This commentary on Guhyasamaja tantra is the seminal guide to deity yoga and tantric visualization for the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Guhyasamaja Tantra, called the king of all tantras, is revered in Tibet, especially by the Geluk school. Ocean of Attainments, a commentary on Guhyasamaja practice, was composed by Khedrup Jé Gelek Palsang (1385–1438), a key disciple of the Geluk school founder, Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa. It explores the creation stage, a quintessential Buddhist tantric meditation that together with the completion stage comprises the path of unexcelled tantra.

In the creation stage, meditators visualize themselves as buddhas at the center of the celestial mandala, surrounded in all directions by male and female buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other enlightened beings. Yet creation-stage practice is not merely visualization but deity yoga—indivisibly uniting the meditation on emptiness with the visualization of the mandala. The creation stage uses the conceptualization in visualization to overcome conceptualization, thereby creating a nonconceptual and nonerroneous direct perception. Such a mind, profound and vast, can bring about a transformation that stops samsaric suffering. How can visions generated as mental constructs not be erroneous? To the awakened eye, the buddhas and other beings who dwell in the mandala are “reality,” and in a sense they are more than real.

While the previously published Essence of the Ocean of Attainments is a concise exposition on the practice of the Guhyasamaja sadhana, Ocean of Attainments is far more detailed, providing extensive scriptural citations, clear explanation of the body maanala, arguments on points of contention, reference to other tantric systems, and critiques of misinterpretations. With its extensive and clear introduction, this volume is a vital contribution to the growing body of scholarship on Guhyasamaja and on Buddhist tantra in general.

About The Author

Yael Bentor

Yael Bentor, professor emerita at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a scholar of Tibetan tantric Buddhism. Her research focuses on the crystallization of tantric traditions among Geluk scholars during the early fifteenth century in Tibet. Currently she is working on the Six Dharmas of Naropa as presented by Tsongkhapa vis-à-vis the standpoints of Kagyu scholars. She lives in Jerusalem, Israel.

Product Details

Publisher: Wisdom Publications (April 16, 2024)
Length: 832 pages
ISBN13: 9781614298304

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Raves and Reviews

“Ocean of Attainments advances our knowledge not only of the Guhyasamaja tradition in Tibet but also of the Buddhist tantric view and practice in general. I highly recommend it.”

– Vesna Wallace, professor of South and Central Asian religions at the University of California at Santa Barbara

“The introductory essay by Yael Bentor opens the door to an understanding of the world of Buddhist tantra, while the translation that follows renders the elegant but technical Tibetan text into eminently readable English. A major contribution.”

– Per Kværne, professor emeritus, University of Oslo, and member, Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

“Yael Bentor and Penpa Dorjee have excelled. Not only is this translation of a high standard, it is preceded by an introductory essay that covers in great depth the essential components of a successful creation-stage meditation. For anyone inspired by creation-stage meditation, this work on the Guhyasamaja Tantra, the king of tantras, is essential reading.”

– Gavin Kilty, translator of Tsongkhapa’s Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages

“Written while the Geluk school was still in formation, Khedrup Jé’s masterful Ocean of Attainments was central to the school’s emerging synthesis of tantric visualization and Madhyamaka philosophy. Bentor and Dorjee’s accurate translation of this important text is meticulously informed by the complex debates that surrounded its composition. Bentor’s introductory essay, moreover, is its own kind of masterwork, an inspired expression of a modern scholar steeped in the traditional literature, moving easily across countless difficult texts and thinking through vital issues in distinct and insightful ways.”

– Jacob Dalton, Khyentse Foundation Distinguished University Professor in Tibetan Buddhism