Die Kultivierungsgeschichte von Buddha Milarepa – Teil VIII

Welcome to Radio Minghui, the podcast of Falun Gong practitioners. We report firsthand about the persecution in China. In addition, you will hear personal experiences from all over the world as well as special contributions. In this podcast you will hear from the Tibetan transmission The cultivation history of Buddha Milarepa Part 8 Almost a millennium ago, there was a cultivator named Milarepa in the Himalayas. He attained powerful virtue in just one life and attained enlightenment. Later he became known as the founder of the white sect of Tibetan Buddhism. What happened so far? In a dream, Milarepa sees that his mother has died, his sister is wandering around as a beggar and his parents' house has been looted. Packed with unrest and homesickness, he leaves his meditation cave and says goodbye with a heavy heart to Master Marpa, his wife and the others, to see his mother again. Arriving in his hometown, he has to realize that his dream corresponds to reality. He deeply recognizes the transience and illusion of all earthly life and decides to go to the mountains to continue cultivating there in a still abyss. You are now listening to the eighth part of the story. Ritsungpa asked, Master, how did you practice as a cheese? Where did you practice? Milarepa replied, The next morning the son of the teacher prepared a sack of roasted barley flour for me and good food as a gift. He said, this is for your cultivation. Please promise not to forget us. I took the food and went into a cave in the mountains behind my house to meditate. To eat, I mixed the flour with water very sparingly. After a while, my body became weak, but my cultivation improved considerably. In this way, I cultivated myself for several months and finally consumed all food. My body was too weak to continue. I thought, I need some yak butter from a farmer and roasted barley flour. In order to continue cultivating, I have to keep this body from starvation. I went down the mountain to a nearby meadow, where I saw a tent made of yak wool. As I stood in front of the tent, I asked, Almsgiver, would you give a yogi some butter? It turned out to be my aunt's tent. She recognized me by my voice. Out of anger, she chased a wild dog at me. In order to defend myself, I hurriedly threw some stones at him. My aunt took a pole, which supported the yak wool tent, and ran at me, cursing me. You waste, you enemy of your relatives, you village demon, shame on you, what are you doing here? I never would have thought that a family would have a son like you. She kept cursing and swung the pole to beat me. I ran away, but because of the undernourishment, my body was too weak. I stumbled over a stone and fell into a small creek. My aunt kept cursing and began to hit me with the pole. I kept trying until I finally managed to get up. With my hand on a walking stick, I began to sing to her in tears. The girl who had come out of the tent with my aunt heard my singing and could not hold back her tears of compassion. My aunt also felt touched and returned to the tent. She asked the girl to give me a leather bag with butter and cheese. Hinking, I left the tent of my aunt and continued to pray. Tent around tent. I did not know who these people were, but they knew me all. When they saw me coming, they all looked at me attentively and gave me a lot of good food. When I thought about how my aunt had treated me, I feared that my uncle would also be hard on me. So I thought it would be better to go somewhere else to beg for food. With these thoughts I went to the next village. Who would have thought that uncle had moved to this village many years ago because his house had collapsed. Without knowing it, I went to his door. When uncle saw me, he jumped up, You bastard! You money-waste! I am so old and thin down to my bones, but you are the one I have been waiting for all my life. He picked up a few stones and threw them at me. In a hurry I ran away. Uncle ran in and grabbed bow and arrow. He came out screaming, You scrupulous waste! Haven't you hurt this village enough? Hey! Neighbors and relatives! Come out quickly! Our enemy is here! When they heard uncle screaming like that, many young people came out and helped him to throw stones at me. They all had suffered a lot of lust in the past. When I saw this difficult situation, I feared they would kill me. And so I acted as if I gesticulated in anger and shouted, Masters and deities! This cultivator has come across enemies who want to take his life. Divine guards, please bring these stones back with dark arrows. Even if I die, the divine guards will not die. When they heard these words, everyone was frightened and held uncle back. Some who understood me came to mediate the quarrel. The stone-throwers also came to me and asked for forgiveness. They all gave me a lot of food, except uncle. He refused to intervene or give me any alms. I took the food and slowly went back to the cave. A closeness to the village would certainly cause them trouble and discomfort, I thought. So I wondered if I should leave this place soon. That night I had a dream, in which an old man seemed to tell me I should stay a few more days. I decided to do that. After a few days, Zese came with very good food and wine. When she saw me, she took me in her arms and began to cry loudly. Shuddering, she described to me in detail how mother had died and how my sister was far from home. When I heard about these tragic experiences, I also had to cry in pain. After a while I held back my tears and asked Zese, are you still not married? The people fear your divine guards, and no one dares to marry me. But even if someone wanted to marry me, I don't want to marry. You practice a sincere Dharma, and that is so wonderful. Zese said nothing for a while and then asked me, do you have a plan for your house and country? I knew what was going on in her head and thought to myself, my departure from this worldly life and that I give up my family to follow a sincere Dharma is quite the result of the mercy of Master Marpa. Zese should get a positive understanding of the Buddhist Dharma. That would be best for her. She has to decide for herself how to deal with these worldly things. I should explain this to her clearly. I said, if you see my sister Peeta, give her the house and the whole country. Before that, you can enjoy this family property. If it is confirmed that Peeta is dead, I will leave the house and country to you. Don't you want that for yourself? I replied, I cultivate myself in an ascetic practice and live like a rat or like a bird, so that the country is not useful to me. Even if all the countries in this world belonged to me, I could not take anything with me when I die. If I let go of everything at this moment, I will be happy now and also in the future. What I do is the opposite of what ordinary people do, and so you do not see me as an ordinary person from now on. She asked, so you despise all other people who practice Dharma? If a person learns the Dharma in order to become famous, he will teach scriptures and explain the Dharma. He is then satisfied when his sect wins and is happy when others lose. That means he is only looking for fame and personal advantage. They only wear yellow robes and claim to only study the Dharma. I am against such people. On the other hand, if the motives of a person are pure and sincere, it does not matter in which sect he is. He strives for enlightenment. Then I am absolutely not against him. I despise those whose intentions are fundamentally impure. Zese said, I have never met or heard of anyone who is poor or lame like you and learns the Dharma. Which of the Mahayana do you follow? This is the holiest of all methods. This means giving up the eight worldly interests and achieving Buddhahood in one life. Your words and your actions differ from all other masters. It seems that one of the two is wrong. Assuming both are Dharma, I still prefer yours. I replied, I don't like those masters you like worldly people. The content of your Dharma is the same as mine. But if you wear a yellow robe and are still driven by worldly interests, it is completely pointless. Even if this person is not moved by the eight world laws, the relative time that this person needs to achieve Buddhahood is very different. You may not understand this point. In short, if you can be determined, it would be best if you strive to practice the Dharma. If you can't, you should just take care of the country and the home. Zese replied, I don't want your house and your country. You can just give it to your sister. I will practice the Dharma. But I can't practice your cultivation method. After she said that, she left. A few days later, Tante found out that I no longer wanted the house and the country. She was amazed and thought, he said he followed the words of his master and didn't want any property. I have to go and see if that's true. So she visited me with food and wine. When she saw me, she said, Nephew, I was wrong a few days ago. You are a Dharma practitioner. Please have mercy and forgive me. I would like to order your country for you and pay you interest every month. It would be a shame if your country were useless. What do you think? I said, great! I only need one kahl every month, about 25 to 30 pounds of grain flour. You can keep the rest. Happy and satisfied, Tante left again. Two months later, Tante came back and said, All people say, if someone orders your field, the divine guards would be angry and would bewitch it. Please don't enchant it. I said, why should I enchant it? You have virtue, so don't worry. Just cultivate the field and bring me food. She said, if that's the case, I'm reassured. Can you promise me that? I thought, why would she want me to do that? Even if she has bad intentions, this negative condition could become acceptable. And so I gave the promise and she happily left. I continued to practice in the cave. Although I gave my best, I still could not reach the virtue of inner heat. When I thought about what I could do, I had a dream at night. In this dream I saw myself ordering a field, which was very difficult. No matter how hard I tried, it was difficult to fly. Just when I wanted to give up, Master Marpa appeared in heaven and said, My son, work hard when you fly. As long as you move forward bravely, you will be successful, no matter how difficult it may be. With these words, Master Marpa flew in front and I flew in the back. In fact, the field was later covered by healthy seedlings. I woke up happy. But as I continued to think about it, I realized that a dream is just a manifestation of my habits. Not even an ordinary person would take it seriously. If I was happy about a dream, wasn't that too narrow-minded? Nevertheless, I knew it was an omen. I would certainly gain virtue if I continued to try to move forward. At that time, I already had the intention to practice in the Tracartaso cave. Then aunt visited me with three dough, roasted barley flour – a dough corresponds to about ten liters – a worn down coat, a piece of fabric and a lump of butter and fat. Annoyingly, she said to me, This is what you get for selling the land. Please take it and go to a distant place where I can neither see nor hear you, because the villagers all say, Topaga has hurt our village so much and now you have called him back. He will probably kill you all in the village. If you don't drive him away, we will kill you both, you and him. And so I came here especially to tell you this. Please, it is best if you go to a distant place. Assuming you have to stay here, they may not kill me, but they will definitely kill you. I knew that the villagers would not say such a thing. If I had not been a true Dharma practitioner, I would not have allowed her to take the land that I had promised her earlier. Although I had promised not to cast a spell, that did not necessarily mean that she could take my land by deception. So I thought and said to my aunt, I am a cultivator, and for a cultivator it is crucial to take humiliation. If you cannot bear vices, how could you then call that bearing humiliation? If I had to die tonight, not only this land, but everything in this world would be useless for me. Humiliation to be tolerated is the most important thing for a Dharma practitioner. And you, aunt, are my opponent, through whom I can cultivate the bearing of humiliation. Your and uncle's favoritism was also the reason why I was able to meet a sincere Dharma. To repay your favoritism, I promise that I hope that you will both receive the Buddhaship in the future. I do not want the land and I also want to give you the house. Then I sang a song. I live in awe of the grace of the Master, free and unrestricted in the mountains. The Master is well aware of the blessing and misfortune of the disciples. Worldly people are led by karma, cannot escape life and death. If I am greedy for worldly interests, there is no hope, because my soul is lost. Worldly people are busy collecting karma, which leads to suffering on low levels. Greed and blindness lead to a burning flame. Desire for property and wealth often leads to conflicts and creates enemies. Good wine is like poison. Whoever drinks it finds liberation difficult. My aunt loves money very much. Greedy, she unceasingly collects property. With worldly greediness, ultimately ends up as a hungry ghost. What aunt said is mostly spread by gossip. Even more such words bring real suffering. My house and all my land is given to aunt. I learn Dharma with a pure heart. Brotherhood is achieved. Those who suffer, offer redemption, as it is created unintentionally by karmic influences. I build on elevation. The inner nature remains unmoved. Blessed with mercy, I pray for support by the master. Free and unrestricted I live here in the mountains. Aunt heard my song and said only, nephew, people like you are true cultivators. Satisfied and happy, she climbed down the mountain. After these irritations, my reluctance and my desire to leave this earthly world became stronger than ever. Therefore, it did not matter to me to give up the house and the land. I thought about going to Drakartaso immediately to meditate there. This cave was the place where I practiced until I reached perfection. That is why it was later called the rock cave of the ascent. That day I made my way to Drakartaso in the early morning with the gifts I had received through the sale of the land and a few personal blessings. The rock cave of Drakartaso was suitable to live in. After my arrival, I laid out a hard piece of felt and placed a small mat as a meditation seat on it. After I had arranged everything necessary, I sang a solemn promise. I vowed that I would not leave the mountain because of food even if I starved. I would not leave the mountain because of clothing even if I died of cold. I would not leave the mountain because of medication even if I died of illness. I give up everything and everything that belongs to this life and to the earthly world. My body, my language and my mind will remain stable and strive exclusively for Buddhahood. I hope the Master, the Dakinis and the divine guardians will help me to achieve this. Should I break this vow, I would rather die than keep a human body that does not properly cultivate Dharma. Therefore, if I do not fulfill this vow, my life will end immediately. If I die, I wish the Master could help me to be reborn as a human who can practice an upright Dharma. After this vow, I ate only a small amount of roasted barley flour every day. Day after day, I continued to practice as cheese. But even with the help of the Mahamudra meditation, my energy and my breath were not harmonious. As a result, I could not awaken the inner fire and felt very cold. So I asked the Master for help. One night it seemed as if I saw Master Marpa, who filled me with great joy during a prayer ritual surrounded by many ladies. A lady asked, What should Milarepa do if he cannot generate the inner fire? Master Marpa replied, He should practice in this and that way. Then he showed a special meditation position. When I woke up, I followed his instructions to perform the six fire seals, a kind of special sitting position. After I adjusted the energy, brought my breathing under control and suppressed random thoughts, my mind relaxed and the inner fire was generated. After a year, I thought about going out and visiting the village. As I was about to leave, I remembered my vow from earlier. And so I encouraged myself and continued bravely. Day and night, without a break, to progress diligently. Gradually, I made more and more progress. More than three years passed. Although in one year I consumed a lot of roasted barley flour, in the course of the years, it became less and less. In the end, I had nothing to eat. If I continued in this way, I would starve. I thought, worldly people treat this precious human body mercilessly for money. They are happy about every small profit and are dissatisfied about every small loss. They are so humiliating. A world of three thousand worlds is nothing compared to the attainment of Buddhahood. If I can't achieve it and lose this human body in vain, it would be a real shame. So I should go to get some food so that I can continue to live. Then I remembered my vow from earlier. Should I go down the mountain or not? After I had thought about it back and forth, I decided to go not for pleasure, but to get some food for my cultivation. Therefore, it did not count as breaking the vow, but as something I had to do. To get some food to practice Dharma, I left the Drakkathaso cave. That place was an open field where I could see very far. The sun was warm, there was a clear stream and there was lush grass and green nettles. When I saw that, I was happy and thought, now I can survive by eating nettles and not having to go down the mountain for food anymore. From then on, I lived a christian existence, consumed nettles and continued my meditation. After a long time, all the clothes I had were worn out and nothing was left of it. I had lost weight and my hair and pores had turned green. When I thought of the Master's letter, I put it on my head and felt very happy. Although there was nothing to eat, I felt happy and well, as if I had just eaten delicious food. Comfortable and satisfied. I thought about opening the letter and reading it, but an omen indicated the time for it and so I did not open it. Another year passed in this way. Once a group of hunters with hunting dogs passed by. They had not been able to find any prey and had somehow reached the entrance of my cave. When they saw me, they were shocked and shouted, Are you a human or a ghost? I answered, I am a human, I am a human in cultivation. Why is your body so green? someone asked. I have eaten nuts for a long time, that's why I have become like this. Where is your food for practicing? Lend us some of your food and we will give you money for it later. If you don't give us food, we will kill you. They searched the whole cave and threatened me viciously. There are no more nuts, if I had any, I would not hide them. You should give cultivating food and certainly not rob the cultivator of the food. A hunter asked, What is so good about giving cultivating donations? Giving cultivating donations brings you blessings, I replied. He just laughed and said, Okay, great, I'll come and give you a donation. He picked me up from the seat and threw me on the ground. Then he picked me up again and let me fall again and repeated this again. My thin and weak body could not bear to be picked up and thrown and it hurt indescribably. Although they humiliated me in this way, mercy for them was in my heart. I found them indescribably pitiful and could not hold back my tears. Another hunter, who sat on the side and threw me on the ground, called, Hey, don't do that! He is indeed an ascetic practitioner. Even if he were not, it does not make a hero out of you to tyrannize such a lean person. And our stomachs are not hungry because of him. Stop doing such unwise things! Then he said to me, Yogi, I really admire you and do not disturb you. Please protect and bless me. The man who had abused me said, I have already given you a sacrifice, up and down, you should also bless me. He laughed and left. I did not cast spells on her. Maybe it was the punishment by the three jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma and the monk's order of Buddhism, or the confession for his own evil deeds. Anyway, I later learned that a judge soon later sentenced me to death. In addition, hunters, who told the others they should not tyrannize me, received heavy penalties. You are listening to Radio Minghui, the podcast of Falun Gong practitioners. We say thank you for listening. You can find more episodes on our website www.de.minghui.org