Milarepa, his life and example, given at Karma Chöling, January fourth. This will be talk number four. Following what we discussed yesterday or today, this morning, This seem to be an important point in the practicing lineage, and in particular, the Milarepa’s example that a fundamental devotion tend to bring a certain sense of heroism and a certain sense of pride, free from arrogance. And when we talk about arrogance, we are talking in terms of individual individual’s attitude. Walking towards one upmanship.
But when we talk about a heroism, we are talking in terms of sense of reality and a sense of transformation taking place. And the transformation from that point of view does not come from one way direction. It seems to come from two way directions, two way traffic, so to speak. That is to say, devotion to the guru brings devotion to the path and the transformation to the path which makes individuals sacred, so therefore, the worthiness of oneself, one’s trust in one’s alienated nature can be explored, can be uncovered, can be realized as we go on. So from that point of view, the devotion could be regarded as total experience Rather than that you are diverted to somebody, you might be a good nurse to a dying old man, grandfather, and clean up his shit and feed him by a spoon.
That kind of a devotion and dedication is belongs to the geriatrics ward or similar type. But in this case, it is total transformation which comes through all directions. Every directions. In other word, trust in oneself is the beginning of the devotion, and then from the trust begin to expand greater level where there’s some kind of understanding, a mutual understanding of you and your particular practice, sitting practice of meditation begin to become an important point. And the sitting practice of meditation, that point becomes like a spinal cord or the backbone.
Without the sitting practice of meditation, you become a jellyfish. Very floppy. Very floppy, that you don’t have a strong sense of composure anymore because you don’t have a backbone. It become like a piece of meat, some raw meat, very floppy, raw flesh. Having some kind of backbone does provide immense dignity where the sense of arrogance is absence, but pride becomes important.
It becomes very realistic, very genuine, and open process. From the sense of that kind of pride brings the notion of importance of the practicing tradition and the one’s own practice such as that he had gone through in his life, cave after caves, and discipline after disciplines of all kinds that he is able to come through go through the process of complete exertion and discipline patience. Which actually made Milarepa an important person, well known figure in the lineage because of his exertion, his openness, his power of practice, his power of exertion. As he was a powerful, one meaning in everything what he does. So the practice of meditation, sitting practice of meditation becomes very important at this point.
That’s also a source of heroism and also a source of power. And the source of further inspiration in order to relate with the rest of the world, the once-in-a-while situations. Milarepa’s example of attainment of enlightenment in one lifetime is based on exertion as well as based on sense of heroism. The question that seem to be is for how long can we punish ourselves all the time, Condemn ourselves all the time? How far how many times we can do that all the time?
How much can you do that? There comes at some point somewhere that we had to treat ourselves well, pull up our socks, of course, and celebrate life along with the practice, which is the closest to the attainment of enlightenment of one lifetime. Actually, a celebration is attainment of enlightenment, or the sense of celebration is could be close to enlightenment. One begin to see one side of neurosis and the problems and problems of our existence go through in our life, but at the same time, whole thing becomes somehow workable, and it is very personal, at the same time, delightful, Splendid. Magnificent.
That you can actually tune into the discipline world without punishing yourself, flagellating yourself, And you can actually pull your socks and actually celebrate in the exertion and discipline, which is a fantastic achievement, which doesn’t need certain higher state of consciousness per se, as they’re saying, or certain higher level of different human realm, but it’s simply commitment and openness brings that you are committed already, make yourself at home, making oneself at home to the lineage, the hospitality of the lineage, so to speak, and beyond that, that we can also open, relax, let go, but still constantly being extraordinarily careful and watch ful. But that seems to be part of the ornaments. That mindfulness is very refreshing each time. Every moment when the bubble surfaces, mindfulness begin to pop. There’s a new creation of fresh air that’s taking place all the time.
When we talk about discipline and exertion, people tend to have a different kind of attitude. Everything had to be somber and militant. Particularly the Zen tradition of America is led astray by that kind of approach these days at least. Exertion and discipline and sense of openness doesn’t have to come with the it doesn’t have to it doesn’t have come along with the sense of confusion at all. It’s very clean-cut and sometimes very powerful worth celebrating.
If you have any questions, you’re welcome. Rinpoche, the I think the last in September on the Sadhana, correct me if I I don’t recollect properly, but I think you, in talking about Mahāmudrā, mentioned the devotion involved in Mahāmudrā. Somehow the end result was something akin to becoming like a piece of meat, a piece of raw meat. And tonight you mentioned, I got the suggestion was, as I took it, that that was an end result of the devotion. That was I think that seemed to be a different kind of approach.
And that kind of piece of raw meat is just purely the quality of the meat itself rather than how how a piece of raw meat will stand on its own. And in this case, it’s it’s a question of how a piece of raw meat will stand on its own. And it’s become piece of jellyfish. It does not have a backbone. It’s two different analogies.
Can you say some more about what you mean by heroism? I don’t think you defined it. Well, I didn’t understand the definition. Is there any problems? Heroism is seems like such I mean, it’s a funny word.
Precisely. And I decided to choose that particular word. Words like dictatorial and heroism were no longer pejorative. And heroism is concerned. It’s simply being heroic, meaning to say, in the situation that you take you take pleasure, appreciation in your discovery, your experience.
What you have experienced is real thing and you don’t particularly lay trips with other people per se, but simply you just appreciate what you’re doing. And precisely just trying to get into the situation clearly. It’s if I may if I may push some analysis of that is that I was talking about, thinking about that last night actually, is Beethoven makes aggression respectable, and Mozart makes compassion respectable. There’s the celebration involved, rather than bang bang bang or anything like that. It’s fantastic.
Showmanship, much subtle No showmanship actually. Very personal but still extraordinarily lively and extraordinarily powerful and more of a it’s very human. Continued at this point on the second side of the cassette.