu
seminal fluid
- thig le
- ཐིག་ལེ།
- bindu
Śītavana
- si hla ling
- སི་ཧླ་ལིང་།
- śītavana
solitary realizer
- rang rgyal
- རང་རྒྱལ།
- pratyekabuddha
spirit of enlightenment
- byang chub kyi sems
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས།
- bodhicitta
Spiritual Hero
- dpa’ bo
- དཔའ་བོ།
- —
Subsequent attainment
- rjes thob
- རྗེས་ཐོབ།
- pṛṣṭhalabdhajñāna
support
- rten
- རྟེན།
- āśraya
- niśraya
Tārā
- sgrol ma
- སྒྲོལ་མ།
- tārā
universe and its inhabitants
- snod bcud
- སྣོད་བཅུད།
- sthāvarajaṅgama
Vairocana
- rnam snang
- རྣམ་སྣང་།
- vairocana
vajra
- rdo rje
- རྡོ་རྗེ།
- vajra
Vajra Lady
- rdo rje btsun mo
- རྡོ་རྗེ་བཙུན་མོ།
- —
Vajragarbha
- rdo rje snying po
- རྡོ་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོ།
- vajragarbha
Vajrasattva
- rdo rje sems dpa’
- རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ།
- vajrasattva
view
- lta ba
- ལྟ་བ།
- darśana
- dṛṣṭi
wheel
- ’khor lo
- འཁོར་ལོ།
- cakra
wind
- rlung
- རླུང་།
- vāta
- vāyu
- prāṇa
wisdom
- shes rab
- ཤེས་རབ།
- prajñā