Author Description

The Sutra that Brings Together the Contemplations of All the Buddhas is an important scripture of the Mahayana, a vehicle for universal enlightenment. It is also a root Tantra of the Anuyoga, a vehicle for the completion of the path. It presents us with the realities of the views and practices of the Secret Mantra. This scripture was available to the early Tibetan translators only in the language of Brusha, a frontier of the old Tibetan empire located in the modern-day Hunza region, which for the Tibetans was on the route to points West, including Persia and Arabia. Brusha was under the control of the Tibetan empire during the earlier part of the Eighth Century of our era. I believe it was during this time that The Contemplation Sutra was translated into Tibetan. This Sutra is a major work of world literature. It presents itself to be a history of the Mahayana, recounting twelve ways in which the Dharma appeared in time. It occupies six hundred seventeen pages in the original Tibetan manuscript. The translation will therefore be released as a trilogy, in three separate volumes. This is the second volume in which the seventh to the eleventh of these twelve ways that the Mahayana appeared are recounted. This Sutra has been very famous throughout Tibetan history and is revered by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It survives in both the Kanjur, the official canon of Buddhist literature, and the Nyingma Gyubum, The Hundred Thousand Tantras of the Ancient Ones. I have worked primarily from the witness found in the mTshams brag Manuscript of the Nyingma Gyubum, following the recommendation of my teacher Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche. For your convenience, and in an effort to support the preservation of this ancient literature, I have included images of the Tibetan manuscript.