DAVID RATHBUN
SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL, MINNEAPOLIS
WHERE IS MILAREPA IN WORLD LITERATURE?
HOME
This
snow-clad mountain
Is the old Translator Marpa
And the Kagyu teaching.
The summit of snow which touched the sky
Is matchless insight without equal.
The sun and moon turning around its peak
Are meditation radiating wisdom and compassion.
by
Marpa, The Translator
from
The Life of Milarepa (Compass/Penguin, 1992)
The snow fell, big as bags of wool,
Fell like birds flying in the sky,
Fell like a whirling swarm of bees.
Flakes fell small as a spindle's wheel,
Fell as tiny as bean seed,
Fell like tufts of cotton.
The snowfall was beyond measure.
Snow
covered all the mountain and even touched the sky...
from "The Song of the Snow Ranges"
The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa (Shambhala, 1989)
WHERE IS MILAREPA IN WORLD LITERATURE?
In our classrooms in the West, he's little known. But in the East, especially Tibet, he's a giant of literature, at Homer's level. Like Homer, he was a singing bard whose work did not get written down until several centuries after this death. But Milarepa was much more than a bard. He was a Buddhist guru or yogi--in Tibet, a lama, or spiritual teacher--who left the world of desire (samsara) to meditate on Buddhist teachings and found Enlightenment.
Although he lived in Tibet and western Nepal long ago (1040-1123), his style of song (mgur) continues to be imitated until this day. In Tibet, Milarepa is regarded as a saint and a cultural hero. His hundreds of songs helped to spread Buddhism throughout the Tibetan cultural area, which also includes Nepal, India, and China. He should be included--at an introductory level or at a more advanced level--in every world literature classroom.
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To the people of Tibet and to fellow Buddhists in the Asian highlands and the Himalayas, Mila, although he lived in the twelfth century, is not a myth but still a vital figure--the embodiment of supreme excellence as well as the father of awakened masters. Never, in the thirteen centuries of Buddhist history in Tibet, has there been such a man, who not only inspired an intellectual elite and spiritual luminaries, but also captured the imagination of the common people. ---from "Introduction," by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, in The Life of Milarepa
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MILA was his family name; REPA means "cotton-clad one." During his years meditating in the Himalayas, Milarepa wore nothing more than a cloth made from a barley flour sack. At times we wore even less. He wore this during the winter as well as the summer.
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GENRE? The publisher calls The Life of Milarepa a biography, but the translator calls it a "genuine autobiography." Milarepa didn't write this book while meditating in a cave. No, it's not an autobiography in the traditional sense. However, the story is told from Milarepa's first-person point of view. Perhaps we could say that the book is a biography that reads like an autobiography.
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THE QUOTE above the Himalayas at the top of this page comes from a song composed by Marpa, Milarepa's lama, in Life. Marpa studied under the famed Naropa in India, and like Milarepa's poetry, speaks in metaphorical language that frequently links the natural world with the teachings of Buddhism. Marpa was known as the "Translator" because he brought Buddhist scriptures from India and translated them for the people of Tibet. He also brought the tantric song form from India, poetry that's spontaneous, symbolic, and expressive of sprritual realizations. For more about Marpa, take a look at The Life of Marpa the Translator: Seeing Accomplishes All (Shambhala, 1995).
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MILAREPA descends from the Kagyu school (lineage) of Buddhism, or the Order of Oral Transmission. The current Dalai Lama, by the way, descends from the Geluk school, or the Order of Excellence.
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| LINKS to more informaiton about the life, songs, and images of Milarepa! |
This site was created by DAVID RATHBUN at the NEH Summer Institute "Cultures and Religions of the Himalayan Region," held at the College of the Holy Cross, Summer 2004