Milarepa's World-2
Milarepa's World-2
He's first teacher was of the old school, the Nyingma, who assured him that his system would give certain and immediate results. After a period of fruitless practice, the teacher told Mila that his karmic connection was stronger with another lama named marpa Lotsawa, " The Translator of Mar," and sent Mila to find him.
Marpa was an unusual person. He was a married householder, a great tantric teacher, and the translator of many Sanskrit Buddhist works that have become a standard part of the Tibetan canon. He survived several difficult and dangerous trips to India on which many of his fellow Tibetans had died.
In India his principal Guru was Naropa, and Naropa;s in turn was Tilopa, who had received his teachings from their originator, the transhistorical buddha Vajradhara, the primordial Buddha of the Kagyu sect. Thus Marpa was the direct successor of the Kagyu lineage. Back in Tibet marpa translated the works he had learned in India and transmitted their teachings to his disciples.
In teachings, he projected a stern and forbidding personality over his basically warm and compassionate nature. The method of working with his disciples proved especially appropriate for Milarepa, whose many negative elements and great karmic obstructions had to be purified. Marpa subjected Milarepa to several years of frustrating trials before he taught him directly.
After such intense purification and appetite-whetting, Mila devoted himself wholly to the task of practicing these teachings newly transplanted from India onto Tibetan soil. He was successful, or so the Tibetan believe, and achieved his goal of full experiential verification of the Buddhist system of liberation, leaving in his wake generations of accomplished practitioners and a wealth of teaching in song.
Once Mila had left Marpa and was on his own, he pursued his practice continually, staying mostly in caves in the more desolate mountains of southwestern Tibet and western Nepal. His austere practice of wearing just a single cotton robe year round earned him the title "repa," which when added to his family name forms "Milarepa."
Occasionally he would visit a village or encampment of herders to beg food, and in return would sing extemporaneous teaching songs, a custom already established in his day. Things were hard at times, but Mila always exhibited indomitable courage in facing the hardships of practice and adverse conditions. Eventually word of him spread among the people, and some believed him to be an accomplished siddha.
Fame didn't please him, however, and he wasn;t easy to meet. One might think he was a yogi so concerned with his own welfare that he has lost all interest in human relationships and viewed social contact as unnecessary trouble. Mila did state such feelings in his songs, and it seems as if he was always rejecting would-be disciples and their offerings; but this is just one of the many paradoxes of his unique personality--paradoxes he used with great skill in training people. Mila had a wry sense of humor tending to sarcasm and was absolutely candid and direct in dealing with people.
But he was not without method, differing on the surface from Marpa's but, judging from the number of his accomplished disciples, even more effective. He had a lot of followers for someone who made such an effort to avoid people. They were drawn to him, like satellites succumbing to the irresistible pull of a great planet: loners, scholars, disciples of other teachers. And their drive for transcendence was kindled on meeting this great yogi.
In getting to know Milarepa, then, weigh his words against his actions; it is in their contradictions and complements that Milarepa's skillful handling of personality and relationships is brought to light.
Reference: Drinking The Mountain Stream-Songs of Tibet's Beloved Saint Milarepa.
Articles - Latest
- WEBB TELESCOPE DETECTS LIGHT FROM AN EARTH-LIKE PLANET
- FORMER LABOUR MINISTER AND CROSSBENCH PEER FRANK FIELD DIES AGED 81
- LOURDES PORTILLO DEAD AT 80:OSCAR-NOMINATED FILM DIRECTOR HAS PASSED AWAY
- VAMPIRE' NEUTRON STAR BLASTS ARE RELATED TO JETS TRAVELING AT NEAR-LIGHT SPEEDS
- THE MOON IS 40 MILLION YEARS OLDER — EXPLAINED
- BARBARA O.JONES DEAD AT 82: ACTRESS WHO STARRED ALONGSIDE MUHAMMAD ALI IN TV SERIES, HAS PASSED AWAY
- SIR CHIPS KESWICK, SCION OF THE JARDINE MATHESON DYNASTY WHO CHAIRED HAMBROS AND ARSENAL – OBITUARY
- NORMAN JEWISON OBITUARY
- TED TOLEMAN OBITUARY
- NASA FINDS MUTANT BACTERIA ON ISS THAT DOESN'T EXIST ON EARTH
- KENYA’S MILITARY CHIEF DIES IN HELICOPTER CRASH
- TERRY ANDERSON, US JOURNALIST HELD HOSTAGE NEARLY 7 YEARS IN LEBANON, DEAD AT 76
- SCIENTISTS DISCOVER 'ORIGIN STORY' OF GREAT SPHINX OF GIZA
- SIR ANDREW DAVIS OBITUARY
- CHINESE WOMAN POSING FOR PHOTO DIES AFTER FALL FROM EDGE OF CRATER ON INDONESIAN VOLCANO
- DROWNING OF WEALTHY HEIRESS WAS ‘ACQUISITIVE KILLING’, COURT HEARS
- Singer Mandisa dead at 47
- GOLF CHANNEL ‘BIG BREAK’ CO-HOST STEPHANIE SPARKS DIES AT AGE 50
- EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DISCOVERY AMELIA EARHART’S LONG-LOST PLANE
- Eleanor Coppola, ‘Hearts of Darkness’ director, dies at 87
- CARL ERSKINE, DODGERS LEGEND AND HUMAN RIGHTS ICON, DIES: 'THE BEST GUY I'VE EVER KNOWN'
- RESTLESS NATIVES AND STILL GAME ACTOR DIES AGED 64
- WATCH MOMENT EARTHQUAKE ROCKS UN SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING IN NEW YORK
Articles - Most Read
- Main
- Contact Us
- The science behind Ouija boards
- Cosmic Consciousness - What is Cosmic Consciousness-2
- Cosmic Consciousness-Introduction
- Cosmic Consciousness - Introduction-2
- MASSIVE 6.1 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE HITS NEW ZEALAND AS NATION STILL REELING FROM CYCLONE
- ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNRAVEL THE TRUTH OF APHRODITE, GODDESS OF LOVE, ON VALENTINE'S DAY
- The Human Condition-Thomas Keating
- Cosmic Consciousness First Words - 1V - 2
- Cosmic Consciousness First Words - V -
- Cosmic Consciousness V - 2
- Cosmic consciousness - First Words - IV
- Cosmic Consciousness - What is Cosmic Consciousness?
- Evolution and Devolution-Chapter 2
- The Human Condition - Thomas keating-3
- The Human Condition-2-Thomas Keating
- Drinking From The Mountain Stream - Milarepa
- Cosmic Consciousness-On the Plane of Self Consciousness
- The Human Condition - 4
- Cosmic Consciousness - 3 - On the Plane of Self Consciousness
- Evolution and Devolution-Chapter 1
- The Human Condition - 6
- Shakyamuni Buddha or India the 1st “Black Revolutionary Hero.”
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness - 2
- Milarepa's World
- The Human Condition - 5
- Milarepa's World-2
- The Buddhist System of Liberation
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness IV
- Contemplation and the Divine Therapy - 2
- JERRY RAWLINGS, GHANAIAN STRONG MAN WHO CAME TO POWER IN A COUP BUT INTRODUCED DEMOCRACY – OBITUARY
- The Buddhist System of Liberation - 2
- On the Plane of Self Consciousness IV - 2