Tilopa’s Open Sesame
July 28, 2008 by Mark Szpakowski 
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Tilopa, the founder of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, is said to have spent his time pressing sesame seeds into oil while serving as a bouncer for a prostitute. The Mahamudra tradition, that of the Great Symbol, comes from him, and, in our case, through Chögyam Trungpa who was a direct socket into its transmission stream.
This came to mind recently as I was practicing a very short Chakrasamvara text, composed by Naropa, who was a student of Tilopa. It was translated by Naropa and Marpa, put into writing by the Eighth Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, and preserved by Surmang Monastery, which was in Trungpa Rinpoche’s care before he left for the west, where we met him, that lineage, and that practice in its living essence.
From that point of view, as Juliete (Judith) Ferris recently pointed out, we, the sangha of Chögyam Trungpa, are Tilopa’s Open Sesame. That’s what this site, and the people contributing to it, are about. That magic is alive, in the world, and in us. Let’s be open to it, and be willing to be its expression as well.
I take issue with designating the Madam Darima, for whom Tilopa worked as a pimp and bouncer, as a prostitute. As the Madam of her own establishment, she was certainly a business woman. This does not mean that she was also a working prostitute. As a successful Madam, she may never have turned a trick in her life. Until we know for sure, we should respectfully refer to her as a Madam, not as a prostitute.
Hi Madeline! Hmm, well Darima seems to have had an effect on more than just Tilopa. She and her daughter (“whose charming face, seductive gait, well-developed hips and nubile breasts caused even the sun to halt in its tracks”) were intimately involved with Ghantapa’s realization. Re Tilopa, the Kagyu site says:
Maybe courtesan is a better word? But madame, hostess of the feminine principle that blows away academic and administrative forms, is fine by me 🙂
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