From the Introduction

This book is a translation of the first part of a commentary on the Treasury of Precious Qualities, the celebrated work of Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798), which, in a slender volume of elegant verses, presents the entire Buddhist path according to the Nyingma or Ancient school of Tibetan Buddhism. The text, both root and commentary, is structured gradually and shows how all the Buddha's teachings, from the basic essentials to the most advanced practices of the Great Perfection, converge without contradiction into a single path to enlightenment. As such, the Treasury of Precious Qualities is a universally respected text and is studied in all Nyingma establishments, usually as a completing résumé, rounding off the long course of advanced study. Translated into English, it is an indispensable manual for those drawn to the Nyingma teachings.

Jigme Lingpa

Although he came to be regarded as one of the most important figures in the Nyingma lineage and an incarnation of both the great master Vimalamitra and the Dharma king Trisong Detsen, Jigme Lingpa was born and grew up in a situation of simple obscurity. At the age of six, he was placed in the monastery of Pain in south Tibet, where, after taking the vows of preliminary ordination, he imbibed a basic monastic education. Seven years later, at the age of thirteen, he met his teacher, the great tertön Rigdzin Thukchok Dorje, from whom he received many transmissions and instructions. His youth was marked by unusual spiritual precocity, and visions of Guru Padmasambhava, the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, and other enlightened beings became a regular feature of his experience. A visionary encounter with Manjushrimitra, one of the patriarchs of the Dzogchen lineage, proved a turning point in his life, and he decided to lay aside his monastic robe in preference for the white shawl and the long hair of a yogi. He was temperamentally drawn to a life of solitary practice and, while still a young man, completed two three-year retreats. In the course of the first, he became a tertön, a discoverer of hidden Dharma treasures, and he revealed the important cycle of teachings and practices known as the Longchen Nyingthik. It was, however, during his second retreat, which he began at the age of thirty-one at Samye Chimphu, that his most profound experiences began to manifest. For it was then that he directly beheld the great master Longchen Rabjam in three successive visions. In the first, he received the transmission of the entire range of Longchenpa's teachings; in the second, he was granted the authorization to uphold and propagate them and finally, in the course of the third vision, the minds of the two masters mingled ineffably so that the realization of Longchenpa arose instantaneously in the mind of Jigme Lingpa. The two masters, historically separated by five centuries, became henceforth identical in terms of knowledge and accomplishment.

Later, after concluding his second retreat, Jigme Lingpa began to expound, now seven years after its discovery, his Dharma treasure, the Longchen Nyinthik, transmitting it to his close disciples, Jigme Trinle Özer (the first Dodrupchen Rinpoche) and Jigme Gyalwa'i Nyugu (who passed it on to his disciple Patrul Rinpoche). The Longchen Nyinthik subsequently spread throughout Tibet and remains to this day one of the most important systems of meditative and yogic practice in the Nyingma school.

The latter part of Jigme Lingpa's life was spent at Tsering Jong, a small hermitage and meditation center, which he founded in the south of Tibet. He lived there in great simplicity, receiving and instructing his many disciples and using the gifts of patrons in all sorts of compassionate and religious activities. It was, for instance, his lifelong habit to save the lives of animals by buying them from butchers and hunters, and setting them free. His life, in short, was that of a great Bodhisattva, the personification of the qualities and ideals described in the scriptures and set forth in his own writings. He composed an autobiography in which we may catch a glimpse of a warm, affectionate character, clearsighted, utterly fearless, and without guile, marked by the compassion and clarity of supreme attainment:

My perceptions have become like those of a little boy, and I take pleasure in playing with children. But when I come across people with important faults of character, I don't hesitate to confront them directly with their shortcomings—even if they are important religious leaders or generous sponsors. . . . Whatever I am doing, whether sitting still or walking around, whether eating or sleeping, my mind is in a state that is never separate from the clarity of the ultimate nature. In whatever I do for the Dharma, I pledge myself to complete it, however impossible it may seem.

Simple as his lifestyle may have been, Jigme Lingpa was nevertheless a scholar of prodigious learning. It is said that he was "born wise," with an understanding and a capacity to assimilate the teachings without much need for study. As he himself said, it was profound visionary experience, rather than intellectual application, that released the immense flood of knowledge latent in the nature of his mind, with the result that the impounded waters of his wisdom "burst forth" from within. He compiled the twenty-five-volume collection of the Nyingma tantras and composed a history of them, and at his death he left behind nine volumes of original treatises and discovered treasure texts. Of these, the Longchen Nyinthik collection is certainly the most important and well known, while the Treasury of Precious Qualities, together with its two-volume autocommentary, is his most celebrated work of scholarship.

The Text Itself

The Treasury of Precious Qualities consists of two main sections devoted respectively to the sutras and the tantras. The sutra section, which is the subject of the present volume of the commentary, covers the ethical, psychological, and philosophical teachings, which are embodied in the Tripitaka and shared by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The essential thrust is toward the Mahayana, but the text naturally subsumes and exhaustively covers questions more associated with the Hinayana perspective, such as the fundamental issues of karma and ethics, the four noble truths, and the twelvefold chain of dependent arising. And it is noteworthy that considerable attention is given to the subject of the Pratimoksha, or the vows of Individual Liberation, which, as the commentary itself explains, was not discussed at length in Gyalwa Longchenpa's own work The Great Chariot, to which the Treasury of Precious Qualities may, in this respect, be regarded as a supplement.

In the manner of most Buddhist "root texts," the Treasury of Precious Qualities is comprehensive but concise, a distillation in fact that is practically impenetrable to all but experts already seasoned in the Buddhist teachings. It is, moreover, composed in verse and makes use of elaborate poetic language, rich in metaphor. A commentary is indispensable, and, in addition to Jigme Lingpa's own exposition, several have been composed over the last two centuries.

Traditionally, scriptures and religious texts may be explained in different ways, thus giving rise to a variety of commentarial styles. A spyi 'grel, or general commentary, gives a comprehensive overview of a text. A don grel, or "meaning commentary," expounds and discusses the text's essential meaning and purpose. By contrast, the mchan 'grel and the tshig 'grel (respectively, a commentary in the form of footnotes and a cornmentary of every word) painstakingly gloss the actual wording of the original, in the first case partially, in the second case entirely. In both mchan 'grel and tshig 'grel, the words of the original work are woven into the text of the commentary, where they are indicated (in the Tibetan) by small circles placed beneath the letters, the words being interpreted briefly, at length, or not at all, as the case may be. Finally, there exists a kind of commentary known as dka' gnad the purpose of which is to elucidate only difficult or controversial points. The size of these commentaries varies a great deal, ranging from full-length treatises to concise guides, the latter being virtually memory aids for readers already well versed in the material.

As already said, Jigme Lingpa produced a lengthy, two-volume "meaning commentary" of his own, namely, the Two Chariots or shing rta rnam gnyis. This of course must remain the ultimate reference, but it is well known for being as difficult as it is profound. Jigme Lingpa's disciple Dodrupchen Jigme Trinle Özer (1745–1821) wrote a shorter commentary, as did the latter's Gelugpa disciple Alak Sogpo Ngawang Tendar (b. 1759). Patrul Rinpoche, Orgyen Jigme Chökyi Wangpo (1808–1887), composed a guide for teaching the Treasury of Precious Qualities , as well as several outlines and a clarification of difficult points. Later, around the turn of the twentieth century, Khenpo Yönten Gyamtso, belonging to Gemang, a branch of Dzogchen monastery, composed an exhaustive, accessible, and very popular commentary in two books: zla ba'i 'od zer (Radiance of the Moon) and nyi ma'i 'od zer (Refulgence of the Sun).

The text that we have chosen for translation is the single-volume commentary, The Quintessence of the Three Paths, by Kyabje Kangyur Rinpoche, Longchen Yeshe Dorje. Although this is itself a mighty tome of six hundred pages, it is comparatively short, similar in size to the commentaries of the first Dodrupchen Rinpoche and Alak Sogpo Ngawang Tendar. The essence of Kangyur Rinpoche's work consists of footnotes to the Treasury of Precious Qualities, which he composed with reference to the studies he had made earlier at the feet of his principal teacher Jedrung Trinle Jampa Jungne of Riwoche (1856–1922). The text was completed in 1983 by Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991), who wrote the introductory verses and the conclusion. Jedrung Rinpoche himself received the transmission of the Treasury of Precious Qualities from Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who received it in turn from Jigme Lingpa's disciple Jigme Gyalwa'i Nyugu. Kangyur Rinpoche also studied the text with his uncle, Khenpo Dawä Zhonnu, abbot of Kathog monastery, whose transmission lineage is traced through the first Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Gyalse Zhenpen Thaye, Patrul Rinpoche, Orgyen Tendzin Norbu, and the khenpos Yönten Gyamtso and Samten Gyamtso.

While covering the whole of Jigme Lingpa's text, this commentary focuses on certain specific aspects, which it explains in detail. On the whole, it presupposes that the reader is already familiar with the whole range of scholastic terms and categories belonging to the Abhidharma literature, as well as with the broad sweep of the sutra and tantra teachings. As we have already said, the Treasury of Precious Qualities is often expounded at the end of a comprehensive course of study, as a kind of concluding recapitulation in which many essential details are mentioned only briefly and in passing, it being assumed that the reader is already conversant with them. For this reason, Kangyur Rinpoche's commentary, as it stands, is in many places probably beyond the reach of the kind of reader for whom this translation is intended, namely, Western Buddhists eager to enlarge and deepen their understanding of the Dharma. As a solution to this problem, it seemed desirable to supply, as much as possible, the elements necessary for a ready understanding of the commentary without the need for extensive research in other books, some of which are, in any case, still unavailable in translation. We have therefore supplied lengthy notes and a series of appendixes, borrowing freely from the mkhas 'jug of Ju Mipham Rinpoche, the commentary of Khenpo Yönten Gyamtso mentioned above, and the sdom gsum of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche. We hope that this will facilitate the reader's appreciation of Kangyur Rinpoche's commentary, which, while of a manageable size, is itself an inestimable mine of precious instruction.