Luipa - Hagiographical Accounts

Hagiographical Accounts

Luipa appears in the Tibetan namthar called the "The Legends of Eighty-four Siddhas" (Tibetan:Grub thob brgyad bcu tsa bzhi'i lo rgyus), detailing the lives of Indian mahasiddha. It was written by the Tibetan Buddhist monk Mondup Sherab and was probably a translation of the Chaturashiti-Siddha-Pravritti, based on what was narrated to him by Abhayadattashri of Champaran (c. 12th century). In the Chaturashiti-Siddha-Pravritti Luipa is said to be the second son of a very rich king of Singhaladvipa, believed to be Sri Lanka. However, several other regions were also known as Singhaladvipa, and one of them was Oddiyana, which other sources mentioned as the place of birth of Luipa.

Luipa's father chose him as his successor, but he left his kingdom to achieve Bodhi, i.e. enlightenment. Luipa first headed for Rameshvaram and then went to Vajrasana, known today as Bodh Gaya, the place where Gautama Buddha achieved enlightenment. There Luipa received his first teaching from a Dakini. Later, when he reached Saliputra, or Magadha, a Loka-Dakini advised him to get rid of the slightest pride of his royal blood to achieve enlightenment by leaving aside all prejudices regarding the purity of foods. Following her advice, Luipa consumed only the guts of the fishes thrown away by the fishermen on the Ganges river for twelve years. This practice led to him being known as Lui, one who eats fish-guts.

Luipa also appears in the Chaturashiti-Siiddha-Pravritti, where he meets the king of Magadha, Indrapala and his Brahmin minister. These two became his disciples and were known as Darikapa and Dengipa. Luipa initiated them into the Mandala of Chakrasamvara.

In Bu ston's History of Buddhism (Tibetan:Chos-'byung), Luipa is mentioned as the son of King Lalitachandra of Oddiyana. When the prince met Savaripa, a disciple of Saraha, he was immensely impressed by this great adept and begged him for instruction. He received initiation into the tantra of Chakrasamvara. The initial part of his penance was completed when he joined a circle of twenty-four Dakas and Dakinis in a ganachakra ceremony in a charnel ground, which climaxed in consumption of the corpse of a sage. With a final blessing from his Guru he left Oddiyana and became a mendicant sage. The period ended when, feeling the need for sustained one-pointed meditation practice, he sat down to meditate beside a pile of fish-guts by the banks of the River Ganges in Bengal, where he remained till he had attained mahamudra-siddhi, the highest level of spiritual attainment in Vajrayana Buddhism. The Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism records that Luipa's was a kayastha or scribe, at the court of Dharmapala, the Maharaja of Varendra in northern Bengal. While begging for alms at Dharmapala's palace Savaripa recognized the scribe Luipa as a suitable recipient for his Samvara lineage; his extraordinary talent was evident in the versified letters he wrote to the king's correspondents, a task requiring a pointed concentration.

The account of Luipa found in the work of Taranatha, a scholar from the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism, differs significantly from that found in Bu ston's work. Here, Luipa was a scribe to the King of Oddiyana, and was initiated into the Vajravarahi mandala.