Table Of ContentTHE 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
