I, Tilo, have nothing to show you. Mahāmudrā cannot be shown. Over a thousand years ago on the banks of the river Ganges, the Mahasiddha Tilopa offered the pith instructions on Mahāmudrā to his heart son Naropa. Not only had Naropa been the greatest scholar at Nalanda university but he had endured 12 years of inconceivable hardship following every ‘crazy’ command of his guru. The pith instructions of 29 quintessential verses spoken on the essence of non- meditation, flowed spontaneously, like the Ganges, from the ultimate realization of the supremely enlightened master. It is said that after Naropa heard these verses he fainted and when he revived, the enlightenment of Tilopa had merged with his mind. He had attained liberation entirely through devotion, seeing the guru as a Buddha, without a moment of meditation practice. In the 11th century the great Tibetan translator Marpa, to whom the lineage was passed, translated and edited the verses at Phullahari in the presence of Naropa. The Ganges Mahāmudrā, as it came to be known, has accumulated an almost mythic reputation over the centuries as a classic ‘ear whispered’ pointing out. The guru has to reveal the essence at the right time in the right place to the right student. Pith instruction depends on experiential realization and is thus rarely given.