Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s6.t4.13

v1.c7.s6.t4.13

The new school represented by Gelug sect divided Tantric classics into four types: Action Tantra, Performance Tantra, Yoga Tantra and Anuttarayoga Tantra. In Sngags rim chen mo, Tsong Kha Pa expounded cultivation ways, rites and methods, use of ritual implements, Satyadevata types, transmission and heritance of Tantric doctrines and codes of different schools. The later generations including monks in the Qing Dynasty observed the classification method of four Tantras of Tsong Kha Pa basically. Action Tantra and Performance Tantra mainly instruct external rites including Abhisheka, rules and ceremonies, heritance affairs and Four-member chants etc. Yoga Tantra explains four-classes of Siddhi cultivation methods including Buddha, Vajra, Ratna and Lotus; Anuttarayoga Tantra expounds attainment methods including four Abhisheka methods, various kinds of profound rules and rites, and gradual paths to cause of act and perfection. Gradual path to perfection is divided into Father Tantra, Mother Tantra and Nondual Tantra, in which Father Tantra includes Guhyasamaji and Great Authority, etc., Mother Tantra includes Supreme Happiness and Hevajra etc., and Nondual Tantra includes Kalachakra Vajra. Three Tantric Dharmas including Father Tantra (pha rgyud), Mother Tantra (ma rgyud) and Nondual Tantra (ngo bo gnyis med kyi rgyud) are formed in Anuttarayoga Tantra and are inherited.