There lived a pearl diver in the land of Sarvatira, separated from his family. He sustained himself through the sale of pearls he found in the ocean. There was a day he was trembled because he failed to find a single pearl to earn money for food.
As he wandered to the cremation ground dejectedly and raged about his unfortunate state, the yogin Acintapa met him there. The yogin heard Samudra’s fate and gave him advice. The yogin pointed out that all sentient beings in samsara are bound to suffering due to one’s past karma. The yogin further made it clear to Samudra that he had endured severe pain in his past life and in his present life he would continue to suffer, without even a moment of bliss.
Samudra begged the yogin to show him the path out of suffering and he received an initiation from the yogin in return. He was given instructions of the four boundless states of mind and the four internal joys.
“Neutralize the eight mundane obsessions
Through loving kindness and compassion,
Sympathetic joy and equanimity,
Then visualize to perfection in reality
A stream of delight descending from the head center
The four joys induced in the four psychic centers,
Indivisible pleasure and emptiness obtains everywhere,
And inexhaustible pleasure alone
Precludes even a moment of suffering”
Samudra took the instructions to heart and meditated for three years. At the end of his meditation, he attained siddhi and was known as the Guru Samudrapada. He then worked selflessly to benefit the others with his realization and attained the Dakini’s Paradise with eight hundred disciples.
