Seventeen tantras

History and tradition

The seventeen tantras, 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 tantras 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) of Bodhgaya to the 'Tree of Enlightenment in China' (Wylie: rgya nag po'i byang chub shing), where he concealed them in a pillar of the 'Auspicious Ten Thousand Gates Temple' (Wylie: bkra shis khri sgo). Shri Singha conferred the Eighteen Dzogchen Tantras (Tibetan: rdzogs chen rgyud bco brgyad) upon Padmasambhava. The eighteen are The Penetrating Sound Tantra (Tibetan: sgra thal ‘gyur), to which was appended the Seventeen Tantras of Innermost Luminosity (Tibetan: yang gsang 'od gsal gyi rgyud bcu bdun). 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.

The Seventeen Tantras are amongst the texts known as the 'Supreme Secret Cycle' the Fourth Cycle and the most sacred tantras 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".

It is with Vimalamitra (fl. 8th century) that this collection of 'Seventeen Tantras, 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 Tantra 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 tantras, 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."

The Vima Nyingtik itself consists of 'tantras' (rgyud), 'agamas' (lung), and 'upadeshas' (man ngag), and the tantras in this context are the Seventeen Tantras.

Enumeration of the Seventeen Tantras

Though they are most often referred to as the Seventeen Tantras, other designations are as Eighteen Tantras when the 'Ngagsung Tromay Tantra' (Wylie: sngags srung khro ma’i rgyud) (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; and Nineteen Tantras with Padmakara's annexure of the 'Longsel Barwey Tantra' (Wylie: klong gsal bar ba'i rgyud) (Tantra of the Blazing Space of Luminosity). Samantabhadri is associated with the Longsel Barwey and its full name is 'Samantabhadri's Tantra of the Blazing Sun of the Brilliant Expanse' (Wylie: kun tu bzang mo klong gsal 'bar ma nyi ma'i rgyud).

According to the seventeen-fold classification they are as follows:

1. 'Self-existing Perfection' (Tibetan: རྫོགས་པ་རང་བྱུང, Wylie: rdzogs pa rang byung) Skt: swayaṃbhū-saṃdhi
2. 'Reverberation of Sound' (Tibetan: སྒྲ་ཐལ་འགྱུར, Wylie: sgra thal 'gyur) Skt: śabda-prasaṅga or pratiśabda ("The Echo")
3. 'Self-arising Wisdom-awareness' (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་ཤར, Wylie: rig pa rang shar) Skt: swottha-vidyā. Chapters 39 and 40 translated by H. V. Guenther in Wholeness Lost and Wholeness Regained.
4. 'Self-liberated Wisdom-awareness (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་གྲོལ, Wylie: rig pa rang grol) Skt: swamukti-vidyā (or ātmavimoksha). Translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva.
5. '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) Skt: vajrasattwa-cittādarśa. Translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva.
6. '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) Skt: samantabhadra-cittādarśa. Translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Secret Kissing of the Sun and Moon: Three Upadesha Tantras of the Great Perfection.
7. 'Necklace of Precious Pearls' (Tibetan: མུ་ཏིག་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ, Wylie: mu tig rin po che'i phreng ba) Skt: ratna-muktā-mālā. Translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Pearl Necklace Tantra: Upadesha Instructions of the Great Perfection.
8. 'Lion's Perfect Expressive Power' (Tibetan: སེང་གེ་རྩལ་རྫོགས, Wylie: seng ge rtsal rdzogs) Skt: siṃha-parākrama-pūrṇa. Translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Lion Stops Hunting: An Upadeśa Tantra of the Great Perfection. Excerpts from the fourth chapter are translated by Janet Gyatso in Buddhist Scriptures (Ed. Donald Lopez, published by Penguin Classics, 2004)
9. 'Shining Relics of Enlightened Body' (Tibetan: སྐུ་གདུང་འབར་བ, Wylie: sku gdung 'bar ba) Skt: kāya-śarīra-jwala
10. 'Union of the Sun and Moon' (Tibetan: ཉི་ཟླ་ཁ་སྦྱོར, Wylie: nyi zla kha sbyor) Skt: mahā-sūrya-candra-cumba. Translated in The Secret Kissing of the Sun and Moon.
11. 'Blazing Lamp' (Tibetan: སྒྲོན་མ་འབར་བ, Wylie: sgron ma 'bar ba) Skt: āloka-jwala. Translated by Christopher Hatchell in Naked Seeing: The Great Perfection, the Wheel of Time, and Visionary Buddhism in Renaissance Tibet.
12. 'Direct Introduction' (Tibetan: ངོ་སྤྲོད་སྤྲས་པ, Wylie: ngo sprod spras pa) Skt: darśanopadeśa (?). Translated in The Secret Kissing of the Sun and Moon.
13. 'Great Auspicious Beauty' (Tibetan: བཀྲ་ཤིས་མཛེས་ལྡན, Wylie: bkra shis mdzes ldan) Skt: swasti-suvarṇa (?)
14. 'Sixfold Expanse of Samantabhadra' (Tibetan: ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཀློང་དྲུག, Wylie: kun tu bzang po klong drug) Skt: samantabhadrāvartta-ṣaṣṭika
15. 'Without Letters' (Tibetan: ཡི་གེ་མེད་པ, Wylie: yi ge med pa) Skt: anakṣara. Translated in Eight Early Tantras of the Great Perfection: An Elixir of Ambrosia.
16. 'Inlaid with Jewels' (Tibetan: ནོར་བུ་ཕྲ་བཀོད, Wylie: nor bu phra bkod) Skt: maṇi-khacita
17. 'Piled Gems' (Tibetan: རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྤུང་བ, Wylie: rin po che spung ba) Skt: ratna-rāśi (or ratna-kūṭa)

English translations

The Blazing Lamps has been translated into English as The Tantra of the Blazing Lamps, by Christopher Hatchell in his Naked Seeing: The Great Perfection, the Wheel of Time, and Visionary Buddhism in Renaissance Tibet, Oxford University Press, USA (May 7, 2014).

Chapter 39 and 40 of the rig pa rang shar are translated by Herbert Gunther in his Wholeness Lost and Wholeness Regained, SUNY, 1994.

The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva and Self-Liberated Awareness are translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva, CreateSpace, 2017.

The Unwritten Tantra of Vajrasattva (yi ge med pa) is translated by Christopher Wilkinson in Eight Early Tantras of the Great Perfection: An Elixir of Ambrosia, CreateSpace, 2016.

The Union of the Sun and Moon, the Mirror of the Heart of Samantabhadra, and Direct Introduction are all translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Secret Kissing of the Sun and Moon: Three Upadesha Tantras of the Great Perfection, CreateSpace, 2016.

The Lion's Expressive Power of the Great Perfection is translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Lion Stops Hunting: An Upadeśa Tantra of the Great Perfection (CreateSpace, 2016). Excerpts from the fourth chapter are translated by Janet Gyatso in Buddhist Scriptures (Ed. Donald Lopez, published by Penguin Classics, 2004.)

Necklace of Precious Pearls is translated by Christopher Wilkinson in The Pearl Necklace Tantra: Upadesha Instructions of the Great Perfection, CreateSpace, 2016.

The Seventeen Tantras are quoted extensively throughout Longchenpa's (1308 - 1364?) 'The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding' (Tibetan: གནས་ལུགས་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད, Wylie: gnas lugs rin po che'i mdzod) translated by Richard Barron and Padma Translation Committee (1998). This work is one of Longchenpa's Seven Treasuries and the Tibetan text in poor reproduction of the pecha has been graciously made available online by Keith Dowman and Gene Smith. The Seventeen Tantras are also extensively discussed in Longchen's Siddhāntaratnakosha: Precious Treasury of Philosophical Systems, also translated by Richard Barron, as well as in Vimalamitra's Great Commentary, translated in Buddhahood in This Life, by Acarya Malcolm Smith.