JAMG N KONGTRUL LODR TAYE (1813-1900) was a versatile and prolific scholar and one of the most outstanding writers and teachers of his time in Tibet. He was a pivotal figure in eastern Tibet's nonsectarian movement and made major contributions to education, politics, and medicine. ELIZABETH M. CALLAHAN is a Tibetan translator of the Kagyu tradition. She completed two three-year retreats in the Karma Kagyu tradition under the guidance of Kalu Rinpoche, is a student of Khenpo Ts ltrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, and has been a Tsadra Foundation Fellow since 2002. Her previous translations include The Treasury of Knowledge- Frameworks of Buddhist Philosophy by Jamg n Kongtrul, The Profound Inner Principles by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, and Moonbeams of Mahamudra by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal.
In his vast work The Treasury of Precious Instructions, Jamgoen Kongtrul Lodroe Taye, that most eminent of Tibetan Buddhist masters, collected together all the empowerments, instructions, and practices of the eight great chariots of the practice lineages. Not only that, but he himself received the complete transmissions for all the practices, accomplished them including the retreats, and preserved them in his own mindstream. He then passed on the transmissions to his own students and all who requested them. The Treasury of Precious Instructions exemplifies how Jamgoen Kongtrul Lodroe Taye's whole life was dedicated to teaching and spreading the Dharma, whether it be sutra or mantra, kama or terma, old or new translation school, free of sectarian bias. Without his supreme efforts, many traditions of Tibetan Buddhism would have been lost. -from the foreword by His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje