Mailarepa

Milarepa

Jetsun Milarepa , 1052-1135  was one of one of Tibet’s most famous yogis and poets, a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism.

“If you lose all differentiation between yourselves and others,

fit to serve others you will be.

And when in serving others you will win success,

then shall you meet with me;

And finding me, you shall attain to Buddhahood.”

- Milarepa

Born in the village of Kya, Ngatsa in Tibet to a prosperous family he was named Mila Thöpaga (Thos-pa-dga), which means “A joy to hear”. But when his father died Milarepa’s uncle and aunt took all the family’s wealth. At his mother’s request Milarepa left home and studied sorcery. While his Aunt and Uncle were having a party to celebrate the impending marriage of their son, he took his revenge by causing the house they were in to collapse, killing 35 people, although the Uncle and Aunt are supposed to have survived. The villagers were angry and set off to look for Milarepa, but his mother got word to him, and he sent a hailstorm to destroy their crops.

Milarepa knowing that his revenge was wrong set out to find a teacher and was led to Marpa the translator. Marpa proved a hard task master, and before he would teach him. He had Milarepa build and then demolish three houses in turn. When Marpa still refused to teach Milarepa he went to Marpa’s wife, who took pity on him. She forged a letter of introduction to another teacher, Lama Ngogdun Chudor, under whose tutelage he began to practise meditation. However when he was making no progress, he confessed the forgery and Ngogdun Chudor said that it was vain to hope for spiritual growth without the guru’s approval. Milarepa returned to Marpa, and after practicing very diligently for twelve years Milarepa attained the state of vajradhara (complete enlightenment). He is said to be the first to achieve this state within one lifetime. He then became known as Milarepa, which means the “Mila, the cotton clad one” (the suffix “repa” is given to many tantric yogis since they wear white robes) At the age of forty-five, he started to practice at Drakar Taso (White Rock Horse Tooth) cave, as well as becoming a wandering teacher.

Milarepa is famous for many of his songs and poems, in which he expresses the profundity of his realization of the dharma with extraordinary clarity and beauty. He also had many disciples, which include Rechung Dorje Drakpa (Ras-chung Rdo-rje Grags-pa)), Gampopa (Sgam-po-pa) or Dhakpo Lhaje. It was Gampopa who became his spiritual successor who continued his lineage and became one of the main lineage masters in Milarepa’s tradition. The Hundred thousand songs of Milarepa is an important spiritual scripture for Tibetan Buddhism.

The Song on Reaching the Mountain Peak

Hearken, my sons! If you want
To climb the mountain peak
You should hold the Self-mind’s light,
Tie it with a great “Knot,”
And catch it with a firm “Hook.”
If you practice thus
You can climb the mountain peak
To enjoy the view.

Come, you gifted men and women,
Drink the brew of Experience!
Come “inside” to enjoy the scene –
See it and enjoy it to the full!
The Incapable remain outside;
Those who cannot drink pure
Beer may quaff small beer.
He who cannot strive for Bodhi,
Should strive for superior birth.

- Milarepa

 Translated by Garma C. C. Chang

Milarepa of Tibet

Milarepa is one of the most widely known Tibetan Saints. In a superhuman effort, he rose above the miseries of his younger life and with the help of his Guru, Marpa the Translator, took to a solitary life of meditation until he had achieved the pinnacle of the enlightened state, never to be born again into the Samsara (whirlpool of life and death) of worldly existence. Out of compassion for humanity, he undertook the most rigid asceticism to reach the Buddhic state of enlightenment and to pass his accomplishments on to the rest of humanity. His spiritual lineage was passed along to his chief disciples, Gambopa and Rechung. It was Rechung who recorded in detail the incidents of Milarepa's life for posterity. 

Milarepa extemporaneously composed innumerable songs throughout his life. These songs have been widely sung and studied in Tibet ever since and have been recorded as the Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. His faithful devotion, boundless religious zeal, monumental forbearance, superhuman perseverance, and ultimate final attainment are a great inspiration today for all. His auspicious life illumined the Buddhist faith and brought the light of wisdom to sentient beings everywhere.

Upon this earth

He says: “Before Enlightenment,

All things in the outer world
Are deceptive and confusing;
Clinging to outer forms,
One is ever thus entangled.
After Enlightenment, one sees all things and objects
As but magic shadow-plays,
And all objective things
Become his helpful friends.
In the uncreated Dharmakaya all are pure;
Nothing has ever manifested
In the Realm of Ultimate Truth.

•  Translated by Garma C. C. Chang

"All worldly pursuits have but the one unavoidable end, which is sorrow: acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births, in death. Knowing this, one should, from the very first, renounce acquisition and heaping up, and building, and meeting; and faithful to the commands of an eminent guru, set about realizing the Truth (which has no birth or death)."

- Milarepa

"If you do not acquire contentment in yourselves,
Heaped-up accumulations will only enrich others.

If you do not obtain the light of Inner Peace,
Mere external ease and pleasure will become a source of pain.

If you do not suppress the Demon of Ambition,
Desire for fame will lead to ruin and to lawsuits"

- Milarepa

Milarepa is one of the most celebrated spiritual teachers of all time. He was not only an eminent leader of the Kagyupa lineage, but also a very important teacher for all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a star of early Buddhism in Tibet, and a brilliant star of yoga that shines on the path of Dharma today. Certainly he was not a paranoid man who left society and hid in the corners of deep caves. In fact, he was an adventurer who reached the summit of the high mountain with a panoramic view of samsara (saṁsāra). He was a true warrior who succeeded in conquering the real enemy, thus becoming a savior of beings.

He was a man of three powers. His body was equivalent to the body of Vajrapāṇi, his voice was the voice of Mañjuśrī, and his hearing was the hearing of Avalokiteśvara. Milarepa was a healthy, vital man of matchless endurance in the search for liberation. His voice was beautiful and capable of rendering anything in spontaneous song, and with it he expressed the essence of the Buddha’s Dharma in ways understandable to all types of listener. His hearing was as penetrating as Avalokiteśvara’s, the compassionate bodhisattva the Tibetans call Chenrezi, who attends to the voices of all living beings.

There is a saying among the common people of Tibet, “In the forest the baboons and monkeys are most agile. In the barnyard the cows and sheep are most stupid. In the mountains Milarepa is the most skillful in meditation.” As I said, Milarepa was a very illustrious yogi in Tibet, and perhaps the best known in the rest of the world. When his guru Marpa Lotsawa went to India to study with Nāropa, Nāropa said to him, “You should know that in the future you will have a disciple who will excel even his own teacher. The son is greater than the father, and the grandson will be greater than all of us.” He then folded both hands together at his chest, bowed in the direction of Tibet, and saluted the future yogi Milarepa with this verse:

I bow to that buddha

Named “Mila Who Is Joy To Hear,”

Shining like the sun on snow peaks

In the dark gloom of the Land of Snows.

Not much is known Milarepa. Milarepa was born in BE 1596 (CE 1052) into a wealthy merchant family. As a boy he was known as Tubhaga (“Delightful-to-hear”), a name which people said was particularly appropriate since he had a fine voice and frequently sang the local ballads. His voice was later to be used for spreading the Dhamma, and those who heard it were deeply moved.

Fortunately, Milarepa has given an outline of his life in one of the songs he later sang for his disciples. We introduce an extract of it here.

I am Milarepa blessed by his (Marpa’s) mercy.
My father was Mila Shirab Jhantsan,
My mother was Nyantsa Karjan.
And I was called Tubhaga (“Delightful-to-hear”).

Because our merits and virtues were of small account,
And the Cause-Effect Karma of the past spares no one,
My father Mila passed away (too early in his life).
The deceiving goods and belongings of our household
Were plundered by my aunt and uncle,
Whom I and my mother had to serve.

They gave us food fit only for the dogs;
The cold wind pierced our ragged clothing;
Our skin froze and our bodies were benumbed.
Often I was beaten by my uncle,
And endured his cruel punishment.
Hard was it to avoid my aunt’s ill temper.

I lived as best I could, a lowly servant,
And shrugged my shoulders (in bitter resignation).
Misfortunes descended one after the other;
We suffered so, our hearts despaired.

In desperation, I went to Lamas  Yundun and Rondunlaga,
From whom I mastered the magic arts of Tu, Ser and Ded
Witnessed by my aunt and uncle, I brought
Great disaster on their villages and kinsmen,
For which, later, I suffered deep remorse.

Then I heard the fame of Marpa, the renowned Translator,
Who, blessed by the saints Naropa and Medripa,
Was living in the upper village of the South River.
After a hard journey I arrived there.
For six years and eight months (I stayed)
With him, my gracious Father Guru, Marpa.
For him I built many houses,
One with courtyards and nine storeys;
Only after this did he accept me.

Marpa at Nalanda

Milarepa was a pupil of Marpa the Translator (Marpa Lotsawa) (1012-97). The Tibetan Marpa had sought Buddhist instruction for years in India, where he studied with renowned Indian Buddhist masters. He studied at the Nalanda University in India, where Naropa taught. Marpa spent twelve years studying with Naropa. Naropa finally declared Marpa to be his successor. On his return to Tibet, Marpa spent many years translating Buddhist scriptures. Along with it he gave teachings and transmissions to many students in Tibet, and remained a married householder, landowner and businessman in southern Tibet. He had several sons with his wife Damema (Dakmema).

Milarepa became Marpa's disciple and in time his spiritual heir too. However, Marpa proved a hard task master: he had Milarepa build and then tear down three towers before even accepting him as a pupil.

He says: “Before Enlightenment,
All things in the outer world
Are deceptive and confusing;
Clinging to outer forms,
One is ever thus entangled.
After Enlightenment, one sees all things and objects
As but magic shadow-plays,
And all objective things
Become his helpful friends.

In the uncreated Dharmakaya all are pure;
Nothing has ever manifested
In the Realm of Ultimate Truth.”

He says: “Before Enlightenment,
The ever-running Mind-consciousness within
Is shut in a confusing blindness
Which is the source of passions, actions, and desires.
After Enlightenment, it becomes the
Self-illuminating Wisdom —
All merits and virtues spring from it.
In Ultimate Truth there is not even Wisdom;
Here one enters the Realm where Dharma is exhausted.”

Outside the land of Tibet where the stories and songs of Milarepa are very well-known and loved, far too little is known of this great Buddhist sage. In English,  French and German, biographies, partial or complete, have been published but a great number of Milarepa’s Songs have remained inaccessible, except to those reading Tibetan, until very recently.

Realizing that fame is as unreal as an echo,

I abandon not the ascetic way of life,
Throwing away all cares and preparations.
Whatever reputation I may have,
I shall always be happy and contented.

Realizing that all things are illusion,
I cast away possessions;
For wealth obtained by strife I have not the least desire!
Whatever my means and prestige,
I shall always be happy and contented.