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Of these seven only the first, the oral tradition consisting of the verbal explanations and initiations passed down in a succession of teachers and their students, applies to a somewhat commonplace type of transmission that would be accessible to ordinary individuals, though in Khyentse Wangpo's case even his capacity to receive and transmit these types of teaching has visionary origins. The remaining six are more explicitly rooted in the extraordinary aspects of visionary transmission that are the purview of only the most accomplished or karmically destined practitioners. In accordance with the above verse, the first four of these are related to the revelation of types of treasures (''gter ma''), namely those revealed from the earth, the practitioner's mind, and the rediscovery of previously revealed treasures, the latter being a particular speciality of Khyentse Wangpo whom revived numerous treasure revelations whose lineages of transmission had faded over the centuries. Recollection refers to the ability to access memories from previous lives, while the final two involve new visionary encounters with enlightened beings and the accomplished masters of the past. | Of these seven only the first, the oral tradition consisting of the verbal explanations and initiations passed down in a succession of teachers and their students, applies to a somewhat commonplace type of transmission that would be accessible to ordinary individuals, though in Khyentse Wangpo's case even his capacity to receive and transmit these types of teaching has visionary origins. The remaining six are more explicitly rooted in the extraordinary aspects of visionary transmission that are the purview of only the most accomplished or karmically destined practitioners. In accordance with the above verse, the first four of these are related to the revelation of types of treasures (''gter ma''), namely those revealed from the earth, the practitioner's mind, and the rediscovery of previously revealed treasures, the latter being a particular speciality of Khyentse Wangpo whom revived numerous treasure revelations whose lineages of transmission had faded over the centuries. Recollection refers to the ability to access memories from previous lives, while the final two involve new visionary encounters with enlightened beings and the accomplished masters of the past. | ||
Kongtrul describes these seven as subdivisions of the categories of oral, treasure, and pure visions, which is a traditional triumvirate of the Nyingma school used to delineate the origins of their teachings. In this context, the first of the seven corresponds to the oral teachings, while the next four correspond to the treasure teachings, and the final two correspond to the pure vision teachings. Furthermore, rediscovered treasures are considered a subset of earth treasures, recollections are considered a subset of mind treasures, and the aural lineages are considered a subset of pure visions. However, in terms of Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrul's discusses these seven in the context of his "secret biography" (''gsang ba'i rnam par thar pa''), a genre which is typically concerned with visionary experiences and other miraculous events. This visionary context is a crucial component of the ''Khyentse Kabab'', because at its core it is a collection of Khyentse Wangpo's revelations. In the secret biography Kongtrul describes a visionary experience that occurred when Khyentse Wangpo was fifteen years old, in which he travelled miraculously to the pure abode of Lotus Light (''pad+ma 'od'') and met Guru Rinpoche. During this encounter Guru Rinpoche blessed the young Khyentse Wangpo with his mind (''dgongs''), conferred upon him the empowerment of symbols (''brda''), and spoke extensively to him about the seven authoritative | Kongtrul describes these seven as subdivisions of the categories of oral, treasure, and pure visions, which is a traditional triumvirate of the Nyingma school used to delineate the origins of their teachings. In this context, the first of the seven corresponds to the oral teachings, while the next four correspond to the treasure teachings, and the final two correspond to the pure vision teachings. Furthermore, rediscovered treasures are considered a subset of earth treasures, recollections are considered a subset of mind treasures, and the aural lineages are considered a subset of pure visions. However, in terms of Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrul's discusses these seven in the context of his "secret biography" (''gsang ba'i rnam par thar pa''), a genre which is typically concerned with visionary experiences and other miraculous events. This visionary context is a crucial component of the ''Khyentse Kabab'', because at its core it is a collection of Khyentse Wangpo's revelations. In the secret biography Kongtrul describes a visionary experience that occurred when Khyentse Wangpo was fifteen years old, in which he travelled miraculously to the pure abode of Lotus Light (''pad+ma 'od'') and met Guru Rinpoche. During this encounter Guru Rinpoche blessed the young Khyentse Wangpo with his mind (''dgongs''), conferred upon him the empowerment of symbols (''brda''), and spoke extensively to him about the seven authoritative transmissions, a sequence which mirrors another traditional Nyingma triumvirate, namely the mind, symbol, and aural transmissions. | ||
This collection also includes the works of those who upheld Khyentse Wangpo's tradition of these seven transmissions. Prominent authors featured in these volumes include his direct disciples, such as Jamgön Kongtrul, Adzom Drukpa, and Mipham Gyamtso. As well as the following generation of masters and scholars, including his illustrious incarnations Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Dilgo Khyentse Tashi Paljor, and other Tibetan luminaries of the last century such as Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdral Yeshe Dorje. This edition itself was created at Khyentse Wangpo's seat at Dzongsar Monastery in eastern Tibet and has benefitted greatly from the expertise of prominent local scholars, such as the Dzongsar Khenpos Phunstok Namgyal and Pema Damchö, as well as Dr. Lodrö Phuntsok, whom has been an invaluable asset to the preservation of the literary works of Khyentse Wangpo in recent times. | This collection also includes the works of those who upheld Khyentse Wangpo's tradition of these seven transmissions. Prominent authors featured in these volumes include his direct disciples, such as Jamgön Kongtrul, Adzom Drukpa, and Mipham Gyamtso. As well as the following generation of masters and scholars, including his illustrious incarnations Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Dilgo Khyentse Tashi Paljor, and other Tibetan luminaries of the last century such as Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdral Yeshe Dorje. This edition itself was created at Khyentse Wangpo's seat at Dzongsar Monastery in eastern Tibet and has benefitted greatly from the expertise of prominent local scholars, such as the Dzongsar Khenpos Phunstok Namgyal and Pema Damchö, as well as Dr. Lodrö Phuntsok, whom has been an invaluable asset to the preservation of the literary works of Khyentse Wangpo in recent times. | ||
Revision as of 16:34, 13 August 2021
The Khyentse Kabab collection, in twenty-two volumes, is structured around the notion of the seven types of authoritative transmission (bka' babs bdun) that were considered an essential aspect of Khyentse Wangpo's unique endowment as a highly influential promulgator of the Buddhist teachings. In his biography of Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrul mentions an early reference to this set of seven in an unnamed work by Thangtong Gyalpo that prophesied the arrival of Khyentse Wangpo, referring to him as "bka' babs bdun ldan mdo sngags gling," which references his treasure revealer (gter ston) title, Pema Ösel Dongak Lingpa (Pad+ma 'od gsal mdo sngags gling pa), along with the epithet "Possessor of the Seven Authoritative Transmissions" (bka' babs bdun ldan). However, one of the most commonly cited references to these seven comes from another prophecy (lung bstan) found in the treasure revelation of Chogyur Lingpa, The Sacred Teachings of the Three Series of the Great Perfection (Dam chos rdzogs pa chen po sde gsum), which states:
| བཀའ་ནས་བཀར་བརྒྱུད་བར་མ་ཆད༔ ཟབ་མོ་དངོས་དང་དགོངས་པའི་གཏེར༔ ཡང་གཏེར་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པའི་གཏེར༔ དག་སྣང་སྙན་དུ་བརྒྱུད་པ་ཡི༔ |
The unbroken lineage passed down orally, Profound treasures revealed physically and from the mind, Treasures discovered again and recollected from the past, Pure visions and aural lineages, |
| བཀའ་བབས་བདུན་གྱི་ཆུ་བོ་ནི༔ མངའ་བདག་ཡབ་སྲས་སྐལ་བར་བབས༔ སྙིགས་དུས་བསྟན་པའི་བཙས་ཆེན་བྱེད༔ ཟབ་རྒྱས་ཉི་འོད་ལྷག་པར་བརྡལ༔ |
This great river of those seven authoritative transmissions, Will flow down to the king and heir who shall have their share. They will perform great deeds to protect the doctrine in dark times, And the light of this profound and vast sun will shine spectacularly. |
The "king and heir" (mnga' bdag yab sras) refers to the past life attributions of Khyentse Wangpo and Chogyur Lingpa, whom were believed to have been the Dharma King Trisong Deutsen and his son Lhase Damdzin Murub Tsenpo, respectively. It should also be noted that these seven, as they apply to this collection, are categorized according to Khyentse Wangpo's role as a conduit of a particular teaching or practice rather than being indicative of the nature or origins of the teachings themselves. Hence, the earth or mind treasures of earlier revealers may here be categorized as rediscovered treasures or even among the oral tradition, as this is how they came down to Khyentse Wangpo. In other words, these categories are demonstrative of how Khyentse Wangpo received a certain set of teachings and propagated them to the descendants of his lineage.
These seven, in the order that they are presented within this collection, are:
- the Oral Tradition (བཀའ་མ་ bka' ma or བཀའ་ནས་བཀར་བརྒྱུད་ bka' nas bkar brgyud)
- Earth Treasures (ས་གཏེར་ sa gter)
- Rediscovered Treasures (ཡང་གཏེར་ yang gter)
- Mind Treasures (དགོངས་གཏེར་ dgongs gter)
- Recollections (རྗེས་དྲན་ rjes dran)
- Pure Visions (དག་སྣང་ dag snang)
- Aural Lineages (སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ snyan brgyud)
Of these seven only the first, the oral tradition consisting of the verbal explanations and initiations passed down in a succession of teachers and their students, applies to a somewhat commonplace type of transmission that would be accessible to ordinary individuals, though in Khyentse Wangpo's case even his capacity to receive and transmit these types of teaching has visionary origins. The remaining six are more explicitly rooted in the extraordinary aspects of visionary transmission that are the purview of only the most accomplished or karmically destined practitioners. In accordance with the above verse, the first four of these are related to the revelation of types of treasures (gter ma), namely those revealed from the earth, the practitioner's mind, and the rediscovery of previously revealed treasures, the latter being a particular speciality of Khyentse Wangpo whom revived numerous treasure revelations whose lineages of transmission had faded over the centuries. Recollection refers to the ability to access memories from previous lives, while the final two involve new visionary encounters with enlightened beings and the accomplished masters of the past.
Kongtrul describes these seven as subdivisions of the categories of oral, treasure, and pure visions, which is a traditional triumvirate of the Nyingma school used to delineate the origins of their teachings. In this context, the first of the seven corresponds to the oral teachings, while the next four correspond to the treasure teachings, and the final two correspond to the pure vision teachings. Furthermore, rediscovered treasures are considered a subset of earth treasures, recollections are considered a subset of mind treasures, and the aural lineages are considered a subset of pure visions. However, in terms of Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrul's discusses these seven in the context of his "secret biography" (gsang ba'i rnam par thar pa), a genre which is typically concerned with visionary experiences and other miraculous events. This visionary context is a crucial component of the Khyentse Kabab, because at its core it is a collection of Khyentse Wangpo's revelations. In the secret biography Kongtrul describes a visionary experience that occurred when Khyentse Wangpo was fifteen years old, in which he travelled miraculously to the pure abode of Lotus Light (pad+ma 'od) and met Guru Rinpoche. During this encounter Guru Rinpoche blessed the young Khyentse Wangpo with his mind (dgongs), conferred upon him the empowerment of symbols (brda), and spoke extensively to him about the seven authoritative transmissions, a sequence which mirrors another traditional Nyingma triumvirate, namely the mind, symbol, and aural transmissions.
This collection also includes the works of those who upheld Khyentse Wangpo's tradition of these seven transmissions. Prominent authors featured in these volumes include his direct disciples, such as Jamgön Kongtrul, Adzom Drukpa, and Mipham Gyamtso. As well as the following generation of masters and scholars, including his illustrious incarnations Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Dilgo Khyentse Tashi Paljor, and other Tibetan luminaries of the last century such as Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdral Yeshe Dorje. This edition itself was created at Khyentse Wangpo's seat at Dzongsar Monastery in eastern Tibet and has benefitted greatly from the expertise of prominent local scholars, such as the Dzongsar Khenpos Phunstok Namgyal and Pema Damchö, as well as Dr. Lodrö Phuntsok, whom has been an invaluable asset to the preservation of the literary works of Khyentse Wangpo in recent times.
