Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

28 Timeless Rapture
connection with this lineage, you may find one where you least expect—
in the person of your chosen spiritual master whom you know as a lama
of another school. Many lamas from all traditions have received and practiced
these meditations. In part, this is due to the work of Jamgon
Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé (1813—1899), who compiled these songs. When he
gathered the major meditations of Tibet’s eight lineages of meditation into
a collection called The Treasury of Profound Instructions, he included all
the Shangpa empowerments and meditations, as well as the verses contained
in this book. The Treasury of Profound Instructions is passed on regularly
in the Himalayan region; thus lamas from all schools have received
the Shangpa transmission.
For example, when I first received the Shangpa transmission, it was as
a participant in a group led by Dézhung Rinpoché, a venerable Sakya
lama, who had asked Kalu Rinpoché for the empowerments. Chadral Rinpoché,
a pillar of the Nyingma lineage, received the transmission one-toone
from Kalu Rinpoché (during which time Rinpoché said that he had
to hide his snuff box, to prevent Chadral Rinpoché, one of his closest
friends, from stealing it to make him stop his bad habit). Dilgo Kyentsé
Rinpoché, with whom you may be acquainted through the wonderful
book Journey to Enlightenment, wrote this at the end of a prayer for the
spread of the Shangpa teachings:
Through the kindness of the perfect Buddha, Gyurmé Péma Namgyal,
the great master of Zhéchen Monastery, I became a vessel for
profound teachings that constitute the essence of the lineages of
accomplishment’s eight chariots. I have particularly strong faith in
the glorious Shangpa lineage’s Five Golden Doctrines.
Lamas of every tradition—Gélug, Sakya, Nyingma, and Kagyu—have
received and practice the Shangpa tradition. The lineage is extremely discreet
but not exclusive; it silently pervades the Himalayan region yet is
centered nowhere. In this the Shangpa lineage resembles another lineage
of tantric meditation begun by a woman: the Severance (Chö), established
by Machik Lapdrön, a Tibetan reincarnation of one of the Shangpa lineage
founders, Sukasiddhi. Her spiritual children as well have always preferred
the freedom of homelessness, the exhilaration of total renunciation,
and good-natured harmony with one and all. The Severance lineage often
walked hand-in-hand with the Shangpa teachings through the walls of