a piece of teaching by Tilopa to Naropa

a piece of teaching by Tilopa to Naropa

Tilopa then handed a string full of knots to Naropa and asked him to untie them. Naropa did it and gave the string back. Tilopa threw it aside and asked Naropa what he understood.

Naropa replied, "All beings are tied by the eight worldly dharmas, and we need to untie them."

(The eight worldly dharmas are: praise/criticism; fame/disgrace; gain/loss; happiness/misery)

"Once we have done so we have to remain natural and rest the mind in itself without being artificial.

We have to get rid of all our expectations, hopes and fear."

"We always hope to be praised and we are afraid of being criticized."

"We are looking for fame and we are afraid of being disgraced."

"We want to gain something and we are afraid of losing it."

"We are striving for happiness and we are afraid of misery."

Tags: Dharma, Naropa, Tilopa, buddhism

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Permalink Reply by The LLHHDL Team on October 7, 2010 at 8:03pm

This piece of teaching of Tlopa to Naropa is truly amazing, It is not that easy nor may be possible simply to untie the eight worldly dharmas but with this teaching in our mind, definitely we can have better understanding of our life and day to day activities where all these 8 dharmas do take crucial role in shaping our happiness or wants. I am sure to keep this in my mind well.... specially when I have to look do my work, i will meditate not to get over joy with people's praise nor do hate/sad on criticism, fame is hard to untie but definitely I will keep disgrace with it. Gain and Loss is the part of life and happiness is to call misery and a misery is a call for happiness until we leave this earth..... an understanding and these things in mind will definitely going to contribute towards a meaningful and an understanding approach to life....

Wat you all think???

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Permalink Reply by Marlou van Hoorn on October 11, 2010 at 6:24pm

Very true and very inspiring...to slowely and surely untie worldly dharmas...
not easy...but worth trying. thank you, Marlou

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Permalink Reply by Haley Lama on November 10, 2010 at 12:31am

Jewels!! Thank you!!!

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Permalink Reply by Lovsong on June 15, 2011 at 8:32pm

Wonderful ! Thank you for sharing this wisdom, I recently found out that Tilopa's name refers to his work of manufacturing Sesame seed oil. Metaphorically opening wisdom gates to those who hear.