Tilopa

[Guest guest]

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is

happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make

anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest. ~ Tilopa

"…In Tilopa's case, the guidance came from the commanding appearance

of a dakini ("sky-flyer" - female spiritual being), who manifested at

important moments in his life to set him in the right direction. From

the very outset, she made it clear to him that his real parents were

not his worldly ones, but primordial wisdom and universal voidness:

"...your father is Cakrasamvara and your mother is Vajravarahi .."

On her advice, he frequented monasteries and gradually took up a

monk's life, eventually becoming an erudite scholar and an exemplary

monk, known as Prajñabhadra. Following a vision, he discovered a text

hidden in the base of a statue in the monastery. Not understanding its

meaning he prayed to his dakini mentor, who sent him to the

illustrious gurus Matangi and Saryapa to study tantra. Returning some

time later to the monastery, he furthered his classical studies.

Another critical encouter with his celestial dakini teacher initiated

him further and definitively closed the gaps that existed between his

theoretical knowledge and his experiential insight.

Following this, he travelled widely in India, going from guru to guru

until he had assimilated the very quintessence of each major strand

of vajrayana teaching of the day. In particular, he received from

Saryapa the teachings on purification of chakra and subtle body, best

known these days through their Tibetan name of tummo. From Nagarjuna

he received the illusory body and radiant light teachings; from

Lawapa the dream yoga; from Sukhasiddhi the teachings on life, death

and between-life states (bardo) and consciousness transference; from

Indrabhuti teachings on insight (prajna) as the balancing of energies

and from Matangi the teachings on resurrection of the dead body.

Understanding the many parallels he found in the various traditions,

and realising that they each responded to the needs of different

people at different stages of awakening, he eventually condensed

their essence into four principal streams of teaching. It is from

these, and in these, that we have the true meaning of the word Kagyu.

In Tai Situpa's words:

"Taking avantage of his new-found freedom, Prajñabhadra practised

meditation very intensively, travelling when necessary to receive the

special techniques and guidance of most of the great teachers of his

day: Guhya, Darika, Dingi and so on. The best of students, he

mastered all their vital teachings and was able to appreciate their

common points and their particularities. The lineages which he

inherited all condense into four streams of transmitted wisdom. It is

from these that the Kagyu tradition derives its name, for 'Kagyu' is a

short form of the Tibetan

theg pa gsum gy snying don bka bab kyi chos bzhi'i gdams ngag bar ma ckad pa'i brgyud pa,

which roughly means the unbroken lineage of profound and intimate

guidance in the four sorts of transmitted mastery, the heart meaning

of the three yanas."

In the above, Ka is short for Ka.pap.zhi. - which could be loosely

rendered as 'four transmissions of mastery'. Zhi simply mean four.

Ka.pap is a term without any equivalent in English. It means

transmission—of knowledge, skill, insight and teaching ability—in a

specific domain, from master to student, to the point where the

student enters into complete possession of all the master's prowess.

It is the sort of thing that takes place when someone already gifted

in, or deeply predisposed towards, a certain subject seeks out the

best person in that field and learns from them everything they have

to teach. Implicit to this process is the spontaneous appreciation

and rapid assimilation that occurs when a student has a natural feel

for a subject. The four Kagyu transmissions referred to here are

those of:great seal - (Tib. phyag.rgya.cken.po Skt. mahamudra) in

this instance 'uncharacterised mahamudra', i.e. without ritual, form

or sophistry,heat yoga -(Tib. gtum.mo, which literally means 'angry

mother'),lucidity - (Tib. od.gsal means ' as clear as if

illuminated'--sometimes called 'clear light' in modern translations)

this includes dream and between-life (bardo) yogas

....These four transmissions contain the very essence of all three

levels (yana) of Buddhism. Each contains the others and therefore

each contains everything. As a whole they are called mahamudra.

If each of the above were not an aspect of a whole, tu-mo, subtle

heat, would simply be a technique for producing warmth; one would be

no more than a human oven. Radiant lucidity would be just something

illuminating, like torchlight. They are not like that. Subtle heat

and lucidity are very profound practices, richly supported by

mahamudra's insight, mantras, visualisation-stage mahamudra etc. They

are very complete, each being a highlighted aspect of the same thing.

These four, one of which is intimate knowledge of mind and the other

three skilful areas of technique, have been transmitted in their

original integrity, via a lineage of perfect masters and perfected

students, from the time of Tilopa until our present day. They form

the hub of the present Kagyu Lineage.

During this period of his life, he acquired the name Tilopa, which

means sesame-grinder, as this was the secret guise in which he lived

externally, while all the time perfecting his meditation internally.

A marvellous phrase occurs in this part of his biography:

"From this moment on, not one moment of his life, day or night, was wasted."

Having inherited the Buddhist lineages of his time, Tilopa was then

advised by his guiding dakini to go to the impenetrable valleys of

Orgyen, where he would receive extraordinary transmissions of

teaching. In a veritable épopée, he worked and fought his way through

earthquakes, hallucinations, demon army attacks and other phenomena

and was rewarded by becoming heir to some very special teachings; the

heart teachings of the dakinis. These included the nine secret dakini

teachings and the four wish-fulfilling-gem teachings.

Then followed his enlightenment. Although he had had many excellent

gurus, including celestial dakinis, his enlightenment occured through

direct fusion with the mind of Sakyamuni's sambhogakaya. Tilopa

experienced this as meeting "the Buddha Who Holds the Vajra(yana)"

(Vajradhara Buddha). The fivefold transmission of insight that took

place then is indescribable. It ended with Tilopa being

indistinguishable from the enlightenment of all the Buddhas. The

remainder of his earthly life was spent teaching and ensuring that

the precious wisdom and lineages he had inherited were perpetuated by

worthy disciples for the future benefit of humankind.

~from a chapter on Tilopa and the origins of mahamudra, from Ken

Holmes book "Karmapa" (Altea 1996), which quotes extracts from the

12th Tai Situpa's biography "Tilopa - some fragments of his life"

(KDDL, Scotland

 

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is

happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make

anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest. ~ Tilopa

"Tilopa is one of the most authoritative and renowned Indian

mahasiddhas and masters of mahamudra and tantra. He received various

tantric teachings and unified them and transmitted to his disciple,

Naropa.

Tilopa, known as Prajnabhadra, was born in the town of Chativavo

(Chittagong, which is now in Banladesh), into the Brahmin caste. His

birthplace is also recorded to be Jagora (in eastern Bengal, India?).

His father was Pranyasha and mother, Kashi.

When he grew up he learned all the doctrinal treatises of Brahminism.

While he was wandering in various places asking for alms, he finally

came to a temple and, seeing that the monks lived a life of

renunciation, he entered the monastic life and became a learned in

the Tripitaka, the three collections of the teachings of the Buddha.

He was empowered into the tantric mandalas by his master, and learned

acharyas, and engaged very diligently in meditation practices on

those instructions at different places, such as Somapuri. After a

short time, he had a unique experience and great wisdom was born

within him from this realization. He received further teachings from

different persons and had many sacred visions and made great

accomplishments over the years.

Tilopa received teachings and transmissions especially the "Four

Special Transmission Lineages" from great tantric masters of India.

Among his many masters, the Great Brahmin Saraha, Acharya Nagarjuna,

and Matangi played very important roles in his development. For 12

years, Tilopa devoted himself totally to his practices and attained

realization.

It is also said that from ultimate point of view, Tilopa had no human

teachers and he received the full mahamudra and vajrayana

transmissions directly from Buddha Vajradhara.

According to Taranatha, Tilopa practised with a ksetra yogini, the

daughter of a sesame seed pounder, and the monks expelled him from

the monastery. Because he was a former Brahmin Pandita and Buddhist

monk, he had lost all his opportunities for wealth and fame. He

pursued the work of a sesame seed pounder in the town. He then came

to be known as "Tillipa," the sesame pounder. He received various

teachings from dakinis in the land of Oddiyana. He then continued to

pound sesame seeds in Oddiyana until the sesame became like a butter

broth. Through the methods that he received from his Guru's

instructions, his body and mind was also pounded and synchronized

through this process, until he realized the co-emergent wisdom.

He also worked at a brothel for Dharima, a prostitute, in Bengal, as

instructed by his guru Matangi. He attained great mahamudra

realization through practicing in this situation. Through such

diligence and skilful practice of mahamudra and tantra, he finally

attained the complete siddhi or accomplishment.

Tilopa then started to teach and benefit sentient beings for many

years. He started to pass on what he had realized, in the form of a

song to the gatherings in towns. At first, everyone was usually full

of doubt. Hundreds of thousands of people came to see the acharya in

a town in Bengal on one occassion. Tilopa appeared with his consort

in the sky pounding sesame seeds. When each person in the audience

asked questions, Tilopa putting his experiences into song, answered

each question in this way. It is said that many of those who realized

the meaning of the songs attained siddhis. Thus he became renowned as

the Siddha Tillipa, and is one of the eighty-four mahasiddhas of

India. After many years of benefiting beings and guiding his

disciples for a long time, he departed for the enlightened realms

without leaving his physical body.

His two most well known students were Naropa and Lalitavajra. His

Golden Rosary lineage heir was Naropa."

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is

happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make

anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest. ~ Tilopa

 

LoveAlways,

Mazie Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*

Attachment: (image/pjpeg) 1a Tilopa.jpg [not stored]

[Guest guest]

, "Mazie Lane" <sraddha54@h...> wrote:

> And....it's farm-raised (Tilapia....I couldn't resist. 'scuse me

[Guest guest]

Thank you, Mazie.

 

I will add this to the list of things I think I know.

 

(It is a huge list)

 

Lucky for me I don't look at it too often. But when I do, I start

crossing things off it. ; - )

 

))))))Shawn

[Guest guest]

Thank you, Mazie.

 

I will add this to the list of things I think I know.

 

(It is a huge list)

 

Lucky for me I don't look at it too often. But when I do, I start

crossing things off it. ; - )

 

))))))Shawn

[Guest guest]

Very good, Mazie.

Tathagatha means *one who comes and goes SUCH*. But these SUCH is so

unique that its beyond the language, beyond any intellectual

comparition with what we have experienced before. Therefore, these

SUCH neither comes nor goes.

When I *saw my village for the first time in my life* - a LSD-similar

trip after performing ca 100 circulations in Kriya Yoga, a state

termed *a rendevouze with Reality*, I experienced everything SO anew

as a little child. I explored a universe of spontanous beauty even in

the smallest things of my environment. I saw the world AS SUCH, with

no coming and no going, with -

No thought, no reflection, no analysis,

no worship, no oaths.

Let it come by itself.

(Tilopa)

-

Mazie Lane

Wednesday, August 06, 2003 7:28 PM

Tilopa

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is

happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make

anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest. ~ Tilopa