Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

TANGTONG GYALPO
The incomparably great accomplished master Tangtong Gyalpo
was taught directly by the wisdom dakini Niguma and received
from her the transmission of the Shangpa teachings’ recent lineage. Once,
while he engaged in secret conduct at Gyédé Tang in western Tibet, five
wisdom dakinis promised to perform any enlightened activity he wished
and sang this song to give names that corresponded to him:
To this amazing person
Living in Gyédé Tang
We five women gathered here
Will each give a name.
On the great plain of the pervasive nature,
The yogi who realizes emptiness
Lives as a fearless king.
I name him King of the Plain of Emptiness [Tangtong Gyalpo].
In the valley of equanimity without formulation,
He with the view of inseparable appearance and emptiness
Is a madman who doesn’t accept or reject.
I name him Madman of the Valley of Emptiness.
From whatever is served—food and drink of a hundred tastes
Or filthy, rotten vomit—
He extracts the essence that neither helps nor harms.
I name him Extractor of the Essence of Food.
He realizes whatever conditions arise
To be like dreams or echoes
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