Tilopa

File:Tilopa.jpg

Tilopa.

Tilopa (Prakrit; Sanskrit: Talika or Tilopadā) was a Buddhist tantricTemplate:R mahasiddhaTemplate:R who lived in northeast IndiaTemplate:RTemplate:RTemplate:R around the 10th century -- perhaps from 988 to 1069Template:RTemplate:R though from 928 to 1009 is also suggestedTemplate:R. The information of his life comes from spiritual biographies or hagiographiesTemplate:R where actual biographical details are fewTemplate:R and the texts concentrate on spiritual growth of an individualTemplate:RTemplate:R. The earliest of these hagiographies was composed during the 11th centuryTemplate:R.

Tilopa practised the Cakrasaṃvara TantraTemplate:RTemplate:R, a set of spiritual practices intended to accelerate the process of attaining Buddhahood. He became a holder of all the tantric lineages, possibly the only person in his day to do so. In addition to the way of insight and MahamudraTemplate:R, Tilopa learned and passed on the Way of Methods (today known as the Six Yogas of Naropa) and guru yoga. Naropa is considered his main studentTemplate:R, though his hagiographies mention by name two other disciples as wellTemplate:R.

Life

The historical documentation of Tilopa's life doesn't exist or is not known Template:R. The first biography or hagiography of Tilopa was written in the 11th century, and another major biography was written during the 14th centuryTemplate:R; however, others followed in e.g. 16th centuryTemplate:R. The account below is a synopsis of biography in Chos-Kyi Blo-Gros The Life of the Mahasiddha TilopaTemplate:R. The one thing most accounts agree is that he was born in northeast India into the Brahmin caste, i.e. in what nowadays is Bangladesh or Eastern IndiaTemplate:RTemplate:RTemplate:RTemplate:RTemplate:R. After his birth a soothsayer profesied to his mother that he'd be either a buddha, deva, nāga or yakshaTemplate:R. Later his mother had a vision of several ugly women, telling Tilopa's her to make him a buffalo herder and also learn scripturesTemplate:RTemplate:R -- the latter might mean taking monastic vowsTemplate:RTemplate:R instead of just learning to meditate. His mother adhered to advice given, and having grown up, Tilopa encountered the same women in another vision while herding buffaloes -- this time they revealed Tilopa's spiritual pedigree and exhorted the boy to go to a cemetery of SalaviharaTemplate:R or SalabherahaTemplate:R.

In the cemetery Tilopa encountered a teacher called Cāryapa, and a teacher called LawapaTemplate:R or KambalapāTemplate:R who both gave him spiritual instructions. In the cemetery he was taught by an ascetic named Mātangīpa tooTemplate:RTemplate:R.

Later he encounted a ḍākinī named SubhaginiTemplate:R or MatonghaTemplate:R in the temple where his uncle was an abbot and taughtTemplate:R. Subhagini asked whether or not he understood the text of SatasāhasrikāTemplate:R. Having received a negative answer she further explicated the text to him, and told him to meditateTemplate:R. However, Tilopa's uncle had forbidden him from meditatingTemplate:R. So, the ḍākinī then urged him to fasten the text Satasāhasrikā with a rope, toss it out of the temple door in water, and act like a madman Template:R. The act didn't go unnoticed: Though the text did not suffer damage, he was remonstrated and beatenTemplate:R. Some time after that, Subhagini told him go East to the market place of Pañcapana, find a prostitute called BharimaTemplate:R or DharimaTemplate:R, and follow her as a servantTemplate:RTemplate:R.

Tilopa did what Subhagini told him to do, went to Pañcapana, found Brahima, and worked as a pimp for her at nights while also working as a sesame seed trasher during the dayTemplate:RTemplate:R. Later, while trashing sesame seeds, he attained the perfection close to the great seal or mahamudraTemplate:R. At the same time people around the city had flaming visions of him or visions of his bone ornaments blazingTemplate:R; the people came and asked him to teach themTemplate:R, and the king of the country too came to pay his respectsTemplate:R.

From several teachers Tilopa received teachings:

• From Nagarjuna he learned the of illusory bodyTemplate:R, and perhaps transmission the radiant light (Sanskrit: prabashvara) and illusory body (Sanskrit: maya deha, Tib. gyulu) teachings (Cakrasaṃvara Tantra), Lagusamvara tantra, or Heruka Abhidharma.
• From Caryāpa he received the transmission of dreamsTemplate:R.
• From Lawapa he learned the transmission of clear lightTemplate:R and possibly the dream yoga.
• From either JñānaḍākinīTemplate:R or Saryapa he learned the transmission of inner heat.

From Vajradhara -- by direct transmission -- instructionsTemplate:R or the entirety of mahamudraTemplate:R.

• From Sukhasiddhi Tilopa received the teachings on life, death, and the bardo (states between lives and consciousness transference/phowa).
• From Indrabhuti he gained wisdom (prajña).
• And, from Matangi he learned the resurrection of the dead body.

Teachings

File:Mahasiddha Tilopa, southern Tibet, 16th-17th century AD, bronze - Linden-Museum - Stuttgart, Germany - DSC03693.jpg

Mahasiddha Tilopa, southern Tibet, 16th-17th century AD, bronze - Linden-Museum - Stuttgart, Germany.

Six Precepts or Words of Advice

Tilopa gave Naropa a teaching called the Six Words of AdviceTemplate:R. The original text does not survive, but a Tibetan translation has been preservedTemplate:R.

In Tibetan, the teaching is called gnad kyi gzer drug – literally, "six nails of key points"; the aptness of the title becomes clear if one considers the meaning of the English idiomatic expression, "to hit the nail on the head."

The six precepts have been translated in several rather different ways. Three are presented below.

McLeod translation

Ken McLeod's translationTemplate:RTemplate:RTemplate:R together with original Tibetan:

Six Words of Advice

	Literal translation	Explanatory translation	Original Tibetan	Tibetan (Wylie transliteration)
1	Don't recall	Let go of what has passed	མི་མནོ་	mi mno
2	Don't imagine	Let go of what may come	མི་བསམ	mi bsam
3	Don't think	Let go of what is happening now	མི་སེམས	mi sems
4	Don't examine	Don't try to figure anything out	མི་དཔྱོད་	mi dpyod
5	Don't control	Don't try to make anything happen	མི་སྒོམ་	mi sgom
6	Rest	Relax, right now, and rest	རང་སར་བཞག་	rang sar bzhag

Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche translation

Another translation by Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche renders the original Tibetan in English asTemplate:R

Do not ponder, think, or cognize.

Do not meditate or examine.

Leave the mind to itself.

Watts-Wayman translation

An earlier translation circa 1957 by Alan Watts and Dr. Alex Wayman rendered Tilopa's "Six Precepts" as

No thought, no reflection, no analysis,

No cultivation, no intention;

Let it settle itself.

In a footnote, Watts cited a Tibetan source text at partial variance with McLeod's in sequence and syntax, namely:

Mi-mno, mi-bsam, mi-dpyad-ching,

Mi-bsgom, mi-sems, rang-babs-bzhag.

Based on an "elucidation" provided by Wayman, Watts explained that

Mi-mno is approximately equivalent to the Zen terms wu-hsin (無心) or wu-nien (無念), "no-mind" or "no thought." Bsam is the equivalent of the Sanskrit cintana, i.e., discursive thinking about what has been heard, and dpyad of mimamsa, or "philosophical analysis." Bsgom is probably bhavana or the Chinese hsiu (修), "to cultivate," "to practice," or "intense concentration." Sems is cetana or szu (思), with the sense of intention or volition. Rang-babs-bzhag is literally "self-settle-establish," and "self-settle" would seem to be an almost exact equivalent of the Taoist tzu-jan (自然, pinyin: zì rán), "self-so", "spontaneous", or "natural".

Mahamudra instructions

Tilopa also gave mahamudra instruction to Naropa by means of the song known as "The Ganges Mahamudra,"Template:R one stanza of which reads:

The fool in his ignorance, disdaining Mahamudra,

Knows nothing but struggle in the flood of samsara.

Have compassion for those who suffer constant anxiety!

Sick of unrelenting pain and desiring release, adhere to a Guru,

For when his blessing touches your heart, the mind is liberated.

Attachment and enjoyment

Tilopa also gave instructions concerning pleasure: "The problem is not enjoyment; the problem is attachment."Template:R

External links

• Tilopa's Mahamudra Teaching to Naropa Template:Webarchive