Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

16 Timeless Rapture
significant text specific to this tradition. To adepts of the Shangpa this text
offers the same wealth as The Rain of Wisdom does to adepts of the Kagyu
tradition. It can be used in personal study to provide advice and inspiration.
More specifically, however, it has a place of honor in the tradition’s
ritual life. During the liturgy honoring the masters of the Shangpa lineage
with offering and praise, participants recite this text aloud along with a separate
collection of biographical poems.
The Shangpa Kagyu lineage originated during the eleventh century with
the learned and accomplished Kyungpo Naljor. This Tibetan master
reportedly traveled to India seven times and received teachings from more
than 150 different masters. Of these he considered four to be most significant,
and of these four, two women, Niguma and Sukasiddi, provided his
primary inspiration. The vital process of unbroken transmission has
ensured that the quality of their awareness animates the lineage to this
day.
Exceptionally, the Shangpa Kagyu lineage remained for seven generations
a one-to-one transmission, each master transmitting these instructions
to a single disciple. This “sealed” lineage’s seven “jewels” were Vajra
Bearer, Niguma, Kyungpo Naljor, Mokchok-pa Rinchen Tsöndru, Kyergang-pa
Chökyi Sengé, Rigong-pa Sangyé Nyentön, and Sangyé Tönpa.
The lineage later included such luminaries as Tangtong Gyalpo, Taranata,
and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé. This lineage has managed to remain
unobtrusive; most of the primary lineage holders have chosen to live as
concealed yogis, to avoid institutional responsibilities, and to commit
themselves to solitude and meditation. Nevertheless, this lineage of teachings
has been so valued as to spread through virtually all Tibetan traditions.
As such, many important masters of a variety of Tibetan religious traditions
have played a significant role in the lineage’s continuity. The biographical
section in Part 2 develops in some detail the stories of the illustrious
masters of this tradition and the character they imparted to it.
Those who have met living masters of Vajrayana Buddhism will know
that each one is unique, exhibiting the qualities of awakened being in his
or her own manner. In spite of Buddhism’s language of detachment, renunciation,
emptiness of the self and so on, the process of awakening does
not imply abdication of individuality. Rather, awakening implies the discovery
of freedom. This freedom is yet another quality of the wisdom of
awakened awareness. Full enlightenment, then, can be understood to
imply a total creative freedom, as the profound intelligence of wisdom