Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The Clarifying the Meaning of Great Bliss, attributed to Avadhūtipa (Advayavajra), is a concise instructional manual focused on the realization of Great Bliss as the fundamental reality of things. The text outlines a progression from the union of mantra and form toward a non-dual perception of reality, which the author likens to a manifold illusion. By entering the ultimate reality, the practitioner achieves a state of union. The text commits the reader to a specific soteriological path where the attainment of this non-dual state is not an end in itself, but rather the foundation for a commitment to the benefit of all sentient beings. The work is structured as a brief exposition, beginning with traditional homages to the Buddha and Vajrasattva and concluding with a colophon identifying the translators Vajrapāṇi and Ma-ban.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise explaining the reality of things in brief, the Mahāsukhaprakāśa (bde ba chen po gsal ba) belongs to the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The work is attributed to the Indian author Avadhūtipa Advayavajra. It entered the Tibetan tradition through the translations of Vajrapāṇi and rma ban, and is preserved in the Tengyur (vol. ཝི), where it extends over two pages. The text enacts a progression from the meditation on the generation stage to the completion stage, guiding the practitioner toward the union of mantra and form. By perceiving reality as a manifold illusion and entering the ultimate reality, the yogi realizes a state of union characterized by the union of method and wisdom. This non-dual state is then leveraged for the benefit of sentient beings, utilizing deity yoga of the blissful mind and insight described as emptiness. A scholar or serious reader consults this classical Tibetan work to examine a concise instructional manual on the realization of Great Bliss and the specific soteriological commitment to altruism that follows the attainment of non-duality.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “Clarifying the Meaning of Great Bliss” (Toh 2239), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2239
Summary & commentary
Significance
This work is significant as it represents the intersection of Indian tantric thought and Tibetan translation efforts. It illustrates the priority given to the union of method and wisdom and the integration of personal liberation with altruistic intent within the Vajrayana tradition.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Introduction
Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles and offers homages to the Buddha and Vajrasattva.
2
Core Instruction
Describes the process of realizing non-duality through the union of mantra and form and the subsequent commitment to sentient beings.
3
Colophon
Identifies the author as Avadhūtipa and the translators as Vajrapāṇi and Ma-ban.
Themes
Non-duality (2)
Altruism (2)
Union of Method and Wisdom (1-2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Mahāsukhaprakāśa. In the language of Tibet: Bde ba chen po gsal ba (The Illumination of Great Bliss). Homage to the Buddha.
Having bowed to Vajrasattva, whose essence is method and wisdom, I shall explain the Great Bliss, the reality of things in brief. The first is the meditation on the generation stage; the second is the meditation on the completion stage. Therefore, the meditation on both of these is what I shall describe here.
Phenomena are certain to be unarisen without conditions; because their nature is dependent origination, is it not the case that they are neither born from hūṃ nor born from maṃ? From the seed of emptiness and awakening, the form is born from the seed. Upon the form, there is the placement and the object of placement; therefore, everything is born from conditions.
Whatever the Sage taught as the external union of the two, that should be understood clearly in the tantra as the meaning of internal realization. For those who assert that bliss is the very essence, if there is no bliss, there is no awakening. Even if it exists, it is great attachment, the very cause of birth in saṃsāra.
Whatever bliss is dependent origination, realize it as the bliss that is primordially peaceful. Therefore, it is described as being without entity. Bliss is neither existent nor non-existent; for the time being, it is unarisen, the ultimate reality of all phenomena.
The clarity of bliss as false is known as the pure conventional; thus, truth itself is utterly pure. The yogi of conventional emptiness should accomplish the non-duality of the two, having abandoned the ultimate.
The union of mantra and form, the wise one having gone to that bliss, then sees it as non-dual, like a manifold illusion. Then, entering the ultimate reality, they will realize the state of union. The yogi abiding in union strives single-mindedly for the benefit of sentient beings. The deity yoga of the blissful mind is the method of the manifold wheel; insight is described as emptiness. That is held to be the self to be accomplished. That very purity of the outer and inner is the nature of insight and method. The yogi, abiding in placeless bliss, should understand it in brief in this way: Because it is merely dependent origination, it is neither existent nor empty. Having the nature of being without intrinsic nature, appearance is the yoga of the deity. In whatever way things appear, in that very way they are the nature of emptiness. Whatever cognition of duality or non-duality there is, that is free from the habitual tendencies of those [conceptions]. The yogi maintains the pride of Heruka; firmly established in the reality of Heruka, and having made this very reality their guru, they roam the earth like a lion. These various purities of the Victors appear perpetually; unborn from the beginning and undestroyed, they have abandoned the conceptualization of self and other for tens of millions of eons. Because the appearance of truth and falsehood is non-dual in nature, equal in existence and peace, this is the Lord of the Wheel, the quality of the Victors, the Lord of Sages, the Vajra Dakini.
This concludes the Clarifying Great Bliss, composed by the master Avadhūtipa, the glorious Advayavajra. It was translated by the guru Vajrapāṇi and Ma-ban.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.