The Jewel Ornament of Liberation

The Jewel Ornament of Liberation (Tib. དྭགས་པོ་ཐར་རྒྱན་, Dakpo Targyen; or Tib. དམ་ཆོས་ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ནོར་བུ་ཐར་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྒྱན་, Wyl. dwags po thar rgyan, or dam chos yid bzhin nor bu rin po che'i rgyan) — a famous survey of the ground, path and fruition of the Buddhadharma, written by Gampopa, the foremost disciple of Milarepa. It is said to capture the essence of both the Kadampa and Kagyüpa lineages of Mahayana teachings.

Outline

The text is structured around the following points:

1. The cause is the buddha nature.
2. The support is the most precious human body.
3. The circumstance is the spiritual friend.
4. The method consists of his instructions.
5. The result consists of the kayas of perfect buddhahood.
6. The activity is the spontaneous accomplishment of beings’ benefit.

Tibetan Text

• དམ་ཆོས་ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ནོར་བུ་ཐར་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྒྱན་, dam chos yid bzhin gyi nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan

Translations

• Gampopa, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation : the Wish-fulfilling Gem of the Noble Teachings, translated Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche, Snow Lion, 1998
• sGam Po Pa, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, translated by Herbert V. Guenther, Shambhala, 1986

Commentaries

In English

• Ringu Tulku, Path to Buddhahood: Teachings on Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation, Shambhala, 2003

Further Reading

• David Seyfort Ruegg, ‘A Propos of a Recent Contribution to Tibetan and Buddhist Studies’ in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 82, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1962), pp. 320- 331