Mahasiddhas

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 23. Chapters: Nagarjuna, Shantideva, Mahasiddha, Dampa Sangye, Luipa, Saraha, Milarepa, Indrabhuti, Naropa, Kukuraja, Gorakshanath, Tilopa, Matsyendranath, Marpa Lotsawa, Kukkuripa, Geshe Lama Konchog. Excerpt: Mahasiddha (Tibetan: ; Wylie: grub thob chen po; or Tibetan: ; Wylie: tul shug; Sanskrit Devanagari: ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿; IAST: mahasiddha, maha meaning "great" and siddha meaning "accomplished") is a term for one who cultivates those teachings that lead to becoming perfect. They are a type of eccentric yogini/yogi in both Sanatan Dharma, Vajrayana Dharma, the Eternal Path of Indestructible Teachings given by Prince Siddhartha the enlightened one who we have come to know as Buddha. Mahasiddhi are those practitioners, or tantrikas who have gained sufficient understanding and are so enabled to act upon their experential/ existential knowledge. She or he who is a 'siddha' is one who through sadhana (practice) realizes their singular special place, once proving to their own self that they are able to help others to achieve a better situation both for the planet, its people and for subordinate species, creatures great and small. As yesterday, and so, today, the Mahasiddhi influence throughout the Indic and Himalayan region was vast, reaching mythical proportions, then, and now epically exceeds those times while humanity commences to reach for the stars- openly codified in songs for those who can hear- songs of independent/interdependent realization, not of selfish so-called self-realization. All of this is preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon. The Mahasiddhi are those who found, who kept and keep, who maintained and maintain the Dharmic tradition. They are those who carried those teachings to Tibet from India and from Tibet to India and through much hardship and throughout countless lineages, accomplished it, preserving the teachings of Gautama, Sakyamuni, the enlightened one; the arya-noble who summoning up himself, summed it up, surmized, the times in which he lived. It is said that under the bodhi tree, his first thought was "I see that all are enlightened." In other words his first thought was not upon himself. Robert Thurman contrasts the Tantric Buddhist communities within