Let's Talk About Milarepa

[brahmburgers]

The author of LIFE STORY OF MILAREPA book (and audio book on CD) is looking to meet with people interested in the type of Buddhism practiced in Tibet. In other words, anyone interested in such things as renunciation, meditation, lucid dreaming, and/or the possibility of attaining spiritual entlightenment - is welcome to arrange a meeting.

The author is willing to travel to any part of Thailand to meet with and address informal groups. The book is an adaptation from an earlier translation from the Tibetan.

Milarepa was a singer of spiritual poems who roamed the northern slopes of the Himalayas 900 years ago. Besides being an extreme renunciate (purportedly walling himself inside caves for months on end), he exemplified how anyone can reach their potential of attaining spiritual enlightenment - regardless of pedigree, or scholarly achievements.

[thaicurious]

sorry, not yet enjoying time in thailand but just to say that years ago i read the biography tibet's great yogi milarepa, edited (& i believe translated) by w.y. evans-wentz.

it's a good read. my main contention, if i remember the story correctly, is how someone goes from essentially a mass murderer to enlightened being simply after spending some time in a cave.

i'm sure this is a gross simplification and i do not mean to be all that irreverent. while i do believe in rehabilitation and even grace, it is a part of the story which has bothered me. i try hard to step away from my own life so that i can see myself with as much objectivity as i can muster but there is something about the taking of someone else's life which seems to me beyond a quick step away never mind such easy salvation.

i can appreciate it taken as an example of bringing a situation to its extreme absurdity to show that then maybe it even holds water under lesser circumstance. it makes it easy to catagorize the story as myth and that situation, in particular, as myth-making.

[Naam]

Milarepa was a singer of spiritual poems who roamed the northern slopes of the Himalayas 900 years ago. Besides being an extreme renunciate (purportedly walling himself inside caves for months on end), he exemplified how anyone can reach their potential of attaining spiritual enlightenment - regardless of pedigree, or scholarly achievements.

seems to me he is a rapper now.

[brahmburgers]

sorry, not yet enjoying time in thailand but just to say that years ago i read the biography tibet's great yogi milarepa, edited (& i believe translated) by w.y. evans-wentz.

it's a good read. my main contention, if i remember the story correctly, is how someone goes from essentially a mass murderer to enlightened being simply after spending some time in a cave.

i'm sure this is a gross simplification and i do not mean to be all that irreverent. while i do believe in rehabilitation and even grace, it is a part of the story which has bothered me. i try hard to step away from my own life so that i can see myself with as much objectivity as i can muster but there is something about the taking of someone else's life which seems to me beyond a quick step away never mind such easy salvation.

i can appreciate it taken as an example of bringing a situation to its extreme absurdity to show that then maybe it even holds water under lesser circumstance. it makes it easy to catagorize the story as myth and that situation, in particular, as myth-making.

your point is well taken. The example his life sets may not suit everyone, and that's ok. Though you may recall that he himself often later deeply lamented the harm he had done during the 'maha-magician' period of his young life.

[thaicurious]

your point is well taken. The example his life sets may not suit everyone, and that's ok. Though you may recall that he himself often later deeply lamented the harm he had done during the 'maha-magician' period of his young life.

perhaps the lamentation was glossed over in the version to which i referred though i've read a few of evans-wentz's works and know him to be a thorough editor. or perhaps the glossing was milarepa's or merely my own perception.

the lesson is often more important than the details. even though i find it difficult to see how the thoughts of such a bloodied past would not prevent at least some degree of enlightenment while such memories & responsibilities continue to exist, i believe i understand somewhat the lesson of milarepa. i'm just not sure i agree with it.

[rychrde]

Any group of Tibetan Buddhism will be highly welcomed here!!

Let us know if any progress.

rych

[jazzbo]

The notion of Emptiness engenders Compassion. -- Milarepa

from Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End