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Teachers
The Great Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche
History of The Great Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye (1813 - 1899)
In the ‘King of Meditative Absorption Sutra’, the Samadhiraja, in the section of Sutra’s, which pacify the conflicting emotions of all sentient beings, the one known as ‘Infinite Discriminating Intellect’, Lodro Thaye, is predicted. Similarly, in the ‘Descent into Lanka Sutra’, in the Lankavatara sutra, it says, ‘the one known as the Guide of Discriminating Intellect, proponent of all the five knowable objects, the great Vira, will come in the future’. Furthermore, it is prophesised in the sutra called the ‘Primordial wisdom mind of Manjushri’ that, ‘in the future, the Helmsman, the guide of all, called Lodro Thaye, possessing supreme discriminating intellect, will come’.
Furthermore, in the Mayajala Guhyagarbha Tantra of the early translation school of the Nyingmapas, it states that in this aeon, in this world, in Tibet, he would be Padma Nyingpo, Kunga, then Lodro Thaye and so forth. Eight such prophesies arose. Thus, in the scriptural transmission of the myriad activities of the sections of Sutra and Tantra and in particular, within the vajra prophetic treasures of the second Buddha from Oddiyana, Padmakara, it states over and over again, that the one praised as the great translator, Vairocana, would be his incarnation.
Furthermore, according to the accounts of his past lives, in the land of the Aryas, India, during the time of the Buddha, sincerely listening to many of the Victorious One’s Shravaka trainings, he was the close disciple, the Arya Ananda. In the land of Oddiyana, he was the King Indrabodhi, in the land of Shambhala, he was the son of a noble family, Chandrabhadra, Dawa Zangpo. From the eight sadhana sections, the Kagye, he received the mandate of maledictory wrathful mantra as the Acharya Shanti Garbha and he was the Indian Mahasiddha, the great Acharya, glorious Nagpopa and so forth. Furthermore, he took rebirth in Tibet initially as the pioneering founder, the great pandita, Thonmi Sambhota and then, the translator Vairocana.
In the early translation school of the Nyingmapas, he took rebirth as Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo, Minling Terdag Lingpa and so forth. In the new translation schools, the Sarma, he took rebirth as Loden Sherab, the translator from Ngok, then Gulo Tenpay Nyima, Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen Palzangpo and so forth. In the innumerable garlands of previous life stories in both the Nyingma and Sarma schools of the Buddha’s teachings, it states he took rebirths, thus illuminating like the sun, the teachings of the Buddha in this world system. Furthermore, in this degenerated dark age, he manifested the vast work of the Eight Chariots.
Jamgon Lodro Thaye or Kongtrul Yontan Gyatso was a famous Tibetan master who was one of the key figures in the "rime" or (non-sectarian) tradition that arose in the mid-nineteenth century in Eastern Tibet. This tradition was marked by its insistence on not being partisan to the teaching of any one tradition of the Buddha's dharma but engaging at all of the original traditions of the Buddha's dharma that came into Tibet.
Conditions of his birth
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye was born in the year 1813 (the water-bird year of the fourteenth rabjung cycle) on the tenth day of the tenth month at sunrise as the son of father Khyungpo Lama, Yungdrung Tendzin, and mother Tashi Tsho.
From an early age his fine spiritual qualities were evident and his conduct was always virtuous. At the age of five, he learned the alphabet just by looking at the letters and whilst playing would say that he was a manifestation of Padmasambhava from Uddiyana. At the age of twenty, at the new year festival of the water dragon year he took ordination from the master Zhechen Ontrul and in the second month of that year went to Palpung Monastery where he took ordination again from Situ Pema Nyeje Wangpo. At that time he received the name "Karma Ngawang Yontan Gyatso Trinley Kunkhyab Pal Zangpo" and following that became well-know as "Kongtrul Yontan Gyatso". He attended many holy beings such as Ontrul Gyurme Thuthob, from Zhechen Monastery's, a great master of the five areas of learning, and so became expert in all of the major and minor fields of learning. As well as that, he practiced the Konchog Chidu cycle from the beginning through to the end. Thus he took in the entire understanding of the Buddha's teaching and commenced his exceptionally vast activities of reinstating the lineages of Buddhism in Tibet.
From the time of the water dog year on, he composed an extraordinary number of texts on the various fields of knowledge. Principally among those were the texts that were like oceans of oral instructions of both the commands and treasures and which were incorporated into what were called the "Five Treasuries". These were vast collections of works that, as a whole, become a resource for the preservation and re-emergence of many teachings, major and minor, of the Buddhist tradition. From the time of Saga Dawa in the iron pig year he continued his works by composing his own commentaries to those five treasuries and other texts which amounted to about 100 volumes of works. His monumental work of collection, preservation, and representation of a vast corpus of teachings was of exceptional benefit to the continuity of the Buddha's dharma in his time and is important, even today.
This master of masters, whose kindness to the beings of Tibet was matchless and who was a real emissary of the Buddha.
His entering in to parinirvana
At the age of eighty-seven he passed into absorption in the luminous dharmakaya on the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month of the earth pig year (on January 19, 1899). Usually after parinirvana, great masters would be reincarnated in the Nirmanakaya form as body, speech and mind. The 2nd Jamgon Kongtrul is well-known as the five Jamgon Kongtruls among the 3 Kagyupas (Karsay Kongtrul) or Palden Khyentse Ozer, the son of the 15th Karmapa Khakhyab Dorje, the Kagyu lineage holder. At the same time, Zegar Kongtrul was recognized by the 15th Karmapa and Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche was also recognized as the activity emanation of Jamgon Kongtrul. Among the two Nyingmapa great masters were Shechen Kongtrul from the Shechen monastery and Zogchen Kongtrul of the Zogchen monastery.
2nd Jamgon Kongtrul Karma Palden Khyentse Ozer
In the garden of Samdrub Choling at Dowolung Tsurphu, the unexcelled heart center of the dakinis, the second Jamgon Kongtrul, Khyentse Ozer was born in 1902 as the son of the 15th Karmapa, Khakhyab Dorje of whom he was the heart son as well. He studied, mastered, and practiced to perfection the treatises of the sutras and tantras in general and in particular, the Five Treasuries, the path of liberation, which focuses on the Mahamudra as it is elucidated in the special teachings of the Kamtsang Kagyu.
Khyentse Ozer attained realization of the ultimate lineage and became the golden rosary lineage holder of Kamtsang Kagyu and the root guru of the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. Many times over, he gave teachings, empowerments and reading transmissions from the old and new traditions such as the Rinchen Ter Dzo and he rebuilt the retreat center of Tsandra Rinchen Drak (the residence at Palpung Monastery), supplying it with everything needed.