The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great by Alexander Gardner

Author:Alexander Gardner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2019-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

Rare is the individual who received criticism from Jamgon Kongtrul, even as veiled as this. Ngawang Rinchen had been sent from Chokgyur Lingpa, an auspicious initial circumstance. He served as a conduit for some of Chokling’s revelations, but Kongtrul did not even name them. Ngawang Rinchen’s fatal move was to push Kongtrul to give him a relative who was most likely under his protection and to threaten to go over his head to keep her in a possibly nonconsensual sexual relationship. Whatever favorable conditions Ngawang Rinchen had arrived with, he squandered it all.

After finishing the Kangyur transmissions in the fall of 1866, a group of disciples requested additional transmissions of cycles pertaining to the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, such as Karma Lingpa’s works and the Lightning Garland of Protective Deities: Peaceful Garland, Wrathful Garland. Kongtrul also gave them Yongge Mingyur Dorje’s longevity practice Integration of Means and Wisdom. Chokgyur Lingpa returned and requested a few transmissions, and Kongtrul took the opportunity to give him a pareddown instruction of the Treasury of Knowledge, thus teaching the work for the second time. Chokling reciprocated with the transmission of Tincture of Molten Meteoric Iron from Seven Profound Cycles, a Yamarāja practice that Kongtrul chose not to include in the Treasury of Revelations.15

Soon after, Chokgyur Lingpa appeared to Kongtrul in a dream while he was practicing Vajra Sitātapatrā, a female protector deity, from October 23 to December 17.16 Kongtrul was using the liturgy from Chokling’s Three Roots revelation, a section of Seven Profound Cycles, three texts of which he included in the Treasury of Revelations. Kongtrul first dreamed of discussing his meditative accomplishments with Padampa Sanggye. At fifty-eight years old, Kongtrul had few teachers left to discuss his experiences in practice; Khyentse Wangpo and perhaps Wontrul and Dabzang were all who remained of his peers. Disciples routinely relate their experiences to their teachers, who affirm their progress and suggest additional practices, evaluating the student’s accomplishment against descriptions given in the literature and against their own mastery. Without a guru to rely on, Kongtrul appears to have turned to the great saints of the past via dream interviews. In a second dream, Kongtrul had a conviction that Padmasambhava was still residing in Tibet. Going inside a temple where he expected to encounter him, he found instead Chokgyur Lingpa, to whom he prostrated with great faith, and he moved through the four stages of meditative absorption. Kongtrul also performed the Longevity Lord Yamāntaka practice from Seven Profound Cycles. He was satisfied with the practices, writing that his dreams were consistent with those of his previous practices of United Intent of the Gurus.17

While Kongtrul was engaged with Vajra Sitātapatrā, Khyentse Wangpo and Chokgyur Lingpa were in a valley near Dzongsar named Rongme opening caves and revealing treasure. They had spent two weeks at the site, from November 2 to November 19.118 There are many narratives of this event, including a magnificent painting that is preserved at a monastery in Kham. The painting illustrates events on the front which are described in text on the back.

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