Post #1168

“Do not misinterpret how he (Teacher/Guru) acts Most of India’s siddhas lived As common evil-doers, base outcastes, more degenerate than the lowest of the low” Most of the mighty siddhas of India like Savaripa who was a hunter and others, adopted very lowly lifestyles, often those of outcaste. The great pandita Naropa (Guru of Marpa who was the guru of Jetsun Milarepa) had already become highly learned and accomplished. But his yidam(meditational deity) told him that his teacher from previous lives was the great Tilopa, and that to find him he should travel to eastern India. Naropa set off immediately, but upon arriving in the east he had no idea where to find Tilopa. He asked the local people but they knew nothing. “Is there nobody in these parts named Tilopa” he insisted. “There is someone called Tilopa the Outcaste or Tilopa the Beggar” Naropa thought, “The actions of siddhas are incomprehensible. That might be him.” He asked where Tilopa the Beggar lived. “By the ruined wall over there, where the smoke is coming from,” they replied. When he got to the place that had been pointed out, he found Tilopa seated in front of a wooden tub of fish, of which some were still alive and some dead. Tilopa took a fish, grilled it over the fire and put it in his mouth snapping his fingers. Naropa prostrated himself before him and asked Tilopa to accept him as his disciple. “What are you talking about?” Tilopa said. “I’m just a beggar!” But Naropa insisted, so Tilopa accepted him. Now Tilopa was not killing those fish just because he was hungry and could find nothing else to eat. Fish are completely ignorant of what to do and what not to do, creatures with many negative actions and Tilopa had the power to free them. By eating their flesh he was making a link with their consciousness, which he could then transfer to a pure Buddhafield. (The snapping of the fingers is part of a practice for transferring the consciousness [‘Pho ba] of another being to a pure realm) It is therefore important not to take any of your teacher’s actions in the wrong way and to train ourselves to have only pure perceptions. “Words of My Perfect Teacher” - Patrul Rinpoche