Khabjé Kalu Rinpoché, a Karma Kagyu lineage holder, and the primary Shangpa lineage holder was the root teacher (tsawai lama) of Lama Palden Drolma, causing Sukhasiddhi Foundation to be a natural center for the study and practice of both the Karma Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu traditions in the West.

The Venerable Bokar Rinpoché succeeded H.E. Kalu Rinpoche as the head of the Shangpa Kagyu. He was the spiritual guide of Sukhasiddhi Foundation until his paranirvana in 2004. Now Sukhasiddhi Foundation has a Spiritual Advisory Council of our five primary teachers.

[sixth century bc]

Siddhartha Gautama becomes Buddha

He presents his understanding in the "Three Turnings of the Wheel" which correspond to three teaching "vehicles." Vajrayana study and practice includes all three vehicles (itself being part of the Mahayana).

Hinayana - Fundamental Vehicle
Mahayana - Greater Vehicle
Varjrayana - Indestructibe Vehicle

See The Development of Buddhism in India, by Thrangu Rinpoché

Vajrayana or Buddhist tantra is taught and practiced throughout India, finding deep roots in neighboring Tibet. Tantra means continuity of awareness.

Vajrayana includes "yidam" practice, the visualization and meditation on one of the many deities; "inner yoga", in which one works directly with the subtle energy body; and "formless" meditation - direct and immediate awareness of one's inherent luminosity and emptiness.

The Nyingma or "Ancient School" was founded during the early spreading of the buddhadharma in Tibet (7th to 9th century ce). The Kagyu, Shakya, and Gelug lineages came in the second wave of transmission of tantra to Tibet from the 11th century onwards and are known as Sarma or "New School."

The Kagyu school originated among the unconventional yogic traditions of the eighty-four Indian mahasiddhis or "Greatly Realized Ones".

The human founder is Tilopa, who in the tradition of the great siddhas, meditated unceasingly in the deep jungles of India. Through tantric mastery, he met the Buddha in his primordial form as Vajradhara (Dorje Chang).

The Kagyu lineage is born from this connection. Tilopa's primary disciple was Naropa (1016-1100), a native of India as well, who in his own unique expression of wisdom consolidated the completion stage teachings into what are known as the Six Yogas of Naropa.

Naropa then transmited the lineage to Marpa (1012-1096), a Tibetan "householder" who traveled to India several times in order to receive the dharma. Returning to Tibet as a siddha in his own right, Marpa lived with his family, farmed the land, and trained disciples, principally the much-loved "white-cotton clad yogi" Milarepa (1040-1123). Up until this point the lineage was not a monastic one.

Gampopa (1079-1153), not yet a yogi but instead a well trained monk from the Kadampa school (which later incorporated into the Geluk), was accepted by Milarepa as a disciple at his mountain cave and became one of his main students. After receiving numerous teachings and achieving full and complete realization, Gampopa established the first Kagyupa monastery in Tibet, while taking on many disciples including the monk Dusum Kheynpa (1110-1193).

Dusum Khyenpa, on the strength of his attainment, becomes known as "person of awakened activities" or the Karmapa (the particle "pa" indicating he is free of karma that binds). He is the first in a line of reincarnated tulkus that continues right up to today's seventeenth Karmapa, all greatly respected throughout Tibet for their spiritual attainment, monastic and political leadership. Dusum Khyenpa, as the first Karmapa, is the beginning of the Karma Kagyu line.

See The History of the Sixteen Karmapas of Tibet, by Karma Thinley. Dzokchen Ponlop Rinpoché has also been teaching on the Karmapas in "Bodhi" magazine.

The Shangpa Kagyu lineage originated during the eleventh century with the learned and accomplished Kyungpo Naljor. This Tibetan master reportedly traveled to India seven times and received teachings from more than 150 different masters. Of these he considered four to be most significant, and of these four, two women, Niguma and Sukhasiddhi, provided his primary inspiration. The vital process of unbroken transmission has ensured that the quality of their awareness animates the lineage to this day.

Exceptionally, the Shangpa Kagyu lineage remained for seven generations a one-to-one transmission, each master transmitting these instructions to a single disciple. This "sealed" lineage's seven "jewels" were Vajra Bearer, Niguma, Kyungpo Naljor, Mokchok-pa Rinchen Tsöndru, Kyergang-pa Chökyi Sengé, Rigong-pa Sangyé Nyentön, and Sangyé Tönpa. The lineage later included such luminaries as Thangtong Gyalpo, Taranata, and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé. This lineage has managed to remain unobtrusive; most of the primary lineage holders have chosen to live as concealed yogis, to avoid institutional responsibilities, and to commit themselves to solitude and meditation. Nevertheless, this lineage of teachings has been so valued as to spread through virtually all Tibetan traditions. As such, many important masters of a variety of Tibetan religious traditions have played a significant role in the lineage's continuity.

Those who have met living masters of Vajrayana Buddhism will know that each one is unique, exhibiting the qualities of awakened being in his or her own manner. In spite of Buddhism's language of detachment, renunciation, emptiness of the self and so on, the process of awakening does not imply abdication of individuality. Rather, awakening implies the discovery of freedom. This freedom is yet another quality of the wisdom of awakened awareness. Full enlightenment, then, can be understood to imply a total creative freedom, as the profound intelligence of wisdom and the selfless altruism of compassion, both natural to this awakened mind, respond spontaneously and appropriately in any situation.

This freedom in awakening is undistracted and uninhibited. "Detachment" from distraction leads to the ease of relaxed natural awareness. Perfectly focused in a state of utter ease and nondistraction, accomplished masters can be experienced by others as having a presence imbued with a vividness or intensity that is the natural expression of undissipated being. Moreover, free of self-preoccupation, and hence purely altruistic, their being is totally free of inhibition, authentically grounded in and fearlessly expressing the integrity of the true nature of being.

With profound gratitude and appreciation, awakened masters past and present integrate into their personal identity every one of the lineage's extraordinary individuals who preceded them. And they communicate awakening's qualities as the display and activity of the various deity configurations and techniques that characterize the vajra world of their tradition.

From the Foreword, by Lama Drupgyu Tenzin to Timeless Rapture, by Ngawang Zangpo.

Shangpa Kagyu teachings were given to students, both Eastern and Western, by Kalu Rinpoche, the lineage holder, until his death in 1989. Preceding Kalu Rinpoche as the lineage holder and teacher was Lama Norbu Dondrup, who was the student of Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (1813-1899), a founder of the Rime [non-sectarian] tradition and one of its greatest masters.

Kalu Rinpoche was an activity emanation of Jamgon Kongtrul. "Kalu Rinpoche was a most accomplished Rime master" writes Lobsang Lhanlungpa. "He devoted himself fully to giving a variety of esoteric teachings which are usually propagated only by their respective orders." Additionally, in the last years of his life he expressed again and again that all authentic religious and spiritual teachings are the activity of awakened mind.