“Do you know these sadhanas?” Tara asked. Atisha said that he had never seen or heard the name of the texts. She then said: “If that is so, then why do you think you are so well-versed in the Dharma and secret mantra practices? The tantras that you know are like no more than a horse-hair in the world of humans! Almost all the tantric mantra texts are in the hands of the dakinis.” (17th Karmapa, 2023)
“The truth will set you free, but first it will p*ss you off.” –Gloria Steinem
Continuing with the Je Atisha theme, in particular, his life as an extremely handsome, and young tantric yogi (before he became a monastic at the age of 29) here is another new video clip from a teaching by the 17th Karmapa (January 2023) speaking how both Noble Tara and some dakinis scolded Je Atisha (before he became a monastic at the age of 29 years) for having excessive pride about his knowledge and expertise in the Tantras and in Vajrayana practice. If they scolded a great tantric yogi like Atisha, one can only imagine what they might say to us ordinary beings! ha ha ha. There is a brief transcript of the video below. The full teaching transcript can be read here.
It reminded me also of the advice that the Indian Mahasiddha Tilopa’s female teacher when she told to work for over ten years as a slave labourer to a lower-caste, materially poor Indian prostitute in a slum, and for day job grind sesame seeds to reduce his pride.
Also, there was the Dakini who yelled at Tilopa that Dakini is Truth! Reminding him, and us all, as the Buddha himself said, there is no greater power (even mantras) than true words! These female messengers of truth are generally invisible in the refuge trees, and even teachings, hence the need for more visible and written narratives about them, such as this one here.
Most of the Indian mahasiddhas left the monasteries (or were forced to do so) to practice yogic conduct. I wonder how many of these ‘monastic’ Rinpochess and influential Buddhist monks and teachers would be able to do such ‘a livelihood’ as a complete unknown? Do let me know ha ha ha.
Music? You’re So Vain by Carly Simon, The Truth by James Blunt, Gimme Some Truth by John Lennon, Honesty by Billy Joel.
May we all have the courage to be honest and speak truthfully and may we meet teachers who enable us to do so!
Adele Tomlin, 9th February 2025.
Transcript of video clip (translated by Adele Tomlin)
Unconventional Yogic Conduct (tul-zhug)
During that time, Atisha had many different gurus at that time, and he received many different tantric teachings from them. Atisha himself practised the unconventional conduct (tul-zhug chopa) of Avadhūtīpa. This yogic conduct means giving up any fear or shame and so on. If you think about this in worldly terms, it is kind of crazy actions. An ordinary person would look at them and think they were crazy, not wearing many clothes and having no fear of anything and so on. He spent six years practising yogic conduct. Some say he spent three years.”
Atisha’s pride about his knowledge of the tantras crushed by ḍākinīs in a dream
“Anyway, basically Jowo Atisha had studied a lot of secret mantric practice but he also trained and practised in the Vajrayāna. He had such a vast practice of it that Atisha began to think to himself, that he had such a vast knowledge of secret mantra, that no-one else had better knowledge of tantras and mantra than he did. So, his mind became a bit proud.
Due to this, when Atisha was travelling on his way to India, he had a dream. In the dream, ḍākinīs were showing him innumerable tantric texts and they said to him: “What tantra is this? Do you know?” However, Atisha had not even heard the names of the texts, there were so many, there were just a couple he knew. So, the ḍākinīs were saying, those are just the few texts you know, but the ones you don’t know are infinite.”
Atisha’s direct vision of Noble Tārā who challenges him on his knowledge of the tantras
“Another time, his special deity Tara of the Acaia Forest appeared to him and said: “Are you a Pandita who knows about mantra?” Atisha replied that he was. Tārā then mentioned a couple of tantric sadhanas and asked: “Do you know these sadhanas?” Atisha said that he had never seen or heard the name of the texts. Then, Tār̥ā said:
“If that is so, then why do you think you are so well-versed in the Dharma and secret mantra practices? The tantras that you know are like no more than a horse-hair in the world of humans!Almost all the tantric mantra texts are in the hands of the dakinis.”
Then she disappeared. From that point on, Atisha said that his pride had been shattered. He had thought he knew a lot of tantra, but then he realised that the amount he knew was like just a tiny portion of it and that there were many more Dharma teachings and pith instructions to learn.”