Category Archives: Saraha EN-IT

The Great Yogi Saraha

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The Great Yogi Saraha

The Great Yogi Saraha.

Acclaimed one of the greatest yogis of India in the late 8th century, the indomitable Saraha heads the Mahamudra lineage. He was born into a brahmin class family in Bengal, eastern India, and was raised to become a Buddhist monk. The Pala dynasty of Bengal promoted Buddhism, supported many large Buddhist universities, and encouraged wide-spread learning. Saraha become one of the noted sages of his time. He did not, however, remain a monk.

One story has it that he was expelled from the monastic order for indulging in alcohol or some similar breakage of the rule. This may be, or he may have left of his own accord. At any rate, he became a wandering, white robed yogi, homeless and free of desire, seeking only to fathom the mystery of life.

He became the disciple of a saint named Ratnamati, who was a master of the Guhyasamaj Tantra. Thus Saraha learnt the profound secrets of a method of meditation that focuses on raising kundalini (Tib: gTum-mo) and abiding in blissful Mind’s own innate state. Continue reading »

Saraha: Canto per il popolo, Dohakosha-giti

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Saraha, surrounded by other Mahāsiddhas

Dohakosha-giti – Canto per il popolo (Saraha)
1 Ignorando il mistero profondo, i bramini recitano invano i Veda.
2 Cantano salmi, fanno l’offerta dell’acqua, della terra e del fuoco, bruciano l’erba kusha, con gli occhi arrossati dal fumo.
3 Con un’aria da Bhagavan, impugnano un bastone, si pavoneggiano e i fedeli si lasciano ingannare. Essi separano arbitrariamente il puro e l’impuro.
4 Nudi, coperti di ceneri, portano lo ” chignon “, accendono una lampada ad olio e fanno tintinnare i loro campanelli.
5 Seduti nella posizione del loto, confidano segreti, abusano dei fedeli e vendono l’iniziazione alle vedove e alle monache.
6 Vagabondano nudi o vestiti di stracci, si lasciano crescere smisuratamente le unghie e trascurano il loro corpo. La loro liberazione non é altro che una parodia.
7 Se basta denudarsi per conoscere la liberazione, cani e sciacalli sono liberati! Se basta rasarsi il cranio per conoscere l’illuminazione, i fianchi delle donne sono più che illuminati!

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The Mahamudra Dohakosa

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Mahasiddha Saraha

Mahasiddha Saraha

Homage to Sri Vajradakini.
Homage to innate union of Gnosis and Great Bliss.

This exposition is in three parts: The Mahamudra of ground, of path, and of the result.

Part One: The Ground of Mahamudra

A. Establishing an understanding of Reality

Being and non-being, appearance and emptiness, the moving and the abiding, the substantial and insubstantial embracing the whole of time and space, never departs from the sky-like original nature.

In referring to Ultimate Reality (dharmata) as the sky-like original nature, understand that to be sky-like is to have no intrinsic nature at all. It is completely beyond objectification and beyond all concepts such as “is” or “is not;” both “is” or “is not” or something other that “is” or “is not.” Between “sky”,”mind” and “Ultimate Reality” no distinction should be made. All these terms should be taken as mere designations and concepts. Everything is one’s own mind. Not so much as an atom exists outside of mind. Whoever realizes that from the very beginning there has been nothing other than mind, has acquired the realization of all the Buddhas of the three times.

Continue reading »

Saraha: Song for a King

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Saraha: The stable mind works to benefit others

Saraha: Song for a King 

Doha kosha nama tsarya giti

Doha mdzod ces bya ba spyod pa’i glu

I prostrate to the one who has vanquished the power of the maras.

Just as when the wind blows
And still water is turned into moving waves,
So the appearing Saraha is just one,
Yet the king creates diverse aspects.

The ignorant press their eyes
And see one lamp as two.
Like this, in mind’s nature where seer and seen are not two,
Alas! The mind appears as two things.

Though many lamps are lit throughout the house,
Those with eyes to see remain in darkness.
Like this, though spontaneous wisdom is all-pervasive and nearby,
For the ignorant it is far, far away. Continue reading »

Saraha: Mahamudra

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Saraha

SARAHA

“Kye Ho! Do not fear distraction, trying to keep attention on the mind. If you realize the nature of your own mind, then even the wandering mind will be seen as the Mahamudra. In the state of Great Bliss all dualistic features become auto-liberated.
Like awakening from a dream, pleasure and pain then seem to have had no reality whatsoever.
So, abandon hope and fear. Let go of trying to accomplish something or exhibiting anything. Since all the phenomena of both Samsara and Nirvana are devoid of “self-nature,” any clinging to hopeful or doubtful thoughts is simply meaningless. What is the point of striving to accept or reject anything?
Even visible form and sound vibration are like a magical illusion, a hologram or a reflection in a mirror — they possess no substantiality.

That which realizes this, the magician, is the sky-like mind itself. This one true nature is without centre or circumference, nor is there anyone separate therefrom who can comprehend this. Just as all the great rivers, the Ganga, etc., equally flow into the one Great Ocean, so mind and mental content have only one taste in the Dharmadhatu.”

Story of SARAHA.
Wisdom of a Dakini.
One day Saraha asked his wife for some radish curry. She prepared the dish, but in the meantime Saraha entered a deep meditation from which he did not emerge for twelve years. He then immediately asked for his radish curry. His wife was astonished, “You have been in meditation for twelve years; now it is summer and there are no radishes.”
Saraha then decided to go to the mountains for more meditation.
“Physical isolation is not a real solitude,” replied his wife. Continue reading »

Saraha: Il Canto Reale

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Il Canto Reale di Saraha

Mi inchino al nobile Manjushri

mi inchino a Colui che ha conquistato il mondo finito.

Come l’acqua limpida sferzata dal vento

è trasformata in onde ed in gorghi,

così il re ripensa a Saraha

in mille forme, benché sia un’unica entità.

Ad uno sciocco affetto da strabismo

una luce appare come duplice,

in realtà colui che vede e ciò che è visto

non sono separati; ahimè! La mente

agisce sulla sostanza dei due fenomeni.

Benché la lampada sia stata accesa

il cieco vive nell’oscurità.

Benché la spontaneità tutto circondi ed abbracci,

per gli illusi resta sempre lontanissima.

Benché possano esservi molti fiumi, essi si fondono

in un unico mare. Continue reading »

Saraha: The Royal Song

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Saraha

Saraha

Saraha: The Royal Song

I bow down to noble Manjushri
I bow down to Him who has conquered the finite.

1 As calm water lashed by wind
Turns into waves and rollers,
So the king thinks of Saraha
In many ways, although one man.

2 To a fool who squints
One lamp is as two;
Where seen and seer are not two, ah! the mind
Works on the thingness of them both.

3 Though the house-lamps have been lit,
The blind live on in the dark.
Though spontaneity is all-encompassing and close,
To the deluded it remains always far away. Continue reading »