๑۩۞۩๑ ཨ ཨ ཨ ๑۩۞۩๑
“The Mind transmission of the buddhas of three times is known as a transmission through blessings – naturally perfect blessings of all buddhas of the past and the future and of those who reside in the present. Independent of articulated words this transmission is understood and realized through the natural Sound of Dharmata.” Wellspring of the great perfection – The lives and insights of the early masters , compiled and edited by E.P. Kunsang, The Twelve Dzogchen Buddhas , An excerpt from the great history of the Heart Essence , part One belonging to the instruction section Cycle of the Heart Essence of Vimalamitra , pg 119. This lineage : Chönyid kyi rangdra or Natural Sound of Dharmata has origin in Dra Thal Gyur root ta**ra of Dzogchen Upadesha . Master Vimalamitra is the only one who wrote commentary on Dra Thal Gyur ta**ra or Reverberation of Sound .Vimalamitras commentary is preserved at Khatok monastery in East Tibet . REVERBERATION OF SOUND is the root of all Buddhist Dharma . Reverberation of Sound (Dra Thal Gyur) is connected to 16 other Dzogchen Upadesha ta**ras . We need to see this display diametrical as a cicle , not horizontal . DRA THAL GYUR ta**ra in the centre and names of 16 other Upadesha ta**ras around . http://buddhadharmaobfinternational.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/penetration-of-sound-root-ta**ra-of-dzogchenatiyoga-upadesha/
The seventeen ta**ras, though not traditionally classified as a treasure (Wylie: gter ma), nonetheless share in the treasure tradition. They are associated with sacred literature first transmitted in the human realm by the quasi-historical Garab Dorje (Fl. 55 CE) and passed according to tradition along with other ta**ras through various lineages of transmission by way of important Dzogchen figures such as Mañjuśrīmitra, Shri Singha, Padmasambhava, Jnanasutra and Vimalamitra. Kunsang (2006) holds that Shri Singha brought the Secret Mantra teachings from beneath the Vajra Throne (Wylie: rdo rje gdan)[1] of Bodhgaya to the 'Tree of Enlightenment in China' (Wylie: rgya nag po'i byang chub shing),[2] where he concealed them in a pillar of the 'Auspicious Ten Thousand Gates Temple' (Wylie: bkra shis khri sgo[3]).[4] Shri Singha conferred the Eighteen Dzogchen Ta**ras (Tibetan: rdzogs chen rgyud bco brgyad)[5] upon Padmasambhava.[6] The eighteen are The Penetrating Sound Ta**ra (Tibetan: sgra thal ‘gyur),[7] to which was appended the Seventeen Ta**ras of Innermost Luminosity (Tibetan: yang gsang 'od gsal gyi rgyud bcu bdun).[8] It should be mentioned here that the Dharma Fellowship (2009) drawing on the work of Lalou (1890–1967) holds the 'Five Peaked Mountain' of "the Land of Cina" (where Cina isn't China but a term for the textile cashmere) the Five Peaked Mountain which Kunsang and others have attributed to Mount Wutai in China is instead 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.[9]
The Seventeen Ta**ras are amongst the texts known as the 'Supreme Secret Cycle' the Fourth Cycle[10] and the most sacred ta**ras 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".[11]
It is with Vimalamitra (fl. 8th century) that this collection of 'Seventeen Ta**ras, which are but a portion of Garab's revelation may have first been given their specific enumeration and nomenclature as it was Vimalamitra's disciple, Nyangban Tingzin Zangpo, who concealed the Seventeen Ta**ra subsequent to Vimalamitra's journey to China, particularly Mount Wutai, for later discovery by Neten Dangma Lhungyal in the Eleventh Century that they enter history in their current evocation, as Gyatso (1998: pp. 153–154) relates thus:
"By the eleventh century, both Bonpos and Buddhists were presenting texts they claimed to have unearthed from the place where those texts had been hidden in the past. Among the earliest Buddhist materials so characterized were the esoteric Nyingtig, or "Heart Sphere", teachings, including the seventeen Atiyoga ta**ras, which were associated with Vimalamitra, an Indian Great Perfection master invited to Tibet, according to some accounts, by Trisong Detsen in the eighth century. Vimalamitra's Tibetan student, Nyangban Tingzin Zangpo, was said to have concealed these teachings after the master went to China. The discoverer was Neten Dangma Lhungyal (eleventh century), who proceeded to transmit these teachings to Chetsun Senge Wangchuk, one of the first accomplished Tibetan Buddhist yogins, and to others. The Nyingtig materials were at the heart of the Great Perfection Buddhism and had considerable influence upon Jigme Lingpa, who labelled his own Treasure with the same term."[12]
The Vima Nyingtik itself consists of 'ta**ras' (rgyud), 'agamas' (lung), and 'upadeshas' (man ngag), and the ta**ras in this context are the Seventeen Ta**ras.[13]
[edit] Enumeration of the Seventeen Ta**ras
Though they are most often referred to as the Seventeen Ta**ras, other designations are as Eighteen Ta**ras when the 'Ngagsung Tromay Ta**ra' (Wylie: sngags srung khro ma’i rgyud[14]) (otherwise known as the 'Ekajaṭĭ Khros Ma'i rGyud' and to do with the protective rites of Ekajati) is appended to the seventeen by Shri Singha;[15] and Nineteen Ta**ras with Padmakara's annexure of the 'Longsel Barwey Ta**ra' (Wylie: klong gsal bar ba'i rgyud[16]) (Ta**ra of the Blazing Space of Luminosity).[17] Samantabhadri is associated with the Longsel Barwey and its full name is 'Samantabhadri's Ta**ra of the Blazing Sun of the Brilliant Expanse' (Wylie: kun tu bzang mo klong gsal 'bar ma nyi ma'i rgyud).[18]
According to the seventeen-fold classification, in no particular order, they are as follows:
1. 'Self-existing Perfection' (Tibetan: རྫོགས་པ་རང་བྱུང; Wylie: rdzogs pa rang byung)
2. 'Without Letters' (Tibetan: ཡི་གེ་མེད་པ; Wylie: yi ge med pa)
3. 'Self-arising Primordial Awareness' (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་ཤར; Wylie: rig pa rang shar)
4. 'Self-liberated Primordial Awareness' (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་གྲོལ; Wylie: rig pa rang grol)
5. 'Piled Gems' (Tibetan: རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྤུང་བ; Wylie: rin po che spung ba)
6. 'Shining Relics of Enlightened Body' (Tibetan: སྐུ་གདུང་འབར་བ; Wylie: sku gdung 'bar ba)
7. 'Reverberation of Sound' (Tibetan: སྒྲ་ཐལ་འགྱུར; Wylie: sgra thal 'gyur)
8. 'Great Auspicious Beauty' (Tibetan: བཀྲ་ཤིས་མཛེས་ལྡན; Wylie: bkra shis mdzes ldan)
9. 'The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva' (Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྙིང་གི་མེ་ལོང; Wylie: rdo rje sems dpa' snying gi me long)
10. 'The Mirror of the Mind of Samantabhadra' (Tibetan: ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་མེ་ལོང; Wylie: kun tu bzang po thugs kyi me long)
11. 'Direct Introduction' (Tibetan: ངོ་སྤྲོད་སྤྲས་པ; Wylie: ngo sprod spras pa)
12. 'Necklace of Precious Pearls' (Tibetan: མུ་ཏིག་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ; Wylie: mu tig rin po che'i phreng ba)
13. 'Sixfold Expanse of Samantabhadra' (Tibetan: ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཀློང་དྲུག; Wylie: kun tu bzang po klong drug)
14. 'Blazing Lamp' (Tibetan: སྒྲོན་མ་འབར་བ; Wylie: sgron ma 'bar ba)
15. 'Union of the Sun and Moon' (Tibetan: ཉི་ཟླ་ཁ་སྦྱོར; Wylie: nyi zla kha sbyor)
16. 'Lion's Perfect Expressive Power' (Tibetan: སེང་གེ་རྩལ་རྫོགས; Wylie: seng ge rtsal rdzogs)
17. 'Array of Jewels' (Tibetan: ནོར་བུ་ཕྲ་བཀོད; Wylie: nor bu phra bkod)
