As His Holiness the Dalai Lama often says, when there are special gurus and special disciples, like Tilopa and Naropa or Marpa and Milarepa, the disciple immediately follows, without question, every single word that the guru says.
Tilopa and Naropa105
The great yogi Tilopa, Naropa’s guru, was born in Sahor, in eastern India. Tilopa had inconceivable qualities and showed many aspects, sometimes appearing in the form of a monk and at other times as a naked yogi. There were many, many Tilopas—sometimes he seemed to be everywhere.
Tilopa was an enlightened being, Buddha Vajradhara, and he used skillful means to guide Naropa in a way that purified many eons of negative karma and defilements and enabled him to reach enlightenment very quickly. Before even giving him a teaching, Tilopa let Naropa undergo twelve great hardships,106 which endangered his life, and twelve small hard-ships.107 Twelve times Tilopa asked Naropa to do something that almost killed Naropa. When Naropa was almost dead, Tilopa would come and bless him and save his life. Tilopa would then tell Naropa to do something else and again Naropa would almost die. The things Tilopa asked Naropa to do were all very dangerous; he wasn’t asking him to go to a cave and meditate. Because he underwent these hardships, Naropa became a great yogi in that life; then, after passing away, he achieved enlightenment in the intermediate state.
Tilopa’s heart disciple, Naropa, was born in Srinagara, also in eastern India. Naropa became a great scholar expert in the five aspects of knowledge and achieved realizations. When Naropa was in a cemetery doing a retreat to attain the secret mantra called the “Seven Syllables,”108 a dakini predicted to him in a dream at dawn, “O son of the race, you should go to the east, where there is a yogi called Tilo. You should take mahamudra teachings from him.” It seemed that Naropa was showing the aspect of pride in his learning, so that night the dakini told him that he still had things to learn and that he should seek his guru, Tilopa.
Naropa didn’t ask where Tilopa was but simply headed east. He asked some monks he met, “Have you seen a yogi called Tilopa?” The monks replied, “We haven’t seen a yogi called Tilopa but there is somebody here called Muttuova Tilopa.” Muttuova can mean “pagan.” Because Tilopa had the external appearance of a sadhu, the monks might have believed he was a Hindu.
When Naropa finally reached the temple where Tilopa was staying, he saw a yogi wearing ragged red clothes, old and full of holes. He was sitting in line with the monks, who were eating their meal. In his left hand Tilopa was holding four or five live fish and in his right hand, burning firewood. Tilopa then burnt the fish alive.
Naropa thought, “What this man is doing is terrible!” He doubted that it could be Tilopa.
The monks didn’t like Tilopa and had no respect for him. Some of the monks came to beat Tilopa with sticks, saying, “Why do you come here and sit in our line?” Tilopa replied, “If you don’t like it, then you go away.” He then snapped his fingers over the fish and all the fish he had burnt flew into space.
Naropa then thought, “This is wonderful! This must definitely be Tilopa.”
After Tilopa revived the fish, the monks realized that he was a great yogi. They all did three prostrations to Tilopa and circumambulated him three times and then everybody apologized to him. Tilopa accepted all their apologies. Naropa thought, “This is definitely Tilopa. Now there is no doubt!”
Naropa also made three prostrations and did three circumambulations. Naropa then placed Tilopa’s feet on his head and told Tilopa, “It was prophesied that I should come here. I’m requesting you to please take me out of samsara.”
Tilopa didn’t say anything but simply walked away. Even though Tilopa hadn’t said anything, Naropa followed him. When Naropa followed Tilopa into a bamboo grove, Naropa fell into a hole in the ground and a piece of bamboo pierced his backside. Tilopa beat Naropa on the back with a piece of bamboo and then looked into his face. Again Tilopa didn’t say anything and left.
Naropa continued to follow Tilopa and three days later Tilopa asked him, “Are you sick?” Naropa asked Tilopa, “Please stay here.” Tilopa didn’t say anything and left again. Naropa was so sick that he just remained there, lying on the ground. Three days later Tilopa returned. He placed his hand on Naropa’s body and the pain went away. From that time, the name “Naropa” was given. I think it was because Naropa lay in the sand like a corpse.
Naropa continued to follow Tilopa. One time a family invited some monks for a meal and Tilopa and Naropa were sitting in line at the family’s house waiting to be served. Before the food was offered to the monks, Tilopa said to Naropa, “I’m so hungry I can’t stand it! I can’t wait. Go now and beg some food.” Without hesitation Naropa went, but the family said, “How can we give you food before it is offered to the Sangha?”
Naropa then put some food in a bowl and ran away with it. The family chased Naropa with sticks and beat him almost to death. When Tilopa looked at one of the men chasing Naropa, the man became paralyzed and couldn’t walk. Naropa then offered the food to Tilopa. Tilopa came and blessed Naropa and Naropa recovered.
Another time Tilopa went up on the roof of a temple and told Naropa, “Any capable person who doesn’t go against the guru’s advice would jump from here.” Naropa thought, “There are no other disciples here; he must mean me.”
Naropa jumped from the roof of the temple and broke both his legs. Tilopa came close to Naropa and just stood there looking at him for a while. He then went away, leaving Naropa there with his legs broken. Two or three days later Tilopa came back and asked, “Are you sick?” Naropa said, “I’ve become like a corpse. I can’t get up. I can’t do anything.” Tilopa again placed his hands on Naropa and blessed him. The pain went away and Naropa recovered.
One day while Tilopa was walking with Naropa he collected together some flowers, made them into a garland and gave it to Naropa. Two men were escorting a girl to her wedding. Tilopa told Naropa, “Put these flowers on her. The girl and the men will be happy and the men will give you a present. When they come to give you the present, don’t take it but instead rub the girl’s breasts.”
Naropa went to the girl and offered her the flower garland. As he was putting the flowers around her neck, the two men went to give Naropa a present. Naropa then rubbed the girl’s breasts. The two men got extremely angry, tied his hands with rope and beat him almost to death.
Tilopa came and asked Naropa, “What happened? What did you do wrong?” Naropa replied, “I did exactly what the guru said but the men who were escorting the girl tied me up.” Tilopa then gestured with his hands and blessed him and Naropa was again relieved of all his pains.
On another day, the wife of King Indrabhuti invited Tilopa to be the master at a tsog puja. She arranged the tsog and invited everybody to the place to do the puja. From the place where the tsog offering was arranged, without going to see Tilopa, King Indrabhuti’s wife simply requested, “O Tilopa, Sherab Zangpo, people say that you have clairvoyance. Please come to my tsog puja.” She made the request simply by thinking this.
Even though Tilopa was living in a small cave many days away from the place where she had arranged the tsog, he appeared there the same day she made the request. Tilopa discovered her request through his clairvoyance and immediately went there, along with Naropa, who had also achieved psychic powers. They then offered tsog and made offerings.
Tilopa then left that place and Naropa followed him. Tilopa lay down beside a great river and told Naropa, “I’m very hungry. Go beg some food.” Naropa crossed the river and went to beg for food. When Naropa returned with some rice he saw a monk lying on Tilopa’s bed. He thought, “This must be an embodiment of my guru” and offered the food to the monk. When Naropa offered the food, the monk hit Naropa on the head, saying, “You’re giving me food in the afternoon.”109 Naropa thought, “My guru Tilopa has manifested as a fully ordained monk. This means my guru definitely has attainments.” Again he followed Tilopa.
In time Tilopa reached a forest, but when he tried to enter the forest he kept on turning back. Naropa watched, wondering what the problem was. Naropa then saw that Tilopa seemed to be having difficulty jumping across a few feet of water. Naropa also saw that there were many, many leeches in the water. Naropa thought, “Since it is so difficult for my guru Tilopa to cross this water, I’ll use my body as a bridge.”
Tilopa agreed to this and Naropa stretched his body across the water. Tilopa went very slowly across Naropa; it took him a long time to cross. When Tilopa had crossed over and Naropa stood up, his whole body was covered with leeches all drinking his blood. When Naropa saw this, he trembled and then fainted.
Tilopa left and returned after three days. Tilopa asked Naropa, “Are you sick?” and Naropa replied, “I feel like a corpse.” Again Tilopa moved his hands over Naropa’s body and all the pain went away.
At another time Tilopa and Naropa were in a cemetery. When Naropa went to beg for food, he found some that was incredibly delicious; he had never tasted food like that before. Naropa felt it would be a waste if he simply ate it all himself, so he kept some to offer his guru. When he offered the food to Tilopa, he ate it with delight, smacking his lips in order for Naropa to accumulate merit. He then told Naropa, “These vegetables of yours are delicious!” Naropa was very happy. He thought, “So far nothing I have offered my guru has satisfied him but he is extremely pleased with this offering; I’m going to get another serving.” Tilopa agreed that he could go, so Naropa went to look for more of those delicious vegetables but couldn’t find any anywhere.
In India, there was a custom that you could beg food once a day, but not twice. Naropa looked and looked for that delicious food but couldn’t find any. Finally he found a pot of it in the house of one family, so he grabbed the whole pot and ran away with it. The men from the house chased and caught Naropa and chained him to a post so that he couldn’t move at all. Tilopa then came along and asked, “What did you do wrong?” Naropa explained the whole story and Tilopa again moved his hand over Naropa’s body and all the pain went away.
On another day Tilopa told Naropa, “While you are on this huge plain, don’t rest, don’t drink, and don’t eat anything. Just keep walking.” Naropa did exactly as Tilopa advised. After some time, because he was walking continuously without resting, eating or drinking, he collapsed. Naropa was about to die when again Tilopa came along and asked, “What happened?” Naropa explained, “I did exactly what my guru advised me to do.” After Tilopa moved his hand over Naropa’s body, Naropa again recovered.
One day Tilopa put three huge pieces of firewood together and started a fire. He then asked, “Is there anybody who can sit in this fire?” Since there was no one else around, Naropa thought, “He must be talking to me.” Naropa then sat in the center of the fire. All his flesh was burnt away, leaving just the whiteness of his bones. Again Tilopa moved his hand and again Naropa recovered.
Another time Tilopa told Naropa, “You should bring that princess here,” so Naropa went to get the princess. He waited outside the palace until she came out and immediately grabbed her. The king’s retinue then caught Naropa and tied him up. This time, simply by thinking, “I’m doing this for my guru,” Naropa was released.
On another day a minister’s wife came along in a carriage. Again Tilopa asked, “Is there anybody who can capture this minister’s wife?” Naropa thought, “He must be talking to me,” and went to kidnap the minister’s wife. The minister and his retinue caught Naropa and cut off his arms and legs. Naropa thought, “How is it possible to recover from this?” When Naropa thought this, Tilopa suddenly appeared there and said, “What did you do wrong?” Naropa replied, “I went to kidnap the minister’s wife and the minister cut off my limbs.” Tilopa then put together the pieces of Naropa’s limbs, again moved his hand over Naropa’s body and again Naropa recovered.
Throughout all these ordeals Naropa didn’t generate even a single heretical thought toward Tilopa. Naropa himself said, “I didn’t generate heresy toward my guru for even a moment during all those times.”
In this way, for twelve years Naropa did every single thing that Tilopa advised him to do and experienced twelve great hardships. After Naropa had undergone these twelve hardships in serving Tilopa, one day Tilopa asked Naropa whether he wanted teachings. When Naropa requested initiation, Tilopa asked him to offer a mandala. Since there was nothing to offer as a mandala, Naropa urinated on the sand and made a mandala offering with the wet sand. Tilopa then threw this sand mandala offering in Naropa’s face and immediately asked him to look up into space, where Naropa saw the entire Heruka mandala in beautiful colors. Tilopa transformed the actual Heruka mandala in space, transformed himself into Heruka and then initiated Naropa into the mandala.
All the twelve great and twelve small hardships that Naropa experienced in following Tilopa’s advice were his preliminary practice. By doing this preliminary practice, Naropa purified his karmic obscurations and when his mind had become receptive, Tilopa’s transcendental wisdom manifested in the Heruka mandala in space and he then initiated Naropa.
One day Naropa did prostrations to Tilopa, circumambulated him, and requested, “Please guide me!” Tilopa didn’t answer—he just sat there looking around. Tilopa then took his shoe off and hit Naropa between his eyebrows with it. Naropa immediately fainted. When he regained consciousness he was suddenly able to see clearly all the words and meanings of the four tantras. At that time Tilopa gave Naropa special advice on the short AH.110
Naropa thought, “I have served my guru and now I think the guru is happy with me and keeps me in his heart. I have been blessed and I have now accomplished my work.” Naropa then thought “Since I now have both scriptural understanding and realizations, what should I do? Should I teach or should I meditate?” Naropa went to ask Tilopa for his advice.
At that time Tilopa had a skull filled with hot excrement, with steam coming off it. Using a human rib as a spoon, Tilopa said to Naropa, “Eat this and then try to understand the meaning.” Tilopa then left. Naropa ate the excrement without any superstition or hesitation. When he ate it, along with a beautiful scented smell, he experienced the hundred tastes,111 which he had never experienced before. Naropa thought, “Both the excrement in this skull and the human rib are dirty things but the blessing of Tilopa has made them delicious.” Naropa then thought “This is telling me that if I don’t practice Dharma the whole of this body is dirty. But if I practice Dharma, if I meditate, these unclean things become a blessing. Therefore, this is telling me to meditate.” This is what Naropa understood.
Tilopa then came and asked Naropa, “Do you understand?” When Naropa told Tilopa what he had understood, Tilopa said, “It means exactly what you have understood.”
Naropa did prostrations to Tilopa and again followed him, this time to a great city. There people were saying “A very good yogi has come” and many people came to make offerings. At that time Naropa found a big pot filled with pearls. He was very pleased. Thinking, “My guru is very kind to me and also my services are not small,” Naropa went to offer the pot of pearls to Tilopa. Realizing what Naropa was thinking, Tilopa thought, “Naropa is still not a good yogi.” In order to break Naropa’s pride, Tilopa sat himself on an incredibly high throne of pearls. When Naropa saw Tilopa sitting on this pearl throne, he thought, “My guru Tilopa is so rich that my offering of this pot filled with pearls is nothing special.” He then sprinkled the pearls in the mandala and went away.
Naropa reached the house of a blacksmith and slept there. In the very early morning when he got up to do his practice, the blacksmith thought, “It must be dawn.” When he found out it wasn’t dawn, the blacksmith scolded Naropa so much that he couldn’t do his meditation. Naropa then got angry and asked himself many times, “Whose fault is this?” He then realized, “It’s my own fault—I must cut off the root of anger.” At that time Naropa was able to cut off the root of anger and to realize the unborn nature of ignorance (which means he realized that ignorance doesn’t have truly existent birth). Naropa then realized that he was able to achieve this through the kindness of his guru. At that time, Naropa was able to cut the root of all dharmas, which means the root of samsara.
From there Naropa went to the great monastery of Nalanda, where there were many hundreds of pandits. Nalanda had four gates, with a pandit protecting each gate, which meant they were responsible for debating with learned Hindus. At the eastern gate was Prajnakara; at the southern gate, Krishnacharya; at the western gate, Ratnakarashanti; but there was no pandit to protect the northern gate. The local king asked Naropa to be the protector at the northern gate.
When the king asked Naropa to be the fourth protector, Naropa thought, “In our early times together my guru Tilopa advised me not to become the pandit who protects the fourth door of Nalanda but this Dharma activity is so important that maybe it will be OK for me to do it.” Naropa promised to do what the king asked. The king bowed at Naropa’s feet and Naropa then initiated him and gave him teachings.
One day when Naropa was protecting the northern gate of Nalanda monastery, a Hindu pandit came to debate with him. That first day the Hindu won; Naropa couldn’t seem to defeat him. The Nalanda monks thought, “Tomorrow Naropa will again lose the debate.” That night Naropa prayed to Tilopa, “Guru Tilopa, please help me.” Tilopa then appeared in front of Naropa. Naropa was upset and appealed to Tilopa, telling him that he had shown little compassion for him that day, “You didn’t help me to win when I was debating.” Tilopa replied, “I was right there in front of you but the reason you lost was that you went against my earlier advice not to debate with the Hindus at Nalanda’s gates.” Tilopa then said, “When you debate with this Hindu tomorrow, you should do so with your hands in the threatening mudra.”112
The next day when Naropa debated with the Hindu he did exactly as Tilopa advised. He pointed at the Hindu with the threatening mudra and just seeing this mudra made the hearts of all the Hindus quake. They were all defeated and had to become Buddhists.
Another day a huge elephant fell dead at the northern door of Nalanda. Everybody was very worried because if its corpse were left there all the people of the northern side would become ill. But the body was so huge that it couldn’t be carried away. Naropa made a big hole somewhere near the city, then made his consciousness enter the dead body of the elephant and moved it into the hole. After putting the elephant’s corpse in the hole, Naropa reabsorbed his wind-mind.
One day Naropa went to bathe but left the protection amulet113 that he normally kept on his body in a pig-sty so that it wouldn’t get wet. A crow came and flew off with his amulet, so Naropa made the threatening mudra and just by looking at the crow like that paralyzed it. This showed that Naropa had accomplished the tantric actions.
At another time Naropa lived by begging with a skull and he would take any food from anybody. One day, instead of putting food into Naropa’s skull, a group of robbers put in a knife. Naropa swirled the skull around and the knife melted into nectar, which Naropa then drank.
Naropa performed many amazing actions in correctly devoting himself to his virtuous friend Tilopa. He then gained great attainments, as shown by his doing these various actions that ordinary people cannot do. Naropa then achieved the realization of mahamudra. His holy mind attained inconceivable qualities, and he achieved enlightenment in the intermediate state.
Marpa and Milarepa114
Milarepa is one of the most inspiring examples of incomparable guru devotion. Milarepa had such strong devotion that nothing could affect it. By hearing Milarepa’s life-story, we want to become like him. We want to have the same realizations that Milarepa had and we want to find a virtuous teacher just like Milarepa’s.
I first read Milarepa’s life story in Solu Khumbu when I was a small boy, maybe six or seven years old. I think when I was young my mind was probably clearer because reading Milarepa’s biography was a little like having visions of the stories.
I had a strong desire in my heart to find a guru like Marpa, just as Milarepa had. When I first went to Tibet with my two uncles and was at Tashilhunpo, the Panchen Lama’s monastery, I met a Sherpa monk, Gyaltsen, who looked a little like a dob-dob. He had a black shemtab that was smeared with a lot of butter and carried a long key. He didn’t seem to study or go to pujas but mainly traveled back and forth between the monastery and the town of Shigatse.
We stayed at Tashilhunpo for a week. We didn’t go to the pujas but when a puja had finished, we got into the line of monks to receive the money offering. I think Gyaltsen probably guided us. On the very last night before we were to leave, Gyaltsen insisted very much that I should stay and become his disciple. Both my uncles agreed that I should stay there. I didn’t have the slightest desire to become his disciple! I had an unbelievably difficult time. I don’t think I had any sleep that whole night, wondering how I could escape from this. I couldn’t think what to do. I don’t know how it happened, but fortunately the next morning my uncles allowed me to leave with them.
A little while later, in Phagri, I met Losang Gyatso, a senior monk in Domo Geshe’s monastery. When I first met him he asked me whether I would be his disciple and I replied, “Yes, okay.” The whole thing was up to karma. I asked Losang Gyatso, “Can you be like Marpa?” He said, “Yes.”
I think I have been very fortunate to have met many virtuous teachers with the same qualities as Marpa. The problem is not that I haven’t met a guru like Marpa. From the guru’s side everything has been perfect; they have had everything that Marpa, Milarepa and Naropa had. The only problem is that from my own side I haven’t done a single practice.
In his early life Milarepa had learnt black magic on the advice of his mother and used it to destroy his aunt and uncle and all the other people who had treated his family badly. He received instructions on black magic from a lama and did the necessary retreats. He then performed black magic while his aunt and uncle were celebrating a marriage with a crowd of people. Many people were singing and dancing upstairs, with horses and other animals downstairs. Milarepa used black magic to break the supporting posts so that the whole house collapsed; all the people, numbering more than thirty, were killed, as well as all the animals.
Milarepa later regretted his action very much and wanted to practice Dharma. The lama who had taught him black magic advised him to learn Dharma from the great yogi called Marpa. This is how Milarepa came to meet Marpa.
Even though Marpa was an enlightened being, the actual Hevajra, when Milarepa met him for the first time he appeared to Milarepa to be just an ordinary farmer drinking beer as he plowed a field, his body and clothes covered in dust.
Milarepa said to Marpa, “I have created heavy negative karma, so I have now come to practice Dharma. I have nothing to offer you but my body, speech and mind. Please give me the Dharma and also food and clothing.” Milarepa asked for food and clothing because he didn’t have anything at all.
Although Milarepa went to Marpa solely to receive teachings, for many years Marpa never gave him any initiations or teachings. Instead, Marpa only scolded him and gave him hard work to do. Marpa advised Milarepa to build a nine-story tower, something like a Chinese pagoda. I think this tower is still there in Lhodrak in southern Tibet. Marpa told Milarepa to build it by himself, without anyone else’s help. When Milarepa finished the building there were no thanks from Marpa; he didn’t say, “Oh, you’ve done a wonderful job! Are you exhausted?” Marpa simply told him to tear it down and return every stone to its original place. He then asked Milarepa to rebuild the tower. This happened three times. Milarepa’s back became bruised, callused and infected from carrying the stones. But still Marpa wouldn’t give Milarepa initiations or teachings.
Even though Milarepa repeatedly asked for teachings, Marpa didn’t give him any for a long time. Since Marpa never called Milarepa to give him private teachings or initiations, whenever he was giving a public teaching Milarepa would slip inside and try to listen among the other people. But whenever Marpa would see him at an initiation or teaching sitting among the other disciples he would immediately shout at or beat him and kick him out. Instead of giving Milarepa teachings, Marpa would only scold and beat him. For years, Milarepa received no teachings from Marpa, only his wrath. There was no sweet talk from Marpa. Milarepa received no praise or thanks but only years of scoldings and beatings.
Imagine if you met a guru who treated you in that way, who scolded you in public and beat you and kicked you out if you tried to come to teachings or initiations. If you met a guru who treated you in the way that Marpa treated Milarepa, could you bear it? Comparing yourself to Milarepa helps you to understand and have strong faith in Milarepa. From this you can understand why Milarepa became enlightened not just in one life but within a number of years. You can also understand how Milarepa practiced Dharma, how he devoted himself to Marpa, and you can then understand why, even though you met Buddhadharma many years ago, there is still no change in your mind, let alone realizations of the path.
If I went to take teachings from a lama and all I received from the very beginning was scolding, I would feel extremely depressed or angry. I think I would run away—and maybe pray never to meet him again. These days in the West we would probably say that Marpa abused Milarepa. If someone these days were treated the way Marpa treated Milarepa or Tilopa treated Naropa, there would be a human rights investigation and Marpa and Tilopa would probably end up in court. However, this was Marpa’s skillful means to quickly purify all Milarepa’s heavy negative karma and enlighten him.
During all those years, no matter how much Marpa scolded or beat him, Milarepa never lost faith in Marpa or gave rise to anger or any other negative thought toward him for even a moment. Milarepa simply did everything that Marpa asked him to do; he totally sacrificed himself to serve Marpa. From the very first, Milarepa never generated heresy toward Marpa. His guru yoga practice was incomparable.
Milarepa practiced guru devotion with the nine attitudes explained by Lama Tsongkhapa in The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, especially with the attitudes like the earth and like a faithful dog (see appendix 8).115 Just as the earth supports mountains and other heavy things, Milarepa was able to hold all the heavy responsibilities that Marpa gave him and follow the advice he was given. A faithful dog, no matter how badly it is treated by its master, never retaliates or runs away but always stays with its master. In a similar way, no matter how badly Marpa treated him, Milarepa never became angry or retaliated or ran away; he always stayed with Marpa. Without losing his guru devotion, Milarepa always kept a positive mind. Both attitudes emphasize following the guru without feeling upset.
Even after Milarepa had built the nine-story temple three times and received much scolding and beating, Marpa still had no intention of giving him teachings or initiations. His plan was to give him even more work to do so that, in bearing more hardships, he could purify more negative karma and become enlightened more quickly. Marpa did all this out of his great compassion.
However, Marpa’s wisdom mother, Dagmema, felt sorry for Milarepa. She secretly advised him to go to see Lama Ngokpa, one of Marpa’s disciples, and receive teachings from him. As offerings to Lama Ngokpa, Dagmema gave Milarepa Naropa’s crown ornaments and a ruby mala Naropa had given to Marpa.
Milarepa then went to Lama Ngokpa. For many months he meditated in a hole in the ground he had made there but no realizations happened—not even a good sign in a dream—because Marpa hadn’t given him permission to go to Lama Ngokpa. Even though he had received teachings from Lama Ngokpa, Milarepa had no good signs during his retreat. When Milarepa explained to Lama Ngokpa that he didn’t have Marpa’s permission to be there, Lama Ngokpa knew it was a mistake and then took Milarepa to Marpa to apologize.
Dagmema kept insisting that Marpa give Milarepa teachings until Marpa reluctantly agreed. From Marpa’s side he didn’t want to give teachings and initiations even when he did; he wanted Milarepa to continue bearing hardships in following his advice even longer. It is said that if things had happened as Marpa wanted, Milarepa would have achieved enlightenment even quicker. That was Marpa’s plan. Though Milarepa still achieved enlightenment in one brief lifetime, he took longer to become enlightened because Dagmema pushed Marpa to give teachings and initiations to Milarepa. If she hadn’t pushed and things had gone according to Marpa’s plan, Milarepa could have been enlightened even earlier.
From Marpa’s side, there was no formal sitting on a throne and giving teachings to Milarepa. Marpa grabbed Milarepa and banged his head three times on the floor. He then told Milarepa to look up at the sky, where Milarepa saw the Hevajra mandala. Marpa, who had achieved the unified state of no more learning, transformed the mandala in space and, transforming himself into Hevajra, initiated Milarepa into it.
After Milarepa had received all the teachings and necessary instructions, Marpa then advised him to go to Mount Kailash and other holy places in the Himalayas to practice and actualize all the teachings Marpa had given him.
At the end, as Milarepa was leaving, Marpa walked a little way with him from the hermitage where Marpa lived and advised, “Just as you can’t sew cloth with a two-pointed needle, you can’t practice worldly dharma and holy Dharma together. If you try to do so you lose the holy Dharma.”
After receiving this advice from Marpa, Milarepa went into the mountains of Tibet and followed Marpa’s advice exactly, doing retreat on the Six Yogas of Naropa and other practices. Milarepa went into the mountains with nothing. He didn’t have anything at all: he actually lived naked in caves and ate nothing but nettles.
Once Milarepa’s sister saw him naked and felt so embarrassed that she offered him a roll of woolen cloth. Milarepa cut some pieces off the cloth and made covers for his fingers and penis. When his sister next saw him she was shocked. Because Milarepa had achieved the Six Yogas of Naropa he had no need of clothing.
He practiced the patience of voluntarily accepting sufferings, such as cold, to practice Dharma, one of the three types of patience.116 Of course, after he accomplished the Six Yogas of Naropa, even though he was naked he didn’t feel the cold. With realization of tummo, or inner fire, there’s no such thing as feeling cold. Even if you live in an ice cave in an ice mountain, the ice is melted by your heat.
Milarepa practiced, had all the realizations and liberated himself, overcoming death. First he was afraid of death, but then he went to the mountains to meditate and actualized tantric mahamudra. He didn’t realize just emptiness and sutra mahamudra but tantric mahamudra. He actualized the primordial mind of simultaneously born bliss and totally overcame the cycle of death and rebirth. In the beginning, he began to practice Dharma with fear of death, but he used that fear to practice Dharma. At the end he overcame the fear by developing his mind in the tantric path. With the primordial mind of simultaneously born great bliss, he was totally free from fear. He was able to free himself from all suffering.
As Milarepa himself expressed it, “Afraid of death, I fled to the mountains, where I realized the nature of the primordial mind. Now even if death comes to me, I have no fear.”
By bearing hardships, Milarepa practiced the teachings and became enlightened; he achieved the unified state of Vajradhara in that life. Milarepa didn’t possess even one dollar but he possessed a perfect human rebirth and practiced Dharma. And the Dharma practice that enabled Milarepa to become enlightened in one brief lifetime was his strong guru devotion. Milarepa correctly devoted himself to Marpa with thought and action, cherishing Marpa more than his own life. No matter how Marpa treated him, it never affected his mind; Milarepa never generated anger or heresy toward Marpa. He never lost his devotion; he always had strong devotion. And he put into practice every single piece of advice Marpa gave him. Because of his strong guru devotion, Milarepa became enlightened in that life.
Milarepa, after making unbelievable sacrifices and bearing hardships to practice Dharma, had great success. By renouncing the eight worldly dharmas and bearing hardships to practice Dharma, Milarepa achieved enlightenment within a number of years.
Milarepa was not a particularly great scholar; he hadn’t studied in a monastery for thirty or forty years. He received the essential teachings from Marpa and meditated on them. What made Milarepa so successful was his correctly devoting himself to the virtuous friend. That’s what enabled him to become enlightened within a few years and what has enabled him to enlighten numberless sentient beings since that time.
It is our obscurations that block our actualizing the steps of the path to enlightenment. If we didn’t have negative karma and obscurations we would be a buddha and our mind would be dharmakaya. The whole point is that if our goal is to have realizations and actually achieve enlightenment for the sake of sentient beings, we need to purify our mind. Intellectual knowledge of Dharma alone can’t bring us realizations. If that were the case, the methods these great yogis Tilopa and Marpa used to guide their disciples would have been simply forms of torture. To have realizations of the path and even to understand Dharma intellectually, we need to purify our mind.
In the stories of Naropa and Milarepa there is no mention of their doing hundreds of thousands of prostrations, Vajrasattva mantras or mandala offerings. The yogis who became enlightened in a brief lifetime of this degenerate time practiced Dharma by correctly devoting themselves to the virtuous friend. No matter how much hardship they had to bear, they didn’t generate any negative thoughts. Nowadays we do many hundreds of thousands of the various preliminary practices but the best preliminary practice is to endure all the hardships these past great yogis did. This is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.
NOTES
105 See, for example, The Life & Teaching of Naropa and Illusion’s Game. [Return to text]
106 The twelve great hardships that Naropa underwent as a student of Tilopa were 1) jumping off a temple roof; 2) jumping into a fire; 3) being beaten after ruining the food of those refusing to give alms twice; 4) being attacked by leeches as he attempted to build a bridge; 5) being tortured by hot reeds at the hands of Tilopa; 6) chasing the vision of a man to the point of exhaustion; 7) being beaten by a minister and his followers after attacking a minister and his bride; 8) being beaten by a king and his followers after attacking a queen; 9) being beaten by an army after attacking a prince; 10) being dissatisfied with his consort and his job, as well as hitting his penis with a rock; 11) having to give his consort to Tilopa and having her beaten by Tilopa; and 12) making a mandala with sand and his own blood and body parts. After each hardship, Tilopa healed Naropa of any physical problems he had, then gave him a particular teaching.
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107 Naropa experienced the twelve small hardships as visions in which 1) Vajrayogini appeared in the form of an ugly old hag and told him to go to Tilopa; 2) he leapt over a leper woman without hands and feet, who was blocking his path; 3) he jumped over a stinking bitch crawling with vermin; 4) he didn’t want to associate with a man playing tricks on his parents; 5) he didn’t want to help a man who was tearing the intestines out of a human corpse and then cutting them up; 6) he refused to help a man who had opened the stomach of a live man and was washing it with warm water; 7) he entreated to marry a king’s daughter in order to hear of Tilopa’s whereabouts from the king; 8) he refused to kill a deer with a bow and arrow given to him by a dark man with a pack of hounds; 9) he refused to eat the fish and frogs cooked alive by an old woman; 10) he refused to help a man cruelly killing his parents; 11) having actually met Tilopa, he refused Tilopa’s request to kill a handful of lice; and lastly, 12) he met many one-eyed people, a blind man who could see, an earless one who could hear, a man without a tongue who spoke, a lame man running about and a corpse gently fanning itself. All twelve visions were pointing out the symbols of mahamudra. [Return to text]
108 The Heruka near heart mantra, OM HRIH HA HA HUM HUM PHAT. [Return to text]
109 Eating food in the afternoon is against a monk’s vows. [Return to text]
110 Meditating on the short AH is part of the completion stage practice of tummo, or inner fire. See The Bliss of Inner Fire for more about this practice. [Return to text]
111 Food of a hundred tastes refers to a variety of fine foods with many delicious flavors. [Return to text]
112 This is the mudra displayed by many wrathful deities, such as Vajrapani and Mahakala. [Return to text]
113 A protection is an amulet containing printed mandalas, holy relics and so forth; it is sometimes wrapped in cloth and worn around the neck or on another part of the body to protect the wearer. [Return to text]
114 See, for example, The Life of Marpa the Translator, The Life of Milarepa and The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. [Return to text]
115 The nine attitudes, taught in the sutra Laying Out of Stalks are: 1) like an obedient child, giving up your own will and submitting yourself to your lama; 2) like a diamond, being solid in your devotion and not letting anyone split you apart; 3) like the earth itself, accepting any task your lama may load upon you; 4) like the great mountains at the edge of the world, staying unshakable in your service, regardless of any troubles that come; 5) like a hand servant, carrying out any task your lama gives you, never seeking to avoid it, no matter how distasteful it may seem; 6) like the dust of the earth, seeking the lowest position, giving up all pride, all pretension and all conceit; 7) like a sturdy vehicle, undertaking any burden your lama may give you, however heavy; 8) like a loyal dog, staying without anger, regardless of how your lama might berate or scold you; and 9) like a boat, never complaining no matter how much you have to come and go in the service of your lama. See The Great Treatise, Volume 1, pp. 78–80. [Return to text]
116 The three types of patience are the patience that is not disturbed by the harm done by others, the patience that voluntarily accepts suffering and the patience needed to gain assurance in the Dharma. [Return to text]
