Menngagde

In Tibetan Buddhism and Bon, Menngakde (Tibetan: མན་ངག་སྡེ, Wylie: man ngag sde , THL: men-ngak-dé,[1] Sanskrit: upadeśavarga), is the name of one of three scriptural and lineage divisions within Dzogchen (Great Perfection atiyōga).

Dzogchen is itself the pinnacle of the ninefold division of practice according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Menngagde focuses on rigpa. The Menngagde or 'Instruction Class' of Dzogchen teachings are divided into two parts: trekchö and tögel.

The practice is that of Cutting through Solidity (khregs chod), which is related to primordial purity (ka dag); and Direct Vision of Reality (thod rgal), which is related to spontaneous presence (Ihun grub).[2]

Practice

For general purposes, Menngagde may also be known as Nyingthik.[3] Germano & Gyatso (2000: p. 240) note a similarity of practice between Chan-like formless meditations and Nyingthik/Menngagde:

"...the Seminal Heart or Nyingthik (snying thig) form of the Great Perfection (rdzogs-chen) movement, ...a syncretic Tantric tradition consisting of Chan-like practices of formless meditation combined with exercises that cultivated spontaneous visions of buddhas."[4]

Menngagde in the Dzogchen textual tradition

Traditionally, Mañjuśrīmitra (Wylie: jam dpal bshes gnyen ) is said to have classified all the Dzogchen teachings transmitted by his teacher, Garab Dorje, into three series: semdé (Wylie: sems sde ), long dé (Wylie: klong sde ), and menngakdé.[5] Mañjuśrīmitra's student Sri Singha reedited the oral instruction cycle and in this form the teaching was transmitted to Jñānasūtra and Vimalamitra. Vimalamitra is said to have taken the Menngagde teachings to Tibet in the 8th Century.

The Glossary for Rangjung Yeshe books[6] described menngakde:

[T]he third of the Three Sections of Dzogchen, as arranged by Manjushrimitra. In Tibet three lineages are represented: through Padmasambhava and Vairotsana who both received transmission from Shri Singha, and through Vimalamitra who received transmission partly from Shri Singha and partly from Jnanasutra. The two former lineages were continued only as termas while Vimalamitra's was passed on both as terma and as oral transmission. In the following millennium, innumerable termas have been revealed containing the precious instructions of these three great masters. The most important of these terma treasures are included in the Rinchen Terdzo, a collection of termas by Jamgon Kongtrul covering the Three Inner Tantras and in Nyingtig Yabzhi.[7]

The three series do not represent different schools of Dzogchen practice as much as different approaches. As is common throughout much Buddhist literature, Tibetan Buddhism in particular, the divisions are sometimes said to represent gradations in the faculties of the students for whom the practices are appropriate; practitioners of low, middling, and high faculties, respectively.

Distinguishing Features of the Menngagde (Oral Instruction Series)

The distinguishing features of Menngagde are the practices of lhündrup tögal and kadak trekchö.

Within the instruction section there are two aspects: kadag trekchö, the cutting through of primordial purity, and lhündrub tögal, the direct crossing of spontaneous presence.[8]

Another feature of the menngagde is the sādhanā of the Seven Mind Trainings (Wylie: blo sbyong don bdun ma ) Capriles (2003: p. 103) identifies the sādhanā of the "Seven Lojong".

In the cycle of Dzogchen Nyingthik teachings, there is a series of successive reflections called “the seven mind trainings” or seven lojong, the effect of which is similar to the one attributed to the “four reflections:” that of causing one’s mind to become integrated with the meaning of the teaching.[9]

Four divisions of Menngagde

Menngagde itself is sometimes said to have been further divided by Sri Singha into four categories, called the "Four Cycles of Nyingtig" (Wylie: snying thig skor bzhi). They are the:

  1. Outer Cycle
  2. Inner Cycle
  3. Secret Cycle
  4. Innermost Unexcelled Cycle (Wylie: yang gsang bla na med pa'i snying thig gi skor)

Variations of the name of the fourth section include the Secret Heart Essence (gsang ba snying thig), the Most Secret Unexcelled Nyingtig (yang gsang bla na med pa snying tig), the Innermost Unexcelled Cycle of Nyingtig (yang gsang bla na med pa'i snying thig skor), the Most Secret and Unexcelled Great Perfection (yang gsang bla na med pa rdzogs pa chen po), the Most Secret Heart Essence (yang gsang snying thig), the Most Secret Unsurpassable Cycle (yang gsang bla na med pa'i sde) and the Vajra Heart Essence.

Seventeen tantras

This fourth section of menngakdé is said to contain the seventeen tantras, although there are eighteen when the Ngagsung Tromay Tantra (focused on protective rites of Ekajati) is added and nineteen including the Longsel Barwey Tantra (Tantra of the Blazing Space of Luminosity).[10]

  1. Self-existing Perfection (Tibetan: རྫོགས་པ་རང་བྱུང, Wylie: rdzogs pa rang byung ) Skt: kāyālokoddhitābhiṣiñca mahā svayambhū tantra
  2. Reverberation of Sound (Tibetan: སྒྲ་ཐལ་འགྱུར, Wylie: sgra thal 'gyur ) Skt: ratnākara śabda mahā prasaṅga tantra
  3. Self-arising Primordial Awareness (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་ཤར, Wylie: rig pa rang shar ) Skt: sarva tathāgata samādhi paribhāṣā / jñāna samudāya sūtra / mahāyāna guhyānuttara tantra / sarva dharmākara / sarva buddhā
  4. Self-liberated Primordial Awareness (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་གྲོལ, Wylie: rig pa rang grol ) Skt: mahā vidyā svamukti sarva ghaṭṭita tantra
  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: vajra satva cittādarsa tantra
  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: samanta bhadra cittādarśa tantra
  7. Necklace of Precious Pearls (Tibetan: མུ་ཏིག་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཕྲེང་བ, Wylie: mu tig rin po che'i phreng ba ) Skt: ratna muṣṭi mūlā tantra
  8. Lion's Perfect Expressive Power (Tibetan: སེང་གེ་རྩལ་རྫོགས, Wylie: seng ge rtsal rdzogs ) Skt: mahā siṃha parākrama pūrṇṇa tantra
  9. Shining Relics of Enlightened Body (Tibetan: སྐུ་གདུང་འབར་བ, Wylie: sku gdung 'bar ba ) Skt: śrī gagana śarīra jvala mahā tantra
  10. Union of the Sun and Moon (Tibetan: ཉི་ཟླ་ཁ་སྦྱོར, Wylie: nyi zla kha sbyor ) Skt: mahā sūrya candra ghana guhya tantra
  11. Blazing Lamp (Tibetan: སྒྲོན་མ་འབར་བ, Wylie: sgron ma 'bar ba ) Skt: svarṇṇa puṣpa kānti ratnāloka jvala tantra
  12. Direct Introduction (Tibetan: ངོ་སྤྲོད་སྤྲས་པ, Wylie: ngo sprod spras pa ) Skt: darśanopadeśa ratnācita kṣetra dhātu śasana tantra
  13. Great Auspicious Beauty (Tibetan: བཀྲ་ཤིས་མཛེས་ལྡན, Wylie: bkra shis mdzes ldan ) Skt: mahā svaccha suvarṇa apramāṇa śrī tantra
  14. Sixfold Expanse of Samantabhadra (Tibetan: ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ཀློང་དྲུག, Wylie: kun tu bzang po klong drug ) Skt: samantabhadrāvartta ṣaṣṭha tantra
  15. Without Letters (Tibetan: ཡི་གེ་མེད་པ, Wylie: yi ge med pa ) Skt: anakṣara mahā tantra nāma ratna dhvaja rāja santati dr̥ṣṭi gagana sama mahā tantra
  16. Array of Jewels (Tibetan: ནོར་བུ་ཕྲ་བཀོད, Wylie: nor bu phra bkod ) Skt: sarva bhrānti pr̥ kara ratna dhūrta mata tantra nāma
  17. Piled Gems (Tibetan: རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སྤུང་བ, Wylie: rin po che spung ba ) Skt: ratna kūṭa mahā guṇoddeśa tantra rāja

Notes
  1. "Category of Pith Instructions".
  2. Dudjom Rinpoche. Wisdom Nectar. Snow Lion 2005, page 296.
  3. Van Schaik, Sam (2004). Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Methods of Dzogchen Practice in the Longchen Nyingtig. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-370-2, p.9
  4. Germano, David; Gyatso, Janet (2000). Longchenpa and the Possession of the Dakinis. in: White, David Gordon (author, editor)(2001). Tantra in practice. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 240. ISBN 978-81-208-1778-4. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-02-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Glossary for Rangjung Yeshe Books". Rangjung Yeshe Publishing.
  7. "Glossary for Rangjung Yeshe Books". Rangjung Yeshe Publishing.
  8. Schmidt, Marcia Binder (Ed.) (2002). The Dzogchen Primer: Embracing The Spiritual Path According To The Great Perfection. London, Great Britain: Shambhala Publications, Inc. ISBN 1-57062-829-7 pg. 38)
  9. Capriles, Elías (2003). Buddhism and Dzogchen: The Doctrine of the Buddha and the Supreme Vehicle of Tibetan Buddhism. Part One Buddhism: A Dzogchen Outlook (accessed: Saturday, August 23, 2008) p.103 Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2008-11-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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References

Print
  • Norbu, Namkhai and Clemente, Adriano (1999). "The Supreme Source: The Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde, Kunjed Gyalpo". Ithaa, New York: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-120-0
  • Schmidt, Marcia Binder (Ed.) (2002). The Dzogchen Primer: Embracing The Spiritual Path According To The Great Perfection. London, Great Britain: Shambhala Publications, Inc. ISBN 1-57062-829-7 (alk. paper)
  • Tulku Thondup (edited by Harold Talbott) (1989). "The Practice of Dzogchen". Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-054-9

Electronic
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