Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

404 Timeless Rapture
34 Dungkar Lozang Trinlé considers the end of this period to be 1231, the year the Yuan
dynasty was founded in China. See The Collected Works of Lozang Trinlé, p. 528.
35 Assigning a single set of dates for Kyungpo Naljor seems impossible. The Great
Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary (p. 302) and The Compendium of Names of Himalayan
Scholars and Adepts (p. 218) give them as 978–1127; The Collection of Shangpa Masters’
Biographies (p. 1) gives them as 990–1140. These three sources are works of modern
Tibetan historians. Gö Zhonnu Pal (1392–1481), author of The Blue Annals, situates
Kyungpo Naljor’s birth in 1086 and remarks at the end of the account of his life, “His
statement that he had lived for 150 years recalls that of Dampa Sangyé who, when
asked on his coming to Dingri by the Lord Khri-pa: `How old are you?’ replied: `My
age is 99990!’ Such symbolic utterances by saintly men should not be considered as
lies.” (p. 733)
36 It is easy to see why the Shangpa Kagyus are confused for yet-another-Kagyu lineage—there
were so many of them! The year 1158 saw the foundation of the Pakdrub
Kagyu; 1160, the Babrom Kagyu; 1167, the Marwa Kagyu; 1171, the Yelpuk Kagyu; 1171
again, the Tropu Kagyu; 1175, the Tsalpa Kagyu; 1179, the Drigung Kagyu; 1180, the
Taklung Kagyu; 1181, Shukseb Kagyu; 1189, the Karma Kagyu; 1193, the Drukpa
Kagyu; and 1206, the Yazang Kagyu. The “four great schools”—Dakpo, Pakdrub,
Babrom, and Karma—were founded by Gampopa or by his students; the “lesser
eight,” by students of Gampopa’s disciple, Pakmo Drupa. The lesser eight are those
listed here, with the exception of the Tsalpa Kagyu, founded by Zhang Tsöndru
Drakpa, a student of Gampopa’s disciple, Dakgom Tsultrim Nyingpo.
37 Langri Tangpa (1054–1123) founded Langtang Monastery in 1093. He is mentioned
in Patrul Rinpoché’s The Words of My Perfect Teacher (p. 99) as an exemplary meditator
who never forgot others’ sufferings.
38 These figures for Kyungpo Naljor’s teachers are often repeated. Some have taken the
“four root spiritual masters” and the “two wisdom dakinis” to refer to a total of six
main teachers and have then struggled to name the six. It should be clear from
Kyungpo Naljor’s own words, quoted above under the heading of Sukasiddhi’s life,
that the two dakinis number among the four.
39 Among these ten men, five were from central Tibet: Lumé Tsultrim Shérab, Dring
Yeshé Yönten, Ba Tsultrim Lodrö, Rakshi Tsultrim Jungné, and Sumpa Yeshé Lodrö.
Five came from western Tibet: Lotön Dorjé Wangchuk, Shérab Sengé, two brothers
Ogyé, and Upa Dékar-wa. According to Trinlé, it is possible that they took vows not
from Lachen Gongpa Rabsal, but from his student, Drum Yeshé Gyaltsen. See The
Collected Works of Dungkar Lozang Trinlé, pp. 532-533.
40 This seems to be a longevity meditation no longer extant within the Shangpa tradition.
41 See for example, The Collection of Shangpa Masters’ Biographies, p. 2; and The Compendium
of Names of Himalayan Scholars and Adepts, pp. 1191 and 1320.
42 See The Collected Works of Dungkar Lozang Trinlé, p. 553. He reports that the basic
unit of calculation was called a tem-du (them dud), which included persons, land, and