“When there is such an overwhelming range of actual teachings that those who are interested in practicing (or simply interested in) the Buddhist path might study, why read a biographical account? Throughout history, Buddhist masters and other practitioners have devoted much time and energy to recording the deeds of former generations. … The standard reason the Tibetan tradition gives for reading biographies is that these accounts of the lives lived, and examples set, by figures in the past inspire our own faith. In the case of Jamgön Kongtrul, we have the life example of someone who rose from very humble origins to change the course of his country’s history, not through the wielding of political power (although he came to have such power), but by his staunch and uncompromising adherence to the values of tolerance, understanding, and personal integrity in a world that, like our own, was often trying to undermine those qualities.

Jamgön Kongtrul is famous as one of the principal figures in the nineteenth century revival known as the ri-mé, or nonsectarian, movement …

In the mid 1980s, I had the opportunity to interpret a public talk given by the late Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. During that evening, Rinpoche spoke of the ri-mé approach. He defined this quite succinctly: ‘To adopt the ri-mé approach means to follow your own chosen path with dedication, while maintaining respect and tolerance for all other valid choices.’ The operative word here is ‘valid’; what is meant is not a blanket acceptance of anyone’s doctrines.

The legacy left by Jamgön Kongtrul is still with us. His Five Treasuries constitute an extraordinary body of literature; in compiling these collections, Jamgön Kongtrul ensured that teachings that might otherwise have died out have been brought back ‘into the mainstream.’”

—Richard Barron (Chökyi Nyima), from the Introduction to The Autobiography of Jamgön Kongtrul: A Gem of Many Colors, Jamgön Kongtrul