Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

The Kunjed Gyalpo ({{ #if: ཀུན་བྱེད་རྒྱལ་པོའི་རྒྱུད་ |{{ #if: |Tibetan|{{ #if: |Tibetan script|Tibetan}}}}: ཀུན་བྱེད་རྒྱལ་པོའི་རྒྱུད་ |}}{{ #if: Kun-byed Rgyal-po'i Rgyud |{{ #if: ཀུན་བྱེད་རྒྱལ་པོའི་རྒྱུད་ |; |}}Wylie: Kun-byed Rgyal-po'i Rgyud |}}{{ #if: |; ZWPY: {{{z}}} |}}{{ #if: |; ZWPY: {{{o}}} |}}; "All-Creating King") is a Buddhist Tantra preserved in Tibetan which centres upon the direct teachings of the primordial, ultimate Buddha (Adibuddha), Samantabhadra, who presents himself as the essence of the utterly pure Buddhic Mind (bodhichitta).

The text is noteworthy for its seemingly pantheistic or panentheistic teaching, according to which all things are said to exist in One Self - that of Samantabhadra Buddha - and that that One Self is all things. In consequence of this utter non-duality, all beings are intimately linked in to this Mind of Perfect Purity and are, as it were, its "children". Samantabhadra Buddha states:

"Oh all you sentient beings of this threefold world [i.e. the entire universe, both visible and invisible]! Because I, the All-Creating Sovereign, have created you, you are My children and equal to Me. Because you are not second to Me, I am present in you ... Oh all you sentient beings of this threefold world, if I were not, you would be non-existent."

Samantabhadra also insists: " ... everything is Me, the All-Creating Sovereign, mind of perfect purity ... I am the cause of all things. I am the stem of all things. I am the ground of all things. I am the root of all things ... There is no other Buddha besides Me, the All-Creating One." (The Sovereign All-Creating Mind, tr. by E. K. Neumaier-Dargyay, Sri Satguru publications, 1992, p. 111 and passim)

This ultimate, monistic Reality of utterly pure Buddha-Mind (the dharmakaya) is taught to reside in all beings and to be realisable and contactable - yet is beyond thinking. It is spontaneous, thought-transcending "Suchness" (tathata). It might be linked to the notion of Tathagatagarbha, which (e.g. in the Angulimaliya Sutra) is stated to be the pure essence at the very heart of mind.

See also

• Anunatva-Apurnatva-Nirdesa
• Buddha-nature
• Mahaparinirvana Sutra
• Srimala Sutra
• Tathagatagarbha
• Tathagatagarbha Sutra

Sources

• The Sovereign All-Creating Mind, tr. by E.K. Neumaier-Dargyay (Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi, 1992), p.111 and passim
• The Supreme Source, C. Norbu, A. Clemente (Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, NY, 1999)