Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

The Shangpa Masters and Their Lineage 223
gained elsewhere, who demonstrated Buddha’s acts in this world and who
fashioned his teaching to be accessible and beneficial specifically for the
beings of our historical era. Kunga Ö describes this view of Buddha
Shakyamuni’s spiritual journey in the same text:
How can the three bodies of enlightenment be complete within a
single individual? The chief of the Buddhist doctrine, Shakyamuni,
attained enlightenment in the past, incalculable eons ago. That
achievement constituted his attainment of ultimate enlightenment.
His two form bodies of enlightenment [the bodies of perfect rapture
and manifest enlightenment] are as stated in The Descent to
Lanka Discourse:
The perfect Buddha [demonstrated] the attainment of
enlightenment there;
One of his manifestations [demonstrated] the attainment of
enlightenment here. (Ibid., pp. 17-18)
The author goes on to explain that Vajra Bearer is the perfect Buddha
who demonstrated enlightenment in the form of enlightenment’s perfect
rapture “there,” specifically the Highest Pure Land; and that Shakyamuni
is the manifestation who exhibited enlightenment “here,” in this world.
This portrayal of Shakyamuni is at obvious odds with common Buddhist
versions of him as a man who attained enlightenment during his lifetime.
Yet, for tantric practitioners, if Buddha was born a manifestation of
enlightenment, his attainment of ultimate enlightenment had to have preceded
his birth. Kunga Ö writes:
Which [of enlightenment’s three bodies] is attained first? It is that
of ultimate enlightenment, followed by the two form bodies, in
stages. The opposite order is impossible. (Ibid., p. 15)
For readers unfamiliar with the three bodies of enlightenment or in
need of a reminder, since they are mentioned repeatedly in this collection
of songs, Kunga Ö provides this outline:
The three bodies of enlightenment can be divided into three categories:
the three bodies of the intrinsic basis; those of practice on