Ganga-Mahamudra-Upadesa of Sri Tilopa

In this article we examine the Mahamudra prayer of Tilopa and its relvance to astro-yogic purification through buddhist sound healing. Tilopa is addressing his student Naropa and giving a pith instruction on the Buddhist meditation known as Mahamudra. My commentary follows Tilopa's writing in quotes.

"Homage to the Vajra Dakini!

Mahamudra is beyond all words and concepts.
But for your sake, O Naropa, my most devoted disciple,
who is diligent in ascetic practice and exertion,
this shall be said:

Space lacks any locality at all.
Likewise, Mahamudra rests on naught.
Thus, without making effort, abide in the pure primordial state,
and the fetters that bind you will simply drop away."

The wonderful thing about sound healing is that it requires little or no effort on the part of the recipient. The idea is to use the fruit of years of meditation practice on the part of the sound healer to impart benefit to the listener. The relaxation experienced can be likened to an enhanced meditation experience very much like Mahamudra. There is no reference point when one is immersed in sound, just as "Space lacks any locality at all. . ."

"Just as when looking into the open sky,
fixed concepts of centre and circumference dissolve,
So, if with mind one perceives the mind, mental activity ceases; then is it, that Enlightened-mind is realized.

Clouds that arise and take form in the sky,
pass away quite automatically according to natural law.
Likewise, the flow of concepts arising in the mind,
naturally pass away when mind perceives mind."

Listening to intentional music, music that is created to benefit the listener by meditation adepts can create the experience for the listener where all thoughts dissolve, and in a moment the listener may have the experience of their mind perceiving its own true nature.

"Space has neither shape nor colour;
it is changeless, and not tinged by either white or black.
Likewise, mind-in-itself has neither form nor colour,
nor can it be stained by virtue or vice.

The burning stellar radiance of the sun
can not be covered by the eternal darkness of space.
Likewise the luminous essence of mind
can not be shrouded by Samsara's endless duration."

The purity of healing sound has the same qualities. Sound is actually light given form, vibration that for some listeners actually become fleeting visions of colors. This is an insight into the mystery of Buddhist sound healing. Though one may close one's eyes, through the mysterious power of intentional sound, hidden worlds once imperceptible are revealed.

"Though we say that space is empty,
the actual nature of this vacuity defies description.
Though we say that mind is Clear Light,
it is actually beyond all words and concepts.
In that mind is like space, it encompasses all.
Therefore cease with bodily movement and sit relaxed;
close your mouth and simply remain in silence;
empty your mind and leap beyond the phenomenal!

Let the body rest at ease, insubstantial like a hollow bamboo.
Let the mind rest in itself, spacious and un-preoccupied with thought.
When the mind is not possessed by aims, that is Mahamudra.
When this is realized, that is Great Enlightenment!"

Likewise, when one completely immerses oneself in sound, with an intention to free one's mind from discursive thoughts, the benefits are enlightening. The blessed relief one experiences is amazing in that it requires no effort. When one allows themselves to be relaxed, applying no effort, simply resting in the subtle qualities of sound, they allow themselves to rest at ease, mind resting in itself. Concentration on sound allows this state to be realized with no effort.

"Adherents of shamanic ritual and of the Mahayana,
of the Vinaya and Sutra, and the followers of the Religions,
with all their various scholastic theologies and devotions,
have no idea how marvelous is the innate Mahamudra.
For them, the light is hidden by the very act of seeking to know it."

No effort is important here. The very act of seeking, of attempting to apprehend mind, blocks one from actually experiencing it. The beauty of astro-yogic purification through Buddhist sound healing is that it requires no effort. As the Christian mystic Meister Eckhardt wrote, "When thought is gone, God gets in."

"As to the keeping of covenant-vows (samaya), they are broken
by the very act of trying to adhere to them.
Cease with rules and ritual, abandon volition, stray not from the Ultimate, and then a true Precept-keeper will you be, a lamp illuminating the darkness.
Not caught up in perceptions, nor caught in desire,
seeking nothing, abiding in the self alone, one simply lets
consciousness be, like a wave in the Great Ocean."

By freeing oneself from discursive thoughts, allowing the sound to be the focus of one's attention, for a few blissful moments our consciousness is like a wave in the Great Ocean of Mind.

"If you slip not into conation, if you hold to neither this nor that,
the real meaning behind all the Scriptures, will make itself clear.
Just abiding, one is released from the prison of Samsara.
Just abiding, all one's karmic impurities are burned away.
It is then that you shall be known as a "Lamp of the Teaching".

Even the ignorant who understand not Mahamudra,
and fools who are lost for a time in Samsara,
can be saved if they but rely on a holy Lord (guru).
Through grace (adhisthana) they may be sure of deliverance."

The beauty of Tibetan Buddhism is that the monasteries have been enlightenment machines, burning away karmic impurities. By practicing Buddhist sound healing, we are blessed by our connection to the one thousand years of unbroken lineage. The sounds we create with mantra connect us with the Gurus' wisdom and compassion. Surrendering to the power of sound becomes grace in action, compassion in action.

"Know all the phenomena of Samsara as worthless;
just the cause of attachment and aversion.
All created phenomena are without real substance,
therefore seek instead the nature of the Ultimate.

Non-duality is the King of Views.
Resting the mind without flux is the King of Meditations.
Not choosing this or that is the King of Conduct.
When there is neither hope nor fear, that is the King of Results.

Once you let go of all objects-of-perception,
the true nature of the mind shines forth.
Not trying to meditate is the supreme path of the Buddha.
By the meditation of non-meditation Enlightenment is won.

Alas! Impermanent is this world.
It is like a mirage or a dream.
Even the illusion of its existence
is not something that exists.

Therefore, abandon worldly pre-occupations, caste and position,
and meditate alone in forest, mountains and solitary places.
Abide without seeking; loosely remaining in the natural state.
By attaining non-attainment, quickly shalt thou reach the state of Mahamudra.

If you sever the main root of a living tree,
then all the many branches wither and die at once.
Cut through (kathinaccheda) the very root of consciousness,
and all mental projections will immediately cease.

The darkness of long ages is dispelled
instantly by the lighting of a single lamp.
One moment's experience of the mind of Clear Light
immediately rends the veil of ignorance for ever.

Aha! That which pertains to consciousness is unable to perceive transcendental Gnosis (jnana).
That which pertains to created phenomena is unable to perceive the uncreate Reality.
If you would attain the transcendent, beyond consciousness and creation;
then look directly into one’s own mind, until awareness is revealed in its bare nakedness.

Let the polluted pool of mental activity clear itself.
Merely watch the flow, just as it is.
Do not engage with appearances as they arise,
for Mahamudra is beyond acceptance and rejection.

Since the fundamental ground (alaya) is unborn,
it can neither be obscured nor defiled.
Just rest in the unborn state, neither meditating nor not-meditating, letting appearances resolve back into Ultimate Reality (dharmata).

In being free of the extremes, one attains the King of Views.
Entering the vast and deep, one attains the King of Meditations.
Not making an effort, one attains the King of Conduct.
In non-seeking awareness, one attains the King of Results.

At first the yogi feels his mind to be turbulent,
like the upper course of a rushing mountain torrent.
Then it becomes smooth like the broad river Ganges.
In the end it is like entering the ocean, a child returning to the mother.

One who wishes to attain this level of meditation
should first begin by practicing remembrance of the breath.
Through control of the gaze and such exercises,
the mind will be disciplined until it abides in its own state.

Now concerning the practice of Karmamudra,
the union of Wisdom (prajna) and Means (upaya):
draw down and blend, then raise it up to the source.
Finally cause it to saturate the entire body.
If this is performed free of lust, then Bliss-Emptiness is attained.

Glowing inwardly, blessed with renewed vigour and vitality,
thy life-power shall expand like the waxing moon.
Radiant and healthy, with the composure of a lion,
thou shalt attain Accomplishment (siddhi), both mundane and supreme.

Colophon

By virtue of entering this practice, may all obstacles to the realization of Mahamudra dissolve away.
May the Clear Light of Mahamudra dawn in the minds of the practitioners.
May this Pith Instruction on Mahamudra come to abide in the hearts of those disciples fortunate to connect with it.

This pith-instruction on Mahamudra in 28 Verses was given by Sri Tilopa to Mahapandita Nadapada on the banks of the Ganges River. It was translated into Tibetan from the Sanskrit by Marpa Cho-kyi-lodro, and is now presented in English. The origial text may be found in the Do.ha. mdzod. brgyad. ces.bya.ba. phyag. rgya. chen. po'i. man.ngag. gsal.bar. ston.pa'i. gzhung., printed at the Rumtek monastery of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa, in Sikkhim.

Mahamudra Music

This performance was influenced by our intention at the begining of the lunar cycle to create astrological sound healing. The mantra sung here is Green Tara, On Tara Tuttare Ture Svaha. Tara, whose name means "star" or "she who ferries across," is a Bodhisattva of compassion who manifests in female form. In Tibetan, Tara is known as "Dölma" (Sgrol-ma), or "She Who Saves." In particular she represents compassion in action, since she’s in the process of stepping from her lotus throne in order to help sentient beings.

Singing to Tara and singing to the stars. To she who is a Star. Feminine protectress.

The syllable Om has no conceptual meaning, and is sound representing the entire universe, past present and future. 

The central part of Tara’s mantra is a loving play on her name. A traditional explanation of the mantra is that the variations of her name represent three progressive stages of salvation.

1. Tāre represents salvation from mundane dangers and suffering. Tara is seem as a savioress who can give aid from material threats such as floods, crime, wild animals, and traffic accidents. Tara is therefore said to protect against ordinary worldly dangers.

  Tara is a bodhisattva embodying compassion in the female form of a young goddess.   

2. Tuttāre represents deliverance into the spiritual path conceived in terms of individual salvation. In traditional terms, this is the path of the Arhant, which leads to individual liberation from suffering. This is seen in Mahayana Buddhism as a kind of enlightenment in which compassion does not figure strongly. Tara therefore offers individual protection from the spiritual dangers of greed, hatred, and delusion: the three factors that cause us individual suffering.

3. Lastly, ture represents the culmination of the spiritual path in terms of deliverance into the altruistic path of universal salvation - the Bodhisattva path. In the Bodhisattva path we aspire for personal enlightenment, but we also connect compassionately with the sufferings of others, and strive to liberate them at the same time as we seek enlightenment ourselves. Tara therefore delivers us from a narrow conception of the spiritual life. She saves us from the notion that spiritual progress is about narrowly liberating ourselves from our own suffering, and instead leads us to see that true spiritual progress involves having compassion for others.

By the time we have been liberated from mundane dangers, liberated from a narrow conception of the spiritual path, and led to a realization of compassion, we have effectively become Tara. In Buddhist practice the “deities” represent our own inner potential. We are all potentially Tara. We can all become Tara.

Svaha, according to Monier Monier-William’s Sanskrit Dictionary, means: "Hail!", "Hail to!" or "May a blessing rest on!" We could see this final blessing as symbolizing the recognition that we are, ultimately, Tara.

Her mantra can therefore be rendered as something like "OM! Hail to Tara (in her three roles as a savioress)!"

The mantra's benefit is beyond conceptual thought.

Green Tara Pureland

Homage to my Lamas

Please share the benefits of the Guru Rinpoche mantra. May all who hear this mantra be happy and free from suffering. Om Ah Hung Benzra Guru Padma Sidhi Hung.

This is the second release from our New Moon nights. We're riding a wave of transformation this month. I hope you enjoy the moments spent listening to our music.

Guru Rinpoche (Music for a New Moon)

Below is a letter from my dear mentor Jackie. Jackie lives in New Mexico and has begun a new project with me. Under this past January new moon we set our intention to create healing music together. This music will assist listeners in adapting to the prevailing energies for the next month. I tried this MP3 file we're podcasting myself, and I can say that I find it powerfully transforming. May you benefit, and share your blessings with others.

We are creating a new social netowork for people who love music and want to tune in to the dance of the luminaries. This is what I have come to call astrological influences. The twirling spheres that move through the web and shift our consciousness and lives. We are in the most transformative times for a reson. We are being called home. Finding our way can be made easier through spiritual practice and discipline. Or we could lie down, put on some headphones and listen.

Please share our music and let others know we are reaching out to you all for the benefit of all beings.

Namaste

"What a night!!  I had a fairly sleepless night under these powerful new moon energies as I'm sure you may have had too.  We really have had very little time to talk, and I am simply bubbling over with things to tell you.  What you've been working on and what I've been working on for years is very similar, and I CAN explain it; at least up to a certain point.

"BE A 'RAY' OF SUN SHINE!"  You still can do this.  First, to go to a higher perspective and enter the "crystal cave" located high in the mountains.  By the way, the animal that I saw guarding the cave looked like a large, ferocious tiger.  However, you could easily gain entrance when having 'no fear.'  Anyway, while inside the cave you can focus your mind to enter a 'ray' of sunshine or another way to put this is to enter a 'single' ray of God/Universal/Sun consciousness which you already have access to unconsciously--to go inside this ray and become one with it and be still and very observant.
 
    Inside the ray, you will experience it through your powerful senses.  While you have transported yourself inside the ray, imagine breathing in and out very slowly.  You are breathing within this cosmic ray these specific energies.  Now, think, 'as I breathe in these cosmic energies, I am filling myself with this divine and holy light, and as I breathe out I create the sound I hear inside.'  You may even see colors that are specific to this ray and experience it through all your senses such as through smell too.
 
    Let me say this again, YOU and I both have a special access to this information because by a similar degree that we share along with many others on this same ray, we have been given a 'key'--that offers us access to whatever we seek when we know we have it and choose to use it.
 
    In the early 90's three books on astrological degrees of the zodiac were published in English.  They're titled, "The Zodiac Image Handbook" which comes in three volumes; one for Cardinal signs, another for Fixed signs and the last for Mutable signs.  This was the life work of an astrologer and his wife from Europe.  It was originally published in German or Dutch in, I think, the early 50s.  This gentleman and his wife knew both Marc Edmund Jones and Dane Rudhyar who worked on the degrees and called them the Sabian symbols.  I carried their books at the store; but I hadn't really gotten into degrees until the Zodiac Image Handbooks were published.
 
    Anyway, what is so remarkable about these specific books is just how extremely accurate they were in describing and especially in much more detail than ever before the meanings of each degree.  I started working with them in about the mid-90s.  However, I got involved in something else which I think is probably related to all this in the late 90s while I still had the store.
 
    One of the people I drew into the store was a sacred geometry master.  She had spent over 20 years building large wireframe models and using them for all sorts of things.  I initially hired her as a part-time employee.  I bought one of her dodecahedron models and had it in meditation room at the store.  She explained that the dodecahedron was used for integration work, and I got the idea which I formulated over about a year and a half period of devising a way astrologically to locate past lives that were still karmically attached to the present and using the dodecahedron to integrate them into the present so that a person could let go of the baggage and move forward.  It was quite interesting, and at the time, I thought that I was working on something that would turn into a 'life work.'
 
    I dowsed past lives for several people who worked out of the store, and I was able to 'see' astrologically just 'what' was being carried over into this life, and with the help of this lady devise a method for integration.  However, my life began to change so dramatically before I closed the store and due to the terrible condition of both my dad and mother-in-law that everything was put on the shelf just like with my game, and I found myself unable to go back to it.  I seem to have played out that theme several times.

    It was about the summer of 2004 while in Fourchu, in Cape Breton when I began thinking about healing and music.  My inner guidance was pointing to there being a way to use astrology and create healing music.  I was told by Spirit that there were instruments that could be used for this purpose.  I was directed to look at the harp and at another (almost lost to antiquity) instrument called the glass armonica.  Of course, I had never heard of the glass armonica and spent some time researching it on line.  It was invented by Benjamin Franklin (who by the way, both you and I share the same degree with--20th degree of Taurus which resonates to the 21st degree of Taurus).  Franklin came from a musical family and played several instruments.  When he invented this instrument, it became all the rage for awhile.  It had one major problem, the glass was 'leaded' glass and the people using it became sick and some died.  They did not understand the relationship between lead and poisoning at the time.
 
    This music was hailed as possessing 'angelic' healing.  Anyway, this instrument is still being made now but without the lead and is extremely costly.  There are, perhaps, as few as only 12 people in the world who can play this instrument.  My search did turn up someone in Arizona, but I did not pursue it and try to meet that person so I could 'hear' and 'see' it personally.
 
    I did see how you could possibly convert it astrologically if the glass armonica had 45 glasses (which it could have).  I could also see how you could convert a large harp since it can hold up to 90 strings (45 doubled) which is also a number significant in astrology.  However, I still need to meet with someone more musically gifted in their use of these instruments to see if it could be done or not. That's as far as I got with the instruments.  The idea here is to translate astrologically the difficult areas of one's chart and to musically alter their vibration into perfection--that's the goal.  It's really very similar to what I was trying to do with the past lives in the dodecadron.  We're really talking about 'speeding up' one's 'karma' and integrating it into the present using one's clear intentions and means that are already available but just haven't been used in that way.
 
    Let's speed forward to now.  In 2004, I got a glimpse of what I see more clearly now.  However, I'm still not quite there; but I feel like I'm sitting on the 'verge' or 'edge' of it somehow.  I want you to 'IMAGE" what I am going to tell you.  In astrology, we have the circle with 360 degrees and everything that 'IS' exists within this circle as we know it.  Let's say that the circle represents 100% of Universal Consciousness; some might call it God Consciousness, and that we individually experience it through "streams of consciousness" also called "Rays" that we are vibrating to via our own natal signature.
 
    Something I've learned just recently and am working to figure it out is the idea of dividing the circle by 4; so in your mind draw a circle or even on a piece of paper and draw a cross inside.  Now draw a square inside the circle.  Place the number 1 on the outside of each of the four points vertically and horizontally.  Imagine that this is the first degree of Cardinal signs which would be 1 degree of Aries, 1 degree of Libra directly opposite it (horizontally) and 1 degree Cancer and 1 degree Capricorn (vertically).  Now imagine yourself sitting inside the circle directly in the center and facing one of these points that is inside a square.  Imagine that you are inside a square room with mirrored walls.  Somehow, if we have a planet that resonates with 1 degree Cardinal then we have access to each of the other 3 points of the cross and may manifest strongly the meanings of all four degrees even though we don't have a planet at the other 3 points but just at the one point.
 
    A point in case, is that your Moon is at 20 Taurus and my Midheaven is at 20 Scorpio.  Once a planet has entered a degree it often resonates to the next degree which in this case would be 21 Taurus for you and 21 Scorpio for me.  When I read all four of the 21 degrees for fixed signs, I see that I have the strong characteristics for them all; I identify with them.  This got me to thinking about there being 90 streams of "Universal/God consciousness."  That each of these 'streams of consciousness' have four facets as shown through their opposition and squares.  If their were a way to identify each stream of consciousness then you would understand what you are connected to.  Anyway, that's the effort of someone's entire lifetime.  However, harmonically speaking for astrology 90 degrees is the 4th harmonic (the circle divided by four); and 45 degrees (which is half of 90) is the 8th harmonic (the circle divided by 8).  We can work with the number 45 converting astrological positions using both these instruments I mentioned for sure.
 
    I began researching the 21st degree of fixed signs last month and when I have something in writing will share it with you since we are both vibrating to the same degree right along with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.  So I guess we're in pretty good company indeed!  Meditate on this and see what you come up with.  One of the things that came out pretty strong in my research on the 21st degree is the ability to draw in people who have the gifts that you haven't developed for your needs in the present."

We're recruiting.  Sound familiar??

New Moon Edit