Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words

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Shyalipa ཥྱ་ལི་པ།

(Śyalipa, "The Jackal-Yogin")

1000 – 1100 CE

Mahasiddha #21

A poor laborer terrified of jackals but living on the edge of a cremation ground full of jackals, Shyalipa became so terrified he couldn’t sleep at night and only a little during the day when he dreamed about jackals. Kind to a wondering teacher who gave him a practice called “the fear that destroys fear,” he learned to meditate on the jackal howls until he could recognize the indivisibility of emptiness and sound, the complete appreciation of his self-liberated fear. Rather than running away from his terror or trying to get rid of it, he leveraged overcoming his fear of jackals to overcoming his fear of death and the suffering of life, he “destroyed his fear with fear,” and wearing a jackal skin became an important teacher himself. Mahasiddha #21

Lineages

Eras

Western

Early Middle Ages (566 – 1095 CE)
High Middle Ages (1095 – 1304 CE)

Chinese

5 Kingdom of Dali 大理国 (937 – 1253 CE)
Northern Song (960 – 1127 CE)
Liao dynasty (907 – 1125 CE)
Western Xia 西夏 (1038 – 1227 CE)

Quotes by Shyalipa (1 quotes)

“We grow afraid but look again… an unreal, reflected image is all we find.”