Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

228 Timeless Rapture
this yogini, who was living in a woven grass dome. Offering her a
mandala of gold, he supplicated her. She joyfully gave him the full
abhiseka and oral instructions of the Catuhpitha. (pp. 32-33)
Decoded, this story recounts Marpa’s first meeting with Niguma, the wisdom
dakini (jnanadakini), who gave him the full empowerment (abhiseka)
and meditation teachings for a deity practice called Four Seats (Catuhpitha),
not included among her teachings that Kyungpo Naljor passed on
within the Shangpa tradition.
Niguma occupies the same place in the Shangpa Instruction Lineage as
Tilopa does in the Marpa Instruction Lineage, next in line after Buddha
Vajra Bearer (a position she shares with Sukasiddhi). I have never read any
discussion of Tilopa’s marital status or family background, and in the above
account, Naropa introduced her as a master in her own right, without reference
to himself. Yet thousand-year-old doubts persist: was she Naropa’s
wife-consort? We read this in the introduction to The Life of Marpa:
She was Naropa’s wife before he renounced worldly life to enter
the dharma, and later she became his student and consort. Finally,
she became a great teacher herself and her lineage of teachings was
taken to Tibet (though not by Marpa) and continues to this present
day. (Ibid., p. xliii)
Within the Shangpa tradition’s old texts, there is some evidence that
Niguma was a direct disciple of Naropa; however, the practices they shared
did not become part of the Shangpa core transmission. All accounts affirm
that a direct relationship existed between Naro and Nigu, yet the honorific
word Tibetans use to describe it is ambiguous. Cham-mo (lcam mo)
can mean either sister or wife. Unless a text is found that describes their
life together we will never know which it was, although it hardly matters.
The reader is advised, however, that the word will be translated here as “sister,”
as this seems to me more coherent in the contexts it appears (such as
in Jamgon Kongtrul’s supplication to Niguma below), and it is also Bokar
Rinpoché’s preference.
In the Shangpa tradition’s collections of the early masters’ life stories,
Kunga Ö’s Biography of the Wisdom Dakini Niguma covers a mere six pages,
most of which amount to verses of praise. Only the following words are
pertinent to her life: