Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

The Shangpa Masters and Their Lineage 343
The lineage that Niguma and Sukasiddhi nurtured never evinced any
signs of an agenda other than meditation and realization. These dakinis’
spiritual heirs convincingly turned deaf ears to calls for investment in land
and large buildings. Niguma blessed Kunga Drolchok and Taranata with
teachings that renewed the lineage, but the eventual tragedy of the slander
of Taranata’s name and the suppression of his work was a catastrophe
for Tibetan Buddhism in general, not for the Shangpa lineage, which had
nothing to lose. If the Shangpa teachings, revitalized by Taranata, disappeared
from public view because of a generalized repression, wasn’t that
entirely in character for a lineage that had been passed from one master to
one disciple during its first seven generations? Capturing and maintaining
a market share in Tibet’s spiritual bazaar was never a concern of the
Shangpa lineage. The eminent Western translator Matthew Kapstein proposes
this view:
The history of the Shangs-pa bKa’-brgyud like that of several of
the other schools must take into account two separate aspects of the
one tradition; namely its existence as a sect, and as a lineage. By
sect, I mean a religious order that is distinguished from others by
virtue of its institutional independence; that is, its unique character
is embodied outwardly in the form of an independent hierarchy
and administration, independent properties and a recognizable
membership of some sort. A lineage on the other hand is a continuous
succession of spiritual teachers who have transmitted a
given body of knowledge over a period of generations but who
need not be affiliated with a common sect. Such a distinction is
particularly useful when considering a school such as the Shangspa;
for the sect and the lineage have not shared a similar fate: while
the one waned, the other actually flourished. (The Shangs-pa bKa’brgyud:
An Unknown Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, in Tibetan
Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson, p. 139)
I have dwelled on the history of this period for two reasons. First, the
story has rarely been addressed in Western publications; I have given its
bare outline with the intention to point out that there is a complex and
intriguing story here. Second, the story’s resolution in the modern era,
through the life and work of Jamgon Kongtrul, speaks volumes concerning
the Shangpa lineage agenda, past, present, and future.