This book presents the commentary by Jamgön Kongtrül the Great, Lodrö Thayé, on Arya Maitreya’s Mahayana Uttara Tantra Shastra (Tib. theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma’i bstan bcos). This is the first time an English translation of this commentary has been published. The book is the fruit of twenty years of study by Rosemarie Fuchs, a member of the Marpa Translation Committee and a devoted student of the very Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche.
This commentary has been taught by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche to many Buddhist students around the world. In 1997, he taught it at the Rigpe Dorje winter program in Pullahari, Nepal, the main seat of His Eminence Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche. At the end of the teachings Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche gave the responsibility of finding ways to publish this commentary to the Jamgon Kongtrul Labrang, with his heartfelt wish that the activity of the Fourth Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche, Lodrö Chökyi Nyima, would flourish auspiciously.
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche has been the spiritual advisor of Pullahari since His Eminence the Third Jamgön Kongtrül passed away in April 1992, and has clearly fulfilled the Third Jamgön Kongtrül’s wish in establishing Pullahari as a place for the study and practice of Buddhadharma.
The Jamgon Kongtrul Labrang is profoundly grateful to Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, Rosemarie Fuchs, and Snow Lion Publications for making this teaching available to students and practitioners today and in the future. May this book benefit countless beings through the proper understanding of the ultimate Buddhist view.
Tenzin Dorjee
General Secretary to H.E. Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche
Pullahari Monastery, Nepal
July 16, 1999, the auspicious day of the first turning of the Wheel of Dharma.