No. 36
Jamgon Kongtrül Lodro Thaye, (1813-1899)

མཚུང་མྱེད་ཀྡོང་སྤྲུལ་ཡྡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་དང་།
ཀྡོང་སྤྲུལ་ཡྡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོའིミ

Without Equal, Kongtrül Yönten Gyamtso

Jamgon Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye had a great veneration and awareness about Marpa and Hevajra: “In the south, in the land of herbs, the valley of Trowo, the translator, (who) emanated from Hevajra, established the source of the river of all siddhas.” Lodro Thaye compiled an important collection, the Treasure of Kagyü Mantras (Kagyü Ngak Dzö), which assembles all the transmissions coming from Marpa together with some others, thus constituting an complete compendium of cycles related to the Highest Yoga Tantras in the Kagyü school.
From the autobiographical notes Lodro Thaye made during his life, we can get a feeling of his veneration for Marpa, the Ngok Tradition and Hevajra.
For instance, we can read about the time of the passing of Lodro Thaye’s main teacher, the Ninth Situ Pema Nyinje Wangpo, who lived from 1774 to 1853, and passed at the end of the fourth month in the Water Ox Year (1852-1854).
Lodro Thaye was involved in ceremonies connected with the arrangement of Situpas funeral. He discussed with Öngen which offering ceremonies to begin with. Öngen had previously said, “Since the refuge lord himself was widely known to be an emanation of Lord Marpa, in the future the two rituals of Hevajra and Guhyasamaja, being Marpa’s principal practices, cannot be omitted.” Öngen added, “You should codify the sadhanas and mandala rituals and detail all the practical methods associated with these.”
Lodro Thaye writes: “I began the project by arranging the sadhana and mandala ritual for the tantra of Hevajra. Among the books in my spiritual master’s residence were texts by such authors as Thrükhang Lotsawa and Rinchen Zangpo of the Ngok clan, but the oral transmissions were no longer available. Among the later works was a manual of medium length by the Fourth Zhamar Chen-nga Chökyi Drakpa, which was incontestably part of the Ngok tradition; and in the collected works of Jonang Jetsün Rinpoché I found several texts, like pure gold, dealing with the tantras transmitted by Marpa. I took these two latter sources as my basis.” … Further, he continues: “While I was compiling the texts, Traleg Yeshé Nyima arrived when the requisite period after Situ Rinpoché’s passing had elapsed. He brought with him the tantric works of Chen-nga Chökyi Drakpa, which he had received from Öntrul Karma Ratna. He had received all the empowerments and oral transmissions for these texts, and so I requested all of thesefrom him. So my lineage of empowerments was totally pure and the line of oral transmission, too, needed no further support from other sources.”
The ‘Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia’ writes: “The Hevajra Tantra was transmitted by Marpa as part of a series of Tantras that became known as the Seven Mandalas of Ngok to one of his four main disciples, Ngok Chöku Dorje (1036–1106). This tradition was … upheld by the Drikung Kagyu lineage. To save these teachings from oblivion, Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye (1813-1899) combined them with other teachings of Marpa to form the Kagyu Ngag Dzö (bka’ brgyud sngags mdzod, ‘The Kagyu Treasury of Oral Instructions’).”
From his autobiography one can read: “In 1855 (the wood hare year), I undertook a personal retreat on the practice of Hevajra according to the tradition of Marpa; some very auspicious omens occurred on the first day. In three months I had completed thephase of approach, along with the supplementary fire ritual. In the fourth month, I went to Palpung Monastery, attending the vase consecration ritual and group offering rituals. I also presided as vajra master over the Hevajra ritual to commemorate Situ Rinpoché.”
Later, in the fourth month of 1869 (fire serpent year): “I had planned to write a commentary on The Hevajra Tantra, and to request permission for this I performed the guru sadhana of Marpa in conjunction with more than a hundred repetitions of rituals to purify myself of obscurations. I also practiced means to gather merit and deepen awareness, prayed, and performed feast offerings and fulfillment rituals. I began writing methodically, beginning with the chapter on the vajra family in the first section. In the tradition of explanation deriving from Marpa and Ngok, there has been no one definitive method of exegesis as there is, for example, in the Sakya tradition. Nowadays, the two commentaries most widely used are Ngok’s Like a Jeweled Ornament and the venerable Rangjung Dorjé’s commentary. But the former is entirely an explanation of the “hidden import” of the text, while the latter emphasizes the meanings of the words themselves, but the description of the deity is somewhat imbedded, which makes it difficult to use when one is explaining it (or listening to the explanation) in connection with the basic tantra. Chen-nga Chökyi Drakpa bases his treatment on so many Indiancommentaries that his explanation is not easy to understand. Such ancient explanations as the commentaries of Ram and Tsak are extremely unclear. The commentary by Thrinlépa is somewhat clearer, and the excellent commentary by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal is so fine that I kept it aside as an overview. Taking the meaning of the words as myprimary concern, I sought to clarify them further in light of the hidden meaning and, distinct from that, the ultimate meaning.”
Also relevant in this connection is Lodro Thayes text: “The Essential Oral Instructions of the Creation and Completion Stages” or “Creation and Completion – Essential Points of Tantric Meditation”
In 1870 (Fifth month of the Iron House Year), Lodro Thaye wrote: “During the monastic summer retreat I taught on the three levels of ordination and the entire texts of The Profound Inner Meaning, The Hevajra Tantra in Two Chapters, and The Highest Continuum, as well as performing a ritual in honor of the tantras.
Gradually, I also wrote an overview of The Hevajra Tantra in Two Chapters. During this period I had very positive signs in my dreams; for example, I dreamed of Vajradhara Pema Nyinjé being very pleased with me and encouraging me, placing a crystal mala around my neck.”