The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa

by Tsangnyon Heruka

  From the next life onward, you will always have happiness.

  This present body has many illnesses

  And your mind experiences heat and cold.

  With the proximate cause of the mental afflictions

  And the passing conditions coming together,

  The results of previous karma arrive;

  It’s in this way your obscured perceptions arise.

  This is also just a dream and is momentary.

  But when those [moments] are multiplied by hundreds of thousands,

  You have the sufferings of the lowest hell;

  So long a time, and so difficult to bear.

  In reality, these appearances do not exist.

  “External suffering is experienced

  Due to the confusion of nonvirtuous latent tendencies,”

  Thus said our teacher, the Buddha Shakyamuni,

  In reply to Vajragarbha

  In the sutras of definitive meaning.

  Therefore these imputations are the basis of confusion.

  If you don’t understand that everything is mind,

  Even through attaining dominion of the realm of Brahma

  There will be no happiness to be found.

  Meditative equipoise is the dhyana*18 of the ground—

  Though one may abide there for eons, it’s a lower path;

  Omniscience is impossible to attain.

  Therefore, to purify the obscurations

  And the latent tendencies of karma and afflictions,

  Meditate continuously on bodhichitta;

  Perfecting that, look at unborn reality.

  Now we have met due to our karma.

  Banish all laziness and slothfulness

  And don the great armor of diligence.

  Not being distracted for even an instant,

  Quickly accomplish something meaningful, you fortunate ladies,

  Men-tsun-mo sisters, you beautiful ones.

  Then Milarepa instructed, “Contemplate carefully these songs that explain reality. In particular, immediately practice what they teach. You may think that what is called the ‘four resultant kayas’ is something you must search for separately; however, that which is called ‘buddhahood’ is not a separate continuum to be searched for elsewhere. For all of us sentient beings, the luminosity at death is dharmakaya, the pure [illusory body] of the bardo is the sambhogakaya, the variety of births is the nirmanakaya, and the inseparable single taste of the three kayas is the svabhavikakaya.*19 These are spontaneously present within us, but we do not recognize it. In order to recognize it we must have the profound instructions of the unbroken lineage of siddhas.”

  The women said, “Jetsun, at the time when Master Padmasambhava*20 came to Tibet, we went to greet him at Khala Rong-go*21 to inflict harm. But with a fierce subjugating mudra, he subdued us into being subjects. We graciously offered him the essence of our life-force mantra. At that time we listened to much dharma on cause and effect from the sutras. As well, in the charnel ground of Munpa Dradrok*22 in India, we received the abhisheka of the great mandala from the master Chok-kyi Cocha*23 and one who engaged in the conduct of yogic discipline, Kanhapa;*24 and we obtained many teachings of the Secret Mantra Vajrayana. Therefore, we are suitable vessels for the secret teachings. In particular, because we have now experienced such fear and terror from this great sickness, it is clear we would not be able to bear even an instant of the suffering of sentient beings in the hell realms. Therefore, please protect us from these fears, and today, consider us and give the instructions that point out how to actualize the pure four kayas.” Then they sang this song:

  In the pure realm of the glorious, luminous sky,

  Thick clouds hover, golden in color.

  They are the precious jewel of the naga kings’ crowns,

  A truly marvelous magical display.

  Floating and flying under those clouds,

  In that space are kimnaras, the lesser devas,

  Asuras, as well as female gandharvas.

  All of them partake in many sensory pleasures.

  With song and dance, they play with great delight.

  Underneath these hovering thick clouds

  Lies the medicine alcove of auspicious Lower Dingma.

  The upper end is surrounded by nyen*25 devas’ snow mountains;

  At the lower end, dwell the freshwater nyen;

  In between, lies a high turquoise meadow

  Where the Menyul*26 devas make a great show of their play.

  Because a nagas’ treasury lies beneath

  This crystal playground, the Menlung Valley,

  Is a land that’s a wellspring of lush plants and crops,

  A land where four-legged animals flourish.

  In that pasture is a joyous solitary place,

  The Chuwar nirmanakaya palace.

  At that site is a supreme and wondrous being

  With a precious and beautiful body.

  By merely hearing or seeing him,

  The obscurations of all beings are cleared away.

  By manifesting his mudra forms,

  He displays a myriad of miracles.

  Having realized the reality of mind itself—omniscience—

  He has mastered dharmata-space.

  With his pure and gentle speech

  He utters the sound of dharmata-emptiness.

  Thus, we, the devas and ghosts of all phenomenal existence,

  Having fostered the seed of faith,

  Listen to and respect his command.

  He is a wish-fulfilling jewel who grants all desires;

  He is a son of the Victorious Ones.

  We worldly dakini goddesses

  Who have come to rely on you,

  We who have beautiful female forms,

  Until now in samsara with no beginning

  Our mind-streams have had the confusion of ignorance

  And we’ve taken births*27 within samsaric existence:

  First, we’re helpless but to take rebirth,

  Then we think, “I’ll stay alive for a while,”

  But the call of Yama, the Lord of Death,

  Hangs over our heads, oppressive and dark.

  He holds the noose from which we cannot escape.

  There is no control over when we will die.

  The luster of the body’s four elements will be plundered

  And the inner life-force will be stopped.

  Then the appearances of the bardo will dawn.

  In this treacherous path, first dark, then light,101

  Ruthless executioners chase after us;

  We experience the suffering of wearying torment.

  Then, the wanderer with only four skandhas*28

  Is led without knowledge to an unknown land

  By the winds of karma and latent tendencies.

  Without any control a new birth is sought out.

  Within this waterwheel of samsara

  Is the ocean of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

  Up till now, we’ve had no refuge from sinking

  Within these shifting waves that move and stir.

  Now, master and captain, by your power,

  We have the vessel of bodhichitta.

  From fear and the unconducive winds of view,

  The islands of rakshasas where sensory pleasures deceive,

  And from the harm of the makara*29 of karma

  We are protected with bliss and fearlessness.

  And reaching the far shore, the land of jewels,

  A land of many kinds of riches,

  Merchants, wearied by a long journey,

  May refresh themselves, sleep leisurely,

  And take whatever they wish or need.

  In the dreadful valley of samsara

  Is the forest of the fearsome eight freedomless states,

  Thickly veiled and black with darkness.

  There, the fearsome beasts of the afflictions,

  When seen, bare their frightening fangs,

 
The thorny torment of the faults.

  In the midst of the eight sufferings’ thorns,

  We’ve lost our way, confused, in the dark.

  Your speech is completely free of stains

  And by this, like the full autumn moon—

  White, not covered by any clouds,

  And with illuminating rays of light—

  The darkness of ignorance is cleared away.

  We ask you to show us the pure, open path.

  Reveal the three hidden tight treacherous paths

  In the bardo, that fearsome road.

  Until now, we’ve been taken by the mara bandits,

  Tightly bound by the shackles of karma,

  And thrown in the well with no hope of release.

  Now, Lord Guru, source of refuge,

  One whom no one has the confidence to counter,

  Protector friend, by your power and strength

  To liberate us from the treacherous path of fear,

  We ask you, please give instructions to point out dharmakaya,

  The luminosity at the time of death.

  Please give instructions to point out sambhogakaya,

  The pure illusory body of the bardo.

  Please give instructions to point out nirmanakaya,

  The freedom to choose where one takes rebirth.

  If you cross to the other side of the three treacherous bardos,

  There is a place where one is freed from demonic obstructions.

  It’s the fearless path that’s free of arrogance,

  The eternal land from which one cannot turn back,

  A vast pure land of bliss and joy;

  We have heard it said this place exists.

  Until now we’ve not been there nor ever seen it.

  Protector of beings, guru of compassion,

  With your protection, please show us the path.

  Please show us this land that we have not seen.

  For those of us weary of objects of fear,

  All those protectorless, who lament and wail,

  Here, right now, not at any other time,

  Please help us to actualize the resultant four kayas.

  Thus they supplicated. Then as a mandala offering they offered a golden lotus inlaid with many jewels on top of a white silver mirror.

  The Jetsun spoke: “Beautiful ones, since you have shown great devotion toward me and have earnestly requested the dharma, I must bless you in the tradition of my lineage. Arrange a tsok.”

  That very evening they arranged tsok substances of sixty types of food. They made a mandala offering with heaps of grain, and the Jetsun conferred the whispered lineage abhisheka of the yogini, the Coemergent Mother, and then blessed them. At that point, he gave them the instructions known as Pointing Out the Three Kayas, the key points of liberation from the treacherous bardo, and then sang this song of realization on the way of traveling to the pure realm of Sukhavati:

  In the land of India, the heart of the world,

  Lies the great temple of Vikramashila.*30

  There, within that fountainhead of knowledge,

  Is the pandit who keeps the northern gate,

  Lion of Men who is without compare

  Because he defeated every mistaken opponent.

  He is like a great powerful champion.

  This man who was not ignorant in the four classes of tantra

  And attained the siddhis both common and supreme,

  Is he not the great pandit, the Lord Naropa?

  Naropa’s very own supreme son,

  Father who had such perseverance in hardship,

  He’s the one from Lhodrak called Marpa Lotsawa.

  His name is widely renowned, like the roar of thunder;

  This lord with such kindness said to me:

  “In this time of degeneration of Shakyamuni’s teaching,

  Human life is short and lacks in resources.

  Since obstructions of the class of maras are many,

  There is no leisure of longevity.

  There is no limit to what can be known,

  And there’s no way you’ll understand the full extent of the tantras.

  Therefore, son, make practice your essential purpose,” he taught.

  I do not have any laziness;

  I’ve followed after the lord’s command.

  I sought out remote mountain retreats

  And meditated, undergoing hardship of body.

  Thus, a bit of experience has arisen in my mind-stream.

  Now, fortunate women, pay close attention:

  In general, we beings of the six realms

  Should know the Six Dharmas of the Bardo as the ground.

  Through entering and arising in the three paths of existence,

  One wanders again and again in samsara’s three realms.*31

  At the juncture of these three tight, treacherous paths,

  Three travelers*32 on a very long journey

  Are received with joy and delight

  By the watchmen of their friends and kin.

  But if they don’t meet with ones to welcome them,

  It’s the enemy, the executioner’s emissary,

  Who comes and investigates their deeds.

  If they’re not accompanied by the three guides*33 to support them,

  Those merchants, who are unfamiliar and afraid,

  Are awaited on the road by inescapable bandits—

  Three messenger demons with their directive.102

  In a fearsome, hidden place, unseen,

  They take on many different frightful forms

  And with deceiving words, avert the travelers’ minds;

  They lead them astray along the path.

  Then, all the way up to the seventh week,

  In the bardo of becoming of light and darkness,

  Beings experience the sufferings of heat and cold.

  Then following after the power of karma

  Again they enter the prison of samsara.

  Now, if one desires to be free from that prison,

  Right now, in the bardo of samsara and nirvana,

  The true nature is pointed out to be Mahamudra.

  You must gain certainty in the view of the ground.

  In the midst of appearances of the bardo of birth and death,

  To train in developing the radiant power of mind’s awareness

  You must put efforts in the paths of creation and completion.

  In the bardo of the path is the true nature of reality.

  In order to recognize innate wisdom,

  You must meditate on the whispered lineage instructions.

  In the bardo of dream and sleep,

  To transform latent tendencies into the path,

  You must train in luminosity practice and the illusory body.

  Finally, in the bardo of becoming,

  Even if you’ve actualized the three kayas,

  You must travel into the three pure realms.

  If you do not actualize them,

  In the bardo of the continuum of rebirth,

  Through pure aspiration you make a connection,

  And by the undeceiving interdependence of cause and effect

  You’ll attain a body with freedoms and resources

  And your previous karma will awaken.

  Then, you’ll perfect the realization of the path.

  Without it taking long at all,

  You’ll attain liberation without a doubt.

  You five women here, so remarkable,

  Listened to me with one-pointed respect.

  You’ve asked about this point repeatedly,

  So I have given the bardo instructions.

  Even if one were to draw them from the heart of Lord Marpa from Lhodrak,

  There would be no points more profound than these!

  Thus he sang this song of realization. Then the beautiful ladies arose and each made seven prostrations and circumambulations. They offered a mandala inlaid with jewels; praised the great good quali
ties of the Jetsun’s body, speech, and mind; and made the offering of bliss-emptiness, the wisdom of the four joys, produced through bodies in union. Then they said, “You have explained the dharma of pointing out the bardo thoroughly and in great detail. Please give a brief teaching on its meaning that is easy to practice.” Then they offered this song:

  Lord, protector of beings, endowed with kindness,

  Just like turning iron to gold,

  With the pure nectar of the whispered lineage,

  You’ve transformed our suffering into bliss.

  Father, buddha, we prostrate to you.

  With your love, never be separate from us and always protect us.

  To the perception of a trained mind,

  The completely pure field of dharmadhatu

  Is the palace of great bliss, free from elaborations.

  Lord Guru, is this not your seat?

  In the center of an assembly of clouds of dakinis

  Is the lion throne of awareness-emptiness inseparable

  With the lotus of relinquishing the faults of existence.

  Free of the clouds of many concepts,

  Upon the luminous discs of the sun and moon,

  There the Father Jetsun sits.

  One doesn’t get enough of seeing his radiant body,

  With face that’s vivid and beautiful.

  He is ornamented with a host of good qualities,

  And embellished with the marks and signs,*34

  Thus he is just like the youthful bodhisattvas.

  Seeing his body, we praise this joyful lord.

  His speech is the pleasing and melodious song of gandharvas.

  It’s the sound of dharma, self-appearing, yet empty.

  By the roar of the great bliss lion,

  Tirthikas and maras quake with fear

  And the torment of the fortunate is cleared away.

  We praise his speech heard in the ten directions.

  With mind unshakable like a vajra,

  You know every knowable thing.

  From the sky that is completely free of view,

  The light rays of bodhichitta

  Dispel the dark ignorance of those to be tamed.

  We praise this lord with unwavering mind.