Milarepa statue, Pango Chorten, Gyantse, Tibet.

Jetsun Milarepa (Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རས་པ; Wylie: Rje-btsun Mi-la-ras-pa), (c. 1052-c. 1135 CE) is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and poets, a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu (Bka'-brgyud) school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Indian film Milarepa, produced in 2006 is set in the magnificent Spiti Valley high in the Himalayas in the Zanskar region close to the border between India and Tibet. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 382 × 599 pixelsFull resolution‎ (568 × 890 pixels, file size: 78 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 382 × 599 pixelsFull resolution‎ (568 × 890 pixels, file size: 78 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Gyantse Fortress A view of Gyantse from the top of its fortress Gyantse (also spelled Gyangtse; Wylie: Rgyang-rtse; Tibetan: རྒྱལ་རྩེ་) is the third largest town in Tibet. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating the Tibetan script using the keys on a typical English language typewriter. ... Events Births Milarepa Deaths Heads of state Holy See - Leo IX pope (1049-1054) Categories: 1052 ... Events January - Byland Abbey founded Stephen of Blois succeeds King Henry I. Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I and widow of Henry V opposed Stephen and claims the throne as her own Owain Gwynedd of Wales defeats the Normans at Crug Mawr. ... BCE redirects here. ... This article is about historical/cultural Tibet. ... A sculpture of a Hindu yogi in the Birla Mandir, Delhi A yogi (Sanskrit feminine: yogini) is a term for a male who practices various forms of the path of Yoga, maintaining a steadfast mind, the process of transcending the lower self. ... A traditional depiction of Marpa painted on a rock on Holy Isle, Firth of Clyde Marpa Lotsawa (1012-1097), or Marpa the translator was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher credited with the transmission of many Buddhist teachings to Tibet from India, including the teachings and lineages of vajrayana and mahamudra. ... The Kagyu (Tibetan: བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་; Wylie: Bka-brgyud) school, also known as the Oral Lineage and the Spotless Practice Lineage school, is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the other three being Nyingma (Rnying-ma), Sakya (Sa-skya), and Gelug (Dge-lugs). ... Tibetan Buddhism is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the Himalayan region (including northern Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Ladakh), Mongolia, Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia (Russia), and northeastern China (Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin). ...

The facts of his life as they are popularly known come from the enormously popular romanticized account in the biography the Mi-la-rnam-thar by Gtsang-smyon he-ru-ka rus-pa'i-rgyan-can (1452-1507), although they may be of questionable historic validity, the biographical details given in this article are based upon this account or its derivatives.

Early life and revenge

Born in the village of Kya, Ngatsa in Tibet to a prosperous family he was named Mila Thöpaga (Thos-pa-dga'), which means "A joy to hear." When his father died, Milarepa's uncle and aunt took all of the family's wealth. At his mother's request, Milarepa left home and studied sorcery. While his aunt and uncle were having a party to celebrate the impending marriage of their son, he took his revenge by summoning a giant scorpion to demolish their house, killing 35 people, although the uncle and aunt are supposed to have survived. The villagers were angry and set off to look for Milarepa, but his mother got word to him and he sent a hailstorm to destroy their crops. Not to be confused with Magic (illusion). ...

Tutelage under Marpa

Overlooking Pelgyeling Gompa at Milarepa's Cave, Tibet.

Knowing that his revenge was wrong, Milarepa set out to find a lama and was led to Marpa the translator. Marpa proved a hard task master. Before Marpa would teach Milarepa he had him build and then demolish three towers in turn. When Marpa still refused to teach Milarepa he went to Marpa's wife, who took pity on him. She forged a letter of introduction to another teacher, Lama Ngogdun Chudor, under whose tutelage he began to practice meditation. However when he was making no progress, he confessed the forgery and Ngogdun Chudor said that it was vain to hope for spiritual growth without the guru Marpa's approval. Milarepa returned to Marpa, and after practicing very diligently for twelve years Milarepa attained the state of Vajradhara (complete enlightenment). He is said to be the first to achieve this state within one lifetime. He then became known as Milarepa, which means the "Mila, the cotton clad one" (the suffix "repa" is given to many tantric yogis since they wear white robes) At the age of forty-five, he started to practice at Drakar Taso (White Rock Horse Tooth) cave - 'Milarepa's Cave', as well as becoming a wandering teacher. Here, he subsisted on nettle tea, leading his skin to turn green, hence the greenish color he is often depicted as having in paintings and sculpture. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 520 pixelsFull resolution‎ (887 × 577 pixels, file size: 103 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) (All user names refer to en. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 520 pixelsFull resolution‎ (887 × 577 pixels, file size: 103 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) (All user names refer to en. ... Overlooking Pelgyeling Gompa at Milarepas cave, Tibet Milarepas Cave is a cave where the great Tibetan Buddhist philosopher and Vajrayana Mahasiddha Milarepa spent many years of his life in the eleventh century, 10km north of Nyalam in the roadside near a tiny village called Zhonggang in Tibet. ... Not to be confused with Llama. ... A traditional depiction of Marpa painted on a rock on Holy Isle, Firth of Clyde Marpa Lotsawa (1012-1097), or Marpa the translator was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher credited with the transmission of many Buddhist teachings to Tibet from India, including the teachings and lineages of vajrayana and mahamudra. ... Look up Translator in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other senses of this word, see Meditation (disambiguation). ... vajradhara (lit. ... Overlooking Pelgyeling Gompa at Milarepas cave, Tibet Milarepas Cave is a cave where the great Tibetan Buddhist philosopher and Vajrayana Mahasiddha Milarepa spent many years of his life in the eleventh century, 10km north of Nyalam in the roadside near a tiny village called Zhonggang in Tibet. ... Binomial name L. The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a herbaceous flowering plant, also known in the United States as 7-minute-itch, native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America, and is the best known member of the nettle genus Urtica. ...

Pyenzhangling Monastery, also known as Pelgye Ling Gompa, is a small Tibetan Buddhist monastery in a tiny village called Zhonggang, Tibet that is consecrated to Milarepa. It is built around the cave where he once lived. "It was destroyed but has now been rebuilt and decorated by Nepali artisans. This is one of many caves associated with Milarepa between Langtang and Jomolungma."^[1] This article is about historical/cultural Tibet. ... Overlooking Pelgyeling Gompa at Milarepas cave, Tibet Milarepas Cave is a cave where the great Tibetan Buddhist philosopher and Vajrayana Mahasiddha Milarepa spent many years of his life in the eleventh century, 10km north of Nyalam in the roadside near a tiny village called Zhonggang in Tibet. ... Langtang is a region in Nepal to the north of Kathmandu and bordering Tibet. ...

Lineage

A statue of Milarepa from the Milarepa Gompa, Halambu valley, Nepal.

Milarepa is famous for many of his songs and poems, in which he expresses the profundity of his realization of the dharma with extraordinary clarity and beauty. He also had many disciples, which include Rechung Dorje Drakpa (Ras-chung Rdo-rje Grags-pa), Gampopa (Sgam-po-pa) or Dhakpo Lhaje. It was Gampopa who became his spiritual successor who continued his lineage and became one of the main lineage masters in Milarepa's tradition. Download high resolution version (1536x2048, 975 KB)Statue of Milarepa, from Milarepas Gompa in the Helambu valley, Nepal. ... Download high resolution version (1536x2048, 975 KB)Statue of Milarepa, from Milarepas Gompa in the Helambu valley, Nepal. ... For other uses, see Dharma (disambiguation). ... Rechung Dorje Drakpa (Wylie: Ras-chung Rdo-rje Grags-pa), known as Rechungpa. ... Gampopa or Dakpo Rinpoche (1016-1053) was the formost student of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Milarepa. ...

Supernatural running

According to the book Magic and Mystery in Tibet by French explorer Alexandra David-Néel, Milarepa boasted of having “crossed in a few days, a distance which, before his training [in ‘black magic’], had taken him more than a month. He ascribes his gift to the clever control of ‘internal air’.” David-Néel comments “that at the house of the lama who taught him black magic there lived a trapa [monk] who was fleeter than a horse” using the same skill.^[2] Alexandra David-Néel (October 24, 1868 - September 8, 1969) was a French explorer, anarchist, spiritualist, Buddhist and writer. ...

This esoteric skill, which is known as Lung-gom-pa ("Wind Meditation", lung = “wind,^[3] gom-pa = “meditation”^[4]) in Tibet, allows a practitioner to run at an extraordinary speed for days without stopping. This technique could be compared to that practiced by the Kaihigyo Monks of Mt. Hiei in Kyoto, Japan.^[5] Mount Hiei (Jp. ... Kyoto )   is a city in the central part of the island of HonshÅ«, Japan. ...

Miscellaneous

As stated previously, Milarepa was born in the year 1052. Adherents of Japanese Buddhism believe this is the year that the degenerative age of Mappo began.^[6] Events Births Milarepa Deaths Heads of state Holy See - Leo IX pope (1049-1054) Categories: 1052 ... Japanese Buddhist priest c. ... Mappo, 末法 Jp. ...

See also

• Milarepa's Cave

Overlooking Pelgyeling Gompa at Milarepas cave, Tibet Milarepas Cave is a cave where the great Tibetan Buddhist philosopher and Vajrayana Mahasiddha Milarepa spent many years of his life in the eleventh century, 10km north of Nyalam in the roadside near a tiny village called Zhonggang in Tibet. ...

Notes

1. ^ Dowman, Keith. 1988. The Power-places of Central Tibet: The Pilgrim's Guide. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London & New York. ISBN 0-7102-1370-0, p. 282.
2. ^ David-Neel, Alexandra. Magic and Mystery in Tibet. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1971 (ISBN 0-486-22682-4)
3. ^ Lung Ta - The Wind Horse
4. ^ Hopkins, Jeffrey. Cultivating Compassion: A Buddhist Perspective. Broadway; 1st ed edition, 2001 (ISBN 0-7679-0499-0)
5. ^ The run of a lifetime
6. ^ Mappo

Jeffrey Hopkins (born 1940) is a distinguished [1] American Tibetologist. ...

References

• The Life of Milarepa, translated by Lobsang P . Lhalungpa, Book Faith India, 1997, ISBN 81-7303-046-4
• Milarepa: Songs on the Spot, translated by Nicole Riggs, Dharma Cloud Press, 2003, ISBN 0-9705639-30
• Milarepa, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, translated by Garma C.C. Chang, City Lights Books, 1999, ISBN 1-57062-476-3
• Tibet's Great Yogī Milarepa: A Biography from the Tibetan. Edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. 1928. Oxford University Press. Paperback reprint 1974.
• The Yogi's Joy: Songs of Milarepa Sangharakshita, Windhorse Publications, 2006, ISBN 1-899579-66-4

Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz (b. ...

External links

• Biography on Kagyu website
• The life of Milarepa
• The Magic life of Milarepa in comic book form.
• Text of 'Sixty Songs of Milarepa'
• Text, The Essential Songs of Milarepa