Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

258 Timeless Rapture
of Tibetan Buddhist institutions during this second wave, Atisha’s main
disciple Dromtön founded Radreng Monastery in 1057, the start of the
Kadampa Lineage. Kön Könchok Gyalpo founded the Sakya Monastery
in 1073 to begin that school. In 1121, Kyungpo Naljor founded a monastery
at Shang, beginning the Shangpa Kagyu. The same year, Milarepa’s main
disciple Gampopa founded the Daklha Gampo Monastery and with it the
Dakpo Kagyu. It should be mentioned, since this information is so often
given incorrectly, that the Shangpa Kagyu lineage was never one of the
many subsects of “the” Kagyu lineage, from the point of view either of
teachings or of monastic institutions. 36
Kyungpo Naljor began his career as a translator and seeker of Indian
gurus, a contemporary of Marpa. After his travels were over, Kyungpo
Naljor meditated in retreat in Tibet for many years, a contemporary of
Milarepa. Close to the end of his life, he founded a series of religious institutions
in Tibet as a contemporary of Gampopa. While scholars may question
Kyungpo Naljor’s birth year, no one disputes the incredible span of
his life and experiences.
As great as he was, Kyungpo Nalor found himself sometimes frustrated
by the realities of life in so-called spiritual communities. His main student,
Rinchen Tsöndru, found that this aspect of his master’s life followed
him; disheartened, he walked away more than once from the community
he headed. This may be fitting, since Kyungpo Naljor never measured his
success by the number of students or offerings he attracted. If he had, he
would never have left behind his relative success as a teacher at the age of
fifty to make the first of his many arduous journeys to India. Each time
Kyungpo Naljor traveled to search for or to visit his masters, he went laden
with gifts of gold. At first, he accompanied these gifts with requests for
teaching; later, he made difficult and dangerous journeys to India only to
express his gratitude to his masters with more offerings. Thus, his lineage’s
teachings became known as the Shangpa Golden Doctrines.
If we remain true to their spirit, the spread of Buddhism in general and
the Shangpa Instruction Lineage in particular cannot be measured by acres
of land, tons of brick and mortar, or head counts in assembly halls, but by
changes of mind and heart. In Buddhism, these can happen only when a
teacher meets a disciple and they commit to the transmission of the teaching
and to one another. From the perspective of land, walls, and head
counts, the Shangpa lineage went straight downhill from Kyungpo Naljor’s
time, but if the lasting purity of the teachings and the exceptional quality