They say that once Tilopa lived in a cave, and some pilgrim came to him. Tilopa was eating at this point using a human skull as a bowl. The traveler was scared. How strange! - he came to the sage, and he looked more like a sorcerer. He ate from the skull with gusto; A dog sat next to Tilopa and also ate from this bowl.
Tilopa invited the newcomer to join:
“Come,” he said, “it’s good that you came on time, because this is all I have.” Apart from this, there is nothing to eat today. Only tomorrow someone might bring something. So come on, join us.
The wanderer felt disgusted - there was food in a human skull, and even a dog as a participant! He said:
- I'm disgusted.
Tilopa replied:
“Then get out of here quickly and don’t look back, you have nothing to do with Tilopa.” Why are you disgusted by a human skull? You've been wearing yours for so many years and what's wrong if I eat out of it? This is one of the purest things. Doesn't your own skull disgust you? All your intelligence, lofty thoughts and morals, your kindness and holiness - they are all in your skull. I only eat food from it, but in your skull there is heaven and hell and all your gods. They must be absolutely dirty - you must be disgusted. And you yourself are in your own skull. Why don't you feel disgust?
The man tried to avoid answering and give a rational explanation, so he said:
“It’s not the skull that disgusts me, it’s this dog.”
Tilopa laughed and said:
- You yourself were a dog in your former life, everyone went through all the stages. And what's wrong with a dog? How are you different from a dog? The same greed, lust, the same violence, aggressiveness, anger, the same fear - how can you consider yourself superior?
It is difficult to understand Tilopa because for him ugliness or beauty, purity or dirt, good or evil have no meaning. He has an understanding of the whole. Knowledge is partial, understanding is complete. When you look into the whole, all differences disappear. What is ugliness and beauty? What's good and what's bad? All differences disappear if you look at the whole from a bird's eye view - boundaries disappear. It’s like looking at the earth from an airplane: then you can’t tell where Pakistan is and where India is, where England is and where Germany is, all borders have disappeared, the whole earth has become one.
The highest is understanding - there is nothing higher than it. From this highest peak, everything turns into anything else, objects merge and turn into one, boundaries disappear... a boundless ocean without a source... eternity.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru