The Treasury of Lives

Yonten Gyatso (yon tan rgya mtsho) was born in 1260 in a family that practiced the Nyingma tradition in the Dok (mdog) region of Tsang. He first studied at Dar Monastery (mdar dgon), where he became an expert in Abhidharma and epistemology.

He visited various other places and received teachings from many masters of tantra. At Sakya Monastery (sa skya dgon) he became a disciple and the main assistant teacher for the Sakya master Sharpa Jamyang Chenpo Rinchen Gyeltsen (shar pa 'jam dbyangs chen po rin chen rgyal mtshan, d.u.), who served as the Tenth Sakya Tridzin (sa skya khri 'dzin) for eighteen years beginning in 1287. From Jamyang Chenpo he received many teachings such as the Tantra Trilogy of Hevajra and the related oral instructions, and the Mahāyāna treatises of the Pramāṇavārttika, Abhisamayālaṃkāra, and Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra.

From Jamyang Chenpo's elder brother, the Kālacakra expert Dukorwa Yeshe Rinchen (dus 'khor ba ye shes rin chen, 1248-1294), Yonten Gyatso received teachings such as the Kālacakra Tantra, the Hevajra Tantra, and the Abhisamayālaṃkāra. He was also required to go as Yeshe Rinchen's attendent to the imperial court of Kubilai Khan in China.

Yonten Gyatso returned to Sakya from China four years later and resumed his studies with Sharpa Jamyang Chenpo, receiving many transmissions such as the Kālacakra Tantra and its commentary, the Vimalaprabhā. Jamyang Chenpo insisted that Yonten Gyatso had become very learned and should now focus on meditation. For this purpose, he urged him to travel to Jonang Monastery (jo nang dgon) and receive such teachings from the great Kunpang Tukje Tsondru (kun spangs thugs rje brtson grus, 1243-1313).

In 1290, when he was thirty years old, Yonten Gyatso arrived at Jonang and received a huge number of transmissions from Kunpang, including the Kālacakra initiation and the transmission of the Bodhisattva Trilogy and the related oral instructions. In particular, he received many different traditions of the oral instructions of the six-branch yoga of Kālacakra.

It is said that when he practiced the meditation of the dark retreat, all ten signs of clear light dawned in twenty-one days. When he practiced the daytime meditation, very intense physical experiences occurred for seven days. When these experiences passed, Yonten Gyatso remained in a state of great equanimity and possessed unimpeded clairvoyance. He remained at Jonang for the next thirty-eight years, focusing primarily on the practice of the six-branch yoga. In general, he is said to have received and mastered all the teachings available in Tibet and was especially renowned for his moral integrity.

After Kunpang passed away and his disciple Jangsem Gyelwa Yeshe (byang sems rgyal ba ye shes, 1247-1320) ascended to the monastic seat, Yonten Gyatso relied on Gyelwa Yeshe as he had Kunpang. He was first the friend, then the disciple, and finally the successor to Gyelwa Yeshe on the monastic seat of Jonang, taking the office of abbot around 1319. He accomplished great benefit for the practice lineage and held the monastic seat for about seven years. In 1326 he appointed his own disciple, Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292-1361) as his successor.