Tilopa’s song of mahamudra

Jeroen

I came across this translation of Tilopa’s teaching to his disciple Naropa, and thought it was beautiful…

http://keithdowman.net/mahamudra/tilopas-mahamudra-teaching.html

Cut away involvement with your homeland and friends
And meditate alone in a forest or mountain retreat;
Exist there in a state of non-meditation
And attaining no-attainment, you attain Mahamudra.

A tree spreads its branches and puts forth leaves,
But when its root is cut its foliage withers;
So too, when the root of the mind is severed,
The branches of the tree of samsara die

And the Wikipedia page of the author…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilopa

Jeroen

Tilopa’s six words of advice…

First short, literal translation - Later long, explanatory translation
1 - Don't recall - Let go of what has passed
2 - Don't imagine - Let go of what may come
3 - Don't think - Let go of what is happening now
4 - Don't examine - Don't try to figure anything out
5 - Don't control - Don't try to make anything happen
6 - Rest - Relax, right now, and rest

Kotishka

A good way to start 2024

lobster

There is a good way? Go somewhere else!
(I think that might be number 7. on the list ...)

Happy New Yeah!
Not a fish in sight ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilapia

Jeroen

The practice of mantra and paramita, instruction in the sutras and precepts, and teaching from the schools and scriptures, will not bring realisation of the innate truth. For if the mind when filled with some desire should seek a goal, it only hides the light.

He who keeps tantric precepts, yet discriminates, betrays the spirit of samaya. Cease all activity, abandon all desire, let thoughts rise and fall as they will like ocean waves. He who never harms the non-abiding, nor the principle of non-distinction, upholds the tantric precepts.

He who abandons craving and clings not to this and that, perceives the real meaning given in the scriptures.

Kotishka

Tantric precepts?

Jeroen

Tilopa was said to be a tantric teacher… although it can also refer to Tibetan vajrayana.

IdleChater

@Jeroen said:
Tilopa was said to be a tantric teacher… although it can also refer to Tibetan vajrayana.

Nothing said, about it, Tilopa was a tantric teacher. He's the founder of the Karma Kagyu practice lineage.

Although not a Tibetan and didn't live there, his teachings on Mahamudra were passed down in a lineage that is now associated with Tibetan Buddhism. Tilopa passed his teachings on Mahamudra to his student Naropa who in turn passed the teaching to Marpa, a Tibetan.

Vajrayana and Mahomudra, strictly speaking, are not the same thing. Vajrayana is tantra comprising a family of rituals, while Mahamudra is a meditative discipline.

IdleChater

@Kotishka said:
Tantric precepts?

Yes, there are "tantric" precepts. There are 14 of them.

1. disrespecting the vajra master
2. transgressing the words of the buddhas
3. insulting one’s vajra brothers and sisters
4. abandoning love for sentient beings
5. abandoning the bodhichitta in aspiration or application
6. criticizing the teachings of the sutras and tantras
7. revealing secrets to those who are unworthy
8. mistreating one’s body
9. abandoning emptiness
10. keeping bad company
11. failing to reflect on emptiness
12. upsetting those who have faith in the teachings
13. failing to observe the samaya commitments
14. denigrating women

Jeroen

Tantra says: remember, whenever you choose something, whenever you decide for this or against this, it is your mind playing tricks. Don’t say the thing is beautiful; just simply say, ”I am affected in a nice way” – but the base remains ”I.”

Jeroen

I came across some very significant passages in Osho’s commentary, on typifying people as friends implying also having enemies, and so dividing up the world. Tilopa on the other hand is for choiceless awareness — not dividing into beautiful and ugly, or friend and enemy, things to be attracted and repelled.

pegembara

@Jeroen said:
I came across some very significant passages in Osho’s commentary, on typifying people as friends implying also having enemies, and so dividing up the world. Tilopa on the other hand is for choiceless awareness — not dividing into beautiful and ugly, or friend and enemy, things to be attracted and repelled.

Dividing objects into good and bad, friend or enemy, mine and not mine is the work of the mind. The mind brings the world into being and from then on starts dividing that world into things that are for "me" and things that aren't.

The mind's original nature is like space;
It pervades and embraces all things under the sun.
Be still and stay relaxed in genuine ease,
Be quiet and let sound reverberate as an echo,
Keep your mind silent and watch the ending of all worlds.

From the position of the knowing, all that is known aka the world of physical and non physical like thoughts, dreams, and memories are like a clouds, constantly arising and passing away... ungraspable.

Gazing intently into the empty sky, vision ceases;
Likewise, when mind gazes into mind itself,
The train of discursive and conceptual thought ends
And supreme enlightenment is gained.

Like the morning mist that dissolves into thin air,
Going nowhere but ceasing to be,
Waves of conceptualization, all the mind's creation, dissolve,
When you behold your mind's true nature.

lobster

Yes, there are "tantric" precepts. There are 14 of them.

Oh well … back to beginners mindlessness or mind for me, seems a regular cycle of break and make up/good again for me …

… luckily tantric secrets (listed as no. 7) are completely open to the unworthy (me included)

https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=8404