The Eighty-four MahasiddhasThe thought-free yogin is like a child, Like a bee in a flower garden tasting every bloom, Like a lion roaring in the jungle, And like the wind blowing where it listeth. If his mind is trained in attention and discretion His behavior is immaculate; If there are no checks upon his mind's effusion The yogin behaves like a divine madman . |
Like many religions, Vajrayana Buddhism offers a number of accepted approaches along the path. There is the rigorous scholasticism in the monasteries, and the freer path of the yogi, who practises internal discipline, while outwardly eschewing any conventional standards of behaviour.
The history of Buddhism in both India and Tibet is decorated with famous stories of Mahasiddhas (crazy yogis) who lived completely outrageous lives for their times, yet whose level of realisation meant their minds were free of ordinary limited concepts, and their capacity to benefit beings around them was truly extraordinary.
The history of Buddhism in both India and Tibet is decorated with famous stories of Mahasiddhas (crazy yogis) who lived completely outrageous lives for their times, yet whose level of realisation meant their minds were free of ordinary limited concepts, and their capacity to benefit beings around them was truly extraordinary.
"Some of these siddhas were iconoclasts, dissenters and anti-establishment rebels fulfilling the necessary function of destroying the rigidity of old and intractable customs and habits, so that spontaneity and new vitality could flourish. Obsessive caste rules and regulations in society, and religious ritual as an end in itself, were undermined by the siddhas' exemplary free-living. The irrelevance of scholastic hairsplitting in an academic language, together with a host of social and religious evils, were exposed in the poets' wonderful mystical songs written in the vernacular tongues, They taught existential involvement rather than metaphysical speculation, and they taught the ideal of living in the world but not of it rather than ascetic self mutilation or monastic renunciation, The siddhas are characterized by a lack of external uniformity and formal discipline." Introduction to Masters of Mahamudra, by Keith Dowman |
Of course, the existence of such yogis also meant that there were, inevitably, many copycats - inauthentic yogis who lived outrageously merely because they wanted to indulge their cravings, or their desire for infamy, but who had no inner realisation whatsoever. For the student, this has always created a conundrum. How are we to recognise the authentic yogi from the inauthentic?
These days, in the West, this question is even more pertinent, as more and more western Buddhists choose to follow the path of the yogi, because it appears easier, or more attractive than the more disciplined path of the monastic. Not having to give up sex or alcohol or partying, and still be able to call oneself a great Buddhist practitioner, is a popular calling. The internet is full of advertisements by western teachers looking to teach courses in tantric sex or on the highest methods of self-liberation. Yet in Tibet and India these highest (and often secret) teachings were always considered the hardest to understand and realise, and the hardest to put into practice. That is why a real master, a truly realised "crazy yogi" or "divine madman", is to be considered such a rare and precious gem. |