Part Two: Jamgön Kongtrul's Commentary on the Eight Ancillary Path Cycles

===Introduction===

Chapter 9 through chapter 16 is Jamgön Kongtrul’s commentary on
the eight ancillary path cycles. His motive for writing this commentary
may be found in his autobiography, in a discussion he had with Khyentse
Wangpo on the nineteenth day of the first Tibetan month, when Khyentse
encouraged Kongtrul to undertake in earnest the composition of a commentary
on these eight ancillary path cycles.1 This discussion also marked
the beginning of a ten-year
project to assemble The Treasury of Precious
Instructions, initiated in 1872 and completed with the publication of the
final volumes in 1882/83. Kongtrul does not mention when exactly he wrote
these texts during this time frame, only that he procrastinated.
Kongtrul considered these eight chapters of a single work, beginning
with his commentary on Drakpa Gyaltsen’s Clarification of the Stages of the
Inconceivable (Fortunate Pure Crystal Mirror, chapter 15), where the introduction
is found. It concludes with the commentary on the Path Cycle of
Mudra (Fortunate Right-Turning
White Conch, chapter 16), where the colophon
is found. The remaining texts were most likely composed in the order
given in Kunga Zangpo’s lineage prayer.
For the general structure of Kongtrul’s commentaries, he first identifies
the source of the teaching and then comments on the instruction. In some
cases, he does little more than expand slightly on the original text and rearrange
it to provide a more orderly structure, for example, in the commentary
on Straightening the Crooked (Essence of Fortunate Curd, chapter 12).
In other cases, especially in Excellent Tree of Fortunate Bilva (chapter 13)
and Fortunate Shoot of Dūrva Grass (chapter 14), the two commentaries
most directly concerned with mahāmudrā meditation, Kongtrul expands
considerably on the original texts with additional citations. Excellent Tree
of Fortunate Bilva, the commentary on In Front of a Stupa (chapter 6), is
the longest of these commentaries and the most detailed. As an instruction
140 B jamgön kongtrul’s commentary
on mahāmudrā that descends from the archetypal mahāsiddha, Saraha the
Great Brahmin, it certainly earns attention as the most comprehensive commentary
in the collection. While In Front of a Stupa only gives ten citations,
the Excellent Tree of Fortunate Bilva adds an additional seventeen. Unlike
the other cycles, no particular deity is specified in this cycle. Perhaps the
most interesting foray Kongtrul takes in this commentary is found in the
section connecting realization with conduct. Here, Kongtrul draws from a
Drukpa Kagyu text attributed to Rechungpa, Root Verses of the Sixfold Cycle
of One Taste, as well as a text by Gönpo Dorje, Comprehensive Summary of
One Taste, which Kongtrul cites without attribution.
In Fortunate Shoot of Dūrva Grass, Kongtrul completely reorganizes
Drakpa Gyaltsen’s original commentary, moving the cursory breakdown of
the mahāmudrā of the view, meditation, conduct, and experience from the
end of the text into the discussion of mahāmudrā of the path. In addition,
he excises the blessing completely, which reduces the Mahāmudrā without
Syllables by half and then expands the text with citations and commentary.
In Medicinal Elixir of the Fortunate Bezoar (chapter 10) and Fortunate Pure
Crystal Mirror (chapter 15), the main value Kongtrul adds to these commentaries
is that he works the copious annotations found in Drakpa Gyaltsen’s
original commentaries into the main body of the text. The three remaining
commentaries, Fortunate Mustard Seedpod (chapter 11), Fortunate Right-Turning
White Conch (chapter 16), and Fortunate Vermilion Ornament
(chapter 17), are little more than close edits of Drakpa Gyaltsen’s originals.
Regrettably, in the case of Fortunate Right-Turning
White Conch, Kongtrul
does not provide any further commentary on the progression through the
paths and stages described by Drakpa Gyaltsen.