Milarepa

"Maintain the state of undistractedness and distractions will fly off. Dwell alone and you shall find a friend. Take the lowest place and you shall reach the highest. Hasten slowly and you will soon arrive. Renounce all worldly goals and you shall reach the highest goal."

Milarepa

Milarepa (1052-1136AD) is probably the most famous Tibetan Buddhist Yogi. He was born into a family of considerable wealth. His father owned property and was well respected amongst the elders of his village. When his father became ill and was near death, he gathered his family together and requested his brother to look after his estate until his son Thopaga (later to be known as Milarepa - Mila meaning "cotton clad") was old enough.

However, when his father died, Milarepa's uncle and aunt diveded the estate between themselves , dispossessing Milarepa, his mother and sister Peta of all of their worldly goods. They were forced to eat coarse food and left to work in the field. If they refused to do so, they were left to starve. Even when he came of age, Milarepa was not given his dues but was in fact derided and scorned by his aunt and uncle.

After some time, Milarepa's mother begged her son to leave the village and find some way of revenging their position. She requested her son to discover a yogi skilled in the black arts. She wished Milarepa to learn these arts and then return to seek vengeance.

Milarepa left the village and found a yogi who was talented in sorcery and with what money he had, requested teachings. After some time, he became skilled in certain powers easily absorbing all of the teachings. When he was ready, he carried out a ritual for 14 days and then set his mark on the clan of his aunt and uncle. The sorcery took the form of a disaster that occured at a family wedding in which all of the guests but his aunt and uncle were killed.

Milarepa's mother quickly learnt of the catastrophe and was ecstatic with cruel joy. She came gloating to those around her with the information that her son had caused the tragedy. Those hearing the story soon decided that they should find and kill Milarepa. His mother on hearing this, wrote to her son requesting him to learn greater skills to unleash a hail storm on the area. Milarepa left the yogi and travelled to his village where he gathered a storm around him. When it finally hit, the hail storm destroyed all of the crops in the area, thereby putting peoples lives in real jeopardy through starvation. 

Realising that he had made a grievous error, Milarepa left to return to the yogi, begging him for a way to save himself from the large negative karma that he had accrued by carrying out his mothers' requests. The yogi urged him to seek out a teacher of the Holy Dharma, at least possibly delivering himself into a higher state of existence in a future life.

Eventually he found a yogi who, although refusing to help Milarepa, sent him to a teacher known as Marpa the Translator (1012-1096AD). Marpa was known amongst the religious fraternity as one who travelled widely in India to procure sacred teachings and texts. He was a student of the famous Naropa (1016-1100AD), a powerful saint. When finally Milarepa met with Marpa, he realised at once that this was his true teacher.

But Marpa, realising the depth of Milarepa's negative karma was not an easy and accepting master. He immediately shunned Milarepa, forcing him to do physical labour to remove his karmic debt. He requested that Milarepa build a house for him. When he had finished, Marpa, in a fit of anger told his student to dismantle the house and rebuild it on another hill. Milarepa, seething with anger but yet understanding the necessity of paying back what he had taken away, soon began building again. But Marpa was still unhappy, and deridingly said that he would never live in a house that was built with such filthy (negative karmic) hands. As Milarepa struggled he cried out and prayed for forgiveness, sometimes contemplating suicide. Marpa understood his student's need but still remained firm and harsh.

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Eventually after more time passed, Marpa offered teachings for the monks and scholars of the area. Now, it was custom for the times, that if a student requested teachings, he must first give the teacher something of value as an initiation fee. Being penniless, Milarepa was uncertain that he would even get a chance to hear the teachings let alone discover and repay his karmic debt (although in truth much of this debt was paid for when he built the houses). Marpa's wife, feeling sorry for the young student, gave him a rare coloured turquoise. Marpa took the turquoise from the student, and upon examining it, asked him how it had come into his possession. Milarepa, being forced into assenting the truth, enraged Marpa who threw the student to the floor cursing him. Hysterical, Milarepa left the house.

Eventually, Milarepa decided to leave his teacher, and, with help from Marpa's wife took written introduction to another Lama in the area. The Lama gave his new student teachings and then walled up Milarepa in a meditation cave with only a small hole for food to be passed through. However, even though quite some considerable time passed, Milarepa still did not succeed in gaining any sort of spiritual insight. When the Lama heard this, he questioned his student and discovered that his introduction was not what he had first believed it to be, and that Marpa himself had not sanctioned him to teach Milarepa but rather his wife had written out a forged letter.

The Lama, on hearing this decided that Milarepa would only receive true spiritual insight and possibly enlightenment if he was to journey back to his root teacher Marpa. Travelling together, they reached Marpa in time for teachings that the translator was about to give. However, angered by his students desertion and the forged letter, Marpa excluded Milarepa from the teachings. Weeping with frustration, his student sat in the corner of a room and considered taking drastic action. But each time he was on the verge of running away or taking his life, Marpa's wife Damema would come to him offering him consoling words of encouragement and sympathy.

Finally Marpa relented and sitting down spoke of how his student had endured much to release himself from the negative karma of his past. He agreed that it was now time to teach his student Milarepa the first lesson, confering on him those initiations that bring about enlightenment in one lifetime.

Marpa was an enlightened teacher, and it was not long before his student was experiencing spiritual realisations. In time, he was once again sealed up in a cave but this time had the teachings that would most benefit him. After much time had past, and after a particularly vivid dream, Milarepa decided to go out and find his mother and sister Peta. Going to Marpa he made his request to leave and, realising that this would be the last time they would see each other in this lifetime, Marpa charged him with many important and final teachings. Milarepa vowed that he would reach understanding in this life and help all beings, healing the pain that he had caused many years before.

Reaching his homeland, Milarepa arrived to find it in ruins. He rummaged through and found the remains of human bones. He realised that these were his mother. He sat in the ruins of the house and after several days entered into a meditative stage called samadhi in which a realisation of oneness is understood. After seven days of this, he came out of his contemplation deciding to find his sister. However, this was not to be. For a time, he wandered the hills and then, finding some mountain caves moved into one and started continuous contemplation. 

He soon ran out of food and was forced to eat a soup of nettle broth. After a diet of this for many weeks, his body began to take on a greenish tinge. When people walking through the mountain paths came across Milarepa, they thought him a ghost, but then realising that he was in fact human, left him some provisions.

After a time, his sister Peta heard that he was living in a cave and came to seek him out. Finally they found each other and she begged him to return to a life that, although harsh, was healthier than this living in caves. He refused. However she continued to visit him, providing him with sustenance. Because of this extra nourishment, his strength greatly improved. In time, he achieved remarkable spiritual advancement. Though naked or with a flimsy cloth, he was able to sit out in the freezing Tibetan winter. 

After a period of solitary confinement, moving from cave to cave, he experienced final understanding. It was after this point, that he began to take on students of his own. Legend has it that he would sometimes be seen flying from one mountain to the next. His love for the people was unfathomable. This is how he became one of Tibet's most loved Saints.

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