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

Translation's 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 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.