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from the mandala of hundred peaceful and wrathful deities]] Guhyagarbha Tantra (Skt.; Tib. རྒྱུད་གསང་བ་སྙིང་པོ་, Gyü Sangwé Nyingpo; Wyl. rgyud gsang ba'i snying po), The Essence of Secrets Tantra is the main tantra of the Mahayoga. It contains twenty-two chapters.<ref>There are actually three distinct versions of the Guhyagarbha Tantra, respectively in twenty-two, forty-six and eighty-two chapters. The concise version in twenty-two chapters is the one which is most widely studied within the Nyingma tradition (Source: Gyurme Dorje, Guhyagarbha Tantra: Introduction, PhD.).</ref>

Khenpo Namdrol writes: “Among the distinctions within Mahayoga, namely the great accomplishment pratices of the eight herukas and the eighteen classes of the great tantras, this Secret Essence Tantra extracts the essence of them all, as well as being the general tantra of enlightened mind. The twenty-two chapters of this tantra afford an explanation of the three tantras of the ground, path and result and, within the context of the tantra of the path, the ten topics of tantra.”<ref>Introduction to Ju Mipham Jampal Gyepa'i Dorje, (2010), p. 1.</ref>

Title

Its fuller title is the Glorious Web of Magical Illusion, The Secret Essence Definitive Nature Just As It Is (Tib. Pal Gyutrül Drawa Sangwé Nyingpo De Kona Nyid Ngé Pa, Wyl. dpal sgyu 'phrul drva ba gsang ba'i snying po de kho na nyid nges pa), which can itself be condensed to the alternative title of Tantra of the Web of Magical Illusion (Tib. Gyutrül Drawa Gyü, Wyl. sgyu 'phrul drva ba rgyud).

Commentarial Tradition

For centuries, detailed study of its root verses and many celebrated commentaries, including Longchenpa's Trilogy of Dispelling Darkness, Dodrupchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima's Key to the Precious Treasury and Mipham Rinpoche's Essence of Clear Light, has been the key to understanding the Vajrayana’s most prominent themes and practices, such as empowerment, samaya, mantra recitation and the use of mandalas.

In Tibet, two major commentarial traditions of this tantra have developed:

the Zurpa tradition, based on the perspectives of Buddhaguhya, Vilasavajra, and other masters, which can be described as the vast, common tradition, and
Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo and Longchenpa's tradition, based on the perspective of Suryaprabhasingha, which can be described as the profound, uncommon tradition.<ref>Source: Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, The Treasury of Knowledge, Systems of Buddhist Tantra (2005), p. 352, and Ju Mipham Jampal Gyepa'i Dorje (2010), p. 21-23.</ref>

Alternative Translations

Secret Essence Tantra
Tantra of the Secret Nucleus (Dorje & Kapstein)
Tantra of the Secret Essence

Tibetan Texts

The Guhyagarbha Tantra was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan on four occasions, but principally by Nyak Jñanakumara and Ma Rinchen Chok, following the instruction of Vimalamitra.<ref>Source: Gyurme Dorje, Guhyagarbha Tantra: Introduction, PhD.</ref>

from བཀའ་འགྱུར་༼སྣར་ཐང༽
from བཀའ་མ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་༼ཀཿ་ཐོག༽

Commentaries<ref>By chronological order.</ref>

Indian

King Dza
- Array of the Path of the Magical Net (སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་ལམ་རྣམ་བཀོད་, Wyl. sgyu 'phrul lam rnam bkod) (P.4737, NK Vol. 81)
- Instruction on the Two Stages of the Guhyagarbha (Skt. śrīguhyagarbhakramadvayoddeśa) (P. 4771, NK Vol. 81)
Vilasavajra, Guhyagarbhamahātantrarājatīkā (Skt.)

:

Buddhaguhya, The Eye Commentary (སྤྱན་འགྲེལ་, Wyl. spyan ‘grel)
Suryaprabhasingha, An Extensive Commentary to the “Secret Essence Tantra” (Tib. རྒྱ་ཚེར་འགྲེལ་)
Padmasambhava, An Instruction, a commentary on chapter thirteen of the Guhyagarbha Tantra

Tibetan

Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo, The Jewel Commentary

:

Longchen Rabjam, Trilogy of Dispelling Darkness, (Wyl. mun sel skor gsum)

:*Dispelling Darkness in the Ten Directions (Tib. གསང་སྙིང་འགྲེལ་པ་ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་མུན་སེལ་, gsang snying 'grel pa phyogs bcu mun sel) ::

:*Dispelling Darkness of the Mind (Tib. གསང་སྙིང་སྤྱི་དོན་ཡིད་ཀྱི་མུན་སེལ་, gsang snying spyi don yid kyi mun sel) ::

:*Dispelling Darkness of Ignorance (Tib. གསང་སྙིང་བསྡུས་དོན་མ་རིག་མུན་སེལ་, gsang snying bsdus don ma rig mun sel) ::

Lochen Dharmashri

:*Oral Instructions of the Lord of Secrets ::

ff. :*Ornament of the Wisdom Mind of the Lord of Secrets ::

Mipham Rinpoche, Essence of Clear Light (Tib. འོད་གསལ་སྙིང་པོ་, Wyl. 'od gsal snying po), a commentary on Longchen Rabjam's commentary Dispelling Darkness in the Ten Directions.

:

Dodrupchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima, Key to the Precious Treasury (Tib. མཛོད་ཀྱི་ལྡེ་མིག་, Wyl. mdzod kyi lde mig)

:

English Translations

Longchen Rabjam, Dispelling Darkness in the Ten Directions, Light of Berotsana Translation, Snow Lion, 2011. The text also includes a translation of the root tantra.
Dodrupchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima, Key to the Precious Treasury, Light of Berotsana Translation, Snow Lion, 2011.
Ju Mipham Jampal Gyepa'i Dorje, Essence of Clear Light, trans. by Lama Chönam and Sangye Khandro of the Light of Berotsana Translation Group (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2010). Also translated as, Jamgön Mipham, Luminous Essence, A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra, trans. by Dharmachakra Translation Committee (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2009).
Khenpo Namdrol, Transcript of the teachings on Longchenpa's Dispelling Darkness in the Ten Directions, on the Light of Berotsana website.

Recordings of Khenpo Namdrol's teaching on Longchenpa's Dispelling Darkness in the Ten Directions, Dodrupchen's Key to the Precious Treasury, and Mipham Rinpoche's Essence of Clear Light are also available with English translation by Sangye Khandro from Light of Berotsana and the Zam Store

Teachings on the Guhyagarbha Tantra Given to the [[About Rigpa|Rigpa]] Sangha

These teachings have been given several times to the Rigpa sangha, including:

Khenpo Petse Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 13-29 August 1997, using Mipham Rinpoche's Essence of Clear Light commentary.
Khenpo Namdrol, Lerab Ling, 2003-2006, using Dodrupchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima's Key to the Precious Treasury commentary.

Notes

Internal Links

Texts Tantras Guhyagarbha Tantra Mahayoga