Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

306 Timeless Rapture
control of his dreams and discovered that many other visualizations
existed. He asked his teacher about these, who replied that they had been
given directly by the dakini and that she had not allowed him to pass them
on. One year later, the biography relates, Tangtong Gyalpo gave the same
disciple the teachings; he explained that in the interim he received her permission.
Like so many Shangpa masters, he had kept them to himself,
once again in respect of Niguma’s wish for secrecy.
These stories convey some of Tangtong Gyalpo’s relationship to the
Shangpa lineage, but his life’s horizons extended far beyond Niguma’s
teaching. He constructed iron-link bridges throughout Tibet and is always
pictured as a dark brown, long-haired yogi who holds a vase of immortality
in his left hand and an iron chain in his right, reminders of his exceptionally
long life and his work for the Tibetan people. 46 This yogi-engineer
also constructed many stupas and temples on power points designated by
such enlightened beings as Guru Rinpoché and Tara, and he is revered as
the composer of the Tibetan opera Aché Lhamo, still performed regularly
today. Many non-Tibetan Buddhists have a close connection to Tangtong
Gyalpo, often without realizing it. The meditation on Bodhisattva Great
Compassion that Kalu Rinpoché spread worldwide was originally taught
by that bodhisattva to Tangtong Gyalpo in a vision.
Jamgon Kongtrul included only a few of Tangtong Gyalpo’s songs in this
collection, whereas the biography written by his nephew Lochen Gyurmé
Déchen is replete with songs from this prolific master. The short supplication
below gives an indication that this master’s life was rich in teachings,
meditation, experience, realization, and beneficial work for others throughout
Buddhist Asia.