Treasury of Precious Qualities: Book One

This book is a translation of the first part of Jigme Lingpa’s Treasury of Precious Qualities, which in a slender volume of elegant verses sets out briefly but comprehensively the Buddhist path according to the Nyingma school. The concision of the root text and its use of elaborate poetic language, rich in metaphor, require extensive explanation, amply supplied here by the commentary of Kangyur Rinpoche.

The present volume lays out the teachings of the sutras in gradual stages according to the traditional three levels, or scopes, of spiritual endeavor. It begins with essential teachings on impermanence, karma, and ethics. Then, from the Hinayana standpoint, it describes the essential Buddhist teachings of the four noble truths and the twelve links of dependent arising. Moving on, finally, to the Mahayana perspective, it expounds fully the teachings on bodhichitta and the path of the six paramitas, and gives an unusually detailed exposition of Buddhist vows.

The paperback edition includes Jigme Lingpa’s root text in verse, which was not included in the hardcover edition.“I believe the members of the Padmakara Translation Group have taken great pains to render a clear, accessible English translation that readers will find illuminating.”—His Holiness the Dalai LamaRigdzin Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798) was a great master of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The root of the Khyentse lineage, he was a tertön, or discoverer of treasure teachings, and revealed the Longchen Nyingtik, one of the most important cycles of meditative practice in the Nyingma school.Revised edition