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175 pp., paper
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Tibetan Treasure Literature:
Revelation, Tradition, and Accomplishment in Visionary Buddhism Book Excerpt
by Andreas Doctor.
The Treasure tradition of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism is richly permeated with wonder and controversy. This unique, mysterious tradition embraces revelation as the primary path to spiritual awakening. Over the course of Tibetan history, revelations—known as Treasures—have been discovered hidden in nature or have emerged directly from the great minds of the Nyingma School, creating a profound and lasting effect on Tibetan religious society and culture.
This book discusses central themes in the history and practice of Treasure revelation and presents translations of seminal texts of the tradition. It includes a discussion by the renowned master Ju Mipham (1846-1912) of the criteria by which to evaluate the authenticity of those who claim to have discovered such Buddhist scriptures. In addition, it introduces for the first time in the West the tradition and revelations of a major Treasure revealer of the nineteenth century.
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The following excerpt is from Chapter 1 of Tibetan Treasure Literature.
What is a Treasure?
The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism is home to a transmission of Buddhist teaching known as the "Treasure tradition" (gter lugs), a unique religious system that only recently has become the focus of attention in the West. This tradition propagates the reverence of religious material known as "Treasure" (gter ma), blessed words and objects said to originate in the enlightened intent of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Broadly, the Treasures belong to a tripartite system of scriptural and oral transmission defined by the Nyingma School as the "three great transmissions" consisting of (a) the long lineage of Transmitted Precepts, (b) the short lineage of Treasure, and (c) the profound Pure Vision Teachings. According to the Nyingma School, the Treasures are most often comprised of spiritual instructions concealed by enlightened beings for the purpose of discovery at a later predestined time when their message will invigorate the Buddhist teaching and deepen spiritual understanding. Central to this process is the figure of the Treasure revealer (gter ston) the person who acts as a medium for the re-emergence of this inspired material into the human world. Accordingly, beginning in the eleventh century and continuing into the present, the Nyingma School identifies a large number of Treasure revealers and grants authoritative status to their discoveries.
The idea that religious truth lies concealed within the world of phenomena awaiting discovery by spiritually gifted people is by no means a concept exclusive to the Nyingma School or Tibetan Buddhism as a whole. Throughout Buddhist literature there are numerous descriptions of teachings being inherently present in the phenomenal world ready to be perceived by individuals possessing inspired levels of consciousness and, accordingly, spiritual revelations have surfaced on numerous occasions throughout the course of Buddhist history. The Nyingma School is therefore unique not so much in its acceptance of revealed truth as in its institutionalization of such spiritual discovery and its ability to maintain a continued revelatory output. | 
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Considering the fluidity of the Buddhist canons in India and the central role of scriptural production and revelation in the religious life of medieval Indian Buddhism where the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions continuously accommodated, accepted, and authenticated inspired revelation as the genuine voice of the buddha(s), it is paradoxical that the Tibetans, in their attempt to adopt and preserve the Indian Buddhist traditions, should abandon this approach to revelation and give rise to an essentially non-Mahayanic notion of a closed canon. Regardless, the Tibetan acceptance of a closed canon meant that the Treasure tradition, since its early days, has found itself at the center of disputes of authenticity, defending the validity of its scriptures against the criticism of skeptics. This situation will be discussed later, but first we must look more closely at the Treasures and see how they were defined and understood by the tradition itself.
Although the Nyingma School developed numerous systems of Treasure classification according to their content, nature, manner of concealment, etc., all Tibetan Treasures share the claim that they were concealed during the golden age of the Yarlung dynasty (seventh to ninth centuries C.E.) by enlightened Buddhist masters who considered the needs and inclinations of future followers. During this period Buddhism entered Tibet and became the state religion through the sponsorship of so-called "religious kings" (chos rgyal) who embraced Buddhism and supported its spread. This was also a time when Tibet enjoyed considerable prosperity and political fortune on the international scene. At the height of its glory the Tibetan empire traced its southern border along the Ganges River in the Indian plains; to the east large parts of China had been conquered, and Tibet had emerged as one of the dominant powers in the region. It is therefore understandable that a number of Tibetan historians later would come to look at this period as the epitome of political as well as religious Tibetan greatness.
As Tibet converted to Buddhism, considerable wealth acquired from victory in warfare was reinvested into the task of propagating Buddhist thought and culture. Later legends, revealed as Treasure from the twelfth century onwards, recount this part of Tibet's history by focusing on the Indian esoteric master Padmasambhava (eighth/ninth century) and his role in the conversion process. In these texts we are told that, having been invited to Tibet in order to pacify demonic obstacles to the construction of Samye, Tibet's first monastery, Padmasambhava stayed on and assumed the leading role in transmitting the tantric tradition to Tibet. Although these later Tibetan accounts accredit Padmasambhava with this central and all-important role in the conversion of Tibet, little historical data exist to verify these claims.
At any rate, over time the followers of the Nyingma School continued to reveal a vast number of Treasure texts centering on Padmasambhava's religious feats in Tibet whereby his status and importance retroactively became embedded in a legendary narrative that came to play a pivotal role in the self-conception of the Nyingma School. In this literature Padmasambhava is described as the main author and concealer of the Treasures. It is recounted how he taught a small group of students at the court of the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen (ca. 740-798), subsequently concealed a great number of these teachings, and prophetically declared that they would be discovered in the future by reincarnations of those very students. The future Treasure revealers would then propagate Padmasambhava's teachings to audiences whose karmic needs and propensities would call for such instructions. In addition to this soteriological purpose, on a more mundane level the Treasures also appeal to a basic human fondness for novelty, which undoubtedly also contributed to their success and popularity. Still, while the Treasures appeal in their recency, they ironically also possess a concomitant attraction to Tibetans by linking the present "dark age" to the celebrated past when Buddhism was introduced and the empire was at its zenith.
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More about Andreas Doctor. . .
To read more about Andreas Doctor, visit:
www.snowlionpub.com/pages/doctora.html
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