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The Treasury of Precious Instructions The Catalog of The Treasury of Precious Instructions Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 1 3/18/13 3:55 PM Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 2 3/18/13 3:55 PM An Ocean of Auspicious Renown The Catalog of The Treasury of Precious Instructions by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye Translated by RICHARD BARRON (Chökyi Nyima) Tsadra Foundation New York Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 3 3/18/13 3:55 PM Tsadra Foundation P.O. Box 20192 New York NY 10014 USA www.tsadra.org Copyright © 2013 by Tsadra Foundation All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission from the copyright holder. Design and typeset by: Tsadra Foundation - Kathmandu Printed in Spain by Gráficas Barbastro Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 4 3/18/13 3:55 PM Contents Foreword by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche vii Translator’s Preface ix An Ocean of Auspicious Renown The Catalog of The Treasury of Precious Instructions Homage 3 I. Purpose 7 II. Traditions in India and Tibet 35 III. Identification of Teachings 55 IV. Enumeration of Teachings 85 V. Lineage Successions 113 Colophon 175 Notes 185 Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 5 3/18/13 3:55 PM Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 6 3/18/13 3:55 PM Foreword The Treasury of Precious Instructions is a collection of the essential root texts, instructions, and manuals of all the eight practice lineages of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. To preserve these is to preserve the complete practice of Vajrayana Buddhism. All of the texts enshrined in this collection were written by the most authentic masters of their lineage. Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye not only made great efforts to receive the transmission of every one of these instructions from a master of that practice; he also practiced them all in solitary retreat. Therefore, this is not just a collection of texts but a living lineage of transforming practices. The Treasury and its transmission also became the focal point of the ri-me (nonsectarian) movement in Tibetan Buddhism. When His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa came out of Tibet as a refugee, one of the first things he did was to give the transmission of The Treasury of Precious Instructions—even before building a monastery. I am extremely grateful that Tsadra Foundation is taking up the enor- mous task of translating this entire collection into English. I regard this undertaking as one of the greatest possible contributions toward preserving Tibetan civilization. And I congratulate Richard Barron for making the cata- log of The Treasury of Precious Instructions available in English. Ringu Tulku February 2013 Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 7 3/18/13 3:55 PM Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 8 3/18/13 3:55 PM Translator’s Preface The Treasury of Precious Instructions (gDams ngag rin po che’i mdzod) is one of the five monumental collections known as the Five Treasuries that were compiled by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye (1813–1900), one of the greatest figures of his time in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. To read his autobi- ography is to be astonished at his literary output alone, to say nothing of his other achievements. In A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems, a history of the Dzogchen lineage of the Nyingma school, the late Nyoshul Khenpo re- marked of Jamgön Kongtrul: When we examine his legacy of some ninety volumes of original works—a marvelous nonsectarian contribution to the continuity of the teachings—it would seem as though he spent his life solely engaged in composition. When we reflect on his efforts to trans- mit the empowerments, teachings, pith instructions, and oral transmissions of the Nyingma and Sarma schools without sectar- ian bias, it would seem as though he devoted himself entirely to explaining and promulgating teachings. When we consider the ways in which he engaged in the profound stages of develop- ment and completion for an incredible range of practices, from the preliminaries to a vast array of mandalas, it would seem as though he spent his entire life sealed away in a retreat center. However, he also founded monastic centers such as that at Tsari Rinchen Drak, contributed to the restoration of older sites by erecting new representations of enlightened form, speech, and mind, organized more than 150 rituals for offering ganachakras, served the sublime Three Jewels, and so forth. When we exam- ine how he pursued the ten kinds of spiritual conduct, it would Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 9 3/18/13 3:55 PM x The Catalog seem as though he spent his life wholly engaged in the pursuit of spiritual activities. He certainly exemplified the conduct of an advanced practitioner. 1 Kongtrul’s inspiration to produce these Five Treasuries came, as did so much that he valued in his life, from his primary guru, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. In his autobiography, Kongtrul notes the following exchange early in 1862, when he was about fifty: in the periods between my meditation sessions I had been com- posing the source verses to my treatise The Encompassing of the Knowable, 2 a treatise dealing with the three higher trainings. Later, I offered this to my lord guru for his inspection, and on that occasion he gave me great encouragement, saying, “This is definitely due to the blessings of your spiritual masters and the power that comes from having the dakinis open up your subtle channels. We will call this The Treasury of the Knowable, the first of the five great Treasuries you will produce. Now you must write your own commentary to it.” 3 The next mention Kongtrul makes of this project in connection with The Treasury of Precious Instructions is some eight years later, on the first day of the new Tibetan year (that is, early in 1870): I discussed an idea of mine with Khyentsé Rinpoché. I had already received teachings from the traditions of the Eight Lineages of Accomplishment. So that these transmissions would not go to waste, I had thought to gather all the most important empow- erments, instructions, and spiritual advice in a single collection. When I suggested this plan to Khyentsé Rinpoché, he told me that he himself had written about twenty small volumes of in- struction on these subjects, but that he had a big problem in that the empowerments were not complete. “Your idea is excellent,” he said, “and you should put this collection together and call it The Treasury of Spiritual Advice.” 4 He drew up a list of some ten volumes of oral transmissions and spiritual advice, such as the “red” and “black” volumes of the Lamdré tradition, and com- posed histories of the lineages of my Treasury of Precious Hidden Teachings and Treasury of Spiritual Advice. Khyentsé Rinpoché Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 10 3/18/13 3:55 PM Translator’s Preface xi told me that I should write an instruction manual for the Eight Cycles of the Path. 5 The night after Kongtrul had agreed to undertake this project, Khyentse Rinpoche had an elaborate and prophetic dream that both of them took as an excellent omen for the success of their endeavors. Over a decade later, in late 1881, Kongtrul visited his guru: “I went di- rectly to Dzongsar Monastery. There I did a detailed edit of the latest vol- umes of my Treasury of Spiritual Advice that had been published.” 6 By the autumn of the following year, Kongtrul gave what seems to have been the first transmission of The Treasury of Precious Instructions to a small group of his students, a process that took two months: The masters of Ngor and his students, Dzogchen Rinpoché, the tertön’s rebirth, and others—some thirty people in all—promised me that they would study, teach, promulgate, and practice the instructions found in my Treasury of Spiritual Advice, so at the outset I performed for them a major torma empowerment focus- ing on the dakinis. On the fifteenth day of the eighth month I be- gan giving the empowerments, oral transmissions, and instruc- tions from The Treasury of Spiritual Advice. These were finished by the fourteenth day of the tenth month. On the fifteenth day, in conclusion we very methodically performed a ganachakra feast and, at Khandroi Drora, an offering ceremony for the “one hundred families of yoginis.” 7 Kongtrul continued to expand the collection over the next few years, so that by 1887, when he conferred the transmission of The Treasury of Precious Instructions on the young fifteenth Karmapa, Khakhyap Dorje, the process took more than three months: I accompanied Gyalwang Karmapa and his retinue back to Palpung Monastery [where] . Karmapa took up residence in the temple for the monastic summer retreat. I began giving the transmissions for The Treasury of Spiritual Advice [early in the third month]. These were finished by the tenth day of the sixth month. Once I had finished offering these teachings, I brought everything to a positive conclusion with a teaching on the longevity practice associated with White Tara. 8 Interior_DNZ_Catalog_12_03_13.indd 11 3/18/13 3:55 PM xii The Catalog He gave the transmission of The Treasury of Precious Instructions for the third and final time early in 1889, but an entry in his diary for 1893 notes that he continued to expand and revise the collection. At the conclusion of his autobiography, discussing his career as a student and teacher, he remarks: For the fourth of the Treasuries, The Treasury of Spiritual Advice, because of my deep faith in the Eight Lineages of Accomplishment that developed in Tibet, I spent a great deal of effort in seek- ing out the ripening empowerments and liberating instructions transmitted by the extensive lineages of all of these systems. Although no one could have the time to put all of these teachings into practice, they were collected so that the advice my spiritual masters had imparted would not go to waste.
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