The mind teachings of Tibet (Wylie: sems khrid) are a body of sacredly held instructions on the nature of mind and the practice of meditation on, or in accordance with, that nature. Although maintained and cultivated, to various degrees, within each of the major Tibetan Buddhist traditions, they are primarily associated with the mahamudra traditions of the Kagyu and the dzogchen traditions of the Nyingma.
The mind teachings of Tibet are generally believed to have originated with Shakyamuni Buddha, although the recorded lineages only trace back to adepts from various regions of the Pala Empire within the Medieval India era between the 7th and 11th century (CE.) After the great Tibetan diaspora in 1959, the mind teachings were among the first Tibetan Dharma teachings identified for preservation and propagation, an effort which assumed an increased sense of urgency under the direction of the 14th Dalai Lama as the full scope of the destruction to Tibet's religious and cultural heritage became apparent. Important treatises by the illustrious Nyingmapa Longchenpa (1308-1364) and the Kagyu master Wangchuk Dorje, 9th Karmapa Lama (1556-1603) were among the earliest of the works published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA.)
The first Nyingma work by Longchenpa published by LTWA was based on the four dharmas of Gampopa (1079–1153), the founder of the Dagpo Kagyu. The first mahamudra work published by them was a concise, yet comprehensive, Karma Kagyu mahamudra meditation manual by the Wangchuk Dorje, "pertaining to ancient Tibetan traditions of the mind."
In addition to texts published by, or in cooperation, with LTWA, Kagyu and Nyingma leaders independently pursued other avenues to further the preservation of their most important works. By the dawn of the 21st century, the two most highly regarded Tibetan works on the nature of the mind, and the practice of meditation on, and in accordance with, that nature, were translated by highly qualified translators and published openly in English.
Important texts
The foremost mind teaching treatise to be identified among the Kagyu traditions was a masterful presentation of the quintessential instructions of mahamudra by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (1512-1587), colloquially referred to as "Moonbeams of Mahamudra" (Wylie: phyag chen zla ba'i 'od zer). In 1969, Dukchen Thuksey Rinpoche (1916-1983), the acting head of the Drukpa Kagyu, and, shortly thereafter, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa (1924-1981), the head of the Karma Kagyu, independently requested the Tibetan-English translator Lobsang P. Lhalungpa to undertake the translation of this voluminous work, which involved the task of translating a variety of forms of classical Tibetan, written in literary styles spanning several centuries. It was published and made accessible, without restrictions, in 1986, under the title, Mahamudra - The Moonlight: Quintessence of Mind and Meditation.
With respect to dzogchen, the highest and final vehicle of the nine yanas of the Nyingma, the Seven Treasuries of Longchenpa were identified early on by Dudjom Rinpoche, the first selected head of the Nyingma, as most important for preservation, and which, in their entirety, were significantly larger than "Moonbeams of Mahamudra."
The 14th Dalai Lama also independently stated that two of the Seven Treasuries are exceptionally noteworthy, summarizing his views as, "Only by comprehending the practices of the Great Perfection based on these two texts (The Treasury of the Dharmadhātu and The Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle) can you hope to have a good reliable understanding of the Great Perfection (Dzogchen.)" The Treasury of the Dharmadhātu, colloquially known in Tibetan as the "Chöying Dzöd", was also called by him "the key to dzogchen." It was to become the first of these two treasures translated (along with some of the other treasures) over a period of several years by a team led by Richard Barron under the direction of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche (1930-2002), and published in 2001 under the title, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission. This translation included the root text and, most importantly, the full auto-commentary by Longchenpa; the root text only was also published separately in 2001, with both Tibetan and English depictions, under the title of The Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena.