The Treasury of Lives

When he was staying at the master Jamyang Sarma's ('jam dbyangs gsar ma) monastery of Kyangdur (rkyang 'dur), Kunpang received the transmission of all the treatises and oral instructions possessed by the great Choku Ozer (chos sku 'od zer). In particular, although he had previously studied the Ra (rwa) tradition of Kālacakra, he now received from Choku Ozer the Kālacakra initiation, the explanation of the Kālacakra Tantra, the great Vimalaprabhā commentary, and an experiential transmission of the Kālacakra completion-stage practices of the six-branch yoga in the Dro ('bro) tradition. This caused exceptional experience and realization to burst forth. He also studied with Yeshe Rinchen (ye shes rin chen).

In total, Kunpang received and practiced about seventeen different traditions of the six-branch yoga. When he was meditating on stopping vitality (srog rtsol), which is the third of the six branches, it is said that the vital winds of the five elements became extremely forceful and he gained amazing paranormal abilities. He also had visions of countless deities, such as the eleven-faced form of Avalokiteśvara.

Kunpang then abandoned all teaching and study and became a renunciate (kunpang), living in various unspecified hermitages. While he was staying at Se Kharchung (se mkhar chung), which had been the hermitage of the great Seton Kunrik (se ston kun rig, 1029-1116) of the tradition of Lamdre, it is said that the Kalki emperors of Shambhala simultaneously appeared to him in a vision and granted permission for him to write a commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra. According to tradition during this period the goddess Nakmen Gyalmo (nags sman rgyal mo) also appeared and invited him to take up residence at the spot that would later become Jonang Monastery (jo nang dgon), which he agreed to do after three years.

He resided at the hermitage of Khacho Deden (mkha' spyod bde ldan), he wrote a series of texts on the practice of the six-branch yoga of Kālacakra, experienced a vision of Kālacakra, and received prophecy from the deity. The essential teachings of the six-branch yoga had previously existed only as oral instructions, and Kunpang's works were the first extensive manuals of guidance for these teachings written in Tibet.

When Kunpang was staying in the cave hermitage of Kyipuk Deden (skyid phug bde ldan) at Jonang he is said to have had a vision of the great Indian adept Virupa and wrote a text in which he rearranged the order of Virupa's Vajra Lines (rdo rje'i tshig rkang), the basic text of Lamdre. Kunpang taught his students both the traditions of the old and new translations of secret mantra. Dedicated meditators gathered from every direction and about six hundred of them were always at Jonang, each of whom was said to have developed good experience and realization, thus initiating the institution of what became known as Jonang Monastery, which is traditionally given the founding date of 1294. Kunpang practiced the six-branch yoga as his main meditation and lived in the Jonang area for twenty-one years. He taught the great Vimalaprabhā commentary to the Kālacakra Tantra many times.

Kunpang appointed Jangsem Gyelwa Yeshe (byang sems rgyal ba ye shes) as his successor on the monastic seat of Jonang monastery. According to legend, he then decided that it was time for him to pass away, but when Gyelwa Yeshe became ill, Kunpang extended his own life for several months. When he again decided to pass away, he was supplicated by disciples, and remained for two more weeks. Then he passed away peacefully without any sign of illness.