Tibetan Text Titles - Part 2

 Let's continue with looking at Classical Tibetan text titles,  Part 1 is here. To recap, we are using the list of the Karmapa text titles that is available online here. Each collection of the Karmapas have a similar pattern per volume contents, it's typical it starts a catalogue of contents, then a biography or more, and then lineage supplication prayers. 

To continue we have then various other texts. We have Tantric practice texts,  སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ sgrub thabs, or if we translate this literally, means of achievement,  Sanskrit sadhana. These are texts that give a set of instructions and meditation practices how to achieve various enlightenment-related qualities such as becoming aspects of enlightenment in forms of a Tantric deity (ཡི་དམ་ yi dam) and the deity represents. For example:

ཕག་མོ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། - Practice of the five forms of Vajravarahi.

We could also have specific texts that have instructions how to visualize the deity or deities:

རྒྱལ་བ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་མངོན་རྟོགས་ - Jinasagara Visualisation Guide.

མངོན་རྟོགས་ here really refers to clear visualization rather than clear realization even if ultimately it is the same. In most cases these texts not only define what to visualize, but also what each specific part of the deity's form represents in sutra and tantra (implements, postures and so on).

We also have generic ritual instructions that usually has more than just the deity visualization and mantras such as sub-sequent other rituals, ཆོ་ག་ cho ga, such as:

གཙུག་ཏོར་གདུག་དཀར་གྱི་ཆོ་ག - Ritual of Sitatapatra.

As part of this domain we also have instructions how to confer empowerments (དབང་སྐུར་ dbang skur, abhisheka).  The Sanskrit word here really means 'sprinking or anointment'. 

དགྱེས་རྡོར་གྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་དབང་བསྐུར་བའི་ལག་ལེན་ - Practical Instructions on Bestowing Empowerments of Hevajra Samadhi.

To note there are full empowerments and also subsequent empowerments, or blessings, རྗེས་གནང་ rjes gnang. These are either lower Tantra 'blessings' that do not need a full empowerment before taking these, or then these are highest yoga tantric 'blessings' that require a full highest yoga དབང་སྐུར་ before being allowed to take these.

སྒྲོལ་མའི་རྗེས་གནང་ - Tara blessing empowerment.

We then have various texts related to the specific སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ practice texts, further instructions, clarifications, rituals and so forth. ཁྲིད་ཡིག་ khrid yid is an instruction manual, such as:

རྣལ་འབྱོར་གསུམ་གྱི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག - Instructions on the three Yogas (of Kalachakratantra).

The specific practices could then have their own instructions:

དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་གཏོར་མ་ - Kalachakra torma (instructions)

དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་མཆོད་པའི་ཆོ་ག - Offering ritual for the Glorious Kalachakra

ཕག་མོ་དཀར་མོའི་མེ་མཆོད་ - Fire offering to the White Vajravarahi

In the next part we will look at more text related titles and what they represent.