The Great Auspicious Beauty Tantra or Trashi Dzenden Chenpögyü () is numbered amongst the '
Seventeen Tantras of
Menngagde' () within
Dzogchen discourse and is part of the textual support for the
Vima Nyingtik.
Kunsang (1987, 2007: p. 88) provides the following summary of this Dzogchen tantra thus:
"... tteaches how to establish the nature of awareness and how to identify the basis of confusion and the unmistaken wisdom."
These Seventeen Tantras are to be found in the Canon of the Ancient School, the '
Nyingma Gyubum' (), volumes 9 and 10, folio numbers 143-159 of the edition edited by 'Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche' commonly known as
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (Thimpu, Bhutan, 1973), reproduced from the manuscript preserved at 'Tingkye Gonpa Jang' () Monastery in Tibet.
Nomenclature, orthography and etymology
This tantra is rendered in English as
"Tantra of Great Beauty and Auspiciousness
" (1995, 2003: p. 210) within the English translation of the first book of the ''
Sheja Dzö'' of
Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899) entitled in English
Myriad Worlds'.
English discourse
Kapstein (1992: p. 64) opens the discourse of this Tantra into English with a quotation embedded within
Longchenpa's ''
Tegchö Dzö'' (Wylie: theg mchog mdzod; fol. 3b-4a) which Kapstein renders into English as follows wherein the
Adi Buddha,
Samantabhadra, voices:
Though I am free from bewilderment, bewilderment has emerged from my expressive power. Though I do not come into being as ground, my nature having arisen without impediment, unawareness has spontaneously emerged from my spirituality that is without determination. Just as clouds do not intrinsically exist in the sky, but emerge fortuitously, so there is no unawareness at all that belongs to the ground.
The following English rendering of a quotation from the ''Great Auspicious Beauty'' was embedded in the ''
Sheja Dzö'' of
Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899) and specifically the section of the ''Sheja Dzö'' translated into English entitled
Myriad Worlds' (1995, 2003: p. 210), and the Tibetan Wylie was sourced from Wikisource:
:Unceasing space is he gate through which the ground of beingmanifests as energy.
::thugs rje ltar 'char ba'i go ma 'gags pa ཐུགས་རྗེ་ལྟར་འཆར་བའི་གོ་མ་འགགས་པ
:Unceasing appearance is he groundmanifesting as lights.
::'od ltar 'char ba'i snang ba ma 'gags pa འོད་ལྟར་འཆར་བའི་སྣང་བ་མ་འགགས་པ
:Unceasing enjoyment is he groundmanifesting as pristine wisdom.
::ye shes ltar 'char ba'i longs spyod ma 'gags pa ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྟར་འཆར་བའི་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་མ་འགགས་པ
:Unceasing nature is he groundmanifesting as dimensions of awakening.
::sku ltar 'char ba'i ngo bo ma 'gags pa སྐུ་ལྟར་འཆར་བའི་ངོ་བོ་མ་འགགས་པ
:Unceasing view is he groundmanifesting as non-duality.
::gnyis med ltar 'char ba'i lta ba ma nges pa གཉིས་མེད་ལྟར་འཆར་བའི་ལྟ་བ་མ་ངེས་པ
:Unceasing method is he groundmanifesting as freedom from limitations.
::mtha' grol ltar 'char ba'i thabs ma 'gags pa'o མཐའ་གྲོལ་ལྟར་འཆར་བའི་ཐབས་མ་འགགས་པའོ
:The purity of pristine wisdom is the gate to perfection.
::dag pa ye shes kyi 'jug sgo mthar phyin pa དག་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་སྒོ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ
:Unceasing energy is he gateto impure yclic life
::ma dag pa ltar 'char ba'i sgo thugs rje ma 'gags pa མ་དག་པ་ལྟར་འཆར་བའི་སྒོ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་མ་འགགས་པ
:These ightare precious wish-fulfilling jewels.
::'dod don nor bu rin po che lta bu ste འདོད་དོན་ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལྟ་བུ་སྟེ
These eight are also known as the 'Eight doors of spontaneous presence' ():
*compassion/energy (),
*lights (),
*kayas (),
*wisdom, (),
*nonduality (),
*freedom from extremes (),
*the impure gate of samsara (), and
*the pure gate of wisdom ().
[Dharma Dictionary (December, 2005). "lhun grub kyi sgo brgyad". Source]
(accessed: Sunday April 4, 2010)
Primary resources
Bkra shis mdzes ldan chen po'i rgyud in Wylie @ Wikisourceབཀྲ་ཤིས་མཛེས་ལྡན་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱུད in Tibetan Script (Uchen) Unicode @ Wikisource
References
{{TibetanBuddhism
Dzogchen texts
Nyingma tantras