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The Life of Tilopa & The
Ganges Mahamudra
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| An Introduction
to the Spiritual Biography
A spiritual biography of a great
mahasiddha or any great lama is called a namtar
in Tibetan which means a hagiography or story
of realization.
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A spiritual biography is not just a biography
which discusses when and where a person was
born and other biographical details, but rather
it is a story of the events that lead to the
realization of the individual.
A namtar discusses how that individual began
the practice of meditation, how he or she applied
themselves to the dharma, what methods that
person used to accomplish realization, and how
this realization led to helping other beings.
Since they are stories of complete liberation
from all suffering, they are called a “namtar”
with the syllable nam meaning “complete”
and the syllable tar meaning “liberation.”
These spiritual biographies have few references
to more mundane things of a mahasiddha’s
life such as what kind of clothes were worn,
or what kind of food was eaten, or where he
or she went. The reason for this is that the
main purpose of a spiritual biography is to
show a student of Buddhism how to practice the
dharma, and the results of practicing the dharma
by using an example of a person who has actually
accomplished Buddhahood.
Many people say that Tibetan stories and spiritual
biographies present only the good deeds and
qualities of an individual with allthe bad deeds
being left out. One Tibetan author, Amdor Ganden
Chophel who wrote the White Annals makes the
point that Tibetan stories and biographies don’t
present the complete truth and gloss over some
of the faults of lamas. There is some truth
in this, but the purpose of a namtar is for
the student to discover what the practice of
dharma is actually like, what meditation is
like, and to learn how love and compassion are
expressed by the great practitioners. So the
purpose of a namtar is to inspire the student
and this is why they present all the marvelous
qualities of the lamas and leave out the negative
ones.
Western scholars ask, “How can these biographies
be taken seriously? They don’t provide
a birth date, the actual place names, and other
details of the mahasiddha’s life.”
This is true, but why does one need to know
when these people lived? Perhaps Tilopa lived
in the fifth century, perhaps in the seventh
century. But who actually cares? Tilopa was
not an ordinary human being anyway. We remember
the great kindness and great efforts of Tilopa
and Naropa who made the teachings of Mahamudra
and the Six Yogas of Naropa available to all
of those in Tibet, and now to students all over
the whole world.
The Buddha gave numerous teachings of the sutras
and of the tantras which make up the 84,000
classes of dharma. He taught the entire path
of dharma in an extremely vast way. If we, however,
try to study all the sutras and tantras, it
would be very difficult to extract their pith
instructions and find out how to actually travel
on the path. The great mahasiddha Tilopa, however,
extracted the very essence of these vast teachings
of the sutras and tantras and explained exactly
how we develop this practice. An analogy is
that if we go into a forest in the high mountains,
we may know that the forest is full of medicine.
However, this knowledge is useless unless we
also know which particular plant is a medicinal
plant and which particular illness the plant
can be used for.
Tilopa and Chakrasamvara
Tilopa (988-1069 C.E.) was an emanation of
Chakrasamvara. He practiced the dharma perfectly
and obtained complete enlightenment. Now,
Tilopa was not able to see the supreme nirmanakaya
emanation of the Buddha Shakyamuni who passed
away many centuries before. However, the dharmakaya
is replete with the unbelievable power of
compassion which manifests continuously to
all sentient beings. This dharmakaya aspect
as well as the compassion aspect of the sambhogakaya
goes on for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Tilopa had direct experience of this dharmakaya
aspect and received all the pith instructions
of practice directly from the Buddha Vajradhara.
Because of the obscurations and negative accumulations
of sentient beings they are not able to perceive
the form of Chakrasamvara directly. So Chakrasamvara
emanates as an impure being, an ordinary manifestation
being born among humans so he is visible to
human beings who need to be taught about how
to gain liberation. Without any doubt Tilopa
was an emanation of Chakrasamvara. If Chakrasamvara
were to emanate in the human realm without
relying on a particular teacher, doing a particular
practice, or following any particular tradition
then people would think, “Well, this
is a being from somewhere else and it isn’t
possible for me to be like him in any way.”
They simply would not practice. So Chakrasamvara
manifested as an ordinary being who then received
all the practice instructions and who then
practiced these instructions, and finally
accomplished enlightenment. This is how emanations
of Chakrasamvara manifest to help sentient
beings.
In India the great mahasiddha Tilopa took
up the practice of dharma and achieved the
ultimate results [enlightenment]. He brought
the pith instructions of Mahamudra and the
Six Yogas of Naropa to our world. These teachings
went directly from him to Naropa, and were
then carried to Tibet by Marpa and flourished
widely there. Even today, a thousand years
later, these very same teachings are spreading
throughout the world and to Western countries.
This is a sign of the great wisdom, compassion,
and power of the mahasiddha Tilopa.
The great translator Marpa received mainly
the transmission of Mahamudra meditation and
the Six Yogas of Naropa from Tilopa’s
student Naropa. He received these in the form
of the Hevajra tantra and more specifically
in the Chakrasamvara tantra. In the mandala
of Chakrasamvara Marpa received the essence
of skilful means (Skt. upaya) as Chakrasamvara
and the essence of wisdom (Skt. prajna) as
Vajrayogini. The mandala of the union of skilful
means and wisdom is the basis of the Chakrasamvara
tantra. When we visualize ourself as Hevajra
or Chakrasamvara in these tantras, we are
engaging in the creation stage of meditation.
The meditation on the Six Yogas of Naropa
is the completion stage of the Chakrasamvara
tantra.
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