(upbeat music) This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. - Yimahu, thus did I hear. At one time, the powerful Lord of Yogans, the great Haruka himself, greatly renowned as Jetson Nila, Zepa, Dorje, was residing in the sacred place called Drukpa Puk in the region of Nyanam, turning the wheel of the great vehicle seated in the midst of his heart, disciple, Yogans. Bodhisattvas are biting on the spiritual grounds. His fortunate male and female disciples, rainbow-bodied dakinis, such as the five sisters of long life, and also gods of completely pure lineage, together with an assembly of human yogans and yoginis. So that's the opening passage from what is known in Tibetan as the Jetson Kabung or the Milanatha. We know it, of course, in English is the life of a milli-rapa. And it's the main source of information we've got about Tibet's great yogi saint. So, tonight, I'm going to attempt to tell something about this extraordinary life, or at least part of it, I'm using this as a reference. I know some of you were introduced to this material last week with Ratna Prabha, so you'll have to bear with me. Don't take it some time ago, actually. Read the dharma as if it's literature, and read literature as if it's the dharma, yeah? I hope I've got that right. But with the life of milli-rapa, you're actually getting both, aren't you? You're getting what's regarded as a masterpiece of Tibetan literature combined with profound teachings on the path, the dharma. I've got two anxieties telling this story tonight. I'm going to do it in a given time, and I'm going to do the story Justice, because it's a wonderfully rich story, yeah? And I'd urge everybody to read it if they get the chance. And speaking personally, I'm quite delighted to be able to do this, because the text was quite an important inspiration for me when I was a young lad in New Zealand, 21. In fact, the first book that I actually read, the first Buddhist book that I actually read, cover to cover, was the life of milli-rapa, yeah? Not only did it inspire me to really get involved in Buddhism, it inspired me to actually practice Buddhism, which is the important thing, no doubt. The second book I read, cover to cover, Buddhist book, was Sengarachita's Autobiography, The Thousand Petal Globus. So I think I was quite fortunate in my choice of reading material at that age in the south of the South Island of New Zealand. But although I've got an interest in milli-rapa, I thought, well, why milli-rapa, no? I may be interested in milli-rape, but I don't assume everybody is. So I asked myself when I thought about this talk, I thought, well, what relevance has milli-rapa got to us as contemporary Buddhists? It's a fair enough question, isn't it? Why don't we just stick to the Buddha and as immediate disciples for inspiration, no? Milli-rapa's world and our world couldn't, at least on one level at least, couldn't appear more different. Milli-rape's world is the world of medieval Tibet, 11th century, a time and culture where we would find very few common points of reference, I assume. You practice the form of Buddhism that at least in part is quite magical, esoteric, quite ritualistic, yeah? Some of it, at least, quite removed from the practices we may be familiar with on a day-to-day basis. Some of it. He also spent a significant part of his time and solidly practice, high in the Tibetan mountains, a lifestyle I imagine that many of us here would not want to or perhaps could not emulate, yeah? There'll be no popping down the road for cappuccinos with our mates or anything like that. So, I asked myself this question, why is Milli-rape relevant to us as contemporary Buddhists? I suppose you could also ask, why is the appeal of Milli-rape so enduring? It's been a very enduring appeal, both into Tibet and actually the early translations in the 1920s in England, it's been in print for many, many, many years. In fact, there's a new addition of the life for Milli-rape. It just come out this year in Penguin Classics, I don't know whether you've seen that. So, why is the appeal of Milli-rape so enduring? Here we are, a thousand years later, devoting two weeks to practice on the theme of his life, yeah? But of course, I'm not gonna answer those questions because I'm rather hoping that the answers will become more apparent over the course of the week. Evans wins, in his preface to the life of Milli-rape, talks of Milli-rape as one of humanity's heroes. I quite like that phrase, one of humanity's heroes. So, the life of Milli-rape, actually, the life of Milli-rape starts the story at the end of Milli-rape's life. And it starts with an old man and it starts with a dream. Milli-rape is with his disciples, as the opening suggests. They're living and practicing in a very beautiful location, high in the Tibetan Plateau. This is where you need the visual somewhere, don't you? We'll just have to rely on our imaginations, yeah? But you can imagine this high Tibetan Plateau Valley, probably ringed by snow-peaked mountains in a place called Nyanam. Apparently, it's a place where Milli-rape, not far from where Milli-rape was born. He spent quite a lot of time up in that area. He spent quite a lot of time meditating and the cave referred to as the stomach bite cave. So, Milli-rape and his disciples are in this area. And Rajumpa, one of Milli-rape's chief disciples, who I suspect is probably meant to be meditating at the time, is in his cave and he's sleeping and he's having what we would call, I suppose, a big dream, yeah? This dream apparently lasts all night. And he's in a place called Utiana Kundro-ling, which is the garden of the Darkinis, yeah? Sounds like a rather pleasant place to be, yeah? Where the houses are made of precious gems, all the inhabitants are dressed in radiant, beautiful silks and bone ornaments, yeah? That's a sort of a pure land. And he meets a woman in red. And this woman in red tells him, the Buddha-Akshobia is actually discorcing in this land. The Buddha-Akshobia is teaching on the lives and the deeds of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas and the great Buddhist saints, yeah? And Rajumpa's so overcome, he feels his hair stand on end, he's completely aroused by faith. And towards the end of the teaching, the Akshobia announces that tomorrow, he's going to relate the life of Mallorita. And Rajumpa, in a sort of flash, but in tune to intuition, realized that actually what's been communicated to him is that he needs to go and ask Mallorita about his life, yeah? And Rajumpa awakens at that point an estate of heightened awareness, a state of luminosity. And the first thing he feels is powerful feelings of devotion arising for his guru, for his teacher, he's completely overcome by these feelings. And as the Texas, the dawn sun rose brilliantly in the sky and Rajumpa goes off and has his breakfast. That's what the Texas is. I don't know what Yogi's S in the 11th century, but probably Samper I guess. Rajumpa then goes and follows through his request. Mallorita is quite curt with Rajumpa and simply says, look, Rajumpa, you already know my life story, but since you ask for the benefit of other beings, there is no harm in complying with your request. And he says, in my youth, I committed some black deeds, I did some bad stuff, some unskillful stuff. In my maturity, some white deeds, some good stuff, some skillful stuff, but now I have been released from all distinctions between black and white, good and bad, skillful and unskillful. Having accomplished this task, I am one who doesn't need to strive any more in the future. If you were to get me to describe the events of my life and full relating some of them would cause people to cry, while others would make people laugh, and there's not much profit in that. I would prefer it if you just let this old man remain in peace. So obviously Mallorita just wants to remain in peace. But luckily for us, with Jumpa, of course, persists and all his disciples persist, and we get Mallorita's life in full. Mallorita's family actually came from the northern part of Tibet in a place called Northern Uru. And his lineage included a very famous sorcerer, and I think it probably is great-grandfather, or is great-great-grandfather. I'm not quite sure what, which were gamblers. And it gambled away the family's wealth. And so they moved south into an area of Tibet, which borders Nepal into the old Gungfang province and a village called Kianksa. And it's a very temperate part of Tibet, apparently. It's only 3,000 meters above sea level, which sounds quite a lot to me. But compared to some of the northern parts of Tibet, some of the plateaus there can be 4,500 meters. So quite temperate. It's located on the Western trading routes going down into Nepal. Probably only about 50 miles or so from Kathmandu. So his father was quite wealthy, who's a merchant, herding yak, cow, sheep, growing barley when it imagines wheat, and trading in the south through Nepal as they did for centuries, wool, salt. And he became quite wealthy. And he married a local woman, a noble woman, called white jaw, or in some of the translations, they call her white garland. And you get a little interesting insight and it's the character of this woman. Quite a noble, proud nature. The text says she's skilled and tending to world be fairs, clearly loathing her enemies and loving her friends. So very proud nature, perhaps a bit fiery, in love and hate. And the father prospers built a house called the Four Columns and Eight Beams. Quite a significant house in the middle of this village. Metarepa was born around 1050 CE. So we're talking about the same time as a Norman conquest in England, yeah? And quite a comfortable upbringing. Metarepa reminisces about him and his sister, Petter, having their hair combed, platted with gold and turquoises, yeah? So a stable, obviously a stable, quite loving family. Some standing in the community. But this relatively charmed existence was coming to an end because when Metarepa was about seven or eight years old, his father realises he's going to die. Obviously one of the characteristics of Mallorita's teaching throughout his life is this emphasis on the basic Buddhist teachings, the transitory nature of human existence, yeah? The eight worldly concerns, yeah? That's a very standard teaching, you often can encounter this in Mallorita's teaching. We want praise, we avoid blame, we want fame, we avoid infamy. We want pleasure, we avoid pain. We want gain, we avoid loss. And Mallorita's teaching is always rooted deeply in experience. And no doubt, part of that comes from his own past, his only early life. The loss of his father, no doubt, must have been a huge blow to Mallorita and had quite profound implications for his family, yeah? Mallorita's father entrusts all the deones to his brother and his sister, Mallorita's paternal and uncle and aunt, until such time as Mallorita becomes a rage. And then his property and house and land would be returned. The uncle and aunt turn out to be less than ideal guardians or trustees as you probably have already gathered and last week. In fact, just straight off, they pinch all the valuable stuff, yeah, from the household. They take all the valuable things that wipe your bones. And they end up treating Mallorita and his family pretty much as unpaid servants, yeah? Dressed in rags, eating food, so the text says only fit for dogs. And instead of turquoise and gold adorn in their hair, of course it's adorned with thick with lice, yeah? So quite an unpleasant life for many years. And you can imagine this once proud woman, white jaw, feeling quite deep shame, humiliation, even degradation at the hands of her husband's family. She obviously bites her lip. She keeps her own counsel to save face, no doubt. She knows it's only a matter of time anyway. Mallorita, when he comes of age at 15, will have his property returned, or so they think. White jaw possesses a small plot of land. And so she uses this in order to grow barley, which he turns into chun, Tibetan bear, buys meat and organizes a feast, yeah? A bare feast for the villagers and supporters. And also the uncle on that, who she gives pride of place in this feast, this banquet. And of course, at a certain point in the banquet, she stands up and speaks. And she reminds everybody present that actually her dying's husband wish was that when Mallorita, hang of age, then all that he owned would return to him. And that time has come. And of course this isn't going to please the relatives. The uncle and aunt, while the uncle particularly explodes, yeah? He's shouting, screaming. In fact, he's managed to convince himself that the property wasn't even theirs to begin with, yeah? The property was actually lent to the father by the uncle and aunt. It was borrowed. And why should white jaw feel grateful to them, yeah? They could have left them to starve, yeah? So he completely loses control, and lashes out at white jaw, yeah? Slaps miller vapor across the face with the sleeves of his, what they call a tumor. And of course the mother is crushed. She's completely humiliated in front of everybody present. She's inconsolable. Probably feels, you know, that any shred of hope has been ripped, ripped away. The prospect of this life of degradation is going to continue, yeah? She's left with nothing but her own bitterness. And as the uncle leaves, he issues a final challenge, yeah? He says, if you feel strong enough, fight us. If not, curse us. So you get the impression from the texts, at least, that miller vapor is a very dutiful son. He obviously loves his mother, and he's very concerned to alleviate her distress. So he asked her, what can I, you know, we asked himself, what can I do to alleviate her stress? So he asked her. And his mother in the text says, "I would like to see you draped in a fine cloak "and mounted on a horse with your stirrup "slashing the throats of our hated enemies." Yeah, strong stuff. But since such will not come to pass, I would like you to train to become an expert in black magic. Curses and casting hail in order to destroy those who have inflicted misery on us. And then she tells them that he doesn't succeed, she will kill herself in front of them, yeah? Which is quite heavy, isn't it? Millerator obviously knows his mother, and knows they're well enough to know that she's serious. She's a proud woman, she's capable of doing this, yeah? So he's taking this threat very, very seriously. So with a number of companions, miller vapor travels into central Tibet, into the provinces of Ull and Son to train in the black arts. And as he leaves, he looks back and has a premonition that he may not see his mother again in this life. I was talking to Bante about this whole area, black magic and sorcery not long ago, and he was reminiscing about some of the sorcerers and local shamans in Kalampong, actually. I think they're called the jakari. They used to come around and ask for arms. A lot of the locals were completely terrified of them, but Bante seemed to be quite happy to meet up with them and spend some time with them, yeah? So no doubt in the 11th century Tibet, you probably had these types of figures, yeah? Both farmers from the old Ningma tradition, shamans, performing all sorts of functions for the communities, yeah? In fact, Bante had kept some of their magical texts apparently, some of their rights. He doesn't know what he's done with them. I asked him about them. He said, well, one was a love right, yeah? You have to chant this mantra very, very precisely but you have to do it standing in water. Well, so, I don't know if he's ever tried this one out, but he'd catch me standing in the bath. It's an exciting, strange mantra, as you know what's up. - Oh, pretty much. - So, Millorape, it goes off and finds a sorcerer in central Tibet, yeah? And impresses this guy by offering them all he has, all these turquoise and whatever he's carrying, plus his body, speech and mind, yeah? This is quite typical. If you're going to go with the teacher, you offer them everything, yeah? And Millorape is obviously very serious and very determined. He wants to fulfill his mother's wishes. He studies with his guy for about a year, but he doesn't really get anything that can have an effect. So the old sorcerer tells him, well, he's got a friend, a fellow sorcerer, he wants new, that he gave a very powerful magic right to. It's called the Zardong Manak, the purple faced Zah, or as evidence when said, the purple faced basilisk, which I quite like, that which kills at the utterance of a single, mantric syllable, yeah? Quite a heavy piece of magic. He apparently swapped this for the ability to cast hailstones by pointing your finger, yeah? (audience laughing) So, these two old sorcerers must have played swaps. He's at some time in the past. So this sorcerer said, look, Millorape tells Millorape to go off to this guy, and he'll give you the magic. Ironically, this guy is called Lamma Ocean of Virtues. So it's obviously quite a confusing time in central Tibet in the 11th century, yeah? So curiously, Ocean of Virtues tells Millorape to build a cell, three stories underground with a cell on top that you can't get into it. It's not apparent how you get into it. I don't know quite what that's about. But Millorape applies himself very assiduously, very diligently. It's got a lot of energy and dedication, yeah? And for 14 days, he goes through these magical rites, yeah? And on the 14th night, these raffle deities appear, bulging eyes and talons and garlands or skulls around their necks, yeah? And they hold in their talons, the bleeding hearts and heads of 13 people, yeah? Meanwhile, of course, back in Kansar, Millorape is village, where he was born, disaster is overtaken, yeah, the uncle amount. They've been planning a wedding feast for their son, the guest who inside, and an old servant happens to go down into the lower quarters. In Tibet, the lower quarters are often the stapling. You get the impression. And what she sees is all these apparitions of scorpions, inspired as snakes and toads and lizards, things like that. And right in the middle, tearing the central pillar is this big black scorpion, yeah? The scorpion and Indian sorcery is often used as an emblem, tearing at the main pillar of the house. And of course, all the animals panic, the horses, and they're kicking against the pillars. Suddenly, the pillars give way, the beams crack, and of course, the inevitable happens, yeah? Comes crashing down, burying the guests. So, the uncle and aunt are the only ones to survive the carnage. So much to the disgust, of course, to the villages, Millorape's mother goes completely mad with joy, yeah? Her business turns to almost sort of savage glee, and she's up on the roof, rejoicing in this carnage, yeah? And even her supporters are trying to pull her away. The uncle and aunt, of course, well, the uncle wants to take things into his own hands and go off and do her in, yeah? But of course, the villages restrain him. I said, look, we have to deal with Millorape first. Millorape's mother is quite clever. She realizes she's in danger. She, what she does is she writes to Millorape, yeah? She says, we need a hailstorm. We need to warn off these villages, which Millorape, dutifully, does. And since a hailstorm and completely wipes out the crops of the village. In my youth, I committed some black deeds, yeah? These are the deeds that Millorape committed, yeah? The black deeds that he speaks about. He's caused the death of 35 people. And so he returns with his companion to the old sorcerer in U, and sung in central Tibet. So, Millorape has obviously been successful in seeing through his mother's wishes. But nonetheless, after a while, as one would expect, he starts to feel very deeply distressed, yeah? He's starting to feel terrible remorse for what he's done, which you can imagine. If you've ever done something even mildly appalling, not that I've really indulged too much in appalling acts, but there is that feeling, isn't it? You put something out and you can't take it back and remorse and shame and guilt can be quite harrowing. And these sorts of feelings, these sorts of theories if you like, start to assault Millorape, yeah? And naturally, he realizes, actually, with what he's done, the only way out is to follow the Dharma, to gain enlightenment in this very life, yeah? Millorape on this text says, "I felt remorse for the evils I had committed "through casting black magic and hailstorms. "I thought about the Dharma so intensely "that during the day I forgot to eat. "If I went out, I wanted to stay in. "If I stayed in, I wanted to go out." So from a traditional perspective, he also realizes, actually, with what he's done, the unskillful actions he's committed, he's bound for an unhappy rebirth in the lower realms, yeah? Rebirth as an animal or a hungry ghost traditionally or a being in hell as they would have seen him. He's in a fix, and, of course, he realizes that he needs instruction in the Dharma if he's going to get out of that fix. So Millorape consults the old sorcerer. The old sorcerer has another friend, a Zogchen master from the old school. The milloraper, as determined as he is, takes up practice, but gets no results from that practice. Now, I suppose we'd probably say he has insufficient merit in order for the fruits of practice to arise, yeah? The old Zogchen master, obviously, doesn't know what's going on. Nothing seems to be happening. Probably not very good for his reputation, either. So he says, look, there's a master, a Tibetan, a famous Buddhist teacher, a translator called Marpa of Lodrak, yeah? Marpa Lodzala. And he says, you already have a karmic connection with this teacher, Marpa. Marpa actually is quite an interesting character. According to the historical records, when Marpa was young, he was quite a handful. He was described as an impossible personality, according to the records, yeah? Continually fighting with others, drinking beer, talking incessantly. Apparently, even Marpa's dad was worried that he would either kill somebody, or they would kill him. So although they were quite a wealthy family, so they sent him off to Western Tibet, yeah? At the age of 11, to be schooled by a famous, another famous translator called Drachmi, yeah? So Marpa spent some time with this guy. But Drachmi was quite tight-fisted with his teachings, yeah? And demanded quite expensive offerings for those teachings. So Marpa thought, well, I'll go and get them myself. So he converted all his possessions into gold at the age of 16, and went off to India. Apparently, at that period, Indians loved gold, yeah? And Tibetans had a lot of gold. Tibetans loved esoteric teachings, and Indians had a lot of esoteric teachings. So it was quite an ideal situation. But across the journey in those days would have been quite something to go from Tibet down into India. There are many, they know that many of these translators died, not many of them actually succeeded. Apart from the sheer physical hardships of the journey, you can imagine changes in altitude, the harshness of the weather, the heat of the Indian plants, which killed a lot of the Tibetans when they came out of Tibet in the '50s. But also bandits and wild beasts and no doubt tigers were around at that time. But also the fact that you had to master a language, which wasn't yours, before you even thought about learning the complex Buddhist rituals. So obviously, quite a tough cookie, this character, Marpa. In physical appearances, they'd be very robust, almost corporate, yeah? Short cropped hair, you see this in the tonkers, yeah? Quite a bull of a man, sparring fear just by his physical presence, it seems. Just the sort to sort out Miller Raper once in space. So while Marpa journeys to find Marpa, Marpa has a dream. His teacher, the great sitter, Na Roper, gives Marpa in the dream a crystal vedra, yeah? And says, "Wash this vedra and mount it on a victory banner." And this is what Marpa does in the dream and the light from the vedra radiates out across the whole universe, yeah? Marpa, of course, realizes the significance of this dream. He realizes actually that this is to do with a disciple that's about to appear. So he says to his wife, "Look, I'm off to plow the fields. "I want two jugs of beer, I'm expecting a guest." Yeah? Dagmina is a little bit confused by this. Bit taken back, Marpa's got servants to do the menial work. He's quite a wealthy landowner. But nonetheless, she complies and Marpa goes off and starts plowing the fields, yeah? Miller Raper, who's on his way asking the whereabouts of Marpa, comes across summons as well. Marpa's in this direction. And he comes across this farmer. And Suzy sees this guy. He has this inexpressible feeling of joy, yeah? But he doesn't know this farmer, this rather corporate farmer is, in fact, Marpa. But Marpa, keeping up the fiction, says, "Look, "I will arrange your infestation. "I can get you to meet Marpa. "Just finish the plowing for me." So Miller Raper dutifully plows the field, yeah? At the end of the day, Marpa's son comes to fetch Miller Raper and he's led into a large property, into a shrine room, yeah? With the same farmer, he's sitting up on three cushions. Obviously, this is Marpa. So despite being confused, Miller Raper prostrates himself and tells Marpa the whole story of his life, yeah? Offers him everything, and says, "Please look after me both spiritually and materially." Yeah, again, quite typical in those days. So Marpa, being a man of few words, fixes him with his gaze and says, "Look, I will give you the teachings, "but I'm not going to look after you. "Yeah, you're going to have sought out your own food, "your own clothing." Miller Raper is happy with this, yeah? And he's after the teachings. He realises with what he's done, he needs to have the dharma and practice the dharma and gain enlightenment in this very life, or he's lost. He's desperate for the dharma. So Marpa says to him, "Look, you're energetic, you're young. "If you build a tower for me, for my son, "I will give you the teachings." So Marpa takes Miller Raper out onto the plains of Lodrak, yeah, I want to imagine it's a fairly big plain, and they reach the eastern ridge. And Marpa says he stops, yeah? And he picks up a staircase, he marks in the ground in the dirt, a figure for the foundations, a circular tower, yeah? So Miller Raper, full of promise of getting the teachings, eventually, halls, rocks, tomb and fro, and builds this tower, yeah? He's obviously hauling rocks on his back, probably with a sort of fabric sling, I want to imagine, strung around his head as they, as they still do today, and laboriously builds this tower up and up and up, probably over the weeks and months that follow. However, when he's only half finished, Marpa comes and tells him to pull the whole thing down, yeah? Haul the rock back to where it came from, put it all back in the place where you got it. And the only explanation he gives to poor Miller Raper is that I hadn't considered this well enough, yeah? So Miller Raper, over the following weeks, pulls it all down, puts the rock back. The llama comes to him again, Marpa comes striding across the plane. This time, he's a little bit unsteady on his feet, he looks a little bit tipsy, he's obviously had too much to drink, and he drags Miller Raper off in the western direction, yeah? And he says to him, "Last time, I really hadn't considered things particularly well." Yeah, this time, I want you to build a semi-circular tower, and he wants it built on that spot on the western ridge. And if Miller Raper can complete this, then he will give them the teachings he's desperate for. So again, over the weeks, possibly months, Miller Raper, uncomplaining builds this semi-circular tower on the western ridge. And of course, Marpa strides across the plane, and he says, "This won't do." Now, I must have been drunk. Remove all that rock and place it back to where you found it, you know? Place it back where you found it. So again, Miller Raper is incredibly patient, incredibly beautiful, labors hard to tear down this structure. Sometime later, now you can imagine, Miller Raper just hands in the head, I think, as he sees Marpa and striding across the plane, he says, "What have you done?" Yeah? I want a tower, triangular in shape. Now, constructed on the northern ridge, which we're going to call the tower of the Tantric Yogan. And if you complete this, I will definitely give you the desired teachings. So in spite of all that's happening, an absolutely disparate Miller Raper where it's hard and finishes the triangular tower. But he's only completed a third of it, of course, before Marpa comes again. Marpa demands to know, what's he doing? Has he gone completely mad? He's built a triangular tower, and Miller Raper's trying to destroy him through sorcery, with a tower that's built like a magic triangle. But Miller Raper says, "Well, you taught me to build it yourself." Marpa, I don't remember. I don't remember that. You must have been out of your mind. I must have been out of my mind. I don't remember any such order. You have a witness. So Miller Raper probably realizes, actually, this is a waste of time to argue. And again, works to haul the stones back to where you got them from. So by this time, the work is obviously starting to tell on Miller Raper's health, yeah? His condition is deteriorating. The llama's wife, Dagmina, is starting to take pity on this poor disciple. Miller Raper's desperate. He's pleading with her to help him persuade the llama to give him teachings. So he goes to her husband and pleads on his behalf. But of course, he's not at all pleased with this. He says, "Look, I'll give you the refuges and precepts." He gives Miller Raper the refuges and precepts. But if you want initiation, you're still gonna have to build a tower for my son. What I want is a 10-story tower, with a walkway around the base, with an enclosed shrine room. If you do this, I promise you will get the teachings you desire. I don't think Miller Raper really believes it anymore, perhaps. But of course, in some ways, he has no choice. He wants the teachings. He needs the teachings. So he sits out to complete the tower. So he lays the foundations of the tower. And he works, and he works, and he works. And by that, by the stage, he's reached the seventh floor. The whole of his back is just one big, bloody saw. He's rubbed raw his back. And as he comes near to the end of the trials, his back becomes a complete mess. In fact, it's infected. He becomes ill, ill with it. Martha's wife, Doug Meany, was completely beside herself. She doesn't understand her husband at all. She can't understand why he's not giving Miller Raper the teachings he requires. Martha, for his part, doesn't seem particularly bothered. He goes to Miller Raper, gives him a folded sack. He says, "Look, that's for your back. Get on with it." He's a hard man. So all through this period, of course, many of Martha's chief disciples are coming for initiation. Now, they come for the various tantric initiations that Martha's able to give them. And the shrine rooms are full. And at every opportunity, Miller Raper sneaks into the back of the shrine room, yeah? Probably sitting somewhere where he can't quite be seen, yeah? And on every occasion, Martha asks him, "Where's your offerings?" And although he's had various offerings that he can give from Doug Meany, Martha's wife, it always ends up in the same way. Martha runs over and grabs them, often by the scruff of the neck or the hair, and throws them out on ceremonies, right? At one point, he even gets thrown down the stairs, yeah? So, Miller Raper's thrown into despair, again and again. He actually runs away at one point. He doesn't know where to turn, yeah? Doug Meany, Martha's wife, in the meantime, has a cunning plan, you know? One night, she decides, "Well, I'm going to get them all drunk. "I'm going to steal the llama's precious relics, "and I'm going to give them to Miller Raper, "and he can go and give them to a character "called Lama Nogpa." Surely Lama Nogpa, if he thinks Miller Raper's come with Martha's blessing, will give him the teachings that he requires. So, that's what they do. Miller Raper sneaks off up north to Lama Nogpa, who's delighted, of course. He's very privileged and greatly honored to receive these gifts from Martha, the precious rosary at Marla from Maropa. So, he ranges a ceremony to install these relics in the shrine room. However, something doesn't quite add up. He gives Mar, Miller Raper, the initiations. He gives him instructions and meditation. Nothing happens, yeah. Very puzzling. He's not quite sure what to do with this young disciple, and then he gets the letter, yeah. Maropa writes to him ostensibly to invite him to his son's coming of age. And by the way, as a sort of a postscript, you can bring that certain evil person that's staying with you back to me. I want him back here, you know, Miller Raper. So, of course, the game's up. So, Lama Nogpa, Nogpa makes grand preparations for the journey, yeah. And as Maropa, obviously, being the guru, requires a lot of offerings, he loads up all of his household items, his gold, his turquoise, his silks, his garments, he takes his livestock, his yaks, his sheep, his horses, his cows. The only thing he leaves behind is the old sheet goat, apparently, he's got a broken leg and can't make the journey, yeah. So, in that tradition, you offer everything to the guru. So, he turns up, with all his disciples, in Maropa's place, with all of this, well, boobs in the livestock that he's bringing to offer. And Maropa looks at him, yeah, and says, look, I want two questions answered. Firstly, have you bought everything with respect to the offerings, yeah. And secondly, why did you give Metaraper both teachings, right? So, poor Lama Nogpa's probably quaking in his boots by this stage, yeah. As for the first question, yes, well, there was this old goat that I had to leave behind, yeah. Maropa being Maropa, of course, as well. You'll be going back to get that, won't you? (audience laughing) No goat, no teachers, yeah. In response to the second question, you can imagine Lama Nogpa's probably sweating profusely by now, I imagine. He says, well, I hate to say it, but it was actually your wife that wrote the letter, yeah. I thought it was from you, but I've just found out, et cetera. So, Maropa, when he hears about his wife's deception, it's completely beside himself. Yeah, he explodes, he jumps up, apparently he grabs his stick, and he's off to go and beat his wife, yeah. It doesn't sound a very Buddhist thing, does it? But she's too quick. She's locked us out from the shrine room. (audience laughing) As you've heard, no doubt, bit of drama. But what's happened to poor Maropa? Well, while all this is going on, something seems to have completely snapped in Maropa, yeah. He's finally just given himself over to complete despair, yeah. He knows he's not gonna get the teachings, he's given up almost. He's blaming his own past misdeeds for all the trouble he's caused, yeah. He's got both Lama Nogpa and Dachmina into trouble with Maropa, and so finally, the only way he decides that he can end it all is to kill himself on the spot. This is what he decides to do. So things are a bit of a mess in the Maropa household, you know? It's complete chaos in some ways. Dachmina is locked to south away. Maropa's threatening to kill himself. The disciples of Lama Nogpa are sitting, probably sitting, probably completely frozen in fear, not daring to move. Lama Nogpa's begging Miseraypa not to do away with himself. And where's Maropa? Maropa apparently is just sitting there with his cloak pulled over his head, completely unmoving. Yeah, I'm not sure what he's doing, but he's just sitting there. So all of this chaos is completely whirling around him. And of course, we know, don't we, that all is not, as it seems, yeah. In fact, the Lama's anger, Maropa's anger, and his treatment of Miseraypa are actually just a skillful means to purify Miseraypa of the bad karma that resulted from his own past deeds. And the treatment of Miseraypa wasn't, in fact, a necessary means in order to prepare him for the practice of the Dharma so that it would bear fruit in the future. So Maropa's sitting there under his robe, motionless, yeah? Eventually, he comes, rouses himself. The last Agnina to go and fetch the great magician, as he calls him, Miseraypa. And says to Agnina, tell him he's to be today an honored guest. So everybody's completely confused at this point, you know? Maropa addresses the audience and makes it clear that his anger was, in fact, no mere worldly anger. But all he did was necessary to help Miseraypa on the path to freedom, to enlightenment. Curiously, he also says that if he'd been able to plunge his spiritual son into despair nine times, he would've completely cleansed him, yeah? But it was Dagminas, Maropa's wife's ill-timed pity, apparently, that prevented him during this. So he was only thrown into complete despair eight times. So the text ends at this stage by saying everybody, both Maropa's disciples, and lama nugpos disciples, the servants and all the household staff, Dagmina and menorah, they all burst into tears, yeah? They're just completely overcome, yeah? I can imagine even Maropa, perhaps, moistening a little in the eye, perhaps. So it ends with Maropa initiating and instructing Miseraypa into all of the teachings that he, the great translator, has bought back from India at such great cost to himself, risk to himself. Miserayka, of course, has now become a worthy recipient of such teachings, a suitable vessel. And Miseraypa is able to finally enter the path of practice, yeah? So that concludes the story of Maropa's early life and his trials and tribulations at the hands of his guru, Maropa of Lodrak. Obviously, as we know, he's got a very long way to go and a lot of effort to put in before he achieves that ultimate freedom, he's seeking as a practitioner. So what happened to Miseraypa after his trials and tribulations with Maropa? Well, it seems that in the initial three or four years after these events, Miseraypa was sent to meditate and solitude above the snow lines in the mountains around Lodrak. There, apparently, he'd brick himself up in a small rock cell, probably making use of natural caves. And with enough supplies to last him several months and carry out meditation instruction that Maropa had given him. And then, every so often, Maropa would come and check on his experience, check on his meditation experience and his understanding of his experiences, yeah? Before giving him further instruction. Actually, Miseraypa eventually left Maropa only after having a premonition of his mother's death in a dream. Yeah, it's a very poignant part of the life of Miseraypa to read, where he goes back to his village and he discovers the bones of his mother in this sort of moldering refuse in this collapsed house where he grew up. And he's completely overwhelmed by this, yeah? In fact, the text says that he meditates for seven days using his mother's bones as a cushion and gains quite a profound insight into the nature of impermanence and then substantiality. So much so that it actually vows to renounce all worldly life completely and go into the mountains and meditate, practice, day and night unremittingly without regard to his own life until he has gained realization. And the traditional accounts say that he practiced these sorts of austerities for 12 years. Surviving at times by eating nothing but nettles, yeah? Turning green in the process apparently. So he dedicated himself completely and utterly to practice, yeah? And as he himself says in the text, "I know nothing but practice. "I am good for nothing but practice. "I think about nothing but practice, yeah? "It's totally dedicated to that." So mineral rapour picture, practice many types of meditation, including the practice of Mahamudra, which I know Manjavad just gonna say a little bit about or touch on that next week. But mineral rapour was known for specializing in or being an adept at certain types of teaching that originated with Marpa's teacher, Nairopa, known as the six yogas of Nairopa, especially that called Tumo or the inner heat practices, which you know doubt have heard about. This is enabling him to survive in these high mountain ranges. So mineral rapour practiced these Tumo practices, practiced in the tantric tradition where the goal is described as the union of these blissful, radiantly highly positive emotional states, combined with the realization of emptiness, a clear light of mind as they call it on the texts. And of course, mineral rapour didn't just practice for his own benefit as we don't. We often think of mineral rapour up there in the mountains in complete solitude, yeah? And of course, there were long periods like that, no doubt at times in his life, but actually probably for the greater part of his lesser life, certainly he lived, so they say until his 80s, would have been spent giving freely of his experience and his teachings, yeah? Just as in the life of the Buddha, mineral rapour apparently died by poisoning. He was given poison curds by a jealous lama. So he spent his life giving freely of his experiences, teachings, and he sung, yeah? He sung songs to songs, yeah? Songs of realization and songs of truth. And he sung these songs to ordinary village folk and wealthy, gentry. He sung them to patrons, his own patrons. He sung them to his heart sons, his yogis and yogini brethren. And he even sung them to demons and demonesses, gods and goddesses. And a thousand years later, he still sings them to us. Thank you. (upbeat music) - We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) You [BLANK_AUDIO]
