''Nelug Dzö'' () is a

poetic Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

vignette Vignette may refer to: * Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy * Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters * Vignette (literature), short, i ...

written in

Classical Tibetan Classical Tibetan refers to the language of any text written in Tibetic after the Old Tibetan period. Though it extends from the 7th century until the modern day (along with Arabic, Ge'ez, and New Persian, it is one of the handful of 'living' ...

and one of the

Seven Treasuries The Seven Treasuries (, THL: ''Dzö Dün''), are a collection of seven works, some with auto-commentaries, by the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Longchenpa (1308–1364). They constitute his most influential scholarly output and together provide a sy ...

Longchenpa Longchen Rabjam Drimé Özer (), or simply Longchenpa (1308–1364, "The Great One Who Is the Vast Cosmic Expanse") was a Tibetan scholar-yogi of the Nyingma school, the 'Old School' of Tibetan Buddhism. According to tibetologist David German ...

. Longchenpa wrote ''Desum Nyingpo'' (Wylie: sde gsum snying po), a

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

autocommentary to this work. Keith Dowman considers it a "magical

psychotropic A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, mind-altering drug, consciousness-altering drug, psychoactive substance, or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that alters psychological functioning by modulating central nervous system acti ...

poem".

Etymology

Sanskrit title in

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: Tathātva-ratna-koṣa-nāma. Importantly, the Tibetan Wylie "gnas lugs" is the analogue of the Sanskrit

"tathātva". The online dictionary of the

Tibetan and Himalayan Library The Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL), formerly the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (THDL), is a multimedia guide and digital library hosted by the University of Virginia focused on the languages, history and geography of Tibet and the Him ...

identifies "tathātva" (literally, "thusness") as synonymous with tathatā and dharmatā.Source

(accessed: 25 April 2011)

Outline of text

Rigpa Shedra provides an English text outline following the translation by Barron, from whom the Tibetan was sourced, as follows: #The Theme of 'Ineffability' () #The Theme of 'Openness' () #The Theme of 'Spontaneous Presence' () #The Theme of 'Oneness' () #The Individuals to Whom These Teachings May Be Entrusted

Intertextuality and themes

The majority of quotations cited by Longchenpa in the ''Desum Nyingpo'' are drawn from the tantras of the

Nyingma Gyubum ''Nyingma Gyubum'' (, ''Collected Teachings of the Ancients'') is a collection of Vajrayana texts reflecting the teachings of the Nyingma ("Ancient") school of Tibetan Buddhism. The contents of this collection comprises the Inner Tantras c ...

() ('Collected Tantras of the Ancients'). Out of the Nyingma Gyubum the most quoted tantra in the ''Desum Nyingpo'' is the '' Kunjed Gyalpo'' (), the principal tantra of ''

Semde Semde (; Sanskrit: , "mind division", "mind class" or "mind series" is the name of one of three scriptural and lineage (Buddhism), lineage divisions within the Dzogchen (Great Perfection) tradition. The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism tradition ...

'' (), the 'mind series' of Dzogchen. Sixteen of the

Seventeen Tantras The ''Seventeen Tantras of the Esoteric Instruction Series'' () or the ''Seventeen Tantras of the Ancients'' (''rnying-ma'i rgyud bcu-bdun'') are an important collection of tantras in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. They comprise the cor ...

of the Upadesha-varga are quoted at least once in the ''Desum Nyingpo'' and the most cited is the principal tantra of this class, the ''Drataljur'' or ''

Reverberation of Sound The ''Reverberation of Sound Tantra'' (), is considered to be the root tantra of the seventeen tantras of the Menngagde (esoteric Instruction) class of the Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen tradition. These tantras are found in the '' Nyingma Gyubum ...

'' ().

English translations

In 1998,

Richard Barron Richard Barron ( Lama Chökyi Nyima) is a Canadian translator who specializes in the writings of Longchenpa. He has served as an interpreter for many lamas from all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism ...

rendered the text into English with his translation of the ''Nelug Dzö'' in free verse with the Tibetan verse on the facing page along with its prose autocommentary by Longchenpa, the ''Desum Nyingpo'', with both works within the one bound volume. The numerous embedded quotations from the ''

'' were referenced and checked by Barron against the edition printed at Adzom Chögar in eastern Tibet. Keith Dowman has also translated the text. * * *

Etymology

Outline of text

Intertextuality and themes

English translations

References

Citations

Works cited

Further reading