More on Milarepa

After I had posted my review of the Milarepa movie I began to rewatch the second movie in the form of a storyboard.   The story of Milarepa always touches me deeply and brings tears to my eyes.  This time the first words of the storyboard seemed to jump out at me.

May those who only hear, narrate, or listen to my story receive innumerable blessings and achieve liberation!

And those that emulate my life and meditate on it, may they find me in the Buddha pure land.

It was as if Milarepa was blessing me personally.  I knew in that moment that he would guide me.  Further, as I continued to watch him talk about his experience with his teacher, Marpa the Translator, I could feel the faith rise in me.  I could feel that closeness that  a student experiences with their heart teacher (and vice versa).  Very sweet.  I could physically feel my crown chakra.  I acknowledged to myself that my teacher was on my head (a traditional place to keep your teacher when you meditate).  And resonated with the joy that Milarepa expressed when talking about Marpa in his autobiography.

Throughout the next couple of days I continued to feel an open heart and the presence of my teacher and guide.  People that I gave massage to could feel the difference as well.  Really nice energy!

Today, I went to my ThetaHealer, Lynne Cockrum-Murphy, to deal with an unpleasant reaction I was having to a minor issue that arose last night.  She’s great with helping to remove dysfunctional automatic reactions and other obstacles such as those involving karmic patterns.  Since she is also an gifted channel, towards the end of our session, I asked her to find out “who my teacher was”, meaning the presence I could feel.  I also wanted confirmation of Milarepa’s aid.  This is the fun part of life for me.  If there is no magic then why bother living.

She did confirm that Milarepa was involved in what she termed “a lifting of several veils”, as was my teacher and myself.  This made me wonder what I had been doing that created a cause for this event.  Certainly, it wasn’t just the pledge or blessing that Milarepa had put into his story.  I knew this because I had already seen the story board before and I had already read the book.  As for what I did specifically to merit this, heaven only knows.  Perhaps the seeds were planted several years ago when I read two volume set of The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa.  Or maybe it was other internal work or meditation I’ve been doing lately. (shrugs)  Probably everything is involved.

Now that I think about it, the funny thing is that I’ve been reading Madame Guyon lately and I’m in the section that has inspired me to be happy with being unhappy or whatever miserable state I am in.  She talks about how there is a tendency to lust after the good feelings one gets when they are close to the divine.  She claims true devotion means to be just as happy when the divine is not with us (because the divine is certainly out somewhere being happy) as when we can feel the close presence of divinity.  So here I am cultivating being happy with absence of connection to divinity when I am suddenly blessed with a real sense of connection to a divine and holy presence I call my teacher.

Anyway, I highly recommend that everyone read or watch Milarepa’s autobiography and emulate his life!  Although being able to give up those eight worldly thoughts are certainly harder than just deciding to do it.

My favorites:

Milarepa

Milarepa Tankga

Milarepa is in the center in green. His skin was tinged this color because for years he lived only on nettles, refusing to leave his cave for anything more substantial

Milarepa is another great movie in my ten favorite Buddhist/Spiritual movies collection.

Milarepa is one of the great Buddhist masters of 11th century Tibet.  His story is particularly inspiring because he was able to overcome the serious misdeeds of his youth (including mass murder), and become a buddha.

As young adult, Milarepa studied sorcery in order to take revenge on his Uncle and Aunt that had swindled him out of his inheritance.  Indeed, he ended up killing a great many people with black magic.  Then, he turned away from such activity.  He learned it brought him no lasting satisfaction.  He went, instead, to study with the great Buddhist master Marpa.  Marpa put him through many trials before he gave him proper instruction.  Milarepa then went off to the mountains to meditate and realize nirvana.

The movie Milarepa is part one of two parts.  This first part details his youth:  his misfortunes and his revenge.  The second part has not been produced yet, but you can watch the storyboard on YouTube.  It is incredible!  It shows his devotion to his teacher and his enlightenment.

 

You can borrow the book or movie from me.  If you purchase using one of the above links it supports TESLI.  Thanks!

Repose

Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (1648-1717)

Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717)

I have been enjoying A Short Method of Prayer by Madame Guyon.  She is a 17th century French mystic and Christian contemplative.  In this book she lays out the steps for effective prayer and stresses our role as humans is to become united with God.  In doing so she down plays the benefit of outward acts of charity and the like.  This appears to be a point of contention within the church.  As a result of publishing this book she displeased the Church so much she was imprisoned for eight years.

In the contemplative tradition there is an important milestone on the path to enlightenment (or to no-self) that is called the unitive stage or the union with god.  Much like the arya state in Buddhism this milestone marks an irreversible change in the person.  The instructions to achieve this union are not unlike the instructions for progress in the Buddhist tradition.

The focus is on inner action as opposed to outer action.  Madame Guyon explains the necessary changes that are required in anticipation of unity:

God sends before him His own Wisdom; it consumes all impurity in the creature, to prepare him for divine union.

And what is so impure about us?

This impurity, so opposed to union, is appropriation and activity.

I am not exactly sure what she means by appropriation in this instance.  Appropriation is defined as the action of taking something for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission.  I suspect is has something to do with believing we have a self or that our actions come from ourselves as opposed to coming from the divine whole.  However, I am more interested today in what she has to say about activity:

Activity, because God being in an infinite repose, in order that the soul may be united to Him, it must participate in His repose, without which there can be no union, because of the dissemblance; and to unite two things, they must be in a proportionate rest.

It is a very restful thought.  I like the vision of the divine whole as effortlessly shifting and creating.  I further like the idea of being united to this effortless flow.  I vision, myself (or God) lying back into repose with our breath enough to propel change and life.  Quite lovely.  It speaks of some of my favorite slogans:

Easy does it.

I do without doing and it all gets done.

It also reminds me of my ordination name:  Maha Khema meaning “great tranquility”.

May we all labor in peace today.

If you are interested in Madam Guyon, your purchase through these links supports TESLI.