The Jewel Ornament of Liberation

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The Jewel Ornament of Liberation or Ornament of Precious Liberation (Tibetan: དམ་ཆོས་ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ནོར་བུ་ཐར་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྒྱན, Wylie: dam chos yid bzhin nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan) is a key text in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism that is said to capture the essence of both the Kadampa and Kagyüpa lineages of Mahayana teachings. The text was written by Gampopa (1074-1153 C.E.), one of the two most important disciples of Milarepa.

Gampopa, both a Kadampa monk and Vajrayana student of the famed yogi Milarepa, based this text on Atisha's "Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment". Khunu Lama Rinpoche said that this was the first lamrim text written in Tibet and that all the later great lamrim texts were based on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation. It's a critically important text to study as a foundation for the traditional three year retreat.

Gampopa said, "For anyone who wishes to see me, studying The Jewel Ornament of Liberation and The Precious Garland of the Excellent Path is the same as meeting me." This text contains the complete form of Mahayana Buddhism—from the starting point of Buddha-nature, all the way to enlightenment.^[1][2]