Part Five: Essential Instructions
This section is composed of two items: General Teachings on the Great Perfection by Guru Padmasambhava, followed by the Meditation Guide for “Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind,” the first part of Longchenpa’s celebrated Trilogy of Rest.
The texts by Guru Padmasambhava are found in the Nyingma Kama (the orally transmitted texts of the Nyingma school) and in the treasure texts of Nyangral Nyima Özer, Guru Chökyi Wangchuk, and Dorje Lingpa. In both the Nyingma Kama and Kongtrul’s Treasury of Precious Instructions, the manner in which these texts are laid out is confusing. Although the entire compilation is called The Heap of Jewels, this title actually applies only to the first item in the collection. To this the subsequent texts are added, separated from it, and distinguished from each other only by small typographical signs. For ease of identification, the translated texts have been more clearly separated. Several items figure in the compilation. The first, A Heap of Jewels, is a lamrim text, an explanation of the common gradual path of sutra and mantra. It contains textual glosses by Padmasambhava himself and is accompanied by a summary exposition in the form of a textual outline. The second text, The Precious and Illuminating Lamp, is also a lamrim, a gradual exposition of the inner path of the Secret Mantra. It also contains a few textual glosses and is accompanied by a summary exposition. This second text is prefaced with a historical note that, although not so identified by Kongtrul, is by the great translator Nyak Jñānakumāra. The block print of both the Palpung and Shechen editions is of very poor quality and appears to have been damaged. Its numerous errors created many difficulties for the translation. Fortunately, we discovered an excellent version of all these texts in the new Chinese edition of the extended collection of the orally transmitted texts of the Nyingma school. Here, we discovered another text by Guru Padmasambhava, titled A Precious Garland, which proved to be an autocommentary on the second lamrim text and afforded considerable assistance in the translation of its terse and obscure verses.
The compilation also contains three pointing-out instructions composed by Guru Padmasambhava. The first of these is a lengthy explanation in five parts and is followed by the inspiringly beautiful Staff-Pointing Instruction Given to an Old Man and The Finger-Pointing Instruction Given to an Old Woman. As mentioned in the translators’ introduction to the present volume, this collection of texts was included in the extant printed editions of The Treasury of Precious Instructions instead of the text from The Innermost Essence of the Ḍākinīs mentioned in Kongtrul’s catalog.
The second item in this section is Longchenpa’s well-known Meditation Guide. In one hundred and forty-one instructions, it lays out a gradual path of Great Perfection practice. This text is cherished in the Nyingma school and is traditionally used in retreat in the manner of guiding instructions given according to the meditative experience of the practitioner.