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Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa
Chapter VI. The Initiation
Telling of Completion of Jetsün’s Probation; of Jetsün’s Initiation; and of Marpa’s Predictions concerning Jetsün.
Again Rechung addressed Jetsün, and asked him how, and under what circumstances, Lāma Marpa had favoured him afterward.
Jetsün continued: 'The other pupils, as I have said, were running up and down. After a while, Marpa recovered from his sulking and became quite mild. He said, “Now let Damema be requested to come here.” Somebody having gone for her, he next inquired, “Where are Ngogdun Chudor, and the other pupils?” Some one said, “Thy Reverence having commanded Ngogdun to go and fetch Naropa's garlands and the rosary, he started forth; but, meeting Great Sorcerer, just as he came out, he is even now engaged in consoling him.” And the occurrence was fully related to Marpa. At this, his eyes were filled with tears, and he said, “It is necessary for disciples of the Mystic Truths to be so; and he hath turned out exactly what is wanted. Now I pity my pupils, so go and call them.”
'One of the pupils went to Lāma Ngogpa, and told him, “Now our Lāma hath become mild, and he hath sent me to call thee.” I thereupon deplored my luckless condition, and envied the happy lot of those fortunate beings who enjoyed the Gurus grace and favour. “As for poor miserable me,” said I, 'I am debarred from the Guru's presence even when he is mild, for my very presence irritateth him and procureth me only his displeasure and beatings.” And then I wept bitterly. Lāma Ngogpa stayed with me, and requested the same pupil to go and relate my case to the Guru and to find out whether I might be allowed to approach him, adding, “If I do not remain here, this desperate person may do something rash.”
'The pupil went up and represented matters to Lāma Marpa, who said, “Formerly he would have been right, but to-day it shall not be so. The chief guest now is to be Great Sorcerer. Damema, go thou and invite him.” She came, all smiles, and said, “Great Sorcerer, at last, I think thy Guru is going to favour thee, for he said just now that thou wert to be the chief guest, and that I was to go and call thee. I take it to be a sign of an entire change on his part in thy favour. He was not angry with me either. Now rejoice and let us go in.”
'I was still doubtful, and went in rather diffidently. Having taken my seat, Lāma Marpa said, “When we come to think well over matters, no one seemeth to deserve blame. Wishing that Great Sorcerer might be absolved from his sins, I caused him to build the edifices single-handed. Had it been for my selfish purpose, why I could have got on much better by coaxing and by gentle means than otherwise, hence I was not to blame. As for Damema, she being a woman, and possessing a more than usual share of maternal sympathy and pity, could not bear to see me ill-treat poor Great Sorcerer, who seemed so willing, obedient, and patient. So who could blame her for furnishing him with the forged letter, and the accompanying tokens, although it was a rather serious thing to do? As for thee, Ngogdun-Chudor, thou art not to blame, as thou hast thyself said. I would, however, request thee to bring the reliques back for the present occasion, but they shall be restored to thee. As for thee, Great Sorcerer, thou art quite right in trying to obtain Religious Truths by every possible means. Not having heard of the dispatch of the forged letter to Ngogdun, who had, in accordance with it, conferred the Initiation and the Sacred Truths upon Great Sorcerer, I was thus deprived of the chance of filling Great Sorcerer with despair, as I, [bound by duty], should have done. Therefore was I angered; and, although my anger recoiled on me like a wave of water, yet it was not like vulgar worldly anger. Religious anger is a thing apart; and, in whatever form it may appear, it hath the same object - to excite repentance and thereby to contribute to the spiritual development of the person. Should there be any one amongst you who are seated here, who, not understanding the religious motive, feeleth shocked at these things, I exhort him not to be shaken in his faith and belief. Had I had the chance of plunging this spiritual son of mine nine times into utter despair, he would have been cleansed thoroughly of all his sins. He would thus not have been required to be born again, but would have disappeared totally, his physical body being forever dissolved; he would have attained Nirvāṇa. That it will not be so, and that he will still retain a small portion of his demerits, is due to Damema's ill-timed pity and narrow understanding. However, he hath been subjected to eight deep tribulations, which have cleansed him of the heavier sins; and he hath suffered many minor chastenings, which will purify him from minor sins. Now I am going to care for him and give him those Teachings and Initiations which I hold as dear as mine own heart. I myself will provide him with food while he is in retreat, and with mine own hands will enclose him in the place of meditation. Henceforth rejoice.”
'I was not sure whether I was awake or dreaming. If dreaming, I wished the dream to continue, and that I should not awake, such was mine inexpressible joy. I wept from very delight, and made obeisance. It was upon this occasion that Lāma Ngogpa, and Mother Damema, along with the others assembled there, did not know which to admire most in my Guru - his sternness and inflexibility while chastening me, or his mercy and kindness in undertaking the care of me, or his wisdom and sagacity in all his deeds. They recognized him to be a Buddha Himself, and were strongly confirmed in their faith and belief. They regarded him with affection, and shed tears, and again rose up and bowed down in gratitude for the kindness shown to me. All were beaming with smiles and laughter, and in this happy mood all partook of the sacrificial cakes.
'That very night, offerings were laid on the altar; and, in the presence of the assembly, my hair was cropped, and I was ordained a priest, my dress being changed [for the priestly robe]. Marpa said that in the dream-vision which he had had, his Guru Naropa had given me, at the very beginning, the name Mila-Dorje-Gyaltsen (Mila, Diamond Banner). I was required to observe the vow of a Ge-nyen (lay-brother) and enjoined to follow the vows of those who aspire to be Teaching Buddhas [or Bodhisattvas].
'When Marpa blessed the wine of the Inner Offering, every one saw a rainbow-like halo emitted from the skull-cup1 which contained the wine. With the sacrificial wine, he worshipped his Masters and Tutelary Deities, and then, partaking of it himself, gave me the remainder, which I drank entirely. My Guru said, “It is a good omen. Although the wine-offering of mine Inner Worship is superior to the Rite of Complete Initiation of any other sect, yet will I also give thee to-morrow morning the Complete Initiation [of our Sect], which will tend to ripen the seeds of the Mystic Truths that shall be sown in thy heart.”
'Then he erected the Dēmchog Maṇḍala of sixty-two Deities,2 and proceeded to explain it. He pointed to the dust-painted ground plan of the Maṇḍala and said that it was called the symbolical and figurative diagram.3 Then, with his finger, he pointed to the firmament above, and said, “Look, those are called the Maṇḍala of the Actual Realities.”
'[And lo, there] I beheld, very distinctly, the Twenty-Four Holy Places, the Thirty-Two Places of Pilgrimage, the Eight Great Places of Cremation, and Demchog,4 with all the Deities inhabiting these different Holy Places seated round about him. The Deities, uniting their voice with the voice of my Guru, in one grand chorus, conferred upon me the initiatory name of Pal- Zhadpa-Dorje (Glorious Full-Blown Immutable One, i.e. Bearer of the Mystic Symbol5): Skt. Shrī- Vikasita (Hasita) Vajra.
'My Guru next gave me free permission to go through the [Mantrayānic] Tantras. He also gave me detailed explanations of various works on meditation [or Yoga], and of their methods and systems in full.6 Then, placing his hand upon the crown of my head, he said, “My son, I knew thee to be a worthy śiṣya from the very first. The night before thine arrival here, I had a dream which predicted that thou wouldst be one who would serve the Cause of Buddhism very efficiently. My Damema had a similar dream, which corroborated mine. Above all, both our dreams, showing the temple to be guarded by a female, predicted that the Guardian Deity of thy Teaching would be a Ḍākinī. Thus thou art a śiṣya whom my Guru and my Guardian Goddess have given me as a boon. Such being the case, I really had gone to meet thee, on the pretence of ploughing my field. Thy drinking up all the chhang which I there gave thee, and thy ploughing up the field entirely, predicted that thou wouldst be a worthy śiṣya, who would imbibe the whole of the Spiritual Truths which I had to impart to thee. Furthermore, thine offer of the four-handled copper vessel predicted my having four famous disciples. The vessel's being quite devoid of any dirt predicted thine entire freedom from worldly passions, and that thy body would gain complete control over the Vital Warmth.7 The offering of thy vessel empty, predicted that when thou meditatest hereafter thou wilt suffer from want. But so that thou mightest enjoy plenty in thine old age, and that thy followers and disciples might be filled with the Elixir of Spiritual Truths, I filled thy vessel with melted butter for altar-lamps. With a view to making thy name famous, I rang the handle rings as loudly as possible. And it was with a view to cleansing thee from thy sins that I had thee to work so hard upon the four houses. The houses themselves symbolize the nature of the four types of action, each house representing one of the four, namely, the peaceful, the powerful, the fascinating, and the stern, respectively.8 I purposely wanted to fill thy heart with bitter repentance and sorrow, verging on despair, by turning thee out ignominiously. And thou, for having borne all those trials with patience and meekness, without the least change in thy faith in me, shalt have, as the result, disciples full of faith, energy, intelligence, and kind compassion, endowed from the first with the qualifications essential to worthy śiṣyas. They shall be devoid of carnal and worldly longings, patient, hardy, and painstaking in the time of their meditation. Lastly, they shall be blessed with Realization of Wisdom, and be filled with grace and truth, so that every one of them shall be a perfect Lāma, and this Hierarchy of the Kargyütpa Sect be rendered as eminent and conspicuous as the waxing moon. Therefore rejoice.”
'Thus it was that my Guru encouraged, praised, and gladdened me, and that my happy days began.
'This is the Third [Meritorious] Act - the Act of mine obtaining the anxiously sought Initiation and Truth.’
Footnotes
1. A ceremonial cup made of a human skull, symbolizing the impermanence of man's life on Earth, and, also, renunciation of all saṃsāric existence.
2. That is, he prepared the Magic Circle, or Maṇḍala, for the reception of the sixty-two principal deities invoked in the ritual of the god Demchog (Skt. Shamvara), ‘The Chief of Happiness’. See the late Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's translation of the Demchog Tantra, edited by Arthur Avalon, Tantrik Texts.
3. This, as indicated, is a geometrical diagram outlined with dust or sand, commonly of different colours, either on a floor, if the initiation be in a temple or house, or on the bare rock or earth, if the initiation be in a cave or in the open air. Then the Deities are invoked, usually by intoning their secret mantra, a special place within the diagram being assigned to each of them. Siddhas (or Yogīs) possessed of clairvoyant vision say that when the invocation is properly performed, by a highly developed human Guru, the Deities appear, each in the place assigned in the Maṇḍala, and make the Mystic Initiation very real and effective psychically, the neophyte at once becoming affected with divine vision and ecstatic joy. Thence come the mystic regeneration and the true baptism in the fire of the spirit, and the conferring of the new name, which invariably suggests the chief spiritual qualities of the neophyte receiving it. Milarepa's initiation being of the most exalted character, he beholds various psychic centres, and the Deities invoked, as though they were in the ethereal spaces directly overshadowing the maṇḍala on the Earth.
The Kulārṇava Tantra (see Tantrik Texts, by A. Avalon) refers to various kinds of Initiation (Dīkṣā). The degree of competency of the candidate determines the degree of the Initiation. Thus by the Vedha-Dīkṣā, the Guru transfers spiritual power to the Śiṣya directly. It is said that in this way Rāma -Kṛṣṇa Paramahangsa initiated his chief disciple, Swāmi Vivekānanda.
4. Text: Dpal-hkhor-lo-sdompa (pron. Pal-Khor-lo-Dom-pa), another name of Dēmchog (Bde-mch’og), ‘The Chief of Happiness’, one of the Tutelary Deities of the Kargyütpa Sect: Skt. Shamvara.
5. This rendering of the Initiatory Name follows that by M. Bacot, in his Version.
6. 4 The Initiation being a Complete Initiation into the Dēmchog Maṇḍala, the underlying esoteric interpretation of the very profound Dēmchog Tantra, and of similar Tantras of the Mantrayānic School, is given to Milarepa; and, also, the Secret Mantras, or Words of Power. In addition, there are expounded to him various complementary treatises of an occult character concerning yogic systems of meditation.
7. 1 This is a peculiar bodily warmth acquired by yogic control of the breathing process and the vital forces of the body, whereby the yogī becomes immune to coldness. In the high snowy altitudes of Tibet, where Milarepa passed his life, fuel of all sorts, for producing fire, is rare and costly; and the Vital Warmth is a very necessary acquirement for yogīs in hermitage there, and all practising hermits of the Kargyütpa Sect are enjoined by their Guru to become proficient in acquiring it. Deep breathing, as known to Europeans, forms part of the practice. The Editor possesses an English version of the process, which he worked out in collaboration with the late Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup, and which he anticipates publishing, along with other translations of Tibetan texts on Yoga.
Sj. Atal Bihari Ghosh has added here the following: 'Before the śiṣya can practise yoga in its highest form, in Rāja-Yoga, he must perfect his material body by means of Haṭha-Yoga, so that it becomes “beyond contraries’ (Skt. Dvandvātīta) - heat and cold, dampness and dryness, and all similar physical opposites. To this end are necessary the various yogic processes prescribed for purifying the body (Skt. Dhauti-Shodhana), the various bodily postures (Skt. Āsana and Mudrā) and control of the breathing (Skt. Prāṇāyāma). The Gheraṇḍa-Saṁhitā and the Haṭhayoga-Pradīpikā describe Haṭha-Yoga as the staircase leading to Rāja- Yoga; and through Rāja- Yoga, the yogi becomes Dvandvātīta in a higher sense - praise and blame, pleasure and pain, and all similar mental of intellectual and psychic opposites becoming undifferentiated to him. Under Haṭha-yoga is classified Mantra-Yoga, which, too, is preparatory to Rāja-Yoga.'
8. The geometrical forms of the four structures are also symbolical, thus: the Circle symbolizes the Element Water; the Crescent, the Element Air; the Triangle, the Element Fire; and the Square, the Element Earth.
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