Mahasiddha Shyalipa the ‘Jackal Yogin’
Mahasiddha Shyalipa the ‘Jackal Yogin’
Mahasiddha Shyalipa
ཥྱ་ལི་པ།
(Shya-li-pa)
Unusual portrait of the siddha sitting in a cremation ground with a female attendant and tantric partner cutting and offering corpses.
Shyalipa (Skt. Śalipa), the ‘Jackal Yogin’, is counted among the eighty-four Indian mahasiddhas. He was terrified of jackals, and so received the instruction to consider all sounds as identical to the cries of jackals.
Shyalipa was a laborer from Bighapur. He was so poor that the only place he could afford was one right on the edge of the cremation ground. In India they do not customarily bury the dead. They in fact cremate the bodies at cremation grounds. Cremation grounds were generally frightening places to be as there would be corpses piled waiting to be cremated all year round. Some were very haunted. Sometimes the jackals would come to try to eat the corpses and can be very fierce. Every night, packs of jackals would roam the cremation ground searching for food, and night after night, their howls terrified Shyalipa. He grew more afraid by the day and the few hours he managed to sleep, he would dream of them.
On day, a monk came to Shyalipa’s hut to beg for food. Shyalipa welcomed him and shared with his guest all that his humble circumstances would allow. The monk was very appreciative of his kind host, and began explaining about the kind of rewards that generosity attracted. Shyalipa was interested to listen, but night came, and the howls of the jackals began to terrify him and so he got distracted. The monk then said he has teachings and a mantra that can help him over come the fear. Shyalipa was so grateful that he offered the little amount of money he managed to save as the initiation fee. Whereupon the monk gave him empowerment and instructed him in the practice called “the fear that destroys fear.”
The monk then instructed his new student Shyalipa to build a hut at the middle of the cremation ground, and there, he must meditate upon the jackals’ howls as the root of all sound and he must come to hear no difference between the howls and any other sound. Although terrified, Shyalipa obeyed his guru. He developed great guru devotion. Through his practice, he began to be more detached from his fear, and after 9 years of practice, he attained mahamudra-siddhi. For many years he taught his innumerable disciples the practices concerning the oneness of appearances and emptiness. Finally, he rose bodily into the Paradise of the Dakinis, Kechara. He didn’t leave his body behind at the time of death showing the high attainments he had achieved.
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84 Mahasiddhas: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/?p=23941
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Thank you Rinpoche and blog team for sharing this short and interesting story on Mahasiddha Shyalipa the ‘Jackal Yogin’ gaining spiritual attainments from the cremation grounds. 🙏😘👏🌈👍
Wow …. A rare portrait of the siddha…Mahasiddha Shyalipa the ‘Jackal Yogin’. The portrait tells us an interesting story of how he came to be one of the eighty-four Indian mahasiddhas. Mahasiddha Shyalipa was a frightful poor homeless labourer staying on the cremation ground. That’s where a monk came along and gave him teachings and help him over come the fear of jackals. Through the practice and years he soon attained mahamudra-siddhi.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting sharing.
What a skilful mean to liberate His student!
A nice short story on one of the 84 Mahasiddhas. Thank you for sharing this Rinpoche. 🙂