Hevajra Tantra

Hevajra Tantra (ཀྱེ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྒྱུད་, ཀྱཻ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱུད་, or alternatively དགྱེས་པ་, Wyl. kye rdo rje'i rgyud, kyai rdo rje rgyud or dgyes pa) — an important Mother tantra , said to be the essence of the six classes of Mother tantras, and is especially popular in the Sakya and Kagyü schools. It emphasises the completion phase, in contrast to for example the Guhyasamaja Tantra, which is said to teach mainly the generation phase.

As with other tantras, the Hevajra tantra that we know is said to be derived from a much larger, original tantra called the Hevajra root tantra (Skt. Hevajramūlatantra; Wyl dgyes pa rdo rje rtsa ba'i rgyud) or the Tantra in 500.000 verses. The current tantra has two segments or chapters, which some say were the first two chapters of this larger tantra, yet others say they were the last two chapters. Because of the two segments, the tantra is often referred to as the Two Segments (Wyl. brtag gnyis). It's first appearance is estimated around 900 CE.

Origin

There are different accounts of the origin of the tantra. Regarding the spread of the tantra in India, Jamgon Kongtrul says:

Many different traditions of Hevajra, the ultimate mother tantra, appeared in India. The seven principal ones were complete in empowerments, teachings, and pith instructions: those of Master Saroruha, Krishna-samaya-vajra, Durjayachandra, Ratnakara, Naropa, Métripa, and the Kashmiri Yashobhadra.Twelve commentaries to this tantra are known, including Vajragarbha’s commentary and the Lotus Commentary Elucidating the Difficult Points.The three traditions from Saroruha, Krishna-samaya-vajra, and Durjayachandra each formed an independent tradition. The others resemble compilations of the best aspects of those three. It seems that “the Kashmiri Yashobhadra” is considered to be one of Naropa’s names.

Text

• Hevajra Tantra, the King of Tantras (Skt. Hevajranāmatantrarāja; Tib. ཀྱེའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་, Wyl. kye'i rdo rje zhes bya ba rgyud kyi rgyal po D 417). It was translated into Chinese by *Dharmapala (Fahu) in 1055 CE and in Tibetan around the same time by Drokmi Lotsawa and Gayadhara.
  • English translation: Snellgrove, David, trans. The Hevajra Tantra: A Critical Study. Hong Kong; Enfield: Orchid Press, 2011.
  • English translation: Farrow and Menon, 1992. Farrow, G. W. The Concealed Essence of the Hevajra Tantra: With the Commentary Yogaratnamala. Edited by I. Menon. 1st edition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Pub, 2003.

Commentaries

Jamgon Kongtrul says that there were around 35 commentaries on the root tantra in India. The first commentary was written by Vajragarbha, who is also the interlocutor in the Hevajra Tantra.

In his autobiography, Jamgon Kongtrul, while explaining his motivation for writing his own commentaries, gives an excellent overview of the most important commentaries:

I had planned to write a commentary on the Hevajra Tantra, and to request permission for this I performed the guru sadhana of Marpa in conjunction with more than a hundred repetitions of rituals to purify myself of obscurations. I also practiced means to gather merit and deepen awareness, prayed, and performed feast offerings and fulfillment rituals. I began writing methodically, beginning with the chapter on the vajra family in the first section. In the tradition of explanation deriving from Marpa and Ngok, there has been no one definitive method of exegesis as there is, for example, in the Sakya tradition. Nowadays, the two commentaries most widely used are Ngok’s Like a Jeweled Ornament and the venerable Rangjung Dorjé’s commentary. But the former is entirely an explanation of the “hidden import” (Wyl. sbas don) of the text, while the latter emphasizes the meanings of the words themselves, but the description of the deity is somewhat embedded, which makes it difficult to use when one is explaining it (or listening to the explanation) in connection with the basic tantra. Chen-nga Chökyi Drakpa (the 4th Shamar Rinpoché, 1453-1524) bases his treatment on so many Indian commentaries that his explanation is not easy to understand. Such ancient explanations as the commentaries of Ram and Tsak are extremely unclear. The commentary by Thrinlépa (Karma Thrinlépa (1456-1539) was a student of the 7th Karmapa Chödrak Gyatso ) is somewhat clearer, and the excellent commentary by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal is so fine that I kept it aside as an overview (Wyl. spyi don). Taking the meaning of the words as my primary concern, I sought to clarify them further in light of the hidden meaning and, distinct from that, the ultimate meaning. During the monastic summer retreat I taught on the three levels of ordination and the entire texts of the Profound Inner Meaning, The Hevajra Tantra in Two Chapters, and The Highest Continuum, as well as performing a ritual in honour of the tantras. Gradually, I also wrote an overview of The Hevajra Tantra in Two Chapters. During this period I had very positive signs in my dreams; for example, I dreamed of Vajradhara Pema Nyinjé being very pleased with me and encouraging me, placing a crystal mala around my neck.

Famous Quotations

སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད། །

འོན་ཀྱང་གློ་བུར་དྲི་མས་བསྒྲིབས། །

དྲི་མ་དེ་བསལ་སངས་རྒྱས་དངོས། །

All beings are buddhas
But this is concealed by adventitious stains.
When their stains are purified, their buddhahood is revealed.

Hevajra Tantra

Further Reading

• Ringu Tulku, The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great (Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 2006), pages 89-90.

Alternative Translations

• Vajra of Delight (Ngawang Zangpo)

Internal Links

• Nairatmya

External Links

• Hevajra Tantra Outline Page at Himalayan Art