Self-Arisen Vidya Tantra (Volume 1), The and The Self-Liberated Vidya Tantra (Volume 2)

“In 1975, when the magnificent Buddhist master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche visited the West for the first time, an event comparable to the Indian adept Vimalamitra bringing Dzogchen from India to Tibet, among the very first transmissions he gave was the reading of the Rigpa Rangshar Tantra (Self-Arisen Vidya Tantra). Now this preeminent tantra has finally arrived in the English language to be taught and studied, read and re-read, contemplated, savored, and practiced by all fortunate people. This crown jewel of human civilization covers all the big questions in life and brings certainty about the deepest topics to interrupt, transform, and free the mind from confusion and ignorance. Even merely hearing its title forms a connection to realizing the innermost nature of reality. I deeply rejoice in this.”

–Erik Pema Kunsang

Acarya Malcolm Smith has certainly given the world a rare gift by presenting to English-reading Dzogchen practitioners this skilled translation of the first two volumes of the Seventeen Tantras, the Self-Arisen Vidya Tantra and its accompanying commentarial tantra, the Self-Liberated Vidya Tantra.

The exceptional features of each of the seventeen tantras of Ati Yoga’s quintessential secret cycle of the upadesa class are described with metaphors. The Self-Arisen Vidya Tantra is described with the metaphor of the ocean. The eighty-four chapters of this oceanic treatise detail the pinnacle view, meditation, conduct, and result of all paths of Buddhadharma presented in this world. As the destined Dharma of this time, this translation is extremely timely. I wish to express deep gratitude to Malcolm and the wonderful Zangthal team for their noble aspiration and qualified capacity to finally bring these most precious teachings that exist in our world into the English language. –Sangye Khandro, Translator and Teacher, Light of Berotsana Translation Group

Acarya Malcolm Smith met the Dharma in 1989. His principle gurus are His Holiness the Sakya Trichen, the late Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, and the late Kunzang Dechen Lingpa. He is a veteran of a traditional three-year solitary Tibetan Buddhist retreat. Malcolm was awarded the acarya degree by the Sakya Institute for Buddhist in 2004 and graduated in 2009 from Shang Shung Institute’s School of Tibetan Medicine.

He is also the translator of Buddhahood in This Life.