Table of Contents
Kagyu Tantras
The Kagyu Tantras བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུད་སྡེ bka' brgyud kyi rgyud sde kah-gyoo kyee gyoo-deh constitute the foundational esoteric scriptures and oral transmission cycles of the Kagyu བཀའ་བརྒྱུད bka' brgyud kah-gyoo school of Tibetan Buddhism ནང་པའི་ཆོས nang pa'i chos nahng-peh chuh (बौद्धधर्म - bauddhadharma), descending from the 11th century new translation period when Marpa མར་པ mar pa mar-pah (1012–1097) traveled from Tibet བོད bod pö to India རྒྱ་གར rgya gar gyah-gar to receive direct Tantra རྒྱུད rgyud gyoo (तन्त्र - tantra) instructions from Naropa ནཱ་རོ་པ nA ro pa nah-roh-pah (1016–1100) and Maitripa མཻ་ཏྲི་པ mai tri pa meh-tree-pah (1007–1085), whose lineages originated with Tilopa ཏི་ལོ་པ ti lo pa tee-loh-pah (988–1069). As a sacred textual and experiential corpus rather than a historical individual, this collection has no year of birth or year of death, having been faithfully passed down through Milarepa མི་ལ་རས་པ mi la ras pa mee-lah reh-pah (1052–1135) and Gampopa སྒམ་པོ་པ sgam po pa gahm-poh-pah (1079–1153), and later compiled into the Kagyu Ngag Dzö བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་སྔགས་མཛོད bka' brgyud sngags mdzod kah-gyoo ngahk-dzuh by Jamgön Kongtrul འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ 'jam mgon kong sprul jahm-guhn kohng-trool (1813–1899). Anchored primarily by the Chakrasamvara Tantra འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པའི་རྒྱུད 'khor lo sdom pa'i rgyud kor-loh dohm-peh gyoo (चक्रसंवरतन्त्र - cakrasaṃvaratantra), Hevajra Tantra ཀྱེ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྒྱུད kye rdo rje'i rgyud kyeh dor-jeh gyoo (हेवज्रतन्त्र - hevajratantra), Guhyasamaja Tantra གསང་བ་འདུས་པ gsang ba 'dus pa sahng-wah doo-pah (गुह्यसमाजतन्त्र - guhyasamājatantra), and Vajrayogini རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ rdo rje rnal 'byor ma dor-jeh nel-jor-mah (वज्रयोगिनी - vajrayoginī) cycles, these scriptures serve as the experiential foundation for the Six Dharmas of Naropa ནཱ་རོ་ཆོས་དྲུག nA ro chos drug nah-roh chuh-drook and Mahamudra ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ phyag rgya chen po chahk-gyah chen-poh (महामुद्रा - mahāmudrā). Through intensive meditation སྒོམ sgom gohm (भावना - bhāvanā), subtle-body energy practices, and skillful means ཐབས thabs tahp (उपाय - upāya), the Kagyu Tantras enable practitioners to purify the three poisons དུག་གསུམ dug gsum dook-soom (त्रिविष - triviṣa), unite emptiness སྟོང་པ་ཉིད stong pa nyid tohng-pah nyee (शून्यता - śūnyatā) and compassion སྙིང་རྗེ snying rje nying-jeh (करुणा - karuṇā), and realize innate Buddha-nature བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ bde gshegs snying po deh-shek nying-poh (तथागतगर्भ - tathāgatagarbha) to transcend samsara འཁོར་བ 'khor ba kor-wah (संसार - saṃsāra) and achieve full awakening བྱང་ཆུབ byang chub jahng-choop (बोधि - bodhi) and nirvana མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ mya ngan las 'das pa nyah-ngen leh deh-pah (निर्वाण - nirvāṇa).
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1. Chakrasamvara Tantra འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པའི་རྒྱུད 'khor lo sdom pa'i rgyud kor-loh dohm-peh gyoo (चक्रसंवरतन्त्र - cakrasaṃvaratantra), known as the Wheel of Supreme Bliss, is the preeminent Mother Tantra cycle of the Kagyu བཀའ་བརྒྱུད bka' brgyud kah-gyoo school of Tibetan Buddhism ནང་པའི་ཆོས nang pa'i chos nahng-peh chuh (बौद्धधर्म - bauddhadharma). Transmitted from India རྒྱ་གར rgya gar gyah-gar to Tibet བོད bod pö in the 11th century by Tilopa ཏི་ལོ་པ ti lo pa tee-loh-pah (988–1069), Naropa ནཱ་རོ་པ nA ro pa nah-roh-pah (1016–1100), and Marpa མར་པ mar pa mar-pah (1012–1097), it anchors the subtle-body practices of the Six Dharmas of Naropa ནཱ་རོ་ཆོས་དྲུག nA ro chos drug nah-roh chuh-drook and unites bliss and emptiness སྟོང་པ་ཉིད stong pa nyid tohng-pah nyee (शून्यता - śūnyatā).
2. Hevajra Tantra ཀྱེ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྒྱུད kye rdo rje'i rgyud kyeh dor-jeh gyoo (हेवज्रतन्त्र - hevajratantra), known as the Two-Part Tantra, is a core Mother Tantra scripture transmitted to Marpa by Naropa and Maitripa མཻ་ཏྲི་པ mai tri pa meh-tree-pah (1007–1085) in the 11th century. Focused on transforming dualistic perception through skillful means ཐབས thabs tahp (उपाय - upāya) and compassion སྙིང་རྗེ snying rje nying-jeh (करुणा - karuṇā), it serves as a foundational textual basis for Mahamudra ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ phyag rgya chen po chahk-gyah chen-poh (महामुद्रा - mahāmudrā) realization.
3. Guhyasamaja Tantra གསང་བ་འདུས་པ gsang ba 'dus pa sahng-wah doo-pah (गुह्यसमाजतन्त्र - guhyasamājatantra), known as the Secret Assembly, is the principal Father Tantra within the Kagyu Tantras བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུད་སྡེ bka' brgyud kyi rgyud sde kah-gyoo kyee gyoo-deh. Brought to Tibet in the 11th century through the lineage of Nagarjuna ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ klu sgrub loo-droop (नागार्जुन - nāgārjuna, 150–250), Naropa, and Marpa, this scripture centered on Akshobhya མི་བསྐྱོད་པ mi bskyod pa mee-kyuh-pah (अक्षोभ्य - akṣobhya) governs the illusory body and clear light stages of meditation སྒོམ sgom gohm (भावना - bhāvanā).
4. Mahamaya Tantra སྒྱུ་མ་ཆེན་མོའི་རྒྱུད sgyu ma chen mo'i rgyud gyoo-mah chen-muh gyoo (महामायातन्त्र - mahāmāyātantra), known as the Great Illusion, is a key Mother Tantra cycle transmitted to Marpa by Kukkuripa ཀུ་ཀྐུ་རི་པ ku k+ku ri pa koo-koo-ree-pah (कुक्कुरिपा - kukkuripā) and Naropa in the 11th century. It emphasizes the dream-like, illusory nature of all phenomena in samsara འཁོར་བ 'khor ba kor-wah (संसार - saṃsāra) and nirvana མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ mya ngan las 'das pa nyah-ngen leh deh-pah (निर्वाण - nirvāṇa) to dissolve ego-clinging.
5. Vajravarahi Abhidhana Tantra རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ་མངོན་པར་འབྱུང་བའི་རྒྱུད rdo rje phag mo mngon par 'byung ba'i rgyud dor-jeh pahk-moh nguhn-par joong-weh gyoo (वज्रवाराहीअभिधानतन्त्र - vajravārāhīabhidhānatantra), is the root scripture dedicated to Vajrayogini རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ rdo rje rnal 'byor ma dor-jeh nel-jor-mah (वज्रयोगिनी - vajrayoginī) in her wrathful sow-headed aspect. Transmitted through Tilopa, Naropa, and Marpa, it is the essential yidam deity Tantra རྒྱུད rgyud gyoo (तन्त्र - tantra) for inner heat tummo གཏུམ་མོ gtum mo toom-moh (चण्डाली - caṇḍālī) and wisdom ཤེས་རབ shes rab sheh-rahp (प्रज्ञा - prajñā) practices across all Kagyu sub-schools.
6. Chatuhpitha Tantra གདན་བཞིའི་རྒྱུད gdan bzhi'i rgyud den-zhee gyoo (चतुष्पीठतन्त्र - catuṣpīṭhatantra), known as the Four Seats Tantra, is a prominent Mother Tantra transmitted in India by Aryadeva འཕགས་པ་ལྷ 'phags pa lha pahk-pah lah (आर्यदेव - āryadeva) and Bhavabhadra བྷ་ཝ་བྷ་དྲ b+ha wa b+ha dra bah-wah bah-drah (भवभद्र - bhavabhadra) and brought to Tibet by Marpa and Go Lotsawa འགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ 'gos lo tsA ba guh loh-tsah-wah in the 11th century. It elucidates the purification of the five aggregates ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ phung po lnga poong-poh ngah (पञ्चस्कन्ध - pañcaskandha) and sense fields into enlightened mandala དཀྱིལ་འཁོར dkyil 'khor kyil-kor (मण्डल - maṇḍala) deities.
7. Kalachakra Tantra དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་རྒྱུད dus kyi 'khor lo'i rgyud doo kyee kor-luh gyoo (कालचक्रतन्त्र - kālacakratantra), known as the Wheel of Time, is the supreme Non-Dual Tantra extensively practiced in the Karma Kagyu ཀརྨ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད karma bka' brgyud kar-mah kah-gyoo tradition, notably codified by the 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ rang byung rdo rje rahng-joong dor-jeh (1284–1339). It integrates cosmic time cycles, subtle-body yoga, and innate Buddha-nature བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ bde gshegs snying po deh-shek nying-poh (तथागतगर्भ - tathāgatagarbha).
8. Vajrakilaya Tantra རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པའི་རྒྱུད rdo rje phur pa'i rgyud dor-jeh poor-peh gyoo (वज्रकीलतन्त्र - vajrakīlatantra), is a vital wrathful deity scripture integrated into the Kagyu Dharma ཆོས chos chuh (धर्म - dharma) collections, especially through the Drigung Kagyu འབྲི་གུང་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད 'bri gung bka' brgyud dree-goong kah-gyoo lineage founded by Jigten Sumgön འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན 'jig rten gsum mgon jik-ten soom-guhn (1143–1217). It provides powerful ritual methods for dispelling obstacles and transmuting the three poisons དུག་གསུམ dug gsum dook-soom (त्रिविष - triviṣa).
9. Vajrapanjara Tantra རྡོ་རྗེ་གུར་གྱི་རྒྱུད rdo rje gur gyi rgyud dor-jeh goor gyee gyoo (वज्रपञ्जरतन्त्र - vajrapañjaratantra), known as the Vajra Pavilion, serves as a major explanatory Tantra within the Kagyu Ngag Dzö བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་སྔགས་མཛོད bka' brgyud sngags mdzod kah-gyoo ngahk-dzuh compiled by Jamgön Kongtrul འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ 'jam mgon kong sprul jahm-guhn kohng-trool (1813–1899). It clarifies the subtle energy channels, chakras, and completion stage practices essential for full awakening བྱང་ཆུབ byang chub jahng-choop (बोधि - bodhi).
10. Samputa Tantra སཾ་པུ་ཊའི་རྒྱུད saM pu Ta'i rgyud sahm-poo-teh gyoo (संपुटतन्त्र - saṃpuṭatantra), known as the Union Tantra, is a key explanatory scripture preserved in the Kagyu canon that bridges the Chakrasamvara Tantra and Hevajra Tantra systems. Transmitted by Marpa in the 11th century, it harmonizes generation stage visualization with the spontaneous recognition of bodhicitta བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས byang chub kyi sems jahng-choop kyee sem (बोधिचित्त - bodhicitta).