Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

SANGYÉ TÖNPA
At the beginning of this collection of songs, Jamgon Kongtrul
composed a two-line prayer to each of the major masters of the
lineage. To evoke Sangyé Tönpa, he wrote,
Noble Sangyé Tönpa, exemplar of the seven-jewel lineage
And their lives of freedom, to you I pray.
Sangyé Tönpa (also known as Tsöndru Sengé or Chöjé Tönpa) was the
last of the seven jewels of the Shangpa transmission that began with Buddha
Vajra Bearer. He was the one to untie the vajra knot of the dakinis’ seal,
allowing Niguma’s instructions to be taught in their entirety to more than
a single disciple. Kongtrul cites him as the epitome of the seven, the one
in whom the qualities of all were gathered, and it is difficult to feel otherwise
when reading his story. The autobiography of this master meditator
and visionary is almost entirely situated on an “inner” level, that of visions,
lucid dreams, and clear light.
A few stories of his early years reveal him as a prodigy. At nine, he met
an emanation of Machik Lapdrön and received her single-disciple transmission
and a prophecy; his name is found in some Severance lineages.
Later, at twelve years old, he confided to one lama his deep disillusionment
with life; the lama remarked that the boy’s acute alienation indicated either
that he was a spiritual prodigy or that he had been possessed by a demon!
Later, another master identified him as his lineage’s predicted disciple, seventh
in a line from an exceptional woman master. That lineage centered
on the meditation of Buddha Infinite Life, whom Sangyé Tönpa was said
to incarnate; it was founded by an Indian woman master known as Queen
of Accomplishment, teacher of Milarepa’s disciple, Réchungpa.
True to the Shangpa tradition, Sangyé Tönpa stressed the need to keep
meditative experience secret and to remain steadfast within spiritual prac-
290