Minding the Buddha's Business

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The Visualization Stage (utpattikrama) and Its Workings^*

Yael Bentor

To Gregory, with endless gratitude from your very first PhD student

Introduction

In the visualization stage (utpattikrama, bskyed rim) known also as the generation, development, or creation stage, aspirants visualize themselves as a buddha (iṣṭadevatā, deva; yi dam, lha)¹ according to the specifications set forth in a sādhana manual. But what distinguishes yogis who meditate on themselves as a buddha from a beggar boasting to be a king? Why, according to Indian and Tibetan authors, can aspirants who visualize themselves as buddhas eventually become buddhas? What, if anything, makes tantric visualization capable of achieving a soteriological transformation? In numerous tantric texts this potential of the practice is taken for granted, as long as all necessary conditions are met. Other explanations hinge on the powers the guru transmits to the disciples during the initiation or the blessing bestowed by the enlightened being the yogis aspire to become. There are even certain techniques to “arouse the heart” of this devatā.² However, more rationally inclined Indian and Tibetan scholars of tantra seek less miraculous and more philosophical explanations for the working of the visualization stage. It is the latter approach that will be the focus of my paper. As we will see, these scholars resort to some rather unexpected authorities.

Relinquishing Conceptual Thoughts and Achieving Nondual Profundity and Sublimity³

A major goal suggested for the visualization stage is relinquishing conceptual thoughts that create the aspirant’s ordinary world and, instead, developing the special vision of the maṇḍala and the deities residing therein. Nāgārjuna, “the founder” of the Ārya school of the Guhyasamāja,⁴ opens his manual of the visualization stage, the Piṇḍīkramasādhana, by stating that the goal of the visualization stage is to purify the mind of conceptualizations (vikalpa, rnam rtog), as these are the source of delusion of all beings in the world.⁵

Crucially, though, the visualization stage is essentially conceptualization. The usual question arises: how can a visualization of manifold details of an embellished celestial mansion, with dozens of different buddhas and bodhisattvas dwelling in it, bring the meditator to overcome conceptualizations and advance toward the goal of enlightenment? In addressing this difficulty, we will explore traditional explanations about the workings of maṇḍala visualization and about the role of visualization in advancing aspirants toward the soteriological goal of averting saṃsāric existence.

Jñānapāda (active ca. 770–820),⁶ “the founder” of the Guhyasamāja school named for him, explains the working of the visualization stage by drawing upon the notion of the pair “profound and sublime” vis-à-vis conceptualization. This pair, profound (gambhīra, zab) and sublime (udāra, rgya che ba), is found also in nontantric works, such as Asaṅga’s Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra⁷ and Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika.⁸ In these works, this pair stands as antithetical 29to conceptual thoughts. No doubt Jñānapāda was aware that his terminological choice alludes to the Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra,⁹ and to Dharmakīrti as well, as we will see.

Jñānapāda uses “profound and sublime” at the end of his Guhyasamāja sādhana, titled Samantabhadra, where he points out certain general observations about the visualization stage as a whole. Jñānapāda associates ordinary conceptual thoughts (prākṛtavikalpa, tha mal rnam rtog) with saṃsāric suffering (bhavaduḥkha, srid pa’i sdug bsngal) and states that the antidote to both is a mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature.¹⁰ Jñānapāda then continues: “Conceptual thoughts will not appear to [the mind] endowed with a profound and sublime nature.”¹¹ Here too, conceptual thoughts stand in contrast to the profound and sublime. It is the mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature that dispels conceptual thoughts. In this context, the mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature is the mind that visualizes the maṇḍala with its celestial mansion and deities.¹²

Then Jñānapāda discusses how such a mind is capable of overcoming conceptual thoughts.¹³ What Jñānapāda seems to be saying¹⁴ is that when an antidote occurs once, it will advance and increase through practice and finally totally block its opposite. In other words, when a mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature is cultivated to its fullest, it will be able to wholly 30eradicate ordinary conceptualizations. But why would it be that a mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature that visualizes the maṇḍala circle is guaranteed to transcend ordinary conceptualization and liberate practitioners from saṃsāric suffering? We will now turn to this question.

The Jñānapāda School’s Reliance on the Thought of Dharmakīrti

All the Indian commentaries on Jñānapāda’s Samantabhadrasādhana turn to the Pramāṇasiddhi chapter in Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika (vv. 205–216)¹⁵ to explain these lines.¹⁶ In these works, ordinary conceptual thoughts that typify saṃsāric suffering are identified with grasping at I and mine,¹⁷ while the mind visualizing the maṇḍala circle is equated with the wisdom that realizes no-self. For Dharmakīrti, by engaging in selflessness, the mind prevents the opposite of selflessness, thus uprooting the basis for self-grasping. As Cristina Pecchia explains: “For the contrary of the view of selflessness can no longer maintain its grip on a mind whose epistemic condition is defined by selflessness.”¹⁸

Likewise, the commentaries on Jñānapāda’s Samantabhadrasādhana explain that the mind engaged in the maṇḍala circle—endowed with inconceivable nature¹⁹—is capable of bringing about the irreversible cessation of 31conceptual thoughts and saṃsāric suffering. The example Dharmakīrti uses to explain why grasping at the self will not recur is the false perception of a rope as a snake.²⁰ Vaidyapāda or Vitapāda,²¹ one of the earlier commentators on the Samantabhadrasādhana, offers this very simile in order to illustrate how the mind visualizing the maṇḍala circle entirely blocks saṃsāric suffering.

These commentators also follow Dharmakīrti’s view of the unique nature of the antidote.²² In the Pramāṇasiddhi chapter, Dharmakīrti contrasts the antidote that can achieve an irreversible transformation with antidotes such as benevolent love (maitrī, byams pa), taken to be an antidote to aversion (dveṣa, zhe sdang).²³ The latter type of antidotes cannot completely eliminate afflictions such as aversion, because they still have at their root the notion of an existing self.²⁴ The mind endowed with the inconceivable nature of the maṇḍala circle, by contrast, is distinguished as capable of completely stopping conceptual thoughts and saṃsāric suffering thanks to its nondual profound and sublime essence.

Thus, in accordance with Dharmakīrti, Jñānapāda and his commentators hold that the mind visualizing the maṇḍala is capable of achieving a soteriological transformation, such as putting an end to saṃsāric suffering, because it is characterized by nondual profundity and sublimity.²⁵

The Importance of the Mind Endowed with a Profound and Sublime Nature in the Mantra Vehicle

The Jñānapāda school takes the mind endowed with the nondual profound and sublime nature as one of the features that makes the Mantra Vehicle superior to the Pāramitā Vehicle.²⁶ In his Ātmasādhanāvatāra,²⁷ Jñānapāda explains that a mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature can attain its fruit because it is granted the same nature as the fruit, or it cultivates causes that accord with the result. In fifteenth-century Tibet, Tsong kha pa considered this point to be of utmost importance, elaborating on it at the beginning of his Sngags rim chen mo.²⁸ For Tsong kha pa, a profound and sublime nature accords with the fruit of the path, the two kāyas of the Buddha. The profound nature of the mind brings about the dharmakāya and wisdom, while the sublime brings about the rūpakāya, which is the method aspect that can act for the sake of others. In this way, aspirants on the Mantra Vehicle engage in causes that are compatible with the goal and are therefore efficacious. On the other hand, in the Pāramitā Vehicle meditations on emptiness accord with the dharmakāya; but since this vehicle offers no meditations that are similar to a rūpakāya, it lacks causes that accord with one of the goals of the path. In other words, both the Pāramitā and the Mantra vehicles specify that the path of wisdom is meditation on emptiness. However, the path of method described in the Pāramitā Vehicle—the other five pāramitās—lacks a feature that can lead directly to the rūpakāya. Therefore, only in the Mantra Vehicle the methods—meditation on the deity during the visualization stage and the practice of the illusory body during the completion stage—accord in their nature with the fruit and are thus effective. Tsong kha pa sees this very characteristic of the mantric path as its advantage over the path of the pāramitās.

The Efficacy of a Mind Endowed with a Profound and Sublime Nature According to Ratnākaraśānti

Ratnākaraśānti (ca. 970–1045)²⁹ disagrees with some of the earlier commentators on Jñānapāda’s Samantabhadrasādhana with regard to the term “once.” As we saw, Jñānapāda speaks about a contradictory event or an antidote that occurs once, after which, through gradual practice, aspirants intensify their experience of the mind endowed with the profound and sublime until they are finally able to totally block its opposite: conceptual thoughts. This is not the only case where the sudden and gradual are thus taken together,³⁰ but certain commentators understood lan cig as lhan cig, that is, “simultaneously.”³¹ According to Samantabhadra, the Sanskrit here is sakṛt: sa + kṛt which is equally ambiguous; it means either “once” or “simultaneously.”

Ratnākaraśānti, by contrast, emphasizes that it is not the case that ordinary appearances do not arise in the aspirant’s mind simply because this mind is submerged in maṇḍala visualization. He says: “Conceptual thoughts do not appear since the mind endowed with the aspect of the maṇḍala engages in dispelling all false conceptualizations, and not because they do not appear simultaneously.”³² “They” here refers to conceptual thoughts and the visualization of the maṇḍala. In other words, it is not that when the maṇḍala appears, false conceptualizations cannot appear. Rather, Ratnākaraśānti emphasizes, a mind absorbed in maṇḍala visualization cannot but dispel false conceptualizations, because it is “endowed with a profound and sublime nature” that is capable of eliminating conceptual thoughts that bring about saṃsāric suffering.

Ratnākaraśānti supports his argument by comparing the mind endowed with the form of the maṇḍala to the meditative absorption on infinite space (ākāśānantyāyatana, nam mkha’ mtha’ yas skye mched).³³ He concludes that while the latter meditation cannot avert saṃsāric suffering, the visualization stage can do so because there the mind is endowed with “a profound and sublime nature.”

This brings us to a fundamental difference between the visualization stage 34and the meditative absorption on infinite space. While the latter meditation reduces the mental content to a bare minimum, the visualization stage inflates it with incredible elaborations. This very difference pertains also to the closely related kṛtsna (zad par, Pāli kasiṇa) meditation, the single-pointed concentration of śamatha practice, and absorptions (samāpatti, snyoms par ’jug pa) on the formless realm (ārūpya). For our author, then, mental overload is more effective than mental deprivation. Hence, in comparison with a mind emptied of any mental content, the mind meditating on an embellished maṇḍala—where numerous ornamented deities holding varied emblems reside—can better achieve a transformation of soteriological significance. In a famous verse of the Hevajra-tantra, the role of the elaborate mental contents is stressed as well. We will return to this point below, but first let us briefly revisit Dharmakīrti.

For Dharmakīrti, meditations on kṛtsna and the loathsome (aśubha, mi gtsang) are nonconceptual because they are created through the power of meditation.³⁴ This is despite the fact that, in these meditations, the objects are unreal (abhūta). At the same time, in his Pramāṇaviniścaya,³⁵ Dharmakīrti defines direct perception (pratyakṣa, mngon sum) as nonconceptual and nonerroneous (abhrānta, ma ’khrul pa).³⁶ As Vincent Eltschinger notes, cognitions meditating on the kasiṇa and the loathsome meet the first defining condition of a direct perception but not the second.³⁷ Although nonconceptual, these cognitions are erroneous because their objects are imaginary and not real; hence, they are not reliable or valid (pramāṇa, tshad ma).

As we saw above, the mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature that visualizes the maṇḍala circle is free of conceptualization. Can this mind, however, be taken as nonerroneous or valid and therefore qualify for Dharmakīrti’s definition of direct perception? Dharmakīrti’s concern in the aforementioned discussions of the meditations on kasiṇa and direct perception is the nonconceptual and direct perception of the four noble truths. Yet Samantabhadra, in his commentary on Jñānapāda’s Samantabhadrasādhana, writes about a nonconceptual and valid mind in relation to the mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature that visualizes the maṇḍala circle. Samantabhadra concludes his explanation of Jñānapāda’s verse cited above—35“conceptual thoughts will not appear to [the mind] endowed with a profound and sublime nature”—by saying: “That experience itself is valid (pramāṇa).”³⁸ The context of this statement is unclear, if not outright obscure. Can we entertain the possibility that what Samantabhadra has in mind is Dharmakīrti’s definition of direct perception as nonconceptual and valid? In other words, does Samantabhadra explain that the mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature that visualizes the maṇḍala circle is a direct perception as defined by Dharmakīrti? I suggest he does.

The Efficacy of a Mind Endowed with a Profound and Sublime Nature According to Tsong kha pa

In the chapter on the visualization stage in his Sngags rim chen mo, Tsong kha pa expands on Jñānapāda’s notion of the mind endowed with the inconceivable nature of the maṇḍala circle.³⁹ Tsong kha pa stresses that this mind meditates simultaneously on emptiness and appearances (zab gsal). The notion of nondual form and emptiness is, of course, not unique to the present case. We may mention Ratnarakṣita, who in his Padminī commentary on the Saṃvarodaya-tantra,⁴⁰ in the context of the visualization stage, emphasizes that yogis should not meditate exclusively on the form of the deities but on the form of the deities that are inseparable from dharmatā. Jñānapāda and Tsong kha pa, however, speak about nonduality specifically in relation to the meditating mind. Form and emptiness are united indivisibly in a single cognition (shes pa gcig).

Tsong kha pa explains how a single mind can be absorbed in both meditation on the absence of intrinsic nature and the visualization of the maṇḍala wheel. One aspect of the mind realizing emptiness arises as a special appearance of the celestial mansion and the deities therein. In other words, while the subjective aspect of the mind that understands the absence of intrinsic nature is absorbed in emptiness, the objective aspect of this mind arises as the maṇḍala, with its celestial mansion and deities. Hence, this mind, endowed with nondual profundity and sublimity, engages here in the visualization as nondual and therefore is capable of achieving a soteriological goal:

Followers of the Dge lugs school consider this a unique feature of their tradition. Still, members of other schools, including A myes zhabs (1597–1662),⁴² follow this meditative method as well.

Proliferation of Mental Constructs

The Hevajra-tantra advocates the tantric technique known as “employing one’s enemy” for overcoming that “enemy”: “By passion sentient beings are bound and by that very passion they are released.”⁴³ The same chapter of the Hevajra-tantra provides an explanation of how conceptual visualization is employed in order to overcome conceptualization: “By means of the yoga of the visualization stage, vratins should meditate on the proliferations of mental constructs (prapañca, spros pa). Once they have made the proliferations dream-like, they should use this very proliferation to de-proliferate (niḥprapañcayet, spros med bya).”⁴⁴ Aspirants of the visualization stage first meditate on mental proliferation, visualizing themselves as the maṇḍala and the awakened beings who reside in it. Then, coming to understand that this mental visualization is a dream-like illusion, they comprehend the nature of all mental elaborations. In this way, de-proliferation is accomplished by means of proliferation.

In his commentary on the verses of the Hevajra-tantra, the Muktāvalī,⁴⁵ Ratnākaraśānti glosses “proliferations of mental constructs” with a multitude of different forms, explaining that “once they have made [them] dream-like” means that the aspirants should examine these forms until they understand their nature to be just like appearances produced by a dreaming mind. Ratnākaraśānti then conflates “should de-proliferate” with should not conceptualize, thus aligning the terminology of the Hevajra-tantra with that of the literature we have seen above.⁴⁶ He urges meditators in the visualization stage to investigate the ways that the myriad appearances they visualize come into being.

The Hevajra-tantra uses the example of dreams to illustrate its point. Just as upon awakening from sleep, dreams are realized as products of the mind, meditators in the visualization stage should grasp the nature of their visualizations. By dissolving their ordinary world and recreating it as a maṇḍala inhabited by awakened beings, aspirants begin to grasp the workings of their ordinary mind and the illusory nature of all appearances. They come to recognize conceptualization as conceptualization and understand how their ordinary world came into being, why it appears to them in the way it does, and why they perceive things as they do. They come to know how their minds work and how these insights apply not only to their ordinary world but to their visualized maṇḍalic world as well.

Although they are initially created by proliferations of mental constructs, visions seen during the visualization stage are in a sense “more than real”—that is, more real than any other saṃsāric appearance. These are, after all, the buddhas and other awakened beings who dwell in the maṇḍala. On the one hand, aspirants know precisely how these visions appeared, since they themselves created them. On the other hand, these visions are considered “reality” as it appears to the awakened eye, and they constitute the transformed reality that is a central goal of tantric practice.

It is perhaps in order to authenticate the reality of the maṇḍala that Samantabhadra points to a mind visualizing the maṇḍala circle as being not 38only nonconceptual but also valid (pramāṇa).⁴⁷ In this way, Samantabhadra sanctions “reality” as it appears to the awakened eye through Buddhist philosophical terminology.

As Luis Gómez has pointed out,⁴⁸ there is an important difference between ordinary magicians and wonder-worker bodhisattvas. While the former seek to deceive their audience, the latter aim to alert their disciples to the fact that they are constantly deceived by ordinary perceptions. Accomplished tantric yogis are considered to realize, on their own, how their visualizations work, and how their ordinary and maṇḍalic worlds alike are illusionary.

The Position of the Visualization Stage within Tantric Paths to Enlightenment

The tantric visualization stage has been presented here thus far as a tantric practice that can bring its practitioners to the ultimate goal of complete buddhahood. This view is supported, for example, by the Tārāsādhana by Anupamarakṣita, which according to Luis Gómez, “is one of the longest and most detailed in the Sādhanamālā.”⁴⁹ This sādhana closes with an explanation of the benefits of the visualization beginning with the eight siddhis up until: “In the very palm of the hand of such a person [who has completed the sādhana] the Blessed Tārā will place even the state of a buddha, so hard to win.”⁵⁰ Hence, this Tārāsādhana, much like other sādhanas included in the Sādhanamālā as well as in the Tibetan Bstan ’gyur, is an independent undertaking in its own right. No doubt, one finds in all scriptures—and even practice manuals—claims regarding the potential benefits of reading or practicing that particular scripture or practice. It is nonetheless possible that, under certain circumstances, the visualization stage has been considered as capable of inducing buddhahood, and Anupamarakṣita’s Tārāsādhana is not unique in this regard.

Yet, for the vast majority of Indian and Tibetan scholars of tantra, the visualization stage is but the first step in the tantric path toward awakening. It is followed by the completion stage (niṣpannakrama or utpannakrama, rdzogs rim), which is thus called the “second stage” (rim pa gnyis pa). 39According to Tanemura, the earliest witness to the integration of the two stages is found in a work by none other than Jñānapāda—on whom we relied in our discussion on the working of the visualization stage.⁵¹ Visualizations are still important in the completion stage, yet goals are achieved through practices that draw from Indian yogic exercises, such as the yoga of the winds (prāṇa, lung), the penetration of key points in the body (lus la gnad du bsnun pa), the power of bliss, and so forth.

Thus, while the visualization stage has become a preparatory practice, the completion stage is regarded as capable of achieving a true transformation. When all the winds and minds of the so-called subtle body dissolve into the heart cakra, a true realization of nonduality can be attained. Though the vast majority of tantric scholars accept this, Jñānapāda and Tsong kha pa, among others, do at times describe the visualization stage in terms of a mind that apprehends nonduality. In doing so, they momentarily set aside the restraints they themselves imposed on the visualization stage.

Conclusions

One of the tantric methods for overcoming conceptualization involves meditating on the proliferations of mental constructs, thus revealing how these constructs operate. In contrast to meditations that aim to reduce mental content, the techniques of the visualization stage do the opposite. Yet, not only do aspirants grasp the nature of their visualizations, they also realize that their vision is more real than anything else.

Jñānapāda, one of the early tantric theoreticians, maintains that since the mind visualizing the maṇḍala circle is endowed with a nondual profundity and sublimity, it is capable of dispelling ordinary conceptual thoughts. In other words, this mind can act as an antidote that leads to an irreversible soteriological transformation—putting an end to saṃsāric suffering. In this regard this antidote differs from “saṃsāric” antidotes, such as benevolent love, and is therefore superior to methods of the Pāramitā Vehicle.

Another reason the mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature is efficacious according to Jñānapāda is that its two aspects joined together are consonant with the fruit of the practice. Tsong kha pa develops this notion, maintaining that such a mind is potent, because in meditating on emptiness and visualizations of the maṇḍala circle, the mind’s two aspects correspond to the dharmakāya and rūpakāya at the fruition of the practice. The crucial point 40for Tsong kha pa, however, is the nonduality of the mind endowed with a profound and sublime nature. In his view, the subjective aspect of this mind is immersed in emptiness, while its objective aspect arises as the maṇḍala circle. Though the manifold details of the celestial mansion and the deities therein do arise, these are now not ordinary conceptualizations but special appearances.⁵²

Finally, it is worth bearing in mind that tantric authors writing on the visualization stage, especially members of Jñānapāda school and its followers, resorted to the theoretical approach of Dharmakīrti. We still need to explore if and when the views of these tantric scholars diverge from those of Dharmakīrti. In any case, a better understanding of tantric theories on the visualization stage requires that we take into account the great Buddhist treatises on logic.

Works Cited

Abbreviations

Canonical Texts

Guhyasamāja-tantra. Stog 408, Rgyud ’bum, vol. ca, 1b1–82a5. For an edition of the Sanskrit, see Matsunaga 1978.

Hevajra-tantra. Sde dge 417 and 418, Rgyud ’bum, vol. nga, 1b1–13b5 and 13b5–30a3. For an edition of the Sanskrit and Tibetan as well as an English translation, see Snellgrove 1959.

Indic Texts

Abhayākaragupta. Buddhakapālamahātantrarājaṭīkābhayapaddhati. Sangs rgyas thod pa’i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po’i rgya cher ’grel pa ’jigs pa med pa’i gzhung ’grel. Sde dge 1654, Rgyud, vol. ra, 166b1–225b3. For a partial Sanskrit edition and English translation, see Luo 2010.

Anupamarakṣita. Tārāsādhana. Sgrol ma’i sgrub thabs. Sde dge 3491, Rgyud, vol. mu, 144b6–147b7. For a Sanskrit edition, see Bhattacharyya 1925, 1:200–206. For an English translation, see Gómez 1995.

Asaṅga. Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra. Theg pa chen po mdo sde’i rgyan. Sde dge 4020, Sems tsam, vol. bi, 1b1–39a4. For a Sanskrit edition and French translation, see Lévi 1907–1911.

Dharmakīrti. Pramāṇavārttikakārikā. Tshad ma rnam ’grel gyi tshig le’ur byas pa. Sde dge 4210, Tshad ma, vol. ce, 94b1–151a7. Sanskrit and Tibetan edited in Miyasaka 1971–1972.

———. Pramāṇaviniścaya. Tshad ma rnam par nges pa. Sde dge 4211, Tshad ma, vol. ce, 152b1–230a7. For a Sanskrit edition of chapters 1 and 2, see Steinkellner 2007.

Jñānapāda or Buddhaśrījñāna. Ātmasādhanāvatāra. Bdag sgrub pa la ’jug pa. Sde dge 1860, Rgyud, vol. di, 52a7–62a7. According to Kawasaki 2004, 51–52, a Sanskrit manuscript is kept in Lhasa.

———. Samantabhadrasādhana. Kun tu bzang po’i sgrub pa’i thabs. Sde dge 1855, Rgyud, vol. di, 28b6–36a5. For a partial Sanskrit edition, see Tanaka 1996 and Kanō 2014. According to Kawasaki 2004, 51, a Sanskrit manuscript is kept in Lhasa.

Kāṇha. Yogaratnamālāhevajrapañjikā. Dgyes pa rdo rje’i dka’ ’grel rnal ’byor rin po che’i phreng ba. Sde dge 1183, Rgyud, vol. kha, 1b1–61a3. For a Sanskrit edition, see Snellgrove 1959, 2:103–159.

Nāgārjuna. Piṇḍīkramasādhana. Sgrub pa’i thabs mdor byas pa. Sde dge 1796, Rgyud, vol. ngi, 1b1–11a2. For a Sanskrit edition, see La Vallée Poussin 1896, 1–14.

Phalavajra. Samantabhadrasādhanavṛtti. Kun tu bzang po’i sgrub pa’i thabs kyi ’grel pa. Sde dge 1867, Rgyud, vol. di, 139b3–187b4.

Ratnākaraśānti, Śāntipa. Guhyasamājamaṇḍalavidhiṭīkā. Dpal gsang ba ’dus pa’i dkyil ’khor gyi cho ga’i ’grel pa. Sde dge 1871, Rgyud, vol. ni, 59a7–130a7.

———. Hevajrapañjikā Muktikāvalī. Dpal dgyes pa’i rdo rje’i dka’ ’grel mu tig phreng ba. Sde dge 1189, Rgyud, vol. ga, 221a1–297a7. For a Sanskrit edition, see Tripathi and Negi 2001.

Ratnarakṣita. Saṃvarodayapadminīpañjikā. Sdom pa ’byung ba’i dka’ ’grel padma can. Sde dge 1420, Rgyud, vol. wa, 1b1–101b3.

Samantabhadra. Sāramañjarī = Caturaṅgasādhanaṭīkāsāramañjarī. Yan lag bzhi pa’i sgrub thabs kyi rgya cher bshad pa snying po snye ma. Sde dge 1869, Rgyud, vol. ni, 1b1–45b4. For a Sanskrit edition, see Szántó, in progress.

Thagana. Samantabhadrasādhanavṛtti. Kun tu bzang po’i sgrub pa’i thabs kyi ’grel pa. Sde dge 1868, Rgyud, vol. di, 187b4–231a7.

Vaidyapāda or Vitapāda. Caturaṅgasādhanasamantabhadrīṭīkā. Yan lag bzhi pa’i 42sgrub thabs kun tu bzang mo’i rnam par bshad pa. Sde dge 1872, Rgyud, vol. ni, 130b1–178b7.

Tibetan Texts

A myes zhabs Ngag dbang kun dga’ bsod nams (1597–1662). Rgyu dang ’bras bu’i theg pa’i spyi don legs par bshad pa mdo sngags bstan pa rgya mtsho’i sgo ’byed. In Collected Works, 7:359–846. Kathmandu: Sa skya rgyal yongs gsung rab slob gnyer khang, 2000.

Paṇ chen Blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan (1570–1662). Dngos grub rgya mtsho’i snying po = Rgyud thams cad kyi rgyal po gsang ba ’dus pa’i bskyed rim gyi rnam bshad dngos grub kyi rgya mtsho’i snying po. In Collected Works, 2:299–452. New Delhi: Gurudeva, 1973.

Tsong kha pa Blo bzang grags pa (1357–1419). Sngags rim chen mo = Rgyal ba khyab bdag rdo rje ’chang chen po’i lam gyi rim pa gsang ba kun gyi gnad rnam par phye ba. Xining: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1995.

Secondary Sources

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