The Sutra that Brings Together the Contemplations of All the Buddhas is an important scripture of the Mahayana, a vehicle for universal enlightenment. It is also a root Tantra of the Anuyoga, a vehicle for the completion of the path. It presents us with the realities of the views and practices of the Secret Mantra. This scripture was available to the early Tibetan translators only in the language of Brusha, a frontier of the old Tibetan empire located in the modern-day Hunza region, which for the Tibetans was on the route to points West, including Persia and Arabia. Brusha was under the control of the Tibetan empire during the earlier part of the Eighth Century of our era. I believe it was during this time that The Contemplation Sutra was translated into Tibetan. Vajra Sky is a major work of literature. It presents itself to be a history of the Mahayana, recounting twelve ways in which the Dharma appeared in time. It occupies six hundred seventeen pages in the original Tibetan manuscript. The translation will therefore be released as a trilogy, in three separate volumes. In this first volume the first six of these twelve ways the Dharma appeared are recounted. This Sutra has been very famous throughout Tibetan history and is revered by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It survives in both the Kanjur, the official canon of Buddhist literature, and the Nyingma Gyubum, The Hundred Thousand Tantras of the Ancient Ones. I have worked primarily from the witness found in the mTshams brag Manuscript of the Nyingma Gyubum, following the recommendation of my teacher Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche.

Vajra Sky: Volume One: The Sutra that Brings Together the Contemplations of All the Buddhas, Christopher Wilkinson, Paperback, 471 pp, $32.00

Christopher Wilkinson began his career in Buddhist literature in 1972 at the age of fifteen, taking refuge vows from his guru Dezhung Rinpoche. In that same year he began formal study of Tibetan language at the University of Washington under Geshe Ngawang Nornang and Turrell Wylie. He then received many instructions from Kalu Rinpoche, completing the traditional practice of five hundred thousand Mahamudra preliminaries. He became a Buddhist monk at the age of eighteen, living in the home of Dezhung Rinpoche while he continued his studies at the University of Washington. He graduated in 1980 with a B.A. degree in Asian Languages and Literature and another B.A. degree in Comparative Religion (College Honors, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). After a two year tour of Buddhist pilgrimage sites throughout Asia he worked for five years in refugee resettlement in Seattle, Washington, then proceeded to the University of Calgary for an M.A. in Buddhist Studies where he wrote a groundbreaking thesis on the Yangtik transmission of the Great Perfection tradition titled "Clear Meaning: Studies on a Thirteenth Century rDzog chen Tantra." He proceeded to work on a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the 20,000 line Perfection of Wisdom in Berkeley, California, followed by an intensive study of Burmese language in Hawaii. In 1990 he began three years' service as a visiting professor in English Literature in Sulawesi, Indonesia, exploring the remnants of the ancient Sri Vijaya Empire there. He worked as a research fellow for the Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation for several years, playing a part in the early development of the Rubin Museum of Art. In the years that followed he became a Research Fellow at the Centre de Recherches sur les Civilisations de l'Asie Orientale, College de France, and taught at the University of Calgary as an Adjunct Professor for five years. He has published many volumes of translations, and continues at this effort.