View source for Category of Pith Instructions

[[Image:Shri Singha.jpg|frame|[[Shri Singha]]]]
'''Category of [[pith instructions|Pith Instructions]]''' (Tib.  མན་ངག་སྡེ་, ''mengakdé'', [[Wyl.]] ''man ngag sde'') — one of the [[three classes]] into which [[Manjushrimitra]] divided the [[Dzogchen]] teachings. [[Shri Singha]] arranged the teachings of the Pith Instruction class into four cycles:

#the '''outer cycle''' (Tib. ཕྱི་སྐོར་, ''chi kor''; Wyl. ''phyi skor''), which is like the physical body, intended for those of lesser capacity;
#the '''inner cycle''' (Tib. ནང་སྐོར་, ''nang kor''; Wyl. ''nang skor''), which is like the eyes, intended for those of medium capacity;
#the '''secret cycle''' (Tib. གསང་སྐོར་, ''sang kor''; Wyl. ''gsang skor''), which is like the heart, for those of the highest capacity; and
#the '''innermost secret unsurpassed cycle''' (Tib. ཡང་གསང་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་སྐོར་, ''yang sang lana mepé kor''; Wyl. ''yang gsang bla na med pa'i skor''), which is like the whole person, intended for those of exceptionally high capacity—this is the [[Nyingtik]] cycle of teachings.

[[Khenpo Namdrol]] explains:

:"These four great cycles present the [[Trekchö]] teachings in a similar way, but where they differ is in the clarity, explicitness and detail of how the [[Tögal]] teachings are given. 

:Shri Singha gave the outer, inner and secret cycles of the category of pith instructions to both [[Vimalamitra]] and [[Jñanasutra]]. He transmitted the innermost secret cycle to Jñanasutra, who then passed it on to Vimalamitra."

The root [[tantra]] of the category of pith instructions is the '[[Reverberation of Sound]]' Tantra (Tib. སྒྲ་ཐལ་འགྱུར་, ''dra tal gyur'').

==Alternative Translations==
*Category of Direct Transmission ([[Richard Barron]])

==Internal Links==
*[[Seventeen Tantras]]

[[Category:Dzogchen]]