Toh 1294Untitled

Exposition of a Tantric Scripture — Toh 1294

Context

This scripture belongs to the Kangyur (藏傳佛教根本經典), in the section of Tantra (密宗), Vajrayana (金剛乘). This is the Tantras portion of Tibetan Buddhism, preserving the most exalted practices of this tradition.

In Vajrayana, Tantra is not a separate path, but the swift fulfillment of Mahayana through the complete transformation of the practitioner’s body, speech, and mind. Unlike the Sutra collection, which speaks of theory, the Tantras are direct practice instructions based on ritual, puja, meditation, dhyana, with deities, devata, and the use of a profound science of mind.

The Kangyur was compiled under the Tibetan Buddhist royal dynasty, gathering more than one hundred volumes containing scriptures and tantras translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan. Number Toh 1294 appears in the catalog of essential Tantric scriptures and serves to guide students in understanding the swift path of the Buddhist Dharma.

Main Content

The specific content of this scripture has not yet been fully translated into Vietnamese from the original Tibetan, but based on the context of the Tantras and the Kangyur, this scripture instructs in the core principles of Vajrayana.

In Tantra, the practitioner is taught to recognize that all phenomena are inherently empty, sunyata, སྟོང་པ་ཉིད, and from this emptiness arise the deities, devata, of the ritual, sadhana. Human nature is no different from the Buddha; this is called Buddha nature, སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན. The task is to realize this truth through:

Generation Stage (utpatti-krama): visualizing within consciousness in order to build the sacred image of the deity, transforming the coarse world into a Buddha realm.

Completion Stage (nispanna-krama): meditating deeply on the nature of emptiness and non-self-nature, dissolving the boundaries between the practitioner and the Buddha.