Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

this stage and is thus able to give effective initiation.
Second, give everything to that guru—house, money,
wife, possessions, children, property—everything,
without keeping anything for oneself. Then prepare to
receive any treatment, even harsh words and blows, just
as many patriarchs of the Kagyupa experienced. For
instance, Tilopa gave cruel treatment to Naropa, and
such seem to be examples of the saying which stresses:
"Great sufferings eighteen times and little sufferings
twenty-four times," as a necessary preliminary to
Mahamudra initiation.
There are many stories concerning Tilopa and his
disciple Naropa. Once, when they were together on a
precipitous mountain, Tilopa said to his disciple, "If a
person can cast himself over this cliff, then why should
he not get the Mahamudra?" Immediately Naropa
jumped from the precipice and fell down the mountain,
breaking his bones and tearing his flesh. Tilopa, seeing
this great devotion of his disciple, by his own great
powers dived after him and by breathing once upon the
shattered corpse, he restored Naropa to life and at once
gave him the Mahamudra.
Until this time, Naropa had been a great scholar of
much learning and worldly wisdom, but he had not
obtained any concentration. After this experience and
his initiation, he attained perfect one-pointedness.
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