Macrocosmic Man in the Kālacakra Tantra

Well, Leonardo’s Vesuvian man it is not. I am not and never have been an artist. I drafted the drawing you see here above decades ago, in the early ’80’s, as part of an attempt to understand the first chapter, “On Cosmology,” of the Kālacakra Tantra. A group of us read it together outside of regular school hours for a few hours every week, taking advantage of our varying levels of Sanskrit and Tibetan knowledge. This was how I met my life-long love and ended up where I am today. 

At the time I had no idea that very similar such body charts of the universe might have been done before. The most remarkable of them all was put on display at the Rubin Museum in New York City. It is now on view at their website,* although you might prefer this scan at Himalayan Art Resources. Still, these digital scans are not sufficiently dense to allow us to see the Tibetan inscriptions clearly, which is a pity.

(*There is an interactive version with labels by Elena Pakhtouva in Spiral magazine, you only need to tap HERE.)

Although I will not go into it very much right now, these Kālacakra charts might very well bear comparison in both structure and content with Kabbalistic ‘trees’ (ilanot).  But I think you can do the comparison on your own without even cracking open the cover of Yossi Chajes’s book, The Kabbalistic Tree. I do think it should be cracked open. But if you prefer you can see it in a brief video review. In it the reviewer kindly flips through the pages so you can get a glance at the illustrations. You will understand why they would require profound contemplation and study. Not just a flip-through.

As if that were not enough, you could also compare it to a very curious early (11th century?) Tibetan example of a body mandala of Vajravārāhī displayed and discussed in an essay by Amy Heller. As usual, Tibeto-logic leaves you with many more questions than it can possibly answer, and quite a bit more material to explore (listed below) than could be crammed into any known blogosphere without the help of Alien Intelligence.

Alert! 

Tibeto-logic is a human-made blog. So while it does make use of digital resources wherever useful, it is not and never will be a product of generative A.I. or A.I. editorial tools. I cannot abide their tyranny. Neither should anyone.

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Literature you might want to see or even read

Paramādibuddhoddhṛta Śrīkālacakra-nāma-tantrarāja (Mchog-gi Dang-po’i Sangs-rgyas-las Phyung-ba Rgyud-kyi Rgyal-po Dpal Dus-kyi-’khor-lo).  Tôhoku no. 362.  Dergé Kanjur, vol. KA, folios 22v.1-128v.7.  Tr. by Somanātha and ’Bro Shes-rab-grags.  Revised by Shong-ston Rdo-rje-rgyal-mtshan. For blogs on early woodblock printings of this scripture, see this and this and this. For translations of parts of it, continue to scroll down.

Yael Bentor, The Cosmos, the Person, and the Sādhana, a Treatise on Tibetan Tantric Meditation with a Translation of Master Tsongkhapa’s ‘Fulfilling the Bee’s Hope’, University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville 2024).

J.H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree  [האילן הקבלי], Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park 2022).

Amy Heller, “Two Early Tibetan Ritual Diagrams for Cakra Meditations,” Tibet Journal [Dharamsala], vol. 34, no. 3 to vol. 35, no. 2 (Autumn 2009 to Summer 2010), pp. 59-70.

S.K. Heninger Jr., “Some Renaissance Versions of the Pythagorean Tetrad,” Studies in the Renaissance, vol. 8 (1961), pp. 7-35, at p. 15:

“Pythagoras was the first man in western culture to propose a persistent pattern that prevails throughout each level of creation—which is, of course, the ideological basis for the entire microcosm-macrocosm analogy. This integrated system provided a basis for scientific hypothesis and for optimistic philosophical speculation. As [André] Dacier [in his Life of Pythagoras, p. 74] said: ‘He first call’d the Universe κόσμον, Mundum, to mark the Beauty, the Order and the Regularity that reign thro’ all its Parts.’ It was recognized that κόσμος means ‘embellishment’ as well as ‘order’.”

If it is true as is often said that Pythagoras was the inventor of the concept ‘cosmos’, and if as this paper by Heninger maintains this cosmos concept largely means the quaternity of the elements, and then if we add in Empedocles’ dynamic dialectic of love and hate, then we would seem to have located a Greek source for the heart and core of the Buddhist maṇḍala idea. (That Pythagoras is said to have visited India might also be brought into the argument, perhaps even in favor of overturning it.) But the modernistic caricature of the cosmos idea as something static and uninteresting, or as an eternal symmetry, needs to be set aside.

And if it is the case that the Pythagorean tetraktys (1+2+3+4=10) underlies the Ten Powers of Aristotle (supposed to supply coverage for ten possible ways to apply predicates to a noun in subject position) that entered the Middle East within logic textbooks in the form of the Tree of Porphyry then we might be able to identify the Greek sources underlying the Kabbalistic tree, the ten Powers of the Kālacakra, as well as the cosmological use of ‘ten’ in the writings by the Basran Brotherhood of Purity.* I am by no means insisting on a Greek origin, but I do believe entertaining the idea may lead us into historical truths we would never be able to come up with unless we try to prove or disprove it. 

(*For some efforts along these lines see our previous blog, “Three Traditions of Ten Powers: In Judaism, Buddhism, Islam.”)

Moshe Idel, Enchanted Chains: Techniques and Rituals in Jewish Mysticism, Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism series no. 16, Cherub Press (Los Angeles 2005). This book may be difficult to obtain, but I cannot suggest any better discussion of something this book (p. 41 ff.) calls continua, symbolic entities that link between divine and human worlds, and between macrocosm and microcosm. These links are inevitably, given the Judaic contexts, mainly restricted to the forms of letters and words, although there is a particularly interesting appendix on a different type involving colors. And they largely explain why ritual and meditation techniques can do their work. The concept of continua (Hebrew shalshelet) might with profit be placed alongside the Tibetan Buddhist ideas of rgyud (“continuity”) and more specifically Tsongkhapa’s ideas about effective correspondences. See Bentor’s book, p. 60: 

“[Tsongkhapa] distiguishes between mere similarities and the correspondences that entail a continuity. For Tsongkhapa, only the latter can achieve purification of impure grounds by means of the sādhana—in other words, are of soteriological value. Thus, in his view, only in the case of continuity—and not of connections—can there be grounds of purification and their purifiers that are beneficial to yogis...” 

Idel bears reading in connection with the anthropomorphic images often used to mediate between realms in Kālacakra and Kabbalah (forms made visible or semi-visible in many Ilanot), particularly pp. 51-52 where the author points to the “chain of Holy Forms” referring to the supernal anthropos, and the “chain of the image or likeness” or “enchainment of divine faces.” Here “chain” carries no sense of bondage, but rather of links or linkages, or if you prefer, connectedness.

See both books for much more along these lines.*

(*And for all those who might otherwise continue to mindlessly back-translate rgyud as ‘tantra’ without fail, I must urgently recommend the translated passages and discussions in van der Kuijp’s essay, pp. 103-108.)

Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, “The Bird-Faced Monk and the Beginnings of the New Tantric Tradition, Part Two,” Journal of Tibetology, vol. 19 (December 2018), pp. 86-127.

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Translations of the Kālacakra Tantra into English, Primarily

The same text is frequently referred to as Laghukālacakra Tantra. I haven’t yet seen a recently published translation by Niraj Kumar, The Kālacakra Tantra, Translation, Annotation and Commentary, Vol. 1, DK Printworld (New Delhi 2022), in 651 pages. It is possible to find interviews with the author on YouTube, and from these I conclude the first volume must correspond to the first chapter of the tantra (four further volumes are announced as forthcoming), and that its 5 volumes will encompass a complete translation.

Translations of Chapter 1:   B. Banerjee, Über das Lokadhātu Paṭala I. Kapitel des Laghu Kālacakra tantra rāja, dissertation (Munich 1959). 

On Chapter 1:  Winfried Petri, Indo-tibetische Astronomie, Habilitationsschrift (München 1966), in 151 pages.  This was never properly published, and I have never seen it.

Partial translation of Chapter 1: John Ronald Newman, The Outer Wheel of Time: Vajrayāna Buddhist Cosmology in the Kālacakra Tantra, University Microfilms International Dissertation Information Service (Ann Arbor 1987).  Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

Translation of Chapter 2:  Vesna Acimovic Wallace, The Inner Kālacakra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual, University Microfilms International Dissertation Services (Ann Arbor 1995); doctoral dissertation, University of California at Berkeley.  This contains the Mongolian text of Chapter Two.  The dissertation has now been published in two parts:  Vesna A. Wallace, The Inner Kālacakra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual, Oxford University Press (Oxford 2001); Vesna A. Wallace, The Kālacakratantra: The Chapter on the Individual together with the Vimalaprabhā, American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University (New York 2004). 

Translation of Chapter 3:  Jensine Andresen did a preliminary translation of this chapter as part of her dissertation (listed below) that is due to be published with the expected title The Kālacakra Tantra: The Initiation Chapter with the Vimalaprabhā Commentary. In her dissertation, this translation is Appendix A with unnumbered pages, although we may count 219 in all.

Translation of Chapter 4:  Vesna A. Wallace, The Kālacakra Tantra: The Chapter on Sādhanā together with the Vimalaprabhā Commentary, Translated from Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mongolian, Introduced and Annotated, The American Institute of Buddhist Studies (New York 2010). Reviewed by David Reigle, The Kālacakra Tantra on the Sādhana and Maṇḍala: A Review Article, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, series 3, vol. 22, no. 2 (2012), pp. 439-463.

Translation of Chapter 5: A translation is included within a very lengthy dissertation: James Francis Hartzell, Tantric Yoga: A Study of the Vedic Precursors, Historical Evolution, Literatures, Cultures, Doctrines, and Practices of the 11th Century Kaśmīri Śaivite and Buddhist Unexcelled Tantric Yogas, doctoral dissertation, Columbia University (New York 1997), chapters 11-13, pp. 1057-1395.

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More Kālacakra-related literature in English, German, Italian etcetera (an impartial but decidedly partial list)

Jensine Andresen, Kālacakra: Textual and Ritual Perspectives, doctoral dissertation, Harvard University (Cambridge 1997).

Edward A. Arnold, ed., As Long as Space Endures: Essays on the Kālacakra Tantra in Honor of H.H. the Dalai Lama, Snow Lion (Ithaca 2009).

S.S. Bahulkar, “The Lokadhātupaṭala of the Kālacakra Tantra,” Dhīḥ, vol. 19 (1995), pp. 163-182.

Biswanath Bandhyopadyaya (aka Biswanath Banerjee), “A Note on the Kālacakratantra and Its Commentary,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Letters), vol. 18, no. 2 (1952), pp. 71-76.  This reference may need checking.

——, “A Note on the Kālacakrayāna of Tantric Buddhism,” Proceedings and Transactions of the All India Oriental Conference: Eighteenth Session, Annamalainagar, December 1955 (Annamalainagar 1958), pp. 219-221.

——, “Some Aspects of the Kālacakra School of Buddhism,” International Congress of Orientalists: Proceedings (1973), pt. 1, pp. 41-45.

Biswanath Banerjee, “The Kālacakra School: The Latest Phase of Buddhism,” contained in: N.N. Bhattacharyya, ed., Tantric Buddhism: Centennial Tribute to Dr. Benoytosh Bhattacharyya (Delhi 1999), pp. 263-267.

Gilles Béguin, “Un grand mandala de Kālacakra au Musée Guimet,” La Revue du Louvre et des musées de France, no. 2 (1978), pp. 113-121.

Alexander Berzin, Introduction to the Kalachakra Initiation, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1997/2010). Much of this author’s work has been made freely available in a variety of languages at this website.

——, Kalachakra and Other Six-Session Yoga Texts, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1998). Translations of several brief texts for use in daily meditation practice.

——, Taking the Kalachakra Initiation, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1997). For more of Alex Berzin’s essays and translations, there is a listing in the back of the book (for an online version of the same listing go here).

Barry Bryant, in cooperation with Namgyal Monastery, The Wheel of Time Sand Mandala, Harper San Francisco (New York City 1992).

Mario E. Carelli, Sekoddeśaṭīkā of Naḍapāda (Nāropā), Being a Commentary of the Sekoddeśa Section of the Kālacakra Tantra, The Sanskrit Text Edited for the First Time with an Introduction in English, Oriental Institute (Baroda 1941).

Claudio Cicuzza and Francesco Sferra, “Brief Notes on the Beginning of the Kālacakra Literature,” Dhīḥ, vol. 23 (1997), pp. 113-126.

Damdinsüren, “A Commentary on Kalacakra or Wheel of Time,” Tibet Journal, vol. 6, no. 1 (1981), pp. 43-49.

Sarat Chandra Das, “On the Kālachakra System of Buddhism, which Originated in Orissa,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, n.s. vol. 2 (1907), pp. 225-227.

Ngawang Dhargyey (Ngag-dbang-dar-rgyas), A Commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra, tr. by Alan Wallace, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (Dharamsala 1985). This is marked as being restricted to initiates.

——, “Introduction to and an Outline of the Kalacakra Initiation,” Tibet Journal, vol. 1, no. 1 (1975), pp. 72-77. Translated by members of the Translation Bureau of the Tibetan Works and Archives, including Sherpa Tulku, Alexander Berzin and Jonathan Landaw, in preparation for the initiation in Bodhgaya in India, in January 1974.

Herbert Fux, “Sambhala und die Geschichte des Kālacakra - Ein lamaistisches Thaṅ-ka aus dem Österreichischen Museum für angewandte Kunst,” Alte und moderne Kunst, vol. 107 (1969), pp. 18-24.

Geshe Drakpa Gelek (Dge-bshes Grags-pa-dge-legs), “Dissolution and Emptiness Meditation in the Kālacakra Six Session Guru Yoga Sādhana,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 449-455.

Gen Lamrimpa, Transcending Time:: An Explanation of the Kālacakra Six-Session Guru Yoga, tr. by B. Alan Wallace, Wisdom (Somerville 1999). The author is also known as Lobsang Jampal Tenzin (Blo-bzang-’jam-dpal-bstan-’dzin).

B. Ghosh, “Emergence of Kalacakratantra,” Bulletin of. Tibetology [Sikkim Research Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok], no.2 (1985), pp. 19-31. Available online.

David Gist, “But Why the Kālacakra?” Tibet Journal, vol. 25, no. 3 (Autumn 2000), pp. 32-38.

Raniero Gnoli and Giacomella Orofino, Nāropā. Iniziazione Kālacakra, Biblioteca Orientale, Adelphi Edizioni (Milan 1994).

——, ed., La realizzazione della conoscenza del Supremo Immoto (Paramākṣarajñānasiddhi of Puṇḍarīka), Supplemento no. 1 alla Rivista degli Studi Orientali vol. 70, Bardi Editore (Rome 1997). Italian translation of the commentary on verse 127 of chapter 5 of the Kālacakra Tantra.

——, “La Sekoddeśaṭippaṇī di Sādhuputra Śrīdharānanda: Il testo sanscrito,” Rivista degli Studi Orientali, vol. 70, fasc. 1-2 (1996), pp. 115-146.

——, “The Sekoddeśaṭippaṇī: A Brief Commentary on the Summary of the Initiation by Sādhuputraśrīdharānanda,” translated from Italian by Phillip Lecso, contained in: Arnold, ed., As Long as Space Endures, pp. 51-92.

David B. Gray, “The Influence of the Kālacakra: Vajrapāṇi on Consort Meditation,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 193-202.

Günther Grönbold, “Heterodoxe Lehren und Ihre Widerlegung im Kālacakra-Tantra,” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 35 (1992), pp. 273-297.

——, “Kreigsmaschinen in einem buddhistischen Tantra,” contained in: Friedrich Wilhelm, ed., Festschrift Dieter Schlingloff, Dr. Inge Wezler Verlag für Orientalistische Fachpublikationen (Reinbek 1996), pp. 63-97. On the devices (yantra), including war machines, described neaer the end of Chapter One of the scripture.

——, “Materialien zur Geschichte des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga I. Der Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga im Hinduismus,” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 25 (1983), pp. 181-190.

——, “Materialien zur Geschichte des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga II. Offenbarung des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga in Kālacakra-System,” Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 28 (1984), pp. 43-56.

——, “Materialien zur Geschichte des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga III. Die Guru-reihen im buddhistischen Ṣaḍaṅga-yoga,” Zentralasiatische Studien, vol. 16 (1982), pp. 227-347.

——, “Materialien zur Geschichte des Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga IV. Tibetische Literatur zum Ṣaḍaṅga-Yoga,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens und Archiv für Indische Philosophie, vol. 27 (1983), pp. 191-199.

——, Ṣaḍ-aṅga-yoga: Raviśrījñāna's Guṇabharaṇī nāma Ṣaḍaṅgayogaṭippaṇī mit Text, Übersetzung und literarhistorische Kommentar, Dissertation Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität (Munich 1969).

——, “Der Sechsgleidrige Yoga des Kālacakra-Tantra,” Asiatische Studien, vol. 37, no. 1 (1983), pp. 25-45.

——, ”Vom Zähneputzen zur Unsterblichkeit. Medizin und Alchemie im Kālacakra-Tantra,” contained in: C. Chojnacki et al., eds., Vividharatnakaraṇḍaka. Festgabe für Adelheid Mette, Indica et Tibetica no. 37 (Swisttal-Odendorf 2000), pp. 283-296.

——, “Weitere Ādibuddha-Texte,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens, vol. 34 (1995), pp. 45-60.

——, The Yoga of Six Limbs: An Introduction to the History of Ṣaḍaṅgayoga, Robert L. Hütwohl, tr., Spirit of the Sun Publications (Santa Fe 1996).  English translations of most or all of his German articles on the subject of Ṣaḍaṅgayoga.

——, “Zwei Ādibuddha-Texte,” contained in: Jens-Uwe Hartmann et al., eds., Sanskrit-Texte aus dem buddhistischen Kanon: Neu-entdeckungen und Neueditionen II (Göttinge 1992), pp. 111-161.

Gungbar Rinpoche, “Shri Kālachakra,” Dreloma, vol. 6 (1982), pp. 9-15.

K.N. Gyatso, Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kālacakra Tantra (Boston 2004).

Ernst Haas and Gisele Minke, “The Kālacakra Initiation,” Tibet Journal, vol. 1, nos. 3-4 (Autumn 1976), pp 29-31.

Hadano Hakuyû, “Fundamental Study on the Formation of the Kālacakra-tantra” [in Japanese], Mikkyô Bunka, vol. 8 (1950), pp. 18-37. This and the next require verification.

——, “The Influence of Hinduism on Buddhism: The Formation of Kālacakra as a Counter Measure Against Islam” [in Japanese], Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, vol. 1 (1953), pp. 356-357.

Urban Hammar, “The Concept of Ādibuddha in the Kālacakratantra,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 203-218.

——, “The Kālacakra Initiation by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in Amaravati, January 2006,” Orientalia Suecana, vol. 58 (2009), pp. 40-59.  Try downloading it here. This may or may not be identical to yet another online publication on the same subject but a different title.

——, Studies in the Kālacakra Tantra: A History of the Kālacakra Tantra in Tibet and a Study of the Concept of Ādibuddha, the Fourth Body of the Buddha and the Supreme Unchanging, doctoral dissertation (Stockholm 2005). Download the entire book in your preferred format here.

Laura Harrington, “Exorcising the Mandala: Kālacakra and the Neo-Pentecostal Response,” Journal of Global Buddhism [online journal], vol. 13 (2012), pp. 147-171. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——, “Like a Buddha Jewel-Casket Thrown Open: Selected Excerpts from Dge ’dun rgya mtsho’s Mtshan yang dag par brjod pa’i rgya cher bshad pa’i rdo rje’i rnal ’byor gyi de kho na nyid snang bar byed pa’i nyi ma chen po (The Great Sun Illuminating the Reality of Vajra Yoga: An Extensive Explanation of The Ultimate Names of Mañjuśrī,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 127-143.

Edward Henning, Kālacakra and the Tibetan Calendar, The American Institute of Buddhist Studies (New York 2007).

——, The Kālachakra Mandala: The Jonang Tradition, Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences, American Institute of Buddhist Studies and Wisdom (New York 2023). Not yet seen.

——, “The Six Vajra Yogas of Kālacakra,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 237-258.

Michael Henss, Der Kalachakra Tantra (Zurich 1985). Not seen.

Helmut Hoffmann, “Buddha's Teaching of the Kālacakra Tantra at the Stūpa of Dhānyakaṭaka,” German Scholars on India, vol. 1 (1973), pp. 136-140.

——, “Das Kālacakra, die letzte Phase des Buddhismus in Indien,” Saeculum, vol. 15, no. 2 (1964), pp. 125-131.

——, “Kālacakra Studies I: Manicheism, Christianity and Islam in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 13 (1969), pp. 52-73.

——, “Kālacakra Studies II,” Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 15, no. 4 (1972), pp. 298-301.

——, “Literarhistorische Bemerkungen zur Sekoddeśaṭīkā des Naḍapāda,” Beiträge zur indischen Philologie und Altertumskunde. Festschrift Walther Schubring (Hamburg 1951), pp. 140-147.

——, “Manicheism and Islam in the Buddhist Kālacakra System,” Proceedings of the IXth International Congress for the History of Religions (Tokyo 1958), pp. 96-99.

Jeffrey Hopkins, tr., The Kālacakra Tantra, Rite of Initiation for the Stage of Generation: A Commentary on the Text of Kay-drup-ge-lek-bel-sang-bo by Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and the Text Itself, Wisdom (London 1985).

Roger Jackson, “The Kalachakra Generation-Stage Sadhana,” contained in Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 119-138.

——, “Kalachakra in Context,” contained in: Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 1-49.

Jhado Rinpoche (Bya-rdo Rin-po-che), “Essence of the Kālacakra Six Session Guru Yoga Practice,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 457-463.

Thubten Jinpa (Thub-bstan-sbyin-pa), “Rendawa and the Question of Kālacakra’s Uniqueness,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 317-330.  Red-mda’-ba Gzhon-nu-blo-gros (1349-1412).

Kalu Rinpoche, The Kālacakra Empowerment Taught by the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, tr. by Nalanda Translation Committee, Karma Kagyu Kunchab (San Francisco 1982).

Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, “Purifying the Inner and Outer Wheels: Remarks from Venerable Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche on the Significance of the Kālacakra for Times of Conflict,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 465-472.

Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, The Kālacakra and the Patronage of Tibetan Buddhism by the Mongol Imperial Family, The Central Eurasian Studies Lectures series no. 4, Department of Central Eurasian Studies (Bloomington 2004). 

Joseph Loizzo, “Kālacakra and the Nālandā Tradition: Science, Religion and Objectivity in Buddhism and the West,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 333-366.

Kameshwar Nath Mishra, “Vimalaprabhā on the Laghukālacakratantra 2.7.161-180,” Indologica Taurinensia, vol. 28 (2002), pp. 163-178.

Glenn H. Mullin, The Practice of Kalachakra, including Translations of Important Texts on the Kalachakra Tantra, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1991).

John Newman, “A Brief History of the Kalachakra,” contained in: Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 51-90. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——, “Buddhist Sanskrit in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 11 (1988), pp. 123-140.

——, “Buddhist Siddhānta in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens, vol. 36 (1992), pp. 227-234.

——, “‘Developmental’ versus ‘Revelatory’ Soteriology in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 40 (2017), pp. 209-224.

——, “The Epoch of the Kālacakra Tantra,” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 41 (1998), pp. 319-349. 

——, “Eschatology in the Wheel of Time Tantra,” contained in: Donald Lopez, ed., Buddhism in Practice, Princeton University Press (Princeton 1995), pp. 284-289. 

——, “Islam in the Kālacakra Tantra,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 21, no. 3 (1998), pp. 311-371.

——, ”Itineraries to Sambhala,” contained in: J.I. Cabezón and R. Jackson, eds., Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1996), pp. 485-499. 

——, “The Paramādibuddha (The Kālacakra Mūlatantra) and Its Relation to the Early Kālacakra Literature,” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 30, no. 2 (April 1987), pp. 93-102.

——, “Vajrayoga in the Kālacakra Tantra,” contained in: David White, ed., Tantra in Practice, Princeton University Press (Princeton 2000), pp. 587-594.

Khedrup Norsang Gyatso [Mkhas-grub Nor-bzang-rgya-mtsho, 1423-1513], Ornament of Stainless Light: An Exposition of the Kālacakra Tantra, tr. by Gavin Kilty, The Library of Tibetan Classics series no. 14, Wisdom (Boton 2004). This is Gavin Kilty’s award winning translation of the work of Mkhas-grub Nor-bzang-rgya-mtsho entitled Phyi Nang Gzhan Gsum Gsal-bar Byed-pa Dri-med ’Od-kyi Rgyan.

Giacomella Orofino, “Apropos of Some Foreign Elements in the Kālacakratantra,” contained in: Helmut Krasser, Michael T. Much, Ernst Steinkellner, Helmut Tauscher, eds., Tibetan Studies I and II: Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien 1997), vol. 2, pp. 717-724.

——, “Divination with Mirrors: Observations on a Simile Found in the Kālacakra Literature,” contained in: Per Kvaerne, ed., Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Fagernes 1992, The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture (Oslo 1994), pp. 612-628.

——, “The Mental Afflictions and the Nature of the Supreme Immutable Wisdom in the Sekoddeśa and Its Commentary by Nāropa,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 27-49. 

——, “On the Ṣaḍaṅgayoga and the Realisation of Ultimate Gnosis in the Kālacakratantra,” East and West, vol. 46, nos. 1-2 (June 1996), pp. 127-143.

——, Sekoddeśa. A Critical Edition of the Tibetan Translations, Serie Orientale Roma no. 57, Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (Rome 1994).

Winfried Petri, “Die Astronomie im Kālacakralaghutantra,” contained in: Helga Uebach and Jampa L. Panglung, eds., Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 4th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Schloss Hohenkammer, Munich 1985, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Munich 1988), pp. 381-385.

Katja Rakow, “Kālacakra in Transition: From the Apocalypse to the Promotion of World Peace,” contained in: István Keul, ed., Transformations & Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond, De Gruyter (Berlin 2012), pp. 413-433. Look here.

David Reigle, Kalacakra Sadhana and Social Responsibility, Spirit of the Sun (Santa Fe 1996). This author’s publications are all downloadable here.

——, The Lost Kālacakra Mūla Tantra on the Kings of Śambhala, Kālacakra Research Publications, no. 1 (Talent. Oregon 1986).

——, “Sanskrit Mantras in the Kālacakra Sādhana,” contained in Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 301-322.

Jean M. Rivière, Kalachakra. Initiation tantrique du Dalaï-Lama, Robert Laffont (Paris 1985). Note that the author, aka Jean Marquès-Rivière (1903-2000), was an anti-Masonic and anti-Semitic propagandist working in France for the Vichy government of Nazi collaborationists during World War II. He had started publishing fictional books based in Tibet already in 1930. (This just-given information should have been included in the biographical sketch in the inside back cover of the book.)

George N. Roerich, “Studies in the Kālacakra,” Journal of the ‘Urusvati’ Himalayan Research Institute of the Roerich Museum, vol. 2 (1932), pp. 11-23, plus plate. Try here.

M.S. Saccone, “The Wheel of Time (Kålacakra): A Survey and Bibliography of Previous Research and Forthcoming Works,” contained in: Dramdul & S. Sferra, eds., From Mediterranean to Himalaya: A Festschrift to Commemorate the 120th Birthday of the Italian Tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci (Beijing 2014), pp. 503-551. Not yet seen. 

Francesco Sferra, “Constructing the Wheel of Time: Strategies for Establishing a Tradition,” contained in:  Federico Squarcini, ed., Boundaries, Dynamics and Construction of Traditions in South Asia, Firenze University Press (Florence 2005), pp. 253-285. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——,  “The Elucidation of True Reality: The Kālacakra Commentary by Vajragarbha on the Tattvapaṭala of the Hevajratantra,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 93-126. 

——, “Fragments of Puṇḍarīka’s Paramārthasevā,” contained in: K. Klaus & J.-U. Hartmann, eds., Indica et Tibetica. Festschrift für Michael Hahn zum 65. Geburtstag von Freunden und Schülern überreicht, Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien (Vienna 2007), pp. 459-476. 

——, “Kālacakra,” contained in: Jonathan A. Silk et al., eds., Brill’s Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Volume One, Brill (Leiden 2015), pp. 341-352. A very useful survey.

——, “The Last Stanzas of the Paramārthasevā,” Tantric Studies, vol. 1 (2008), pp. 209-214.

——, “Newly Discovered Stanzas of the Paramārthasevā by Puṇḍarīka,” Newsletter of the Nepal-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project, vol. 5 (2007), pp. 9-12.

——, ed. & tr., The Ṣaḍaṅgayoga by Anupamarakṣita with Raviśrījñāna's Guṇabharaṇī nāma ṣaḍaṅgayogaṭippaṇī: Text and Annotated Translation by F. Sferra, Serie Orientale Roma series no. 85 (Rome 2000).

——, “Sekoddeśaṭīkā: The Paramārthasaṃgraha by Nāropā (Sekoddeśaṭīkā): Critical Edition of the Sanskrit Text by F. Sferra and Critical Edition of the Tibetan Translation by S. Merzagora, Serie Orientale Roma (Rome 2006).

——, “Textual Criticism Notes on the Vimalaprabhā by Puṇḍarīka,” East and West, vol. 45 (1995), pp. 359-362.

Michael R. Sheehy, “A Lineage History of Vajrayoga and Tantric Zhentong from the Jonang Kālacakra Practice Tradition,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 219-235.

Geshe Sopa, “An Excursus on the Subtle Body in Tantric Buddhism (Notes Contextualizing the Kālacakra),” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 6, no. 2 (1983), pp. 48-66. Try here.

——, “The Kalachakra Tantra Initiation,” contained in: Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 91-117.

——, “The Subtle Body in Tantric Buddhism,” contained in: Sopa, Wheel of Time, pp. 139-158. 

Geshe Lhundup Sopa, Roger Jackson, and John Newman, The Wheel of Time: The Kalachakra in Context, Deer Park Books (Madison 1985).

Surya Deep Prasad Shrestha, “The Origin and Development of the Kālacakra Tradition in Nepal,” Research Nepal Journal of Development Studies, vol. 6, no. 1 (2023), pp. 107-122. Available online.

Sofia Stril-Rever, Tantra de Kālacakra - Le livre du corps subtil (Paris 2000). Although I haven’t yet seen it, this apparently translates the entire Sanskrit text of the scripture into French. I have only seen it at this commercial site. Check the author’s academia.edu page here.

 ——, “Vibrating in Splendor, the Source Experience of Kālacakra’s Maṇḍala,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 399-413. 

Vesna A. Wallace, “The Body as a Text and the Text as the Body: A View from the Kālacakratantra’s Perspective,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 179-191. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——, “Buddhist Tantric Medicine in the Kālacakratantra,” Pacific World, nos. 11-12 (1995-6), pp. 155-174.

——, “A Convergence of Medical and Astro-sciences in Indian Tantric Buddhism: A Case of Kālacakratantra,” contained in: A. Akasoy et al., eds., Astro-medicine, Sismel Edizioni del Galluzzo (Florence 2008). Not yet seen.

——, “Medicine and Astrology in the Healing Arts of the Kālacakratantra,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 276-300.

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, “The Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s Oral Teachings on the Source of the Kālacakra Tantra,” Pacific World, 3rd series, no. 6 (Fall 2004), pp. 229-244. Check this author’s academia.edu page here.

——, “The Kālacakra Empowerment as Conducted by Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche,” contained in: Arnold, As Long as Space Endures, pp. 415-448. Kīrti Mtshan-zhabs Rin-po-che Blo-bzang-’jigs-med-dam-chos (1926-2006). 

§  §  §

Notes on Cosmic Man 

Contributed by John Newman, on 11th of May 2025.

Dan, as a fellow American, I might say, “Cosmic, man.” No, you are no da Vinci, but your diagram is nevertheless a work of art, and I love the anecdote of how you met your “life-long love and ended up where I am today” while puzzling over the arcana of the Kālacakra. Karma works in mysterious ways.

If I may beat my own drum a bit: The locus classicus for your diagram is Śrī Kālacakra 1.10–25 & Vimalaprabhā 1.8.10–25, which are translated in my 1987 dissertation The Outer Wheel of Time: Vajrayāna Buddhist Cosmology in the Kālacakra Tantra on pp. 471–530. (A PDF of this ancient and obscure work is available, warts and all, on my academia.edu page.) If I was to suggest any modification of your diagram, I might shorten the face a bit and put an uṣṇīṣa on top of the head (25k leagues on top of Meru, 6 fingerbreadths in the body) [cf. my diss. pp. 478–479], similar to the Tibetan painting scan you posted. But I was delighted to see your calculation of “1 yojana = 9.0909 miles.” Who’s fingerbreadth did you use to establish the length of the cubit? In any case, that is pretty darn close to the crude 9 [U.S.] miles estimate for the Kālacakra yojana I came up with in my diss. p. 487n16. In terms of translation, I might suggest something like “the single void” or “void alone” (śūnyam ekam) in place of “simply nothing” (cf. my diss. p. 479, esp. n.9), but the Tibetans vociferously argued about the meaning of this term.

Another quibble: I would rather designate this diagram “The Measurements of the Body and the Cosmos.” This layout homologizes the cosmography of a single lokadhātu and the physiognomy of a single human body. In the Kālacakra cosmology there are limitless trichiliocosms (1000³ lokadhātus) throughout the limitless expanse of the universe, sort of like the way there are billions of galaxies in our dinky little modern “scientific” universe and multitudes of human bodies on our puny little earth. As Carl Sagan used to intone: “Billions and billions.” Again, like totally cosmic, dude.

For similar diagrams I recommend Collette Caillat & Ravi Kumar, The Jain Cosmology (Basel: Harmony Books, 1981) [a PDF of this is currently viewable on Internet Archive (archive.org)]. See, for example, pp. 52–53. Note that the names of the hells there are related to the names used in the Kālacakra, which are quite different from the layout of the hells in general Buddhist usage, e.g. Abhidharmakośa 3.58–59. Way back in the last millennium David Reigle pointed out to me that the Kālacakra hells scheme is almost identical to that found in the Jaina Tattvārthādhigamasūtra 3.1 [cf. my diss. p. 478n8], and there are other Jaina elements found in the Kālacakra. It may be the case that the Kālacakra cosmos/body homology is to some degree inspired by Jaina doctrine. However, the basic idea “embodied” in the slogan you used as a caption on your diagram (“As the external world is, so is the body”) [cf. my diss. p. 472n1: yathā bāhye tathā dehe = Śrī Hevajra 2.4.49c] has a long history in Buddhism, not to mention non-Buddhist traditions like the Vedic Puruṣasūkta. If I was to speculate, I would speculate that in India this idea is pre-historic. I suspect that people were thinking about this in Mohenjo-Daro, and even then the idea was already very old.

So Primitive Man may not have been so primitive after all. And lest the ladies think that they have been left out of this discussion, it should be strongly emphasized that in the Kālacakra Tantra Cosmic Man (the mahāpuruṣapudgala)—like everything else—is born from the Mother of the Universe (Viśvamātā), and She is the Matrix within which everything arises and disappears. So think of your Mother on this U.S. Mother’s Day holiday.

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Added note (May 24-26, 2025)

I already recognized as I was putting it up it was a poor attempt if my plan was to supply a reasonably full bibliography of works about the Kālacakra, so I’ve already updated it a few times. Unfortunately, until today I was unaware of the Saccone bibliography and still haven’t seen it. If you notice any mistakes or omissions major or minor I would appreciate hearing about them. I’ve almost entirely omitted publications focusing on Sambhala (Shambhala), thinking they would deserve a bibliography of their own. For knowledge of the very latest books, I recommend a search of the internet or of particular websites such as Amazon.

Turkish Dzogchen of Early Ladakh

 

Hong Kong, May 2018   

It is honestly difficult to contemplate writing up a blog after giving it a title like that one you see here. There is a promise and an aim indicated in it, but I suppose the main justification is just to explore and to learn new things along the way. 

To begin with, friends in our close circle already know about an amazing set of texts from old chortens in Matho, Ladakh, that were all scribed prior to the year 1200 or at most a decade or two later. 

We’ve blogged on Matho a few times before, beginning with this one. Matho has what has to be (one of?) the earliest clearly datable manuscripts of a treasure text, a terma. It has a piece of that redoubtable Dzogchen scripture The All Making King that may be its oldest surviving manuscript evidence. It has an astounding number of fragments pertaining to Padampa Sangyé and the Zhijé School that will eventually prove their worth to researchers in that area. Looking at the Matho texts overall, they present us with a distinctively different image of what was going on in the realm of religion in Ladakh and adjacent areas of Western Tibet in those early centuries. But be assured I would not joke about a thing like this. So just because I put up a crazy title on a day like today doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hear me out.

Dzogchen is a difficult subject to approach, but once you are getting there it is famous for not presenting difficulties. Just the contrary, it often recommends abandoning efforts to get enlightened, as Awakening is already there requiring only immediate recognition. Dzogchen promises that the most obdurate past delusions can be dissolved in an instant, like in the Kāśyapa Parivarta’s statement about how a thousand-year-old darkness can be dispelled by lighting one single lamp in the room. But simplicity can present us with considerable complexity and even perplexity, and the only enlightenment on offer in this modest blog will be on a much smaller scale. 

We hope to think about lineage history, routes of migration and influence and even loanwords. These are arguably important issues if we are to begin to understand how one of the most authentic (historically speaking at the very least) systems of Dzogchen, transmitted by Turkish or more specifically Uighur practitioners in the area we would now call Gansu, ended up in pre-Mongol era Ladakh, two places in opposite extremes of the Tibetan Plateau. It may not be a smooth ride, but I think we can get somewhere with what we have.

The text is a rarity among the Matho fragments because it is all there, from title to colophon. This can be said of it despite damage and minor text loss in one corner and in a tear-line. Its smallness belies its high importance for 

[1] understanding the general religious situation on the Plateau in the pre-Mongol centuries and more specifically 

[2] insight into the historical transmission of Dzogchen. 

I would like to claim an ability to go deeply into its content, but there are difficulties in both its language (spelling, syntax, vocabulary) and its references to practice-related issues that can seem, perhaps surprisingly, technical and opaque. So those who feel they have the need and ability can look at the transcription of the text down below in the appendices. Meanwhile, a few observations about its beginning and its end.

The front title is not a true title, more like an introductory statement on the content of the text: “This reasonable presentation of the oral instructions to leave it as it is...” (man-ngag cog-bzhag lung-du bstan-pa ’di). The closing of the text also doesn’t present us with an actual title, once again describing the content: “While you may meditate since bodily exertion will not achieve it, these are the precepts for leaving it as is” (lus rtsal bas ma rnyed pas // sgoms kyang man ngag chog bzhag ma ’o). Nevertheless, we may say “Oral Instructions to Leave It as Is” here looks more like a true text-title just because of the -ma ending. 

Now to delve into the content a bit, but only a little bit. It might at first *seem* to cite from a text called Ten Tattvas (de-nyid bcu-pa, there are in truth several works by this title), but then again it looks like part of the shop-talk, the main topic being meditation done without squinting the eyes, here called the Lion’s Gaze. And as it turns out this same quote is quoted in other contexts without ever indicating its source. My hope is to convey the feeling that a lot depends on the living context, and that the text and its writer were not settled comfortably in the literary/learned world, not bound by its rules, its concerns placed elsewhere. This impression is confirmed by looking at the Bka'-ma volume that came down to us from pre-Mongol and/or early Mongol era that records Aro Dzogchen precepts. More on that volume in a minute.

Galvanizing as these teachings are, they are after all esoteric, meant only for persons directly engaged in instruction under a master with the necessary wisdom that comes from experiential application. Tibetans repeat such provisos so often we simply must take them seriously, even if (or even especially if) the traditional safeguards have been eroding dramatically in recent decades. Face it, listening to the Beatles song Let It Be* is not the same as receiving this as a meditation precept from an experienced meditator you know and respect at just the right moment in meditation training. And needless to say, it isn’t a game of word-search on the worldwide web, not a problem to be solved by accumulating information and depositing it in robots. Not even remotely. It takes place outside the academy, and gains little from enforced placement in that kind of environment.

(*The story is Paul wrote it after his long-dead mother spoke the words to him in a dream, although it’s recently been argued that instead of Mother Mary, the original set of lyrics had “Maharishi” there in her place, which somehow makes better sense.)

But I do want to point out a philological point, seeing that one of its precepts employs the metaphor of the turtle in the bronze basin. We’ve blogged about this before, and even though it might not be presented with precisely the same intended meaning in every context, you do find it deployed in a number of meditation instructions regardless whether the school might be Nyingma, Zhijé, Kagyü or Bön.

Rather than revisit the turtle, let’s look instead at something I myself oddly regard as important, which is that this small text, an untampered-with pre-1200 artifact, clearly testifies that in those times the Aro Dzogchen transmission of Dzogchen was alive and thriving. This same lineage was a topic of special concern in the recent translation of the long Deyu history. As it turns out, the main personalities known to have been involved in the production of the various (now four?) Deyu histories had connections with either the Aro Dzogchen or the Middle Zhijé transmissions of esoteric precepts or even both at the same time. It was in this book, tucked away in an appendix and meant to be ignored by all but the most hardy Tibet specialists, that the identities of two very early successive members of the Aro Dzogchen transmission were revealed as being Turkish, more specifically Uighur Turkish.

This Turkish connection is confirmed in our pre-1200 Matho text, in its first line, where we read, tentatively translated, a sketch history of the early Aro lineage:

“When Bairotsana came from the Indian Country, there was a gathering in Lower Dokham from which this teaching was transmitted to the Great Lama Aro, and from him transmitted [later on] to the Turk[s], and from him [or them] handed on to Kongratso.”*

*“The Turk” can just as well be translated as a plural. It means both of the Turkish men in the early lineage: Ya-zi Bon-ston and his immediate disciple Dru-gu Glog-’byung. The first was surely Turkish because his surname (or occupational name) is Yazi, a widespread Turkish word for ‘scribe’ or the activity of the scribe. The Bon in his name could mean he had once been a ritual expert in natively Turkish religion, it is difficult to be sure of it. I doubt its use here has much to do with Tibetan Bon religion, although this needs working out further, especially as he makes his appearance in Bon historical sources as well, where we can even find his ordination name Shes-rab-tshul-khrims. His successor is directly called a Turk (Dru-gu), while this disciple’s given name, apparently a shortened version of Glog-gi-’byung-gnas, meaning ‘Lightning Source,’ is not at all a natural-sounding Tibetan Dharma name, so my strong suspicion is it is a calque of a name given to him in Turkish, something like *Yıldırım Kaynak (both are indeed common Turkish names).

Did the culture of these two Turkish transmission masters have any impact on the Aro tradition? I do see one small sign of this in the one-volume set of early texts about the Aro preserved within the Oral Transmission collection of the Nyingma school called Kama (Bka’-ma). This volume was discussed to a certain degree in the long Deyu translation, page 17, so I won’t repeat myself. There is an example of what appears to be such an influence in its comments on the arbitrary nature of linguistic signs (Bka’-ma Shin-tu Rgyas-pa, vol. 100, p. 586):

འོ་ན་མིང་ལ་ངེས་སམ། དོན་ལ་ངེས་མིང་ལ་ངེས་ན། མེ་གཅིག་པུ་ལ་བོད་མེ་ཟེར། རྒྱ་གར་ཨག་ནེ་ཟེར། ཧོར་འོད་གཟེར་ཟེར་ཏེ། དེ་ལ་སོགས་པ། སྐད་རིགས་མི་མཐུན་པ་སུམ་བརྒྱ་དྲུག་ཅུ་ལ༑ མིང་མི་གཅིག་པ་སུམ་བརྒྱ་དྲུག་ཅུ་འདུག་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །

“Well then, is it definitive in the vocabulary term or is it definitive in the intended meaning? If it is definitive in the vocabulary term, we could say that while the fire in itself is a single object, Tibet calls it me, India calls it ag-ne, Hor (Uighur) calls it 'od-gzer and so forth and so on for all of the 360 distinct types of languages that have their 360 words for it.”

(*Note there is an oddly similar parallel contained in: Dpa’-ris Sangs-rgyas, Dag-yig Rig-pa’i Gab-pa Mngon-phyung, as we may know from a BDRC search, although the text itself is not made available. I once knew of yet another parallel that I’ve unfortunately lost track of...)

Entry in a Persian dictionary

For my present purpose, what is most significant here is that only three countries’ languages are mentioned by name, and one of the three is Uighur. That the word for ‘fire’ it supplies resembles words in various Turkish languages is already sufficient for my argument. Still, let’s at least look at a few of them. There is a word for fire in several Turkic languages including Azeri variously spelled as od or ot. But among their other common words for fire are atesh and indeed the azer that we find in the ethnonym plus language name Azeri and the country of Azerbaijan due to the famous natural flames found there. That both these last-mentioned terms have Iranic origins is no grounds for denying the Tibetans would have seen it as Uighur Turkish. I believe this is the correct way of reading the Tibetan 'od-gzer, but leave the detailed explanations to the linguistic experts. To me it is interesting to see once again the Tibetanization process that can turn a Turkic word for fire, whichever of the words it may have been, into the Tibet-intelligible word for light ray, which is özer.* 

(*But yes, with its typical Old Tibetan spelling employing the g- prefix letter that went silent at some point and simply went away later on. Then again, there is yet another possible explanation why the syllable-initial g- would have entered into Tibetan transcriptions of Turkish syllables with initial ‘z’, for this see Róna-Tas’s book, p. 106.) 

Without a doubt it would be more impressive to be able to find Turkish influences in the core of the Dzogchen meditation teachings themselves. That they once knew a Turkish word or two can’t be all that earth shaking, could it? Of course tangri The Sky is not only a living and responsive, but also an essential character in the cosmology of the early Turks, as it is for the Mongols, so one might be tempting to propose an explanation for why the sky or more abstractly space is the single most central metaphor in Dzogchen precepts. But I would no sooner propose such an idea than take it back again. It actually makes my head hurt thinking about it. I will leave it to keener intellects to work out the pros and cons.

We are accustomed to arguing about just how Indian or how Chinese Dzogchen meditation might be, so much so it sometimes seems little better than a partisan tug-of-war. We also like to discuss how Tibetanized it became, or how Tibetan it may have been even in its origins. The low-hanging evidence seen here might not be overwhelming at the moment, but I believe enough is accomplished if we can use it to persuade other researchers to keep an open mind and stay woke to yet another possible realm of inspiration. The richness of this world-class contemplative tradition will only be enhanced by recognizing its splendid diversity, not to mention its all-embracing inclusivity.

•

Past blogs on Turkish connections & Dzogchen

*In reversed chronological order.

Thank You for the Light, a Turkic Loanword (December 25, 2024). Both the Tibetan word lcag[s]-mag and the object it names were surely taken from the Turkic world well before the advent of the Mongol era.

Tibet Outshines the Stars of the Nations (February 16, 2024). Relations with the Uighur kingdoms were not always peaceful, but peace was made.

Turtle in a Bronze Basin (May 10, 2024). Although no Turkish connection is implied here, the same Dzogchen metaphor is found in the Matho text. There is a response by Jean-Luc Achard that clarifies matters considerably.

The All Making King’s Earliest Fragment (December 1, 2024).

A Gift of Tibet’s History for Qubilai Khan (May 30, 2023). The Uighur lineage holders of Aro Dzogchen were discussed here. Let me extract from it:

Orgyanpa says, “Drum Sherab Monlam received the [esoteric Dzogchen] precepts of Aro.” This is a further piece of evidence associating the transmission of this strain of Dzogchen, its lineage continuing straight through the era of Divided Dominions, with the earliest monks of the Second Spread. This connection is unexpected and, perhaps needless to say, not well known. Okay, but then neither is the associated Turkish connection expected or well known. Two Uighur Turks are listed one after the other in the Aro Dzogchen transmission as seen in an appendix to the Deyu translation (p. 784). The first of the two, Yazi Böntön (ཡ་ཟི་བོན་སྟོན་), is recognized as a monastic ordinand of Gongpa Rabsel (དགོངས་པ་རབ་གསལ་), while the Yazi part of his name, meaningless in Tibetan, could indicate something in local Turkic dialect, likely a word meaning ‘scribe’ (I do think this merits careful consideration). Yazi’s disciple and ordinand Drugu Logjung (དྲུ་གུ་གློགས་འབྱུང་) has a name indicating that he was a Drugu, a Turk.

Bagel, Baklava and Bag-leb (June 28, 2021). Turkic connections are drawn here, although these date to a later period.

Great Balls of Iron (January 18, 2020). The word thu-lum, like lcags-mag, is to my mind without the least need for further interrogation a pre-Mongol era loan from old Turkic languages that lay to the north of Tibet. It is nice to see that both words remain in use today in Anatolian Turkish. And both retain currency in Tibetan as well.

Dzogchen’s Hermetic Transmission Scene (June 30, 2018).

Turkish & Mongolian Loanwords (December 10, 2014).

Bird Dogs of Tibet (March 10, 2014).

Kashgar Tiger (October 20, 2012). On Vairocana and the Indian Dzogchen transmission account. See also the blog for June 30, 2018, listed above.

From Gesar: The Place This Time (February 19, 2010).

•

Written matter: Books & essays

• I know I will be taken to task for omitting important publications, so I hereby immediately admit my guilt and go on with my life. Thanks anyway to Mike Walter who sent me lots of things to read, not that I could find the energy to read them all.

Erhan Aydın, “Tibet in Old Turkic Texts,” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no. 46 (October 2018), pp. 90-97. In particular note the Old Turkic inscription with one word borrowed from Tibetan, the word for ‘minister’ (blon).

Louis Bazin, “Pre-Islamic Turkic Borrowings in Upper Asia: Some Crucial Semantic Fields,” Diogenes, no. 171, vol. 43, no. 3 (Fall 1995), pp. 35-44. 

Read this readable essay in case you are in doubt about how earlier loans into Central Asian Turkic languages were most likely to be drawn from Persian, while in later times Chinese borrowings increased. Names for trade items are neglected here and instead the following areas are emphasized: religious vocabulary, official titles, tools of literacy, music and musical instruments, geographical terms, and astral sciences. I’m particularly struck by this statement on p. 40: 

“It was only in the second half of the eleventh century, in western Turk-Oghuz, that a verb meaning 'to write', yaz, first appeared...”

Perhaps, but only just perhaps, this should influence our idea about Tibetan ya-zi at the head of the name Ya-zi Bon-ston transcribing Turkic yazi, ‘scribe’ since this Ya-zi certainly lived prior to the eleventh century.

A. Bodrogligeti, “Early Turkish Terms Connected with Book and Writing,” Acta Orientalia Hungarica, vol. 18, nos. 1-2 (1965), pp. 93-117. Among the terms discussed is yaz-, a word that was not used in the very earliest documents, although at some point it largely took the place of another verb for writing, biti-, and remains in use in a number of Turkic languages including Anatolian Turkish.

Michael C. Brose, “The Medieval Uyghurs of the 8th through 14th Centuries,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, published online (June 2017). If you find religious and cultural influencers uninteresting, but want to know more about the migrations, struggles, and power elites of the Uighurs, you could easily turn to Wikipedia, or you could read through this single-author survey. You choose.

Bu-ston Rin-chen-grub, The History of Buddhism in India and Tibet [part two], tr. by E. Obermiller, Sri Satguru Publications (Delhi 1986, first published in 1932), p. 210, but be aware that here Ya-zi Bon-ston’s name is given as “Ya-s’i-p’ön-tön.” Notice that the place of meeting is the imperial fortress of Khri-ka, due south of the Kokonor. The words der bas in the Tibetan announce the end of the ordination proceedings, and could be translated as “That does it,” or “That’s all there is.” Obermiller translates it “Be it so.” The Tibetan verb bas is regarded as obsolete, belonging to the imperial era, although you find it in translation literature. My pecha of the Tibetan text reads as follows (proper names in all-caps):

yang 'BRE GZHON TSHUL gyis khams su sdom pa len du phyin pas KHAMS kyi KHRI KHA MKHAR SNAr BLA CHEN [271] PO'i mkhan bu YA ZI BON STON bya ba dang mjal nas bka' drin zhus pas / der bas zer nas sdom pa sbyin long med par 'das pa dang / ngas bsnyen rdzogs kyi sdom pa thob pa yin te khan po na re der bas gsung pa'i phyir ro zhes zer bas der bas kyi bsnyen rdzogs su grags / des RTA NAG PHU'I BYA TSHANG bzung / de nas SHANGS KYI BYE PHUG bzung / BYA TSHANG nas mched pa la 'JAD KYI GNAS BRGYAD byung ste / de tsho la 'BRE TSHO zer ro // 

(*I have no time to go into this intriguing narrative in any detail right now, just to say: Ya-zi Bon-ston does appear as a monastic ordinator in ordinary accounts of the first monks who brought their vows back to Central Tibet from the extreme northeast [meaning the area of Amdo south and east/northeast of the Kokonor Lake, nowadays included in Qinghai and Gansu]. In this paragraph, Ya-zi is a direct ordinand of Bla-chen Dgongs-pa Rab-gsal, who is himself sometimes supplied with a Turkic surname, Mu-zi, sometimes Mu-zu, while Mu-zu Ka-ra-'phan can be given as his earlier lay name prior to ordination, and the entire name could very well be Turkic... Another time, another blog. For now I would just like to point out that Central Asians were involved in the preserving and reimporting of “Lowland Vinaya” (སྨད་འདུལ་) monastic vows to Central Tibet during the Era of Fragmentation. It will eventually be recognized that Dzogchen meditation and the Vinaya traditions of both Bon and Chö are interlocked in the late-9th and 10th centuries. Mainstream Tibet historians will look on the very idea with amazement if they agree to see it at all. That remains to be seen.)

Long Deyu — Anonymous, A History of Buddhism in India and Tibet: An Expanded Version of the Dharma’s Origins Made by the Learned Scholar Deyu, translated and introduced by Dan Martin, The Library of Tibetan Classics series no. 32, Wisdom Publications (Somerville MA 2022), with the most relevant being p. 784. The corresponding Tibetan-language volume in the series is at this time downloadable at BUDA no. MW3KG158. It uniquely provides an introduction written by Geshé Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D.

We call this for short the “Long Deyu” even though the work is a post-1261 CE anonymous compilation framed as a commentary on a verse work. It was only this rather short verse work, dating from nearly a century earlier, that was composed by the Zhijé figure named Deyu.

Hayrettin İhsan Erkoç, “Elements of Turkic Mythology in the Tibetan Document P.T. 1283,” Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 61, no. 2 (2018), pp. 297-311. 

This has references (in its first footnotes) to earlier publications about that same Dunhuang document that will not be listed here. It appears the unavailable original document may have been made for the benefit of an Uighur king who sent a five-member reconnaissance mission to the Turkish realms further to the north. This report was then, for reasons of ‘intelligence’, translated into Tibetan. Both versions could have been penned  during the last half of the 8th century. 

Hayrettin İhsan Erkoç, “Pre-Manichaean Beliefs of the Uyghurs I: Celestial and Natural Cults,” Harvard Theological Review, vol. 118, no. 1 (2025), pp. 41-60.

Hayrettin İhsan Erkoç, “Pre-Manichaean Beliefs of the Uyghurs II: Other Religious Elements,” Journal of Religious History, vol. 47, no. 4 (December 2023), pp. 586-603.

Todd Gibson, Inner Asia and the Nyingmapa Tradition: the Case of Shri Singha. This forthcoming book, on topics especially relevant to our sets of questions, is bound to be a game changer.

Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, Lion’s Gaze: A Commentary on Tsig Sum Nedek, translated from the Tibetan by Sarah Harding, ed., by Joan Kaye, Sky Dancer Press (Boca Raton FL 1998). Here it is possible to find some discussion of the four let it be’s (cog-bzhag) as a part of the Trekchö practices.

Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, Pointing Out the Nature of Mind: Dzogchen Pith Instructions of Aro Yeshe Jungne, Dharma Samudra (Sidney Center NY 2012). This is the one and only publication that I know of in any language apart from Tibetan on the specific teachings of the Aro lineage of Dzogchen.

A. Róna-Tas, An Introduction to Turkology, Klára Szönyi-Sándor (Szeged 1991), particularly relevant to us right now is the section on pre-11th-century Turkish language documents written in Tibetan script at p. 95-110. One of the great geniuses of our times in Turkish as well as Tibetan studies, his life is subject for a fascinating video interview in the series Oral History of Tibetan Studies.

Appendix One: Transcription of the Matho text v327

[recto:] man ngag gcog bzhag lung du bstan pa 'di / rgya gar yul nas be ro tsa na 'is 'dos ['ods, ~'ongs?] nas [?] su // 'do khams [~mdo khams] smad du 'dus pa las / bla chen a ro la brgyud pa las / gru gu 'is 'ongs nas / rkong ra 'tsho la gtad pa 'o //

de yang lung de nyid bcu pa* las / dmyig ma btsums kyi rnal 'byor ni / rnal 'byor kun las khyad par 'phags / seng gye 'i lta' stangs zhes su brjod //  //

(*I could find the complete two lines beginning "mig ma btsum pa'i rnal 'byor" by searching for it in BUDA (its new version in beta: https://beta.bdrc.io). The three lines of verse appear to be cited several times in more or less the form we have them, without naming any particular source text.)

de la sems bsre' thabs gsum / mkhas pa'i man ngag bzhi [?] / sems 'dul ba 'i man ngag gnyis //  gzhag thabs kyi man ngag drug / lus kyi 'khams gso' thabs la lngas gcad do // ~|~ //

de la bsre' thabs gsum la / shes pa dpe ' la bsre' ba dang / rtags la bsre' ba dang / don la bsre' ba dang gsum mo //  //

de la dpe' la bsre' ba ni / dang po gnas dben zhing sgra' 'i tsher ma myed pa ru / stan bde' ba la 'dug ste / yan lag bdun pa sngon du btang ste / dmyig mdun gyi nam kha' la 'khru gang tsam la gtad la / mdung btsugs pa 'i [~'am] gzhu brdungs pa lta bu'am khab myig du skud pa 'dzud pa lta bu 'am / dran pa tur re ting nga ba 'i / ting nge 'dzin ma yengs par bya ba ni / thun gsum du bcad la / thun dbugs dgu' pa 'i tshad bzung la / thun thang gyis bskyang zhing bya ba ni / dbugs dbyung gsum pa zhes bya 'o //

rtags la bsre' ba ni / dang po rus sbal 'khar gzhong du brlag pa lta bu 'byung ngo // rgun 'brum la me stag 'phro ba lta bu byung ngo /  de nas be phur* la ser bu brgyab pa lta bu 'byung ngo / lcags kyi sbug gus me mnan pa lta bu 'byung ngo / bung ba rtsi la chags pa lta bu 'byung ngo / rtsi shing gi kha' nas rlung 'phyo ba lta bu 'byung ngo / chags pa myed pa 'byung ngo // ~|~ // don la bsre' ba ni / myig phye' btsums myed par don nyid zab mo la chags ste mi tshor bar 'dug pa 'o // ~|~ // 

(*Be-phur is replaced by bye phrug, ‘bird chick’, in the modern publication [but the whole passage merits comparison as the set of metaphors are similar but not identical], I noticed this odd word in the early Zhijé Collection, vol. 2, p. 228:  spang gi be phur thon. This doesn't especially help me to understand its meaning, although it would seem to be something in a meadow that might be pulled out.  The Monlam dictionary says this extremely rare term means ‘oak stake’. This may be correct, I’m just not sure how to understand it if it is.)

mkhas pa bzhi la / lta ba la mkhas pa gnyis su med par mnyan par shes pa 'o /  spyod la mkhas pa ci spyod dang sgyu mar shes pa 'o / sgom pa la mkhas pa ni yengs pa myed par shes pa byang sems la blta' bar bya'o 

[verso of the folio] sems 'chos pa la mkhas pa bying na lhag mthong bskyed par bya 'o / lus gi khams gso' ba dang / 'phro' 'du' bya' ba dang / rgod na sems stod [~gtod] la gnan par bya'o //  dmigs pa sku' gzugs gsam [~bsam, ~sam?] / me long gi gzugs mnyan [~gzugs brnyan] la gzugs pa la / sems brtad la sgom du gzhug / sems 'dul thabs bya' // brlung lam du gjug [~gzhug] pa shes par bya'o //  

gzhag thabs drug la / sems mnyam ba la bzhag pa'i dus ni / snang srid thams cad sems nyid yin la // sems chos nyid stong pa'i ngang las // chos nyid du bzhag pa'i rnam par rtog pa dang // mtshan nyid ci ltar ba bkun chos nyid yin par shes par bya'o //  

sems ye shes sgyu' ma la bzhag pa ni /  snang srid phyi nang snod bcud thams cad rang 'byung gi ye shes su bstogs nas // stog pa'i ngang la bzhag pa'o //  

shes pa rang srol [~rdol?] du gzhag pa ni / rigs pa khong nas shar nas ni / dbang po lhug par bzhag pa ni // dbang po sgo' yan du btsug [?] tsam ba // slar log [?] pa 'am // rang bzhin myed par shes pa'o // shes pa lhug par bya' 'o // ngang gis dal gus snyams la // ma yengs tsam du gnas na // rigs pa'i nyi' ma' 'char ste // me long g.ya' dang ba ltab 'u bo [~lta bu'o] // 

lus gi khams gso' ba ni // khams dang phyar [~sbyar] la // brid ci bya'o / gnas nyams brga' bar bya' 'o // grogs nyams brga' ba dang 'grogs so // khams log ba byung na mthong stang log pa byung na gseng pa byung na // mthong na / gcig khris pa skye' ba yin pas // gung gi phe' thabs [?] // bsil drig la nyal la bzhag go /  

skyugs na bad kan skyes pa yin pas / bcag ran bya'o // lus 'drar [~'dar] zhing skyug pa dang / bgo' bo [~mgo bo] 'khor ba bad kan skyes pa yin ste' sman mar dang zas bcud can btang ngo /  dro' sa dang nyi ma la rgyab stan cing sgom du gzhag go // gol [~gos?] mar la dro' ba dar men spu' rlag dgo' ba'o // zas ltogs pa bcud yod pa / sman mar ram / la 'zhi' brlangs mal bya' / 'khor ba ba'i 'du' 'dzi' thag srings phran [~sran?] tshugs par bya' zhing / rang sems dpang por gtsugs la lus dang ngag dang steng chu' bzhin / lus rtsal bas ma rnyed pas // sgoms kyang man ngag chog bzhag ma 'o //  //

rdzogs s.ho ithî //  //   ~|~  //  //

•

Appendix Two: For comparison, the only known published text

Extract for comparison from BUDA’s etext entitled Rdzogs-chen-gyi Khyad-par-ba Bdun, contained in: Bka'-ma Shin-tu Rgyas-pa, Si-khron Mi-rigs Dpe-skrun-khang (Chengdu 2009), in 133 volumes, at vol. 100, pp. 343-359, at pp. 356-359. I checked the OCR against the published version and found only one tiny inaccuracy, a missing vowel sign, which I have corrected. Comparing the pre-1200 manuscript with this post-2000 publication is very instructive as there are a number of meaningful differences. To judge from my experience, this will always be so.

།། ༈ །།སྙན་ནས་སྙན་དུ་བརྒྱུད་པའི་མན་ངག་འདི་ཡང་། 

ལུང་དེ་ཉིད་བཅུ་པ་ལས། དམིག་མ་བཙུམས་ཀྱི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ནི། རྣལ་འབྱོར་གཞན་ལས་ཁྱད་པར་འཕགས། སེང་གེའི་ལྟ་སྟངས་ཞེས་སུ་བརྗོད། 

དེ་ལ་བསྲེ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་མན་ངག་གསུམ། མཁས་པའི་མན་ངག་བཞི། འདུལ་བའི་མན་ངག་གཉིས། གཞག་ཐབས་ཀྱི་མན་ངག་དྲུག །ལུས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་གསོ་བ་དང་ལྔའོ། །

དེ་ལ་བསྲེ་ཐབས་གསུམ་

༼༣༦༧༽

༄༅། །ནི༑ ཤེས་པ་དཔེ་ལ་བསྲེ་བ་དང་། རྟགས་ལ་བསྲེ་བ་དང་། དོན་ལ་བསྲེ་བའོ། །

དེ་ལ་དཔེ་ལ་བསྲེ་བ་ནི། དང་པོ་གནས་དབེན་པ་སྒྲ་བའི་ཚེར་མ་མེད་པར་སྟན་བདེ་བ་ལ་འདུག་སྟེ། མིག་མདུན་གྱི་ནམ་མཁའ་ཁྲུ་གང་ཙམ་ལ་གཏད་དེ་མདུང་བཙུགས་པའམ། གཞུ་བརྡུངས་པའམ། ཁབ་མིག་ཏུ་སྐུད་པ་འཛུད་པ་ལྟར་དྲན་པ་ཏུ་རེ་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་མ་ཡེངས་པར་བྱ་བ་ནི། ཐུན་གསུམ་དུ་བཅད་ལ། ཐུན་དབུགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་བས་ཚད་བཟུང་ལ། ཐུན་ཐང་གིས་བསྒྱུར་ཞིང་། བྱ་བ་ནི་དབུགས་དབྱུང་གསུམ་པ་ཞེས་བྱའོ། །

རྟགས་ལ་བསྲེ་བ་ན། དང་པོ་རུས་སྦལ་འཁར་གཞོང་དུ་བཅུག་པ་ལྟ་བུ་འབྱུང་ངོ༌། །དེ་ནས་བྱེ་ཕྲུག་ལ་སེར་བུ་ཕོག་པ་ལྟ་བུ་དང་། རྒུན་འབྲུམ་ལྟ་བུ་དང་། མེ་སྟག་འཕྲོ་བ་ལྟ་བུ་དང༌། ལྕགས་ཀྱི་སྦུ་གུས་ཆེ་འདྲེན་པ་ལྟ་བུ་དང་། བུང་བ་རྩི་ཆགས་པ་ལྟ་བུ་དང༌། རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གཏིང་ན་ཉ་འཕྱོ་བ་ལྟ་བུ་དང༌། རྩི་ཤིང་གི་ཁ་ན་རླུང་འཕྱོ་བ་ལྟ་བུ་འབྱུང་ངོ༌། །

དོན་ལ་བསྲེ་བ་ནི་མིག་ཕྱེ་བཙུམས་མེད་པར་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཟབ་མོ་ལ་སེམས་ཆགས་ཏེ། དབུགས་རྒྱུ་བ་མི་ཚོར་བར་འདུག་པའོ། །མཁས་པ་བཞི་ལ། ལྟ་བ་ལ་མཁས་པ་སྟེ། གཉིས་མེད་མཉམ་པར་ཤེས་པའོ།།  

༼༣༦༨༽

སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་མཁས་པ་ནི། ཅི་སྤྱོད་ཀྱང་སྒྱུ་མར་ཤེས་པའོ། །བསྒོམ་པ་ལ་མཁས་པ་ནི། ཡེངས་པ་མེད་པར་སེམས་ལ་ལྟ་བའོ། ། 

སེམས་འཆོས་པ་ལ་མཁས་པ་ནི། བྱིང་ན་ལྷག་མཐོང་བསྐྱེད༑ ལུས་བསིང་། ཁྲུས་དང་འཕྲོ་འདུ་ཡང་བྱའོ། །རྒོད་ན་སེམས་གཏོད་པ་ལ་གནན་ཏེ། དམིགས་པ་སྐུ་གཟུགས་སམ། མེ་ལོང་གི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་ལ་གཏད་དོ། །སེམས་འདུལ་ཐབས་གཉིས་ལ། འགྲེང་རྡབས་བྱ་བ་དང༌། རླུང་ལམ་དུ་གཞུག་པ་ཤེས་པར་བྱ་བའོ། །

གཞག་ཐབས་དྲུག་ལ། སེམས་མཉམ་པའི་ངང་ལ་བཞག་པ་ནི། སྣང་སྲིད་ཐམས་ཅད་སེམས་ཡིན་ལ་སེམས་སྟོང་པའི་ངང་ལ་བཞག་པའོ། །

ཆོས་ཉིད་དུ་གཞག་པ་ནི། རྣམ་རྟོག་དང་མཚན་མ་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཡིན་པར་ཤེས་པའོ། །

སེམས་ཡེ་ཤེས་སུ་བསྒྱུར་ལ་བཞག་པ་ནི། སྣང་སྲིད་ཐམས་ཅད་འབྱུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་སུ་བརྟགས་ལ་དེའི་ངང་ལ་བཞག་གོ། །

ཤེས་པ་རང་རྡོལ་དུ་བཞག་པ་ནི། རིག་པ་ཁོང་ནས་ཤར་བའོ། །

དབང་པོ་ལྷུག་པར་བཞག་པ་ནི། དབང་པོ་ཡན་དུ་བཅུག་ལ་གང་ཡང་རང་བཞིན་མེད་པར་ཤེས་པའོ། །

ཤེས་པ་སྨྱུག་མར་བཞག་པ་ནི། ངང་གིས་དལ་བུས་དབུགས་ཆ་བསྙམས་ལ་མ་ཡེངས་ཙམ་དུ་གནས་ན་རིག་པའི་ཉི་མ་འཆར་ཏེ།  

༼༣༦༩༽

༄༅། ། །མེ་ལོང་གི་གཡའ་དང་པ་ལྟར་འབྱུང་ངོ༌། །

ལུས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་གསོ་བ་ནི། ཁམས་དང་སྦྱར་ལ་བྲིད་ཅིང་བྱ་སྟེ། གནས་ཉམས་དགའ་བར་བྱ། གྲོགས་ཉམས་དགའ་བ་དང་འགྲོགས་སོ། ཁམས་ལོག་ནས་མཐོང་སྟངས་དམར་པོའམ་སེར་པོ་ནི་མཁྲིས་པ་སྐྱེས་པ་ཡིན་པས་དང་ཀ་དབྱེ། གྲིབ་མ་ལ་བཞག་གོ། །སྐྱུག་ན་བད་ཀན་སྐྱེས་པ་ཡིན་པས་བཅག་རན་བྱའོ། །འདར་ཞིང་སྐྱུག་པ་དང་མགོ་འཁོར་ན་རླུང་སྐྱེས་པ་ཡིན་པས་སྨན་མར་དང་བཅུད་ཅན་བཏང་ལ་བཅོས། ལུས་ཀྱང་ལྡེང་ཆུ་བཞིན་དུ་བཞག་གོ། །མན་ངག་ཅོག་བཞག་མ་རྫོགས་སོ།། །།ཨཱི་ཐཱི།། །།

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Appendix Three: Sources on this Particular Aro Lineage of Dzogchen that Passed through Kong-ram-'tsho (fl. early 11th century?)

Source: The Gsan-yig of Gter-bdag-gling-pa ’Gyur-med-rdo-rje (1646-1714), "reproduced from a manuscript preserved in library of Dudjom Rimpoche," Sanje Dorje (New Delhi 1974), in one volume complete. BUDA no. W30323. I will type out this lineage (at p. 710) for you:  

khams lugs kyi brgyud pa ni / thub pa'i dbang po / lha'i bu sems lhag can / dga' rab rdo rje / sha ba ri dbang phyug / mai tri pa / shrî singha / bai ro tsa na / g.yu sgra / gnyags dznyâ na / a ro ye 'byung / ya zi bon ston / gru gu klog 'byung / kong ram 'tsho / bla ma dgon pa ba / bla ma spo 'bor ba / de ba gru skyog pa / zhang zhal dkar ba / 'gos dngos grub rgyal mtshan man 'dra...  

In the Thob-yig of the Fifth Dalai Lama, his name is spelled Kong-rab-’tsho.  In the Indian publication of the Thob-yig, vol. 4, fols. 232-233: 

khams lugs kyi brgyud pa ni  /   thub pa'i dbang po  /   lha'i bu sems lhag can  /   rigs 'dzin dga' rab rdo rje  /   sha wa ri dbang phyug  /   rje mee tri ba  /   mkhas pa shrî sidha  /   bee ro tsa na  /   rgyal mo g.yu sgra  /   gnyags lo ye shes gzhon nu  /   aa ro ye shes 'byung gnas  /   ya zi bon ston  /   gru gu klog 'byung  /   kong rab 'tshe  /   bla ma dgon pa ba  /   bla ma po 'bor ba  /   de wa gru skyogs [fol. 233r]  /   /   pa  /   zhang zhal dkar ba  /   'gos dngos grub rgyal mtshan man bshad ma thag pa dang 'dra.  

Compare lineage found in Bka' ma shin tu rgyas pa, vol. 133:  

རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་སེམས་སྡེ་ཁམས་ལུགས་ཨ་རོ་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཁྲིད་ཞྭ་དམར་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་དབང་པོས་མཛད་པའི་མཁའ་དབྱིངས་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་ཁྲིད་ཀྱི་བརྒྱུད་པ་ནི། ཐུབ་དབང་༑ ལྷའི་བུ་སེམས་ལྷག་ཅན། དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ། ཤ་བ་རི། དབང་ཕྱུག་མེ་ཏྲི་པ། ཤྲཱི་སིངྷ། བི་རོ་ཙ་ན། གཡུ་སྒྲ་སྙིང་པོ། གཉག་ལོ་ཡེ་ཤེས་གཞོན་ནུ། སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཨ་རོ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འབྱུང་གནས། ཡ་ཟི་བོན་སྟོན། ཅོག་རོ་ཟང་དཀར་བ་བློ་གྲོས་འབྱུང་གནས། ཀོང་རབ་འཚོ་ལྡན་དར་མ་བ། ལྕེ་སྒོམ་ནག་པོ། བླ་མ་བྲག་དཀར་བ། དཔལ་ལྡན་དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པ༑ འགྲོ་མགོན་རས་ཆེན། རྒྱལ་སྲས་སྤོམ་བྲག་པ། གྲུབ་ཆེན་ཀརྨ་པཀྵི། གཉན་རས་དགེ་འདུན་འབུམ། ཀུན་མཁྱེན་རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ། རྟོགས་ལྡན་གྲགས་པ་སེང་གེ། རི་ཁྲོད་པ་དར་མ་རྒྱལ་བ། མཁའ་སྤྱོད་དབང་པོ། བླ་མ་ཤཱཀྱ་གྲགས་པ། ཆོས་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས། འདི་ཡན་ཉམས་ཁྲིད་བརྒྱུད་པ་བར་མ་ཆད་དུ་བྱོན།

 The same collection, vol. 100, in a work entitled Snyan-brgyud Gsal-byed:  

དུས་དེའི་ཚེ་མངའ་བདག་མེ་ཏྲི་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བས་ཐོས་བསམ་མང་པོ་བྱས་པ་དང་པཉྩ་བི་ཏ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སྤྱན་སྔར་བྱོན་པ་དང༌། རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཉེར་གཅིག་གི་སྤྱན་སྔར་བྱོན་པས་ཀྱང་

༄༅། །རྫོགས་ཆེན་གྱི་གདམས་ངག་མ་རྙེད་པ་ལ། མཁས་འགྲོ་མ་ལ་ཚོགས་འཁོར་བསྐོར་གྱི་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པས། མཁའ་འགྲོ་མས་ལུང་བསྟན་ཏེ། ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་དང་དཔལ་གྱི་རི་ཞེས་པ། །ཡིད་འཕམ་བྱེད་པའི་གནས་མཆོག་ན། །གྷིར་ཏི་ཨ་པ་ར་ཞེས་པས། །དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ། །ས་ར་ཧ་ནི་ཆེན་པོ་བཞུགས། །བུ་ཁྱོད་སོང་ཞིག་དེར་སོང་ལ༑ ༑རང་སེམས་སངས་རྒྱས་སྙ་པའི་དོན། །མ་ནོར་བདེན་པའི་གདམས་ངག་སྟེ། །ཞུས་ལ་ཡིད་ལ་དྲན་པར་གྱིས། །ཞེས་ལུང་བསྟན་ནོ། ༈ །ཡང་ལུགས་གཅིག་ཏུ། དམ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ལས། བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་གཏན་ལ་ཕེབས་པའི་ཆོས་ནི་ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་དཔལ་གྱི་རི་ལ་ཡོད་དོ་བར་འདུག་ནས། དེ་ནས་མེ་ཏྲི་བས་ཐང་ཁོབ་ཤིང་མེད་ཆུ་མེད་ཟླ་བ་གཅིག་དང་ཆུ་སྤུས་ནུབ་ཙམ་ཟླ་བ་ཕྱེད་རྒལ་ནས་བྱོན་པས། ཨ་པ་རས། རྩ་བ། ཕྱག་ཆ། སྙན་བརྒྱུད། སེམས་བསྐྱེད་བཞི་གནང་ངོ༌། །དེས་ཤྲཱི་སིང་ལ་བཤད། དེ་ལ་བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་ཙ་བ་བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་ཀྱི་སྤྲུལ་པ། ས་བརྒྱད་ནོན་པ་དེས། དཀའ་བ་དུ་མས་རྒྱ་གར་དུ་བྱོན་ནས། སྔ་འགྱུར་ལྔ་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཞུས་པས། སྒོམ་དཀའ་ཁ་གཡེལ་བར་འདུག་ནས།མཇུག་གསེར་གྱི་པ་ཏྲ་ཅིག་ཕུལ་ནས། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་གཏན་ལ་འཕེབས་པའི་ཆོས། སྣ་ཉེ་བ། ཁ་རུབ་པ། འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པ་ཅིག་ཞུ་འཚལ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པས། རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་སྣོད་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཁྱོད་ལ་བཤད་དོ་གསུངས་ནས། ཆོས་སྐོར་འདི་རྣམས་གནང་ངོ༌། །དེས་བོད་དུ་བྱོན་ནས། སྙགས་གཉའ་ན་ཀུ་མ་ར་ལ་བཤད། དེས་ཨ་རོ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འབྱུང་གནས་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་དེ་བཤད། དེ་ཡང་རྒྱ་གར་བདུན་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་གདམས་ངག་ཡོད་པ། ཧ་ཤང་བདུན་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་གདམས་ངག་ཡོད་པ། དམ་པའི་ཆོས་མཐའ་དག་ལ་མཁས་པ། ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྒོམ་ཉམས་དང་ལྡན་པ། མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ་ལྔ་དང་ལྡན་པའོ། །དེ་ལ་སློབ་མ་མང་ཡང་ཐུགས་ཟིན་པ་བཞི་ལས། ཁམས་ཀྱི་ཡ་ཟི་བོན་སྟོན་ལ་སྐོར་གསུམ་ཀ་བཤད། བྲུ་ཤ་ཟེར་ཀྱང་ཁྱུང་པོ་མདོ་སྟོན་སེང་གེ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ལ་སྤྲུལ་སྐོར་གཙོ་ཆེར་བཤད། དབུས་ཀྱི་དྲུམ་ཤིང་ཤེས་རབ་སྨོན་ལམ་ལ་གཟེར་ཀ་གཙོ་ཆེར་བཤད། གཙང་གི་ཅོ་རོ་ཟངས་ཀ་མཛོད་ཁུར་ལ་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་

༄༅།།གཙོར་ཆེར་བཤད་དོ། །དེ་ལྟར་བཞི་ལས་ལས་འདི་ཡ་ཟིས། རྒྱན་གྷོང་གི་གྲུ་གུ་གློག་འབྱུང་ལ་བཤད། དེས་ར་གཟར་ཤར་གྱི་རྐོང་རབ་མཚོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཚོང་དཔོན་མི་སྐྱེ་གཅིག་གི་རྐང་གི་འབུལ་ནག་བྱ་བ་ཕུལ་ནས་ཞུས། དེས་ཁྲོ་པ་ལྟམ་དར་མ་ལ་བཤད། དེས་འཚེ་ཆུང་སྟོན་པ་ལ་བཤད་དེ། དེ་ཡང་ཀྱི་མཁར་འབྱིད་ཕུའི་བྲག་ལ་གྲུབ་པ་ ཐོབ་སྟེ། འགྲོངས་ཁར་ཁོང་གི་ཞལ་ནས། ངའི་རོ་འདི་བསྲེགས་ལ་རྟགས་འདྲ་བྱུང་ན་དགེ་སྙོགས་ཀྱིས། མ་བྱུང་ན་ཅི་ཡང་བྱ་མི་དགོས་གསུང་ནས་སྤུར་སྦྱངས་པས། སྒྲ་དང་འོད་བྱུང་། རུས་པ་ཡང་བྱ་འུར་དུ་སོང་ནས་སྙིམ་པ་གང་བ་ཙམ་ལས་མ་བྱུང་སྐད། དེས་ལྕེ་བསྒོམ་དགོན་པ་བ་ལ་བཤད། དེས་སྤོར་ཆུང་སྟོན་པ་ལ་བཤད། དེ་ཡང་སྐུ་ཉན་ཐོས། གསུང་མདོ་སྡེ།ཐུགས་གསང་སྔགས་སུ་བཞུགས། སྐབས་སུ་གསང་སྤྱོད་ཀྱི་ལྡོམ་བུ་བག་རེ་མཛད་པས། དབུས་པ་ལྡོམ་བུ་བ་ཆེན་པོར་ཡང་གྲགས་སོ། །དེས་དམ་པ་ཤག་རྒྱལ་ལ་བཤད་དེ། དེ་ཡང་ཉང་སྨད་སྒྲོ་དར་རེ་བྱ་བ་རྣམ་འཇོམས་དང་ཕུར་པ་མཁས་པ་ཅིག་སྟོན་སྤྱིད་ཆོས་བར་དུ་མི་ཆེན་མང་པོ་འཚོགས་པས་དེར་མཛོམ་ནས་གླེང་བླངས་བྱས་པས་མཉེས་ནས། སོར་ཆུང་ལ་གདམས་ངག་འདི་རྣམས་ཞུས། ཁོང་གིས་ལྷ་རྗེ་ལ་སྒོ་བ་ནག་པོའི་སྐོར་ཚན་ཅིག་ཞུའོ། །དེས་དབོན་པོ་ཇོ་བཙུན་གཟུང་ངེ་གནང་།