THE INSTRUCTIONS OF GAMPOPA A Precious Garland of the Supreme Path THE INSTRUCTIONS OF GAMPOPA A Precious Garland of the Supreme Path VEN. I<HENPO KARTHAR RINPOCHE Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso Edited by Laura M. Roth and David N. McCarthy ROOT TEXT BY GAMPOPA Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso and Laura M. Roth Snow Lion Publications Ithaca, New York Snow Lion Publications P.O. Box 6483 Ithaca, New York 14851 USA 607-273-8519 Copyright© 1996 Karma Kagyu Institute All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America ISBN 1-55939-046-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, 1924- The instructions of Gampopa: a precious garland of the supreme path I oral commentary by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche; root text by Gampopa; translated by Yeshe Gyamtso; edited by Laura M. Roth and David N. McCarthy. p. em. ISBN 1-55939-046-8 1. Sgam-po-pa, 1079-1153. Lam mchog rin phren. 2. Spiritual life Buddhism. 3. Spirituallife-Dwags-po (Sect) I. Sgam-po-pa, 1079-1153. Lam mchog rin phren. II. Roth, Laura M., 1930- . III. McCarthy, David N. IY. Title. BQ7775.K48 1996 294.3' 444-dc20 95-52951 CIP Contents Preface by Laura M. Roth 7 COMMENTARY BY VEN. I<HENPO I<ARlHAR RINPOCHE Introduction 11 1 The Ten Causes of Loss 13 2 The Ten Necessary Things 17 3 The Ten Things Upon Which to Rely 22 4 The Ten Things to Be Abandoned 31 5 The Ten Things Not to Be Abandoned 36 6 The Ten Things to Be Known 54 7 The Ten Things to Be Practiced 59 8 The Ten Things to Emphasize 64 9 The Ten Exhortations 68 10 The Ten Deviations 71 11 The Ten Confusions of One Thing for Another 81 12 The Ten Unmistaken Things 87 13 The Fourteen Useless Things 91 14 The Eighteen Hidden Evils of Practitioners 95 15 The Twelve Indispensable Things 100 16 The Eleven Marks of a Holy Person 106 17 The Ten Things of No Benefit 110 18 The Ten Ways of Accomplishing Your Own 128 Disaster 19 The Ten Things That Are Great Kindnesses to 132 Yourself 20 The Ten Perfect Things 134 21 The Ten Bewilderments of Practitioners 137 22 The Ten Necessary Things 139 23 The Ten Unnecessary Things 142 24 The Ten Superior Things 144 25 The Ten Situations in Which Whatever Is Done Is Excellent 147 26 The Ten Qualities of Genuine Dharma 150 27 The Ten Things That Are Merely Names 153 28 The Ten Things That Are Spontaneously Present as Great Bliss 155 Conclusion 157 The Root Text-The Instructions of Gampopa: A Precious Garland of the Supreme Path 163 The Tibetan Text 189 Notes 211 Preface A Precious Garland of the Supreme Path is a collection of twenty eight lists of points of advice for practitioners of the Buddha dharma at every stage of practice, by the twelfth-century teacher and founder of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, Gampopa. The commentary by Ven. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche was presented orally to a group of his students at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (KTD), the Karma Kagyu Monastery in Wood stock, New York, in the closing days of 1991. The teaching was translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Gampopa lived from 1079 to 1153 C.E.1 He was born in cen tral Tibet, and was trained as a doctor, but when his family succumbed to an epidemic, he promised his wife on her death bed that he would become a monk and devote his life to Bud dhism. Gampopa was ordained as Sonam Rinchen at the age of twenty-six, and he was trained in the Kadampa tradition that originated with Atisha.2This tradition taught a graded path to enlightenment, emphasizing a thorough grounding in the self-discipline and basic meditation of the hinayana, as well as training the mind in loving-kindness, compassion, and the view of emptiness at the mahayana level. Later he met the great yogi Milarepa and became his foremost student. Milarepa' s teacher, Marpa the translator, had brought the vajrayana or 8 The Instructions of Gampopa tantric teachings of the mahasiddhas from India, including the six yogas of Naropa, in a system known as mahamudra, the" great seal."3 Gampopa thus combined the Kadampa tradition with the mahasiddha tradition from India. He established a monas tery at Gampo Dar (whence his name), where he gathered many students, who later founded a number of schools of the Kagyu lineage. In particular, the Karma Kagyu lineage arose from Gampopa's student Dusum Kyenpa, the first Karmapa, who founded Tsurphu Monastery, the present home of his seven teenth incarnation, His Holiness Urgyen Trinley. Other main works of Gampopa are. The Jewel Ornament of Liberation4 and The Four Dharmas of Gampopa. Yen. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche has been abbot of KID in Woodstock since its inception in 1978, and is spiritual director of a number of affiliate centers. He was born in Kham in east em Tibet in 1924, was ordained as a monk at the age of twelve, and was trained at Thrangu Monastery. He taught at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, India after leaving Tibet in 1959 with His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa, and in 1975 was recognized as a Choje Lama or Superior Dharma Master. Rinpoche's first book, Dharma Paths, was published by Snow Lion Publications in 1992. Lama Yeshe Gyamtso was born in Canada, and is a student ofKyabje Kalu Rinpoche. He completed two three-year retreats under the direction of Yen. Lama Norla. He has translated ex tensively for Kalu Rinpoche, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, and other lamas, and has given Buddhist teachings himself. He is known for his clarity and precision in communicating the Bud dhist teachings. David McCarthy is a long-time student of Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche who has worked for several years on a project to tran scribe and edit Khenpo Karthar's teachings. We wish to thank Michael Erlewine for his support of David during his work on this text. I am Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Albany, and have also been a student of Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche for some years. I previously edited Rinpoche's book, Preface 9 Dharma Paths, published by Snow Lion in 1992. We gratefully acknowledge the help of Pat Dinkelaker and John Fudjack of Troy, New York, who transcribed most of the tapes, and helped with editing. We also wish to thank Robert Walker for making a number of helpful editing suggestions, and Willard D. Roth, director of Karma Kagyu Institute, for sponsoring my work on the project. The Tibetan text of A Precious Garland was taken from the block print edition produced at Rumtek Monastery. Lama Phunsok Bist, the chant master of Rumtek Monastery, entered the Tibetan text into the computer, for which we thank him. Our translation of the root text was made during the summer of 1995 at KTD. An early translation of the same work was in cluded in Evans-Wentz's Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, and we recently became aware of an independent translation by Eric Perna Kunsang.5 As usual in Buddhist works, there are a number of Sanskrit and Tibetan words as well as references to Buddhist concepts. We have tried to explain unusual terms when they appear, but since there are now many books available on the Dharma, we have not felt it necessary to include a glossary. Many readers will know the basic terms and ideas, and for those who do not, a number of books have glossaries of Buddhist terms, includ ing Khenpo Karthar's Dharma Paths. We hope that the words of Gampopa and the commentary of Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche will benefit many students of the Buddhadharma. Laura M. Roth