A Short Tale From
100,000 Songs of Milarepa
Obeisance to all Gurus
When Jetsun Milarepa was living in the solitary place called Ku Ju, Rechungpa besought him for a teaching through which he could practice his devotion with body, mouth, and mind. In response Milarepa sang:
To practice devotion with your body
Is to observer the discipline of Non-distinction;
To practice devotion with your mouth
Is to keep it shut like the dumb buffalo;
To practice devotion with your mind
Is to see the nature of Non-existence.
Rechungpa asked again:
Because of my ignorance,
I still do not understand
How to observe the discipline of body,
How to control my mouth,
And how observe Min-Essence.
The Jetsun replied:
To observe the discipline of body
Is to keep the Rules of the Three Learnings,
To observe discipline with the mouth
Is to keep it silent and at ease,
To behold Mind-Essence is to observe
It in a way that's free from clinging.
In expounding his Guru's instruction, Rechungpa sang:
In the innate-born Dharmakaya, free in itself,
Is the concept of the Sambhogakaya.
[Thus] can the Nirmanakaya serve innumerable beings.
The Foundation is the spirit of Rennunciation,
The Path is the Bodhi-Mind and Bodhi-Acts,
The Fruit is the observance of Samaya rules.
Renounce the Eight Desires of the world,
Abandon all this life's affairs,
Forswear pleasures and wealth, abjure
Dishonesty and evil living.
Like a madman, pay no attention to your body;
Like a mute, keep your mouth shut at all times;
Like a child, free your mind without clinging;
These are the ways to practice one's devotion.
The Jetsun then commented, "But he who knows not the vitalpoints is liable to err like this":
He who strives for Liberation with
The thought of "I" will ne'er attain it.
He who tries to loosen his mind-knots
When his spirit is neither great nor free,
Will but become more tense.
He who has no Realization
Wanders in the dark like a blind man.
He who cannot keep the discipline
Has no true spirit of renunciation.
Without a Bodhi-Mind,
Others one cannot help.
If there is no Tantra, there
Will be no Teachings that guide.
The Eight Dharmas are the temptations of this world.
Desires and passions cause one to destroy the virtues;
By cunning and clinging, in Samsara one is confined.
If thoughts arise, so does the "dual." Words
By talking cannot be transcended.
A teaching without Lineage is broken. Failure
To observe the discipline brings Yama.
If you become entangled with relatives
And foes you fall into confusion.
With the thought of "being," comes
The idea of taking and rejecting.
From the conception of "existence,"
Follows clinging. Without
Genuine Enlightenment, one's
Mind is obsessed by wishful-thinking.
All talking will become sheer nonsense
If one cannot elucidate the Truth!
The Three Learnings - The Learnings of Precepts, of Meditation, and of Wisdom. The main topics of Buddhist study.
Dharmakaya - The unity of the Buddha with everything existing. The body of the Dharma, or law, or teachings.
Sambhogakaya - The 'body of delight', the body of buddhas who in a buddha paradise enjoyed the truth that they embody.
Nirmanakya - The 'body of transformation', earthly body in which buddhas appear to men in order to fullfill the buddha's resolve to guide all beings to liberation.
Eight Desires - Gain, loss, fame, disgrace, slander, praise, pleasure, and pain.
Eight Dharmas - Gain, loss, fame, disgrace, slander, praise, pleasure, and pain.