Ornament of Precious Liberation (Holmes)

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Part I: The Prime Cause

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• Foreword by His Holiness the Karmapa vii
• Editor’s Preface ix
• Translator’s Introduction 1

• Ornament of Precious Liberation: A Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Sublime Dharma
• Gampopa Sonam Rinchen (1079–1153)
  • Author’s Preface 11
• I. The Prime Cause
  • 1. Buddha Nature 15
• II. The Basis
  • 2. A Precious Human Existence25
• III. The Condition
  • 3. Relying on the Dharma Master 37
• IV. The Means:
• The Dharma Master’s Instruction
  • 4. The Impermanence of Conditioned Existence 47
  • 5. The Suffering of Samsara 59
  • 6. Karma and Its Effects 77
  • 7. Loving Kindness and Compassion 89
  • 8. Taking Refuge 99
  • 9. The Proper Adoption of Bodhicitta 111
  • 10. Precepts for Generating Aspiring Bodhicitta 145
  • 11. Presentation of the Six Perfections 151
  • 12. The Perfection of Generosity 155
  • 13. The Perfection of Moral Discipline 169
  • 14. The Perfection of Forbearance 181
  • 15. The Perfection of Diligence 191
  • 16. The Perfection of Meditative Concentration 199
  • 17. The Perfection of Wisdom 215
  • 18. The Presentation of the (Five) Paths 247
  • 19. The Presentation of the Levels 253
• V. The Result
  • 20. The Bodies of Perfect Buddhahood 275
• VI. Enlightened Activities of the Buddhas
  • 21. Enlightened Activities of the Buddhas 291

• Notes 297
• Glossary 319
• Bibliography 331
• Index 341
• About the Contributors357

The text in this volume has a long and rich history in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. Gampopa's Ornament of Precious Liberation remains to this day the quintessential understanding of the Buddhist path to enlightenment in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Trained in the Kadam teachings stemming from the Bengali master Atiśa as well in the Mahāmudrā instructions of Marpa Lotsāwa and his famed disciple Milarepa, Gampopa presents in his work a unique blending of two important streams of Tibetan spiritual instructions. The step-by-step instructions developed in this work continue to guide and elevate the attentive reader and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism today. Imbued by Gampopa with so much insight and helpful instruction, it is not surprising that this manual was considered a classic of Buddhist literature in Tibet. With this new translation, students and teachers of Tibetan Buddhism will have a chance to directly engage with the insights and instructions of a great spiritual master. For the general reader, it offers an opportunity to appreciate the richness of the Tibetan tradition and its creative synthesis of the vast corpus of classical Indian Buddhist teachings. (Source: Thupten Jinpa's Editor's Preface)

Gampopa's own teaching practices became the root from which developed the distinctive system that all the Dakpo Kagyu schools follow to this day. Students first studied the lamrim teachings on the stages of the path from the Kadam tradition, and then they were allowed to study mahamudra and other tantric practices. Hence, the extant lineages within the Dakpo Kagyu-the Drikung, Drukpa, Karma Kamtsang, Taklung, and Barom-resemble the branches of a family tree, and Lord Gampopa is our common ancestor. The Ornament of Precious Liberation is our great family treasury and our shared inheritance. It is my aspiration that through this text the different traditions of the Dakpo Kagyu will rediscover their common ancestry and become a joyous and harmonious family once more.  

~ Karmapa, 17th in Ornament of Precious Liberation (Holmes), page(s) vii

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bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt. बोधिचित्त Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས། Ch. 菩提心

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Kagyu - The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa. Tib. བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་

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Kadam - The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century. Tib. བཀའ་གདམས་

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Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt. महामुद्रा Tib. ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།

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śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt. श्रावक Tib. ཉན་ཐོས། Ch. 聲聞

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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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