I bow at the feet of Marpa who is so kind.
Now, all you spirits, listen once more!
Your bodies fly in space unimpeded,
And your habit of malicious thoughts is so fixed.
With the fangs of afflictions you terrorize others;
You’ll be tormented by the nonvirtue of giving others pain.
There’s no place to discard the truth of cause and effect;
The force of ripening can’t be thrown away.
You bring this torment and anger upon yourself.
Alas! How confused are you hungry ghosts!
So sad! The power of all your negative karma—
When I think of it, I feel anguish in my heart!
All the karma you’ve gathered before
Just makes you want to do it some more.
For food, you enjoy flesh and blood
That involves the negativity of killing and slaughter.
For activity, you take the lives of beings.
Among the six types of beings, a preta’s body you’ll have.
Engaging in negativity, to the lower realms you’ll fall.
So horribly sad! Change your ways to dharma,
And without hope or fear, you’ll quickly reach bliss.
Thus he sang. Then the spirits said, “You are so skilled in teaching us this dharma, now we understand. Please tell us about what kind of confidence arises in you when you bring this understanding into practice.” To that, Milarepa sang this song of realization, “Having Authentic Confidence”:
I bow at the feet of the qualified guru Marpa.
I, a yogi who has realized the ultimate,
Having confidence in the ground, the state free of arising,
I perfected, in stages, the path’s unceasing power.5
Explaining with great compassion—the method—
Within the expanse of dharmata*7—true reality—I’ll sing a song.
Obscured by negative deeds, you’re thickly veiled,
So the definitive meaning—the abiding nature—you don’t comprehend.
Thus, I’ll explain dharma of the provisional meaning.*8
In the past, the omniscient Buddha emphatically taught
In the sutras and tantras, which are without stain,
The dharma of cause and effect.
It’s the single friend of all sentient beings.
These words are certainly true and do not deceive.
You should listen, too, to the Lord Maitreya’s words.
I, this yogi who has trained in experience,
Looking out at obstructions—these illusions outside—
I know they’re the magical display of unborn mind.
Looking in at the mind of awareness inside—
It’s primordially empty, mind itself, without root.
With the qualities of meditating all alone
And the blessings of the lineage of gurus,
I realized this through the lineage of the great Lord Naropa.
I meditated upon the unerring meaning—
The enlightened intention of the Victorious Ones.
The lord guru revealed the vital points
Of the intention of the tantras’ profound methods.
By the power of meditating stably on the path of creation and completion,
I know the interdependent connection of the inner nadis,
So I don’t fear the obstructions of confused appearances outside.
In the lineage of the great Brahman,*9
Came many glorious sky-like yogis.*10
My confused ruminations dissolve into space.
Having trained and trained in innate mind’s key point,
I do not observe one who’s harmed, or a harmer.
If you open up the scriptures of the dharma’s pitakas,*11
I’m completely certain there’s no other point but this!
Thus he sang. Then Bharo and his retinue, taking off their turbans, prostrated and circumambulated many times and said they would offer an entire month’s provisions to Milarepa. Then, like a rainbow, they disappeared.
The following morning, when the sun rose, Bharo’s spirits from the night before came, surrounded by many retinues of female Bhari*12 wearing beautiful ornaments. They filled many precious containers with wine and other liquors, and the retinue filled a fine basin with rice, meats, and all kinds of food and served them to the Jetsun.
“From now on we will be your subjects and accomplish whatever you command,” they said. They prostrated and circumambulated many times and then disappeared. The leader of those spirits became known as King Tangdrem, the lord of an assembly of great deities.
Through all of this, the Jetsun’s practice was enhanced, and with his body in a state of bliss, he was without any hunger for a whole month.
By this time, the Jetsun had become very familiar with all the places in Lachi Chuzang, and along the road to Lachi Neythil,*13 in the center of a large field of tamarisk trees,*14 there was a great boulder with a sheltering hollow in it where Milarepa sat for a while. Many dakinis prostrated to him there and surrounding him, they offered a great variety of desirable objects. The dakinis left two footprints in the stone there and then vanished like a rainbow.
Then Milarepa walked on a short way, and along the entire path spirits had magically manifested many great female organs. The Jetsun, while engaging in a yogic gaze, walked on with his secret vajra*15 fully erect. At the point where he had passed nine female organs, there was a stone that embodied all of the vital essence of that site toward which Milarepa employed his secret center’s vajra and yogic gaze. This place where all of the magical manifestations were pacified became known as the Nine Peaks and Nine Valleys.
Then as he was about to arrive at Neythil, again Bharo, whom Milarepa had previously encountered, greeted him with many offerings. He prepared a dharma throne for the Jetsun and requested him to teach the dharma. After the Jetsun again taught extensively on the dharma of cause and effect, Bharo dissolved into a great boulder in front.
The Jetsun was very happy to then finally arrive at Neythil and he stayed there for one whole month. There, the people of Tsarma in Nyanang came and he said to the benefactors there, “It was indeed Kyogmo, a Valley of Demons. Since I have tamed all the demons, it is now a site for practice. I was the very first to come here and meditate.” They all came to have supreme faith.
This is the cycle of the journey to Lachi Chuzang.
*1 Pretas, or “hungry ghosts” (T: yi dvags), are one of the six types of beings in samsara along with gods, asuras or jealous gods, humans, animals, and hell beings. Demons and ghosts generally fall into the preta category.
*2 This refers to the six collections of consciousness: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.
*3 In Buddhist cosmology, Mount Meru is at the center of our universe; its southern slope, which is blue in color, faces the “continent” of Jambudvipa, the world in which we live.
*4 According to Buddhist cosmology, Yugandhara Mountain is one of the seven mountains that surround the four continents, with Mount Meru in the center of those. The sun and moon are said to travel around Yugandhara Mountain.
*5 Located near Mount Kailash, this lake is known as the “Invincible Turquoise Lake” (T: g.yu ma pham mtsho) in Tibetan.
*6 Harmful demonic spirits (T: gnod sbyin).
*7 Dharmata (T: chos nyid) is a word used to denote the true nature of reality.
*8 Teachings of the provisional meaning were taught by the Buddha for those who are not yet ready to understand the full meaning of the nature of phenomena, which is the definitive meaning.
*9 The lineage of Saraha, who was a Brahman and forebear of the Mahamudra lineage.
*10 This indicates that the yogis’ view and meditation is vast like the sky.
*11 The pitakas, or baskets, are the three main categories of the Buddhist scriptures. They are the sutras (containing the words of the Buddha), the vinaya (containing the vows and guidelines fo
r the ordained sangha), and the abhidharma (canonical scriptures that elucidate the meaning of Buddha’s teaching as compiled in the sutras).
*12 Bharo is a Nepali surname belonging to the caste of warriors/nobility; its derivation for use as the name of this demon is unclear. “Bhari” is the feminine form of Bharo.
*13 “Thil” (T: mthil) in Tibetan can mean “center” or “primary”; so in light of the following passage, Lachi Neythil is literally, “Center, or Main Point, of the Site Lachi.”
*14 The exact Western name of this plant is not completely certain; the TDC, s.v. ’om bu, describes it as “a type of medicinal tree with bitter flavor; cooling medicinal essence; ability to draw out illness and poison, clear away fever, and to dry pus and lymph.”
*15 Penis (T: gsang rdo).
3
The Song of the Snow
NAMO GURU
Because of his renown for taming the malevolent devas and ghosts at Lachi Snow Mountain, where he first went, the Jetsun Milarepa became an object of homage and offering for all the people of Nyanang. In particular, Jomo Urmo requested dharma teachings. At that time, she said to Milarepa, “My son, Dampa Gyakpupa, is now very young, but when he grows old I will offer him to serve the Jetsun.”
At that place where the people developed great faith, the people of Tsarma invited him to stay and Shendormo offered him service. The Jetsun stayed for a while in the village, but seeing everyone’s mundane samsaric activity, he showed great revulsion.
“I am going to Lachi Snow Mountain,” he said.
The people of Tsarma replied to the Jetsun, “You do nothing but benefit sentient beings. Please benefit us by staying here this winter and teaching us. After taming the demons, you can go as you please. Late next spring, we too will go and serve you.”
In particular, the teacher Shakya Guna and Shendormo tried to dissuade him, saying things such as, “When winter comes, it will be very difficult and tiresome in the snow.”
But however much they pleaded, Milarepa would not listen. “I, a lineage-son of Naropa, have no fear of the howl of the snows. Too, Marpa’s command to me was to give up distractions and mundane activities by staying in isolated places free of people. Especially, for me, settling in the village would be worse than death.” Thus he spoke with resolve to leave.
Then the people of Tsarma quickly offered provisions to the Jetsun, and several of them promised to come to request dharma from him during the winter. Six people, lay and ordained, including the teacher Shakya Guna and Shendormo, brought Milarepa a drink for his departure. They said they would go with him as far as the pass; once they crossed the pass, they went further on as far as Demon Pond. Then the Jetsun, taking with him two dré*1 of tsampa, one dré of rice, a side of meat, and a portion of butter, went to the Great Cave of Taming Demons, where he stayed.
They all headed back, and at the pass, clouds gathered and a blizzard struck. They had a difficult time keeping to the path, as snow came roiling and swirling up to their knees. They finally made it to their village just before the people went to sleep. Then, from that evening on, it snowed day and night for another eighteen days; and for six months, travel between Drin and Nyanang came to a halt. Because of this, Milarepa’s students*2 were certain that the Jetsun had died, and so they offered a funeral rite puja*3 for him.
When the next Saga Dawa*4 had passed, those disciples from before went to retrieve the deceased body of the Jetsun, cutting a path in the snow with axes. When they got near the place where he had stayed, they sat down on some raised ground and rested. There, a great snow leopard*5 climbed up the face of a boulder and stretched. It is said that he looked at them for a long while and then went away.
Upon seeing this, they discussed amongst themselves, “If the snow leopard ate the Jetsun’s body, there will probably only be pieces of his clothing or hair, and nothing else to be found.” Heavy-hearted, they went along weeping. The long and treacherous path*6 there, where apparitions of tigers and leopards manifested and walked, became known as the Treacherous Path of Leopards and Tigers. There, the party had misgivings, thinking, “Were these devas or ghosts?”
With doubts in their mind, they approached the Great Cave of Taming Demons, and could hear the Jetsun singing a song. Then they thought, “Perhaps a hunter gave him some provisions, or maybe he found some animal’s corpse that was killed by a beast. Is it possible he did not die, after all?”
When they reached him, the guru said, “All you fools, you got up to this area some time ago; why have you only just now arrived here? The food*7 is getting cold; come quickly into the cave!”
At this, they were so happy they began to weep. They all came to Milarepa, tearfully clutching at his hands and feet.
The Jetsun said, “Now, don’t cry, come on and eat!”
First, they all prostrated and asked about their guru’s health. Looking around at the provisions, they saw that only one of the dré of tsampa from before had been finished, and on top of that, there was a cooked dish of meat with rice.
The teacher Shakya Guna said, “You cooked our food before we arrived. Did the Jetsun see us coming through the higher perceptions*8?”
The Jetsun replied, “Looking out from atop a boulder, I saw when you all were sitting and resting.”
The teacher Shakya Guna said, “On that boulder we only saw a snow leopard, we didn’t see the Jetsun. Where was the Jetsun at that point?”
“That snow leopard was me. I’m a yogi who has attained mastery over prana and mind. Since I have overcome the constituents of the four elements, I can display miracles of transforming my body into anything I desire. Since you are all worthy disciples, I displayed this miracle of my material body. But you should not speak of this to other people.”
Then Shendormo said, “The Jetsun looks even more radiant and healthy than last year. Since the snow closed off both entrances to the road, there was no way for any human to serve you. Was it a deva or ghost that served you? Or did you find the body of something like a dead animal? What was it that happened?”
“Because my samadhi flourished, I didn’t need to eat actual food. On the special days, the dakinis would each give a portion of a ganachakra*9 offering. Then, sometimes I would just gulp down a spoonful of tsampa. In particular, in the last part of the first lunar month,*10 I had a meditative vision of all you disciples surrounding me bringing lots of food and drink. Because of that, I did not have the appetite to eat for many days. What was it that you all did during that time?”
They did some calculations and found that it was when they offered a funeral rite puja for him with vast and elaborate offerings.
The Jetsun said, “Worldly people who practice virtue bring benefit for themselves in the bardo after death, but to cut the present bardo of living is even more beneficial.”
Then they fervently offered invitations for the Jetsun to go to Nyanang. The Jetsun replied, “I’m very happy right here, and since my samadhi is flourishing, I will not go. But you all go ahead.”
“If the Jetsun does not go, then the people of Nyanang will all say to us that we caused the death of the Jetsun and will chide us and heap reprimands upon us.” In particular, Jomo Urmo had sent a strong message along with them saying, “Bring my Jetsun home!”
They all repeatedly urged him and said, “If the Jetsun will not come, then we will wait here even until death.” At their insistence, the Jetsun agreed to go.
The winter dakinis said to him, “Milarepa, even though you don’t need anything, the future lineage of disciples does have needs. Therefore, break through the snow like this.” As the dakinis had instructed, the Jetsun and his students returned that morning, bringing snowshoes*11 with them.
When they reached the pass, Shendormo went on ahead to spread the good news to the students and people of Tsarma that the Jetsun had not died, but, indeed, had returned. Milarepa and his disciples came to a large flat white boulder that was used for threshing wheat. All the students who had heard the good news—male, female,
young, and old—came to greet the Jetsun. Looking at his face, everyone embraced him and wept. They cried out to him, asking after his health; and they prostrated and circumambulated. Then, the Jetsun leaned forward and rested his arms and torso upon his bamboo walking stick. Still wearing the shoes used to break through the snow, from upon the flat white boulder, he answered the gathering of disciples’ inquiry about his health with this song of realization:
On this auspicious, glorious day,
You male and female benefactors who welcome me with prostrations,
Along with myself, the yogi Milarepa:
We didn’t perish, and have met. Oh how joyful!
I’m an old man with a treasury of songs,
So I’ll answer your query of my health with this tune;
Listen carefully with focused, attentive minds.
At the very end of the tiger year
And at the beginning of the year of the hare,
On the full moon of the Wagyal month,*12
Disillusioned with the things of samsara,
I went seeking a secluded retreat
In the remote pastures of the Lachi snowy range.
The land and sky conferred together
And sent down a messenger, a strong wind.
With the elements of water and wind astir,
Black southern clouds gathered in front.
The sun and moon were put into prison.
The twenty-eight constellations were strung on a wire.
The eight planets were put into shackles by edict.
The great Milky Way was tethered down.
The morning star was completely wrapped in mist.
Wind with sleet blew, and finally,6
Snow fell for nine days and nine nights;
The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa Page 7