Two Esoteric Sutras

This volume contains The Adamantine Pinnacle Sutra and The Susiddhikara Sutra, two important texts in the corpus of Buddhist Tantric literature. These texts include a general introduction in the conventional format of Buddhist scriptures and a supplementary introduction that describes the nature of Mahavairocana, equatable with the Dharma-body, first primarily from the perspective of his aspect as the essence of the Sixteen Bodhisattvas in the Dharma, Great, and Samaya Mandalas, and then in his capacity as the essence of the Dharma-realm.

The body describes the samadhis characteristic of the Yoga Tantras, an exposition of the rites of initiation, a description of the rites to be performed by the teacher in the mandala, the manner in which he is to initiate the disciple, and how the disciple is to obtain various types of “success” and “seal-knowledge” required for performing rituals associated with the Great Mandala “Adamantine Realm”, along with miscellaneous rules.

• Rolf W. Giebel, Translator