Thaganapa: "The Compulsive Liar"

Thaganapa was a crook and a compulsive liar. Through the intervention of a mendicant monk, who explained to him impact of his lies - the ripening of his karma and inevitable rebirth in the hell realms - Thaganapa set out to undertake spiritual practice. He was given initiation in the teachings called "removing water in the ear by means of water" - a "like-cures-like" method of tantric practice by which he realized emptiness, and that ultimate reality was neither deception nor truth.

From the Biographies of the 84 Mahasiddhas, as recorded by twelfth century Indian scholar Abhayadatta Sri and translated into Tibetan By Möndrup Sherab. The beautifully illustrated text explores the personalities of the 84 and the miraculous occurrences that marked their lives. This manuscript is made available to TBRC by the Cultural History of the Western Himalaya Project,"Tibetan Manuscripts," at the University of Vienna. TBRC Library Work I.D: W8LS15975