Tilopa
Tilopa was born in either Chativavo, Bengal or Jagora, Bengal in India. Hi name translates to "the tahini maker". He lived along the Ganges River, with wild ladies as a tantric practitioner and mahasiddha. He practiced Anuttarayoga Tantra, a set of spiritual practices intended to accelerate the process of attaining Buddhahood. He became a holder of all the tantric lineages, possibly the only person in his day to do so. As well as the way of Insight, and Mahamudra he learned and passed on the Way of Methods, today known as the 6 Yogas of Naropa, and guru yoga. Naropa is considered his main student. At Pashupatinath temple premise, greatest Hindu shrine of Nepal, there are two caves where Tilopa attained Siddhi and initiated his disciple Naropa.
Life
Tilopa was born into the priestly caste – according to some sources, a royal family – but he adopted the monastic life upon receiving orders from a dakini who told him to adopt a mendicant and itinerant existence. From the beginning, she made it clear to Tilopa that his real parents were not the persons who had raised him, but instead were primordial wisdom and universal voidness. Advised by the dakini, Tilopa gradually took up a monk's life, taking the monastic vows and becoming an erudite scholar. The frequent visits of his dakini teacher continued to guide his spiritual path and close the gap to enlightenment.He began to travel throughout India, receiving teachings from many gurus:
- from Saryapa he learned of inner heat ;
- from Nagarjuna he received the radiant light and illusory body teachings, Lagusamvara tantra, or Heruka Abhidharma;
- from Lawapa, the dream yoga;
- from Sukhasiddhi, the teachings on life, death, and the bardo ;
- from Indrabhuti, he learned of wisdom ;
- and from Matangi, the resurrection of the dead body.
Teachings
Six Precepts or Words of Advice
Tilopa gave Naropa a teaching called the Six Words of Advice, the original Sanskrit or Bengali of which is not extant; the text has reached us in Tibetan translation. In Tibetan, the teaching is called gnad kyi gzer drug – literally, "six nails of key points" – the aptness of which title becomes clear if one considers the meaning of the English idiomatic expression, "to hit the nail on the head.”According to Ken McLeod, the text contains exactly six words; the two English translations given in the following table are both attributed to him.
| First short, literal translation | Later long, explanatory translation | Tibetan | |
| 1 | Don't recall | Let go of what has passed | mi mno |
| 2 | Don't imagine | Let go of what may come | mi bsam |
| 3 | Don't think | Let go of what is happening now | mi sems |
| 4 | Don't examine | Don't try to figure anything out | mi dpyod |
| 5 | Don't control | Don't try to make anything happen | mi sgom |
| 6 | Rest | Relax, right now, and rest | rang sar bzhag |
Watts-Wayman translation
An earlier translation circa 1957 by Alan Watts and Dr. Alex Wayman rendered Tilopa's "Six Precepts" as
In a footnote, Watts cited a Tibetan source text at partial variance with McLeod's in sequence and syntax, namely:
Based on an "elucidation" provided by Wayman, Watts explained that
Watts had studied Chinese, and Wayman was a Tibetologist and professor of Sanskrit associated with UCLA and later Columbia University.