mkhyen brtse'i bka' 'bum
The Collected Teachings of the All-Seeing Possessor of the Seven Authoritative Transmissions Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo Kunga Tenpai Gyaltsen Palzangpo, in twenty-five volumes, gathers together Khyentse Wangpo's writings on a remarkably wide variety of topics, across numerous literary genres. Commonly known by its abbreviated title, the Khyentse Kabum, it is an inclusive, though not entirely complete, compilation of the masters literary works that he produced over the course of more than five decades of his life, spanning his mid-teens to shortly before his passing in his early seventies. The earliest version of the Kabum was created by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö in thirteen volumes and completed in 1919 at Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo's seat at Dzongsar Monastery in eastern Tibet. However these blocks were unfortunately lost during the tragic period of the late 1950's, therefore the thirteen volume edition is currently only available in an incomplete xylograph made from the original wood blocks. The first modern edition was put together in Sikkim at the newly established Khyentse Labrang, which was the childhood residence of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. That edition was essentially a reproduction of a xylographic copy printed at Dzongsar Monastery, albeit divided into twenty-three volumes. It was carved into blocks during the years 1977-1980 and eventually published by Gonpo Tseten in twenty-four volumes. The printing blocks of this edition were entrusted to Dr. Lodrö Phuntsok who returned them to Dzongsar in Tibet, where from 2007 onward they were typed up using Sambhota Tibetan unicode font, thus creating the first computer input edition, which was published at Dzongsar in 2014. The current edition presented here is a re-edited and revised version of the 2014 edition that was completed in 2020, once again, under the direction of Dr. Lodrö Phuntsok.
Famed as one of the primary instigators of the so-called ris med movement that spread through eastern Tibet in the 19th century, Khyentse Wangpo's nonsectarian bona fides are fully and magnificently on display in the Khyentse Kabum. His works touch upon the width and breadth of the Tibetan Buddhist philosophical and religious traditions available in his time, including all of the major Tibetan Buddhist schools as well as Bön. Compositions that not only reveal his lack of bias towards these various aspects of the Tibetan tradition, but also an earnest appreciation for their distinct qualities, unique heritage, and their continued validity. Though the bulk of these works are concerned with Buddhist practices- ritual processes, liturgical arrangements, and advanced spiritual instructions -they also include histories of traditions and institutions, biographies of teachers, and even pilgrimage guidebooks to Tibet's sacred sites. Furthermore, he wrote about seemingly all aspects of the five major and five minor fields of knowledge (rig gnas chen po lnga dang rig gnas chung lnga), with such varied topics as logic, grammar, poetry, medicine, astrology, divination, as well as the specifications for the creation of ritual substances, religious art, amulets, and the construction of stūpas and the like. The collection also includes volumes of his more personal writings, such as letters and correspondences with prominent figures of his day and an abundance of verses written as offerings or upon request, such as entreaties for the longevity of teachers or for the swift return of those that were recently deceased. Here we also get a taste of his role as a teacher, with endless examples of the personal advice and instructions he offered to his students in short pithy missives. Much of this material provides us a glimpse into the inner life of Khyentse Wangpo, with devotional works praising and supplicating the masters of the past and present, as well as an even more intimate layer of access with the inclusion of his numerous vajra songs (rdo rje'i thol glu) that echo from the depths of his spiritual accomplishment, and other compositions presented as expressions of his realization (rtogs pa brjod pa).
One of the more fascinating aspects of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo's expansive oeuvre is that it includes works from throughout his life. Therefore, we not only get a sense of Khyentse Wangpo as the consummate scholar or as the infinitely confident treasure revealer, but also as a young man in the prime of his studies, sat among his fellow monks taking notes on what is being taught. It is perhaps this aspect of Khyentse Wangpo as a writer that links these various roles he played over the course of his life together. Unlike many other Tibetan teachers whom, especially in their later years, resorted to dictation to produce texts, Khyentse Wangpo rarely utilized scribes in the production of his personal compositions. Well versed in the literary arts, he was capable of writing in a variety of classical styles of composition. Though most of his works are to some extent utilitarian, he also clearly wrote for pleasure. His numerous poems, songs, praises and prayers attest to this fact. He also seems to have had a deep appreciation for Sanskrit, such that his works often contain flourishes of Sanskrit at the beginnings and ends, most likely to invoke auspiciousness, and he frequently used Sanskrit equivalents of his personal name to sign his compositions. Initially as "young Jigme" (gzhon nu abhA ya), then later as Mañjughoṣa. In fact, he went by many names, which often changed according to subject matter, tradition, levels of formality and so on. For instance, he had a fondness for referring to himself as "the Lake-born Guru's favorite servant" (mtsho skyes bla ma dgyes pa'i 'bangs) in works related to Guru Rinpoche, or as "the Omniscient Guru's favorite servant" (kun mkhyen bla ma dgyes pa'i 'bangs) in works related to Longchenpa, though in his own revelations he typically invoked his authority by using his tertön title, Pema Ösel Dongak Lingpa. Yet, throughout all of these shifting roles his dedication to the craft of the written word seems to have remained a constant preoccupation throughout his life.
In terms of the structure of the Khyentse Kabum, the topical outline (sa bcad) divides the collection into eleven sections. These sections are organized thematically, often based on either literary genres or specific fields of knowledge. Within these sections, changes in subject matter are often treated sequentially. Apart from the first two, which are presented within the confines of a single volume, the remaining sections either span multiple volumes or only part of a one. Furthermore, within the volumes texts are subsumed within numbered groups, termed sde tshan. These sde tshan often function as micro-collections within the macro-collections represented by the sa bcad sections. While one sde tshan might consist of a singular work, they can also be populated by multiple works grouped together, as is often the case in the Kabum in which there are several instances of more than a hundred short works subsumed in a single sde tshan. In terms of the PDFs of the Tibetan pecha included on this site the sde tshan format has been fully retained. However, in terms of the digital edition the sde tshan have been parsed into their individual components and these texts are displayed in the order that they appear within a given sde tshan. In the case of multiple texts within a single sde tshan, these titles are indented on the volume pages below their respective sde tshan titles. It should be noted that the volume page display is limited to the first five texts, however the full listing of texts can be viewed on their respective sde tshan pages by clicking on the titles.
As for the specifics of the eleven sa bcad sections, they are characterized in the Tibetan as follows:
| 1 | དང་པོ། བསྟོད་ཚོགས་གསོལ་འདེབས་སྲས་བཅས་རྒྱལ་བ་དགྱེས་པའི་རོལ་མོ་ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པའི་སྤྲིན་དང་ཞར་བྱུང་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ་འདེབས་དང་། མྱུར་འབྱོན་སྐོར། | A collection of praises and supplications, which is like music to delight the victorious ones and their heirs, along with prayers for longevity and entreaties for the swift return of deceased masters that are like endless cloud banks of the ocean of spiritual qualities. |
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| 2 | གཉིས་པ། གཏམ་གྱི་ཚོགས་རིག་གཞུང་རྒྱ་མཚོར་འཇུག་པའི་གྲུ་རྫིང་ནོར་བུའི་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་པོའི་ནང་གསེས་སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྲས་དང་སློབ་མར་བཅས་པ་ལ་འཕྲིན་དུ་གསོལ་བའི་གཏམ་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་རྣ་རྒྱན། | A collection of discourses on various topics, which is like a ship that allows one to embark upon an ocean of learning. Included within, as ornaments, are a series of letters offering advice to the disciples of the buddhas and bodhisattvas that are like massive clouds of jewels. |
| 3 | གསུམ་པ། ནང་དོན་རིག་པ་མདོ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་བཅུད་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་ཟབ་དོན་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་སྤྲིན་གྱི་ནང་གསེས་གསར་རྙིང་གཉིས་ཀྱི་འདུལ་མདོ་མངོན་པ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཟིན་བྲིས་ལུང་བཏུས་རབ་ཏུ་མང་པོ་བཞུགས་པ་ལ། | The inner sciences that are the essence of the intent of the sūtras and tantras, which are like clouds of the ocean of the profound meaning, including an extensive series of annotations that condense the scriptural works related to the vinaya, sūtras, abhidharma, and the tantras of both the old and new schools. |
| 4 | བཞི་པ། མདོ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་དོན་ཐད་ཀར་གསལ་བར་སྟོན་པ་ལེགས་བཤད་ཉི་ཟླའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཡང་དག་སྣང་བའི་འོད་ཟེར་སྐོར། | Excellent explanations that clearly demonstrate the true meaning of the sūtras and tantras, which are like the luminous rays that emanate from the actual spheres of the sun and moon. |
| 5 | ལྔ་པ། ལྷག་པའི་ལྷ་རབ་འབྱམས་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཆོ་ག་ཁྲིགས་ཀྱི་སྐོར་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའི་དཔལ་འཛིན་གྲུབ་གཉིས་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད་ཀྱི་ནང་གསེས་གསར་རྙིང་གཉིས་ལས་དང་པོ་གསར་མའི་སྐོར། གཉིས་པ་གསང་ཆེན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པའི་སྔར་འགྱུར་རྙིང་མའི་རྩ་བ་གསུམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཕྲིན་མན་ངག་སྣ་ཚོགས་བཞུགས་པའི་ནང་གསེས། | The cycle of sādhanas and ritual arrangements related to a vast array of deities, which are like a precious trove of the two accomplishments that are the glorious emblems of Vajrasattva. Included within are both the new schools and the old schools, first the cycle of the new schools and second a variety of sādhanas, activity practices, and pith instructions of the three roots of the ancient translation tradition of the great secret vajrayāna. |
| 6 | དྲུག་པ། རིག་པའི་གནས་ཆེ་ཆུང་གི་གསལ་བྱེད་བློ་གསལ་འཇུག་ངོགས་དབྱངས་ཅན་དགྱེས་པའི་རོལ་མཚོ། | Clarifications on all the major and minor sciences that provide access to a clear understanding, which is like a lake to delight Sarasvatī. |
| 7 | བདུན་པ། ཆོས་ཀྱི་བྱུང་ཚུལ་ལས་བརྩམས་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་དང་། མཁས་གྲུབ་དུ་མའི་རྣམ་ཐར་སྣ་ཚོགས་དང་། གདན་རབ་ཆབ་ཤོག་སོགས་ངོ་མཚར་ཀུན་དགའི་སྐྱེད་ཚལ། | Compositions on the history of development of the Dharma, the biographies of a wide variety of scholar-practitioners, monastic chronicles and official correspondences, and so forth, which is like an amazingly delightful garden. |
| 8 | བརྒྱད་པ། ཉེར་མཁོ་སྣ་ཚོགས་འདོད་འབྱུང་བསམ་འཕེལ་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ། | Explanations of various important topics, which are like a powerful monarch capable of granting our every wish. |
| 9 | དགུ་པ། བླ་མའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་དང་། ཟབ་དོན་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གླུའི་སྐོར་རང་བྱུང་འོད་གསལ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསང་མཛོད། | A cycle of guru yoga practices and profound vajra songs, which is like a secret treasury of naturally occurring luminous vajras. |
| 10 | བཅུ་པ། ཞལ་གདམས་བསླབ་བྱའི་སྐོར་གཞན་ཕན་བདུད་རྩི། | A cycle of personal advice and instructions, which is like an ambrosia that benefits others. |
| 11 | བཅུ་གཅིག་པ། གནས་རྟེན་དཀར་ཆག་སྣ་ཚོགས་དང་། བསྔོ་སྨོན་ཤིས་བརྗོད་ཀྱི་སྐོར་ཕྲིན་ལས་མཁའ་ཁྱབ་སྲིད་ཞིའི་དགེ་ལེགས་དཔལ་སྟེར། | A cycle of various catalogues of sacred sites along with dedications, prayers, and invocations of auspiciousness, which are like enlightened activities that completely pervade peace and existence and magnificently bestow virtue and excellence. |
