Treasury of Precious Qualities: Book Two: Vajrayana and the Great Perfection [Paperback]

This book is a translation of the second part of a commentary on the Treasury of Precious Qualities, the most celebrated work of Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798), one of the most important figures in the Nyingma lineage. In a slender volume of elegant verse, this root text (new in this revised edition) presents the entire Buddhist path according to the Nyingma school. Because it is so concise and makes use of elaborate poetic language, the commentary is indispensable.Rigdzin 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.Chapter 1
 
The Value of Human Existence
 
Samsaric Existence
 For ages we have lingered in samsara, unaware of its defects, believing that it is a wholesome, beneficial place. And yet it is a state in which suffering and its causes abound and where the qualities of liberation languish and wither. It is a desolate wilderness in which many times in the past our bodies and minds have burned in agony and have endured the pains of mutilation and decapitation. Moreover, latent within us, there are still many karmic seeds that will provoke such sufferings in the future. Human beings generally do not see this and are thus not only without regret for their condition but actually crave the transient and futile pleasures of the higher realms. Totally unaware that they should engage in virtue and refrain from evil, they pass their lives sunk in negativity. Theirs is what is called a ‘‘mere human existence.’’ By their negative actions of thought al3%