Drakpa, Tsong Khapa Losang: Illumination of the Hidden Meaning Vol. 1

This is the first English translation of this important work that marks a milestone in the history of the Tibetan assimilation of the Indian Buddhist tantras.

 

This is the first volume in a two-volume annotated translation of Tsong Khapa’s Illumination of the Hidden Meaning (sbas don kun sel), a magnificent and massive commentary on the Cakrasamvara Tantra.

This first volume, which includes Tsong Khapa’s detailed introduction to chapters 1–24 of the fifty-one chapter root tantra, covers the history of the tradition, its interpretation, and a wide range of topics including the construction of the ma??ala, the consecration therein, the decoding of mantras and their ritual applications, and details concerning the clans of the yoginis.

The author situates the work in context, and explores in depth the sources used by Tsong Khapa in composing this commentary. He also provides detailed notes, a trilingual English-Tibetan-Sanskrit glossary, and an appendix that includes a translation of Sumatikirti’s synopsis of the Cakrasamvara Tantra called the Laghusa?varatantrapa?alabhisandhi, which is quoted by Tsong Khapa in its entirety in his commentary.

This translation has been completed with the publication of a second volume, subtitled Yogic Vows, Conduct, and Ritual Praxis (2019); a third volume will include a critical edition of the entire Tibetan text. Together with the author's English translation of root tantra of Cakrasamvara (2007), readers now have access to the first full study in English of this pivotal tantra.