Gyalwang Karmapa’s teaching on The Songs of Milarepa

January 05, 2009, report by Karma Palmo, photos taken by Karma Lekcho, Karma Norbu, Pema Orser Dorje


His Holiness read Chapter Four which tells how Milarepa, having received instructions from Marpa, undertook an eleven month meditation retreat. When Marpa and his wife summoned him from retreat he was initially unable to take down the wall which had bricked up the entrance to the cave.

Then Marpa questioned him on his meditation experiences and Milarepa offered his lama The Song of the Seven Branch Prayer, describing his realizations during the retreat.

Milarepa began by stating that the lama was inseparable from Vajradhara. Now he understood the preciousness of a human birth and, though he had accumulated many negative deeds, these could be purified if he worked selflessly. He had understood impermanence, the defects of samsara, the effects of karma, the need to develop bodhichitta in order to bring all sentient beings to liberation, and the need for a lama, in order to achieve this. When he examined his mind he found nothing concrete. He now understood calm-abiding and analytical meditation (shamatha and vipashyana). He had subdued his body and achieved equanimity. Finally Milarepa didn’t make an offering to Marpa of money or material things, he offered the lama and his wife the best of his practise, and Marpa was very happy.
Gyalwang Karmapa then gave a short commentary on the chapter.

The Lord Buddha said that two things were essential: study and practice. Gampopa advised people to study first. The Kagyu is known as the practice lineage, and meditation plays a central role; it is the lineage of experience and realization. Like Milarepa, we had to receive the instructions, and then put them into practice. This involved hardship and effort.

Some Kagyu masters had studied extensively and then practised, but others had had little formal study. Milarepa had not studied widely, but he had great devotion. He received the instructions, the direct understanding of how to practise, and then he practised.

A Nyingma lama once said that when we were really suffering and our minds were deeply disturbed, the on ly things which helped were Shantideva’s Way of the Bodhisattva, and The Songs of Milarepa. Correct meditation depends on correct view, and the correct view is emptiness. The lama, who has direct experience of the nature of the mind, gives instructions to the devoted student who must study, analyse, gain a conceptual understanding and practise it. His Holiness commented that although Kagyu say they are the practice lineage, when we study the biographies of great masters it can make us feel ashamed. As the saying goes, “The great master practised this way, and I disgraced him.” We should be grateful to the great masters and take them as our model. Members of other lineages have representations of their great teachers on their shrines, - the Geluk, for instance, have the Gadenpa - but the Kagyupa appear to have forgotten their heritage. We look at Milarepa and say, “This was an extraordinary person, but it’s not possible to do what he did”, rather than take him as an example to follow.

We also need to be aware of interdependence. The environment supports us, all the plants and trees that grow, and yet we mindlessly destroy it. We cut down the forests, and claim every bit of land we can, without a thought for the environment and the other sentient beings with whom we share it. We forget that all the basic necessities which we need to live are provided by myriad beings - even a cup of tea. There’s a tea-bush, and the tea-picker, and then we need milk or butter, and the person who made the tea – so many people are involved in order to sustain our lives, we should remember them with gratitude. Instead we just gulp the tea down and never consider the kindness of others. This is not what Mahayana Buddhism teaches. A Mahayana Buddhist has to understand interdependence and appreciate the kindness of other sentient being with deep gratitude.

This is one of the themes of Kagyu Monlam – to be grateful.

Mao Tse Dung said that religion was poison to society. Indeed, Gampopa said that if you do not practise dharma in the correct way it can lead to rebirth in the lower realms. So we really have to understand the dharma and practise it properly.

At this point, the chant masters led the singing of Milarepa’s doha, on how to see the face of the deity.
Gyalwang Karmapa urged everyone to work to develop equanimity, rather than swinging between aversion and attraction. Aversion and attraction operated in religion too. Sectarianism was very bad, and not what the Buddha taught. The Buddha practised equanimity as evidenced by the equal treatment he gave to his cousin and antagonist, Devadatta, and his own son, Rahula.

Then His Holiness taught a meditation visualizing the Lord Buddha at the moment of his enlightenment – smiling, eyes filled with love, and a radiant golden glow, and, for five minutes, everyone sat silently.
Finally, His Holiness donned his black and gold crown to read The Great aspiration Prayer.