Jamgön Kongtrül's Treasury of Knowledge in ten volumes is a unique
encyclopedic masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist
teachings as they were presented in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhist teachers
expected their students to study Buddhist philosophical texts as well as
practice reflection and meditation; present-day students have also
realized that awakening has its source in study as well as in reflection
and practice. The Elements of Tantric Practice sets forth the
essential components of the path of highest yoga tantra, a system of
meditation that unites wisdom and compassion in its two phases of
practice. The first phase, that of creation, relies primarily on the use
of the imagination to effect personal transformation. The phase of
completion allows the practitioner to perfect the process of
transformation by training in methods that manipulate the energies and
constituents of the mind and body. The result of this path is the direct
experience of the fundamental nature of mind and phenomena. The
Elements of Tantric Practice concerns the meditative processes of the
inner system of secret mantra--that of highest yoga tantra--and is based
primarily on tantric sources. The author introduces the subject by
describing the path of tantra and its underlying principles. The main
body of the book deals with two major elements essential to all highest
yoga tantras: the practice of the creation phase and that of the
completion phase. For the first phase, Kongtrül describes the
visualization sequences in which ordinary perceptions are transformed
into the forms of awakening and explains how these practices purify the
stages of cyclic existence--life, death, and rebirth. The creation phase
prepares the practitioner for the techniques of the completion phase,
which entail focusing directly on the channels, winds, and vital
essences that form the subtle body. Kongtrül presents the key elements
of a variety of tantras, including the Guhyasamaja and Yamari, belonging
to the class of father tantras and the Kalachakra Hevajra Chakrasamvara
Mahamaya Buddhakapala and Tara mother tantras. All these tantras share a
common goal: to make manifest the pristine awareness that is the union
of emptiness and bliss.
