Draft:A Hair's Tip of Wisdom/Introduction

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Introduction to A Hair’s Tip of Wisdom

This text is attributed to Machik Lapdrön and placed among the source texts of Severance (gcod) in the Treasury of Precious Instructions. However, it appears to be a commentary on a source text, with the lines of what may have been an autonomous root text entitled Draft:A Hair's Tip of Wisdom found within the commentary. This root text may well have been composed by Machik, as it is similar in content and style with other sources. The commentary itself has no colophon, and its authorship is uncertain. Kongtrul seems to indicate in his records that it could be by Kunga Paljor (also called Drung Sarupa), who is the author of Draft:Pure Honey: A Commentary on Aryadeva's Grand Poem on Severance, the commentary to the main source text by Āryadeva the Brahmin called Draft:Aryadeva's Grand Poem on Severance. It is somewhat similar in style to that work. On the other hand, in The Religious History of Pacification and Severance it seems to be attributed to Karmapa Rangjung Dorje (f. 69a). Again it is unclear, as it is not a direct statement of authorship but rather an association with another text. Rangjung Dorje seems an unlikely candidate, since the text is not found among his comprehensive Collected Works, and stylistically is quite different. So at present the authorship remains unresolved.

An interesting feature of the styles in this text is that sometimes the commentary seems to directly contradict the intention in the root text upon which it is commenting. For example, Machik (if it is she) says that "the meaning...is introduced in oneself," while the comment on that statement advises one to request introduction or pointing-out instruction from the guru. The outline superimposed on what would be an inspired spontaneous teaching seems to be an ill-fitting attempt that would work better for a formal treatise. And whoever our commentator is seems to run out of steam, or time, toward the end.