Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse Of The Shangpa Masters

Description

Boundless awe and rapture are experiences reported again and again by accomplished masters. These qualities of mind are characteristic of the shift from busy, limited consciousness to effortless, panoramic awareness - a shift said to endure after realization on the Buddhist path to awakening. Throughout Buddhist history, awakened ones have celebrated this innate and timeless rapture with inspired verse, sung extemporaneously. Timeless Rapture offers us a rare glimpse into the mysticism of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage, a tradition based mainly on profound teachings of two Indian women: Niguma and Sukasiddhi. A compendium of spontaneous verse sung by Indian and Tibetan tantric Buddhist masters from the tenth century to the present day, Timeless Rapture, includes the translations as well as short descriptions of each poet's life, plus an overview of the history of the lineage in Tibet.

Jamgoen Kongtrul (1813 1899) was a versatile and prolific scholar. He has been characterized as a "Tibetan Leonardo" because of his significant contributions to religion, education, medicine, and politics.

"Only a fraction of Tibet's vast literature of mystical poetry has yet been translated into other languages. Now with the gift of Ngawang Zangpo's inspired English translations the exquisite expressions of inner experience sung by the greatest men and women of the Shangpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism are available to the world."-Cyrus Stearns, author of The Buddha from Dolpo, Hermit of Go Gliffs, and Luminous Lives "Our lineage's past spiritual masters used songs to express their manifest experience and realization of the spiritual path's vital subjects such as the trio of basis path and result; or view meditation and conduct; as well as dispelling hindrances and enriching meditative experience. The blessings of the lineage enter our heart the very best technique to realize our mind's abiding nature Great Seal. I pray that all who see hear or read this book be blessed."- Bokar Rinpoche "Highly commendable volume....flows beautifully and [is] rendered by a skilled and experienced translator..."- Journal of Asian Studies