The following is excerpted from Timeless Rapture, by Ngawang Zangpo:

Both Sukhasiddhi and Niguma were born in Kashmir, although there is no record of any meeting between them. They are cited together only as teachers of the same disciple, Khyungpo Naljor, yet according to the Nyingma tradition, they are related from past lives.

Sukhasiddhi arrived at tantric Buddhism late in life. She lived as an impoverished housewife and mother of six children until the age of fifty-nine. She was thrown out of her home by her husband and children, who were irate at what they considered her misplaced generosity to a stranger who came begging at their door. She wandered westward to Oddiyana (Swat Valley in modern Pakistan), where she acquired a measure of grain, with which she made alcohol. Her business proved a modest success, and she allowed herself to again be generous, this time to a female adept referred to as Avadhuti-ma, who regularly bought alcohol for her companion, an adept in retreat. Sukhasiddhi's gift of free alcohol intrigued the adept, Virupa, who asked whether his surprising benefactor wanted to receive Buddhist teaching. She did.

Sukhasiddhi's story relates that she brought as offerings to Virupa two containers of alcohol and some pork. Although this meeting predates the Muslim domination of India, pork and alcohol were far from what would have normally constituted suitable offerings for spiritual teaching, even to tantric masters. Nevertheless, Virupa was no normal master, and Sukhasiddhi would prove an exceptional disciple. Upon receiving empowerment and instruction from Virupa, Sukhasiddhi, then a sixty-one-year-old, attained full enlightenment that very evening. Like Niguma, her body became rainbowlike.

Niguma is remembered as a wrathful, dark-brown woman who wore bone ornaments, whereas Sukhasiddhi is portrayed as a peaceful, light-skinned sixteen-year-old. Niguma's teachings make up the bulk of the Shangpa Instruction Lineage's meditation practices, yet it is Sukhasiddhi who occupies the center of the sacred circle when Kyungpo Naljor's masters are recalled. Kyungpo Naljor himself testified to her central position, as quoted in The Story of the Wisdom Dakini, Sukhasiddhi, Whose Other Name [in Tibetan] is Déwé Ngödrub [Accomplishment of Bliss]:

Among my four principal spiritual masters, Niguma, Rahula, the hidden yogi [probably Métripa], and Sukhasiddhi, the kindest was Sukhasiddhi. Her first great kindness was the bestowal of many transmissions. Her later great kindness was to be my secret consort and to grant me every empowerment. Her final great kindness was to give me directions for giving empowerment, along with profound instruction in meditation. Moreover, she said she would remain inseparable from me throughout India and Tibet, a very great kindness, and that meditators in future generations would gain accomplishment by experiential cultivation of this secret meditation she taught.

- The Collection of Shangpa Masters' Biographies, pp. 56-57

In fact, Sukhasiddhi kept her promise to appear to future lineage holders, notably to each of the first four lineage holders after Kyungpo Naljor, and has thereby revitalized and added to the Shangpa teachings over the centuries.

The Melody of Great Bliss: A Supplication to the Wisdom Dakini Sukhasiddhi

by Jamgon Kongtrul