Tilopa's Six Essential Points of Meditation

Stones to Shatter the Stainless Mirror: The Fearless Teachings of Tilopa to Naropa (Dharma-Path Books

Resting the Mind: Tilopa's Six Words of Advice

https://lamalenateachings.com/tilopas-6-words-of-advice/

Tilopa's 6 words of Mahamudra

This really resonates with me, and although my Mahamudra practice is in its infant stage, i
thought i would share it since its been helpful to me. The most profound experiences i have had
with mahamudra meditation have been preceded by reminding myself of the six words.

the following is from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilopa#Six_Words_of_Advice)

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Six 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[4] – 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.”

-----

there is also a good explanation given at wikipedia's mahamudra page, but these are the six
words

Don’t recall ------ Don't dwell in the past

Don’t imagine ----- Don't dwell in the future

Don’t think ------- Don't dwell in the present

Don’t examine ----- Don’t try to figure anything out

Don’t control ----- Don’t try to make anything happen

Rest -------------- Relax, right now, and rest in the self-liberating nature of ordinary mind

Mahāmudrā vipaśyanā

The detailed instructions for the insight practices are what make mahāmudrā (and dzogchen)
unique in Tibetan Buddhism. In Mahāmudrā vipaśyanā, Wangchuck Dorje gives ten separate
contemplations that are used to disclose the essential mind within; five practices of "looking at"
and five of "pointing out" the nature of mind. They all presume some level of stillness cultivated
by mahāmudrā shamatha. In retreat, each contemplation would typically be assigned specific
time periods.[16]

The five practices for "looking at" the nature of the mind are as follows:[17]

1. Looking at the settled mind. One repeatedly looks at the mind's still state, possibly posing
questions to arouse awareness, such as "what is its nature? It is perfectly still?"

2. Looking at the moving or thinking mind. One tries to closely examine the arising, existence,
and ceasing of thoughts, possibly posing oneself questions so as to better understand this process,
such as "how does it arise? What is its nature?"

3. Looking at the mind reflecting appearances. One looks at the way in which phenomena of the
external senses occur in experience. Usually, a visual object is taken as the subject. One
repeatedly looks at the object, trying to see just how that appearance arises in the mind, and
understand the nature of this process. One possibly asks questions such as "what is their nature?
How do they arise, dwell, and disappear? Is their initial appearance different from how they
eventually understood?"

4. Looking at the mind in relation to the body. One investigates questions such as "what is the
mind? What is the body? Is the body our sensations? What is the relation of our sensations to our
mental image of our body?"

5. Looking at the settled and moving minds together. When the mind is still, one looks at that,
and when the mind is in motion, one looks at that. One investigates whether these two stages are
the same or different, asking questions such as "if they are the same, what is the commonality? If
different, what is the difference?"
The practices for "pointing out the nature of mind" build on these. One now looks again at each
of the five, but this time repeatedly asks oneself "What is it?" In these practices, one attempts to
recognize and realize the exact nature of, respectively:

1. The settled mind,

2. The moving or thinking mind,
3. The mind reflecting appearances,
4. The relation of mind and body,
5. The settled and thinking mind together.

The above practices do not have specific "answers"; they serve to provoke one to scrutinize
experience more and more closely over time, seeking to understand what is really there.[18]

These two 'paths' are not the same, nor are they distinctly different. Within the stages of
Mahamudra, namely Sutra, Tantra and Essence Mahamudra, only Essence Mahamudra bears
semblance to Dzogchen. Sutra Mahamudra is similar to the general Mahayana system where the
practitioner is led thru the various stages, namely the 5 Paths and 10 Bhumis. (see here for a clear
explanation: http://www.nalandabodhi.org/media/120878/5%20paths%20and%20bhumis.pdf ).
According to teachers like Tulku Urgyen, Tantra Mahamudra corresponds to Maha and Anu
Yoga, and Essence Mahamudra emphasizes the same fruition as Dzogchen but in terms of
practice it does not incorporate Togal.

Even within Dzogchen there are different levels, but this is not relevant topic-wise, which is
about Mahamudra. Maybe another day. What is important to bear in mind is that all these
seemingly different paths possess one common goal, which is to point one to ever-deepening
levels of recognizing mind nature, or sugata-garbha. As one moves thru the different Yanas,
bringing to light subtler and subtler mindfulness, then one can progress and gain confidence in
seeing that one's ultimate nature and a buddha's ultimate nature is not the same, nor is it different
in any way. If one says its the same, one becomes caught in a fixated view, conversely, to say its
different is to be also caught in another view. So, as practitioners on the secret paths, we are
reminded to be constantly aware not to fixate on any view, to leave the mind vast, the view
expansive... this is done thru familiarizing oneself with View, Meditation and Action, also
sometimes some like to refer to as Ground, Path and Fruition.

Related articles for your perusal:

http://www.dharmafellowship.org/library/essays/mahamudra-dzogchen.htm

http://multimedia.getresponse.com/725/68725/documents/6834.pdf

This book can be of interest to you -- GAMPOPA TEACHES ESSENCE MAHAMUDRA

http://www.amazon.com/Gampopa-Teaches-Essence-Mahamudra-Tony/dp/9937572088

I havent read it, but have been told its very good.

Tilopa's "Six Words of Advice"

LISTEN TO AN AUDIO VERSION

Tilopa’s “Six Words of Advice” is a timeless, evergreen meditation instruction that you can apply whether
you’re a beginning meditator or you’ve been at your practice for decades. Deceptively simple on its
surface, you could explore the profound depths of this instruction for the rest of your life and never
really be done with it.

Tilopa lived in India in the 11th century CE, and is regarded as one of the forefathers of the Vajrayana
Buddhist tradition, which survives today mainly in the form of Tibetan Buddhism. Tilopa’s best-known
student was Naropa; Naropa’s best-known student was Marpa the Translator, who brought the Vajrayana
Buddhist teachings from India to Tibet; and Marpa’s best-known student was Milarepa, one of Tibet’s
most legendary yogi-saints.

Tilopa’s “Six Words of Advice” were presumably written down in Sanskrit and translated to Tibetan at
some point; but the Sanskrit source in India has been lost, and only the Tibetan text remains.

The title for this instruction in Tibetan is “Six Nails of Key Points,” which hearkens to the English
expression about “hitting the nail on the head” with a statement that goes right to the point. Literally
only six words long in Tibetan, an English translation of the text requires a few more words to bring it to
life.

Ken McLeod has translated the text in two ways: a version that’s as concise and literal as possible, and a
version that’s slightly more elaborate but does a better job of unpacking the meaning embedded in
those six Tibetan words.

First, the concise and literal version:

Don’t recall.
Don’t imagine.
Don’t think.
Don’t examine.
Don’t control.
Rest.

There's something wonderful about the no-nonsense quality of that translation, and yet, as a meditation
instruction, it's something of a blunt instrument. So here is McLeod’s more elaborate translation:

Let go of what has passed.

Let go of what may come.
Let go of what is happening now.
Don’t try to figure anything out.
Don’t try to make anything happen.
Relax, right now, and rest.

The original “six words” have now swollen into a whole verse, but in doing so they become more
relatable. The six lines of this verse deconstruct the fundamental patterns in the mind that block clear
and open meditation. Let’s unpack the meaning of each line, one at a time.

“Let go of what has passed.”

When you arrive on your meditation seat, you come dragging behind you all sorts of stuff from your
past, a trail of mental debris and dirt that hovers around you like the cloud of stink that follows Pig Pen
everywhere he goes. In meditation, you can observe in real time how this cloud of stuff from the past
kicks up and obscures your view of the present moment. You sit down to meditate and before long you
find yourself remembering your bedroom in your childhood home, or thinking about your ex-lover and
what an angel or jerk he or she was or is, or replaying the entire videotape in your mind of that annoying
meeting that happened at the office yesterday and thinking what you *should* have said to your
coworker instead of what you actually did say. The past haunts your mind in a million different ways—
and it haunts your body, too, in the form of restlessness, fidgeting, and various kinds of tension (chronic
or acute) that you carry with you wherever you go, including your meditation. Being truly present
requires you to acknowledge your particular ways and patterns of holding on to the past, and to practice
letting them go—over and over and over.

“Let go of what may come.”

This is the flip side of the previous line. When you’re not rehashing or trying to hold on to something
from the past, you find your mind drifting into the future—anticipating things that haven’t happened
yet, cooking up hopeful and fearful scenarios about what may or may not come to pass, worrying and
daydreaming and planning and scheming about what you could get or say or do in order to secure a
certain desired outcome at some future moment. Or maybe it’s something as dull and monotonous as
wondering how much time is left in your meditation session, anticipating the ring of the bell that will
signal when it’s time to get up, and thinking about what’s for lunch. Again, when you notice your mind
drifting into thoughts of the future, and when you notice your body tensing up in anticipation of things
that haven’t happened yet, gently let it go and come back to being present.

“Let go of what is happening now.”

When you let go of the past and the future, you find yourself very simply abiding in the present. Perhaps
the feeling of being present only lasts for a moment before your habits regain control and you drift away
again. Or, perhaps without noticing it, you start to drift into some kind of mental commentary on the
present moment, telling yourself, “Wait, my arm itches. Okay, that’s better. Now I’ve got it. Now I’m
really present. I’m calm and relaxed. My mind is quiet.” Well, obviously, no it isn’t. You’re sitting there
lost in judgments and talking to yourself about the present moment instead of just experiencing it. The
short translation of this line is simply, “Don’t think.” But telling someone not to think is a tall order, and
sometimes you end up thinking about how bad you are at not thinking. You can’t really will the mind to
stop thinking, or silence it through brute force. Milarepa said, “The mind’s impulse to sudden thought
cannot be stopped by hundreds with spears,” meaning that even if you were menaced by hundreds of
warriors standing around you and threatening to jab you with their spears if you allowed your mind to
think, you still couldn’t stop it. Thinking happens.

As McLeod’s longer translation of this line suggests, it’s less about stopping thoughts and more about
letting go of what’s happening now, including thoughts. The mind’s tendency is to try to take hold of
what is happening now, grasp it tightly, to own it and say “This is what I’m experiencing” and make a big
deal out of it. But clutching at the present moment is like clutching at water in your fist: the more tightly
you grasp, the more the water escapes your grasp. The present moment is always unfolding, always
flowing, always changing, and it can’t be pinned down because it’s not an object; it’s an infinitely
unfolding process. Whatever arises within the space of the present moment, notice it, and let it come
and go. The wave of the present moment is always cresting, rising up from the past and dissolving into
the future, and you are balanced right there at the edge, surfing the wave. But you can’t hold on to a
wave, or change it in any way. Ride it while you can, let it dissolve, and then ride the next one, and the
next one. No big deal.
“Don’t try to figure anything out.”
As you sit there in meditation, notice the little voice in the back of your mind quietly analyzing and
murmuring about your experience. “Am I doing this right? What is my breath supposed to feel like? Is my
posture okay? When I’m in the present moment, how is it supposed to feel? Is this it? Aha, I think I had it
there for a moment.” The short translation of this line is telling: “Don’t examine.” Look at your mind’s
tendency to always be examining your experience, analyzing it, questioning it, doubting it. Now drop
that, and see what your experience actually feels like without the additional responsibility of trying to
figure anything out. Can you just be with it, and at the same time leave it alone?

“Don’t try to make anything happen.”

You might sit down to meditate with big ideas and plans about how it's supposed to go, what sort of
blissful and enlightened state you’re supposed to attain. But your beautiful plans always seem to be
falling apart, and you’re always scrambling to pick up the pieces and recreate the idea you have in your
mind of what’s “supposed” to be happening. It’s a project-management mentality. The thing is, you can’t
project-manage your way through meditation. You can’t force your mind into stillness and silence and
presence, because those aren’t states that can be created through effort. Those are the natural qualities
of awareness, which you settle into when you stop being a control freak and stop agitating yourself with
your mind’s habitual patterns. Imagine a glass of water with some dirt in it; if you keep stirring the water,
the dirt always obscures the water’s natural clarity. But if you just leave it alone for a while, the dirt
settles to the bottom of the glass and the water’s natural clarity is revealed. The more you “try” to make
the water clear, the muddier it will become. You can’t create clarity; but you can stop obscuring it, stop
interfering with it. It’s a matter of getting out of your own way. Stop trying to make something happen.
Let everything be.

“Relax, right now, and rest.”

This final line is Tilopa’s instruction in a nutshell, and sums up the other five lines. You’re letting go of the
past and the future and fully arriving in the present moment; letting go of the mind’s tendency to think
about the present moment, comment upon it, analyze it, project-manage it; letting go of any effort to
control your experience or make it conform to some ideal you have in your mind of what should be
happening. Okay, now what are you supposed to do? *Nothing.* Let go and relax in a state of non-doing,
a state of just being: being aware, hovering right now and right now and right now on the edge of that
ever-cresting wave of the present moment, and allowing your body and mind to rest.

Rest is the simplest thing in the world, really. Yet human beings are so absurdly complicated that we have
to re-learn to find a natural state of rest and settle into it because we have such strong habitual patterns
of restlessness. Our minds and our nervous systems are chronically overstimulated, riddled with tension
and hangups and things we’ve convinced ourselves we’re supposed to be doing. So most of us actually
find it quite challenging to just come into a state of rest and stay there.

Tilopa’s “Six Words of Advice” help us dismantle, one by one, the mind’s major patterns of restlessness,
and arrive back at the original state of simple, clear awareness that became clouded over somewhere
along the way.

Enjoy your practice.

==

Lama Tashi Namgyal: On Tilopa's Six Essential Points of Meditation

(excerpt)

The mahasiddha Tilopa's six essential points of meditation contain the basic principles of placement
meditation. The first point is not to be distracted by, dwell upon, get involved in, get lost in, nourish,
encourage, or follow thoughts about the past. Anything that arises concerning anything that occurred or
one thought prior to the current moment, one should simply let go of, and the sooner the better.
Ultimately, one should develop the discipline or the automatic habit of letting go of such thoughts
instantly, on the spot, and one should learn to remain in such a state of "permanent let-go."
The second point is not to be distracted by, dwell upon, get involved in, get lost in, nourish, encourage,
get fixated on, or follow thoughts about the present. In particular, one should not fixate on either outer
or inner phenomena.
The third point is not to be distracted by, dwell upon, get involved in, get lost in, nourish, encourage, or
speculate about the future or thoughts of the future, but to let go of them instantly as well.
The fourth point is not to meditate. One should resist, or let go of the temptation, which at some point
always arises in the experience of beginning meditators, to improve or make better one's meditation by
meditating on tranquility, or on the experience of emptiness, or on clarity, or on bliss, or by fabricating or
contriving any other strategy to improve one's meditation. All such attempts to improve one's meditation
by "meditating" are cul-de-sacs, and, as such, obstacles to meditation.
The fifth point is not to analyze. Although there are other forms of meditation that teach one to analyze
one's experience, the ultimate goal of such analysis is to transcend analytical and conceptual impositions
on one's experience altogether so that one will finally experience directly the true nature of mind, the
true nature of experience, the true nature of reality. So in this approach, according to the fifth point, one
should not analyze; one should not engage in the asking of such questions as, "What color is it? Where is
it? How is it? Why is it? Does it have any shape or color or location or any other characteristics?" One
should let go of all tendencies to analyze one's experience.
So, then, if one is not to be distracted by thoughts of past, present, or future; and if one is not to
meditate and not to analyze, then what should one be doing? What is one's mind to hang on to? The
answer is "nothing." Tilopa's sixth point is just to "leave it to itself." Whatever arises in the mind, one
should neither welcome nor reject, neither encourage nor suppress - nor should one get lost in thoughts.
In the words of Bokar Rinpoche there is "nothing to do;" nothing to do beyond resting in the awareness
of the freshness of whatever arises.
(Shenpen Ösel, vol 1, no 2, p 36)