The Treasury of Knowledge Part III: Books Five to Six
In this third collection of commentary teachings Rinpoche discusses the Fifth book of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé’s The Treasury of Knowledge ( ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་མཛོད་, Sheja Kun La Khyabpé Dzö, Wyl. shes bya kun khyab mdzod or simply Sheja Dzö). They were recorded over the course of three weeks, in the Spring of 1995 at Kagyu Samye Ling in Scotland.
This Fifth volume is considered by many scholars to be the heart of the Treasury: the ethics on the path practically necessary to guide us to full liberation. Jamgön Kongtrül explains the complete code of personal liberation: as it applies to both monastic and lay persons; the precepts for those aspiring to the life of a bodhisattva; and the exceptional pledges for practitioners on the tantric path of pure perception.
One of the first of the ten volumes to be translated and published in English (in paperback by Snow Lion) as part of Kalu Rinpoche’s translation programme for all ten volumes, it has been subsequently been republished in hardback and ebook formats, and is now available through Shambhala Publications.
Rinpoche also commences his commentary on the Sixth book during this sequence of teachings. Amongst the ten volumes of the Treasury, the Sixth is by far the longest—concisely summarizing the theoretical fields of knowledge to be usefully studied by practioners, prior to practically cultivating reflection and discriminative awareness.
As always, Ringu Tulku makes the subject matter accessible through explanation and answering students’ questions throughout. He emphasizes the essential points for practitioners in a clear and useful way.
English translations of both of the volumes taught in these teachings are available here:
https://www.shambhala.com/treasury-of-knowledge-book-5.html
https://www.shambhala.com/the-treasury-of-knowledge-book-six-parts-one-and-two-2408.html
Note: orginally this Archive post entry included all of the mp3s kindly provided by Samye Ling for this teachings session. However: recordings 1 to 8 were edited to appear on 45min sides of four C90 tapes; whereas recordings 9 to 16 were subsequently re-edited by Samye Ling’s Audio-Visual Department to appear on eight 90 minute CDs. As recordings 1 to 8 actually contained all of the material in recordings 9 to 11, we have now removed “1 to 8” to avoid any duplication or omission (sometimes Q&As and start/end prayers were cut from cassette tape releases to ensure each recording didn’t overrun). So, although these teachings now appear to start at “number 9” they genuinely represent the complete 12 hours of teaching from these sessions!
