Milarepa

For other uses, see Milarepa (disambiguation).

A statue of Jetsun Milarepa from the Milarepa Gompa, Helambu valley, Hyolmo, Nepal.

Jetsun Milarepa (Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རས་པ, Wylie: Rje-btsun Mi-la-ras-pa), (c. 1052 – c. 1135 CE) is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and poets. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu (Bka'-brgyud) school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Early life

Born in the village of Kya Ngatsa – also known as Tsa – in Gungthang province of western Tibet to a prosperous family he was named Mila Thöpaga (Thos-pa-dga'), which means "A joy to hear." His family name, Josay indicates noble descent, a sept of the Khyungpo or eagle clan.

Sorcery

When his father died, Milarepa's uncle and aunt took all of 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 summoning a giant hail storm to demolish their house, 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.

Many of Milarepa's deeds took place in Chokyi Dronma's homeland and his life and songs were compiled by Tsangnyön Heruka, sponsored by Chokyi Dronma's brother, the Gungthang king Thri Namgyal De.

Milarepa later lamented his evil ways in his older years in conversation with Rechungpa: "In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future. To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you? I am an old man. Leave me in peace."

Supernatural running

Overlooking Pelgyeling Gompa at Milarepa's Cave, Tibet.

The nine storey tower that Milarepa single-handedly built, Sekhar Gutok, Lhodrag, Tibet.

According to the book Magic and Mystery in Tibet by French explorer Alexandra David-Néel, Milarepa boasted of having "crossed in a few days, a distance which, before his training in black magic, had taken him more than a month. He ascribes his gift to the clever control of 'internal air'." David-Néel comments "that at the house of the lama who taught him black magic there lived a trapa [monk] who was fleeter than a horse" using the same skill. After witnessing such a monk David-Néel described how:

"He seemed to lift himself from the ground.. His steps had the regularity of a pendulum.. ..the traveller seemed to be in a trance."

This esoteric skill, which is known as Lung-gom-pa ("Wind Meditation", lung = "wind", gom-pa = "meditation") in Tibet, allows a practitioner to run at an extraordinary speed for days without stopping. This technique could be compared to that practised by the Kaihigyo Monks of Mt. Hiei in Kyoto, and of Shugendō, Japan.

Tutelage under Marpa

Knowing that his revenge was wrong, Milarepa set out to find a lama and was led to Marpa the translator. Marpa proved a hard taskmaster. Before Marpa would teach Milarepa he had him build and then demolish three towers in turn. Milarepa was asked to build one final nine-storey tower by Marpa at Lhodrag: this 11th century tower still stands. 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 practised 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 Marpa's approval.

Milarepa returned to Marpa, and after practising very diligently for 12 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 45, he started to practise at Drakar Taso (White Rock Horse Tooth) cave – "Milarepa's Cave", as well as becoming a wandering teacher. Here, he subsisted on nettle tea, leading his skin to turn green, hence the greenish color he is often depicted as having in paintings and sculpture.

Monastery

Pyenzhangling Monastery, also known as Pelgye Ling Gompa, is a small Tibetan Buddhist monastery in a tiny village called Zhonggang, Tibet that is consecrated to Milarepa. It is built around the cave where he once lived. "It was destroyed but has now been rebuilt and decorated by Nepali artisans. This is one of many caves associated with Milarepa between Langtang and Jomolungma."

Lineage

Milarepa statue, Pango Chorten, Gyantse, Tibet.

Milarepa is famous for many of his songs and poems, in which he expresses the profundity of his realization of the dharma. Through the illustration of his own life, Milarepa set for all Buddhists an example of the perfect Bodhisattva, and a model of the incorruptible life of a genuine practitioner of Buddhist Tantrism. His life is an unmistakable testimony to the unity and interdependency of all Buddhist teachings – Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana – for Buddhahood is not attainable if any of the three is lacking. He made it clear to all that poverty is not a kind of deprivation, but rather is a necessary way of emancipating oneself from the tyranny of material possessions; that Tantric practice by no means implies indulgence and laxity, but hard labor, strict discipline, and steadfast perseverance; that without resolute renunciation and uncompromising discipline, as Gautama Buddha Himself stressed, all the sublime ideas and dazzling images depicted in Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism are no better that magnificent illusions. He also had many disciples, male and female, including Rechung Dorje Drakpa (Ras-chung Rdo-rje Grags-pa) and Gampopa (Sgam-po-pa, Dhakpo Lhaje). His female disciples include Rechungma, Padarbum, Sahle Aui and Tsheringma. It was Gampopa who became Milarepa's spiritual successor, continued his lineage, and became one of the main lineage masters in Milarepa's tradition.

Gallery

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  Bhutanese painted thanka of Milarepa (1052-1135), Late 19th-early 20th Century, Dhodeydrag Gonpa, Thimphu, Bhutan

• 

  Milarepa, Tempera on cotton, 21x30 cm, 2008 Otgonbayar Ershuu

See also

• Machig Labdron
• Milarepa's Cave
• Detachment (philosophy)
• Mount Hiei Marathon monks
• Kaihōgyō
• Shugendō

Further reading

• The Life of Milarepa, translated by Andrew Quintman, Penguin Classics, 2010, ISBN 978-0-14-310622-7
• The Life of Milarepa, translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, Book Faith India, 1997, ISBN 81-7303-046-4
• Milarepa: Songs on the Spot, translated by Nicole Riggs, Dharma Cloud Press, 2003, ISBN 0-9705639-3-0
• Milarepa, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, translated by Garma C.C. Chang, City Lights Books, 1999, ISBN 1-57062-476-3
• Tibet's Great Yogī Milarepa: A Biography from the Tibetan. Edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. 1928. Oxford University Press. Paperback reprint 1974.
• The Yogi's Joy: Songs of Milarepa Sangharakshita, Windhorse Publications, 2006, ISBN 1-899579-66-4
• The Shadows of the Masters, Leonardo Vittorio Arena, ebook, 2013.
• Drinking the Mountain Stream: Songs of Tibet’s Beloved Saint, Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-063-0repa/10-1/mila1-0.htm Milarepa the great Tibetan saint] Dharmapala Thangka Centre, School of Thangka Painting

External links

• Milarepa in the Treasury of Lives
• Biography on Kagyu website
• The life of Milarepa
• Milarepa meets Padampa Sangye
• The Magic life of Milarepa in comic book form.
• The sixty songs of Milarepa
• Text, The Essential Songs of Milarepa in English
• Inviting the demon. (Milarepa, Tibetan Buddhism)(The Shadowissue) Judith Simmer-Brown, Parabola Vol.22 No.2 (Summer 1997) pp. 12–18
• Movie, Milarepa, 1 of 2
• Gallery of Milarepa Thangkas by Dharmapala Thangka Centre

Preceded by Marpa Lotsawa

Kagyupa school

Succeeded by Gampopa