KARMA
'The Buddhas and the Arhanis alone have discovered my true nature, in its very essence, and have triumphed over me. All other beings but live under my despotic rule : I put them to death and I make them to live; I am the deity who giveth them the prosperity they enjoy, and I bring about the doing of good deeds and of evil deeds among mankind. Gods, emperors, kings, rich and poor, strong and weak, noble and ignoble, brute creatures, and the happy and the unhappy spirits existing in this world and in the upper and in the lower worlds—all these I elevate or cast down to their respective states. I humble the high and I exalt the low, according to their several works. Therefore am I, indeed, the God who ruleth this [phenomenal] Universe.'
From Karma's Proclamation of His Omnipoience. 1 (Läma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's Translation.)
' On what we practise now dependeth our future;As the shadow followeth the body, Karma followeth us.Each hath perforce to taste what he himself hath done.'
From The Golden Rosary of the History of Padma[Sambhava], 2 Chapter ix.
(Läma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's Translation.)
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1
The Editor found among the late Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup'spapers an English translation consisting of three pages bearing thistitle (but without the Tibetan title of the original text) from whichthe quotation has been taken. At the end of the translation thereis the following note : ' Translated by Dawa-Samdup in accordancewith explanations given by the Rev. Praiñā Sathi. 28. 5. 1917.'
2
Tib. Padma-Thangyig-Serteng.
MILAREPA
'I am Milarepa, great in fame,The direct offspring of Memory and Wisdom;Yet an old man am I, forlorn and naked.From my lips springeth forth a little song,For all Nature, at which I look,Serveth me for a book.The iron staff, that my hands hold,Guideth me over the Ocean of Changing Life.Master am I of Mind and Light;And, in showing feats and miracles,Depend not on earthly deities.'
Milarepa, from the Gur-Bum(after G. Sandberg's Translation).
THE YOGI'S CAR OF VICTORY
'Whoso the Faith and Wisdom hath attained—His state of mind, well-harnessed, leads him on ;Conscience the pole, and Mind the yoke thereof,And Heedfulness the watchful charioteer:The furnishments of Righteousness, the Car;Rapture the axle, Energy the wheels;And Calm, yoke-fellow of the Balanced Mind;Desirelessness the drapery thereof.Goodwill and Harmlessness his weapons are,Together with Detachment of the mind.Endurance is the armour of the Norm,And to attain the Peace that Car rolls on.'Tis built by self, by one's own self becometh—This Chariot, incomparable, supreme;Seated therein the Sages leave the world,And verity they win the Victory.'
The Buddha, from the Saṃyutta Nikāya, v, p. 6.(F. L. Woodward's Translation.)
INTRODUCTION
(from the Tibetan)byRECHUNG, DISCIPLE OF MILAREPA
Obeisance to the Guru!
[HEREIN] I wish to narrate the history of a Great Yogi, who lived in this high snow-clad table-land of Tibet. [He was] one who had been profoundly impressed from his early youth by the transient and impermanent nature of all conditions of worldly existence, and by the sufferings and wretchedness in which he saw all beings immersed. To him existence seemed like some huge furnace wherein all living creatures were roasting. With such piercing sorrow did this fill his heart that he was unable to feel any envy even of the celestial felicity enjoyed by Brahmā and Indra in their Heavens, much less of the earthly joys and delights afforded by a life of worldly greatness.
On the other hand, he was so captivated by the Vision of Immaculate Purity, by the Chaste Beauty found in the description of the State of Perfect Freedom and Omniscience associated with the attainment of Nirvāṇa, that he cared not even though he should lose his very life in the search on which he had set out, endowed as he was with faith, firm and full, a keen intellect, and a heart overflowing with all-pervading love and sympathy.
[He was] one who, having had the advantage of holy and sacred teachers, stored up the life-giving elixir that fell from their lips, and tasted it for himself in the delightful solitude of mountain retreats, thereby obtaining emancipation from the toils of Ignorance, [so that] the seeds of Experience and Inspiration sprouted up in him and attained to full growth.
[He was] one who, having thrown aside all concern for
worldly prospects, ease, name, and fame, resolutely devoted himself to the single object of raising the banner of spiritual development to such a height that it might serve as a guide for future followers on the Path, as a signal sufficient to save them from worldliness and dilatoriness, and to urge them onward on the Upward Way. 1
[He was] one who, having been favoured by gods and angels, triumphed over the difficulties of the Path, obtaining transcendent pre-eminence in spiritual truths and such depth of knowledge and experience therein that religious devotion became second nature to him.
[He was] one who, by his profound reverence for and sincere belief in the Lineal Gurus, 2 obtained their grace and spiritual support, and nomination as their adopted spiritual successor in the promulgation of the Spiritual Truths, thereby manifesting super-normal powers and signs of an incomparable nature and unmistakable significance.
[He was] one who, by the power of the greatness of his fervent, sincere, and altruistic love and compassion, was endowed with the power and gift of inspiring even unrighteous, worldly, sin-hardened, sceptical scoffers and unbelievers with involuntary emotion of soul-stirring faith, causing each hair on their body to stand on end in thrilling ecstasy, and making the tears to flow copiously from their eyes, thereby sowing in them the seed of future redemption and enlightenment, and causing it to sprout up in their heart by the mere hearing of his history and name. Thus was he enabled to reclaim, redeem, and protect them from the pains and terror of this low, worldly existence.
[He was] one who, having mastered the mystic and occult
The Upward Way is the Path of Renunciation (Skt. Nivṛitti-Mārga) leading to Nirvāṇa, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Via Sacra of the Buddhas; whereas attachment to worldliness is the Path of Enjoyment (Skt. Pravṛitti-Mārga).
The Lineal Gurus are those of any School who are in apostolic succession, Milarepa himself being the fourth in the Kargyütpa Line, as explained in our Milarepa himself being the fourth in the Kargyütpa Line, as explained in our Introduction. The importance of the spiritual succession is likewise recognized in Brähmanism with its three lines of Gurus, the Divya, Siddha, and Mānava, the essential esoteric teachings being handed down not in books, but from guru (teacher) to shiṣḥya (disciple). This process of transmission is known in Sanskrit as Pāramparya-kranta.
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sciences, had communicated to him by the Ḍākinīs 1 continuously the four blissful states of ecstatic communion, 2 thus furthering his spiritual growth.
[He was] one who eventually rid himself of the Twofold Shadow [of Illusion and Karma 3 ] and soared into Spiritual Space, till he attained the Goal wherein all doctrines merge in at-one-ment.
[He was] one who, having attained to omniscience, all-pervading goodwill, and glowing love, together with the acquisition of transcendental powers and virtues, became a self-developed Buddha, who towered above all conflicting opinions and arguments of the various sects and creeds, like the topmost gem that adorns the Banner of Victory. 4
[He was] one who, having adopted the peerless Vajra Path, 5 gave himself to assiduous endeavour, and attained the utmost height of spiritual experience and knowledge.
The Ḍākinī[s] (Tib. Mkah-'gro-ma—pron. Kah-'gro-ma) are fairy-like goddesses of various orders, possessed of peculiar occult powers. Many of them are the chief deities invoked in the rituals of Tantricism, both Hindu and Buddhist. In other contexts herein, Ḍākinīs has been translated as 'angels'.
These, the four stages of Dhyāna (Tib. Bsam-gtan), have been given by the Translator as follows : (I) Analysis (Skt. Vitarka); (2) Reflection (Skt. Vichāra); (3) Fondness (Skt. Prīti); and (4) Bliss (Skt. Sukha). These are the four progressive mental states leading to the complete concentration of mind producing ecstatic Illumination.
3
Illusion (Skt. Māyā: Tib. Sgyūma—pron. Gyūma), or the universally human animistic belief that phenomena in worlds, hells, and heavens are real, and that the ego (itself a karmic conglomerate of characteristics acquired during incalculable aeons through experiences in the Sangsāra of phenomena) is real, is the Twofold Shadow hiding Reality, which, being non-sangsāric, cannot be realized either while one is immersed in existence on Earth or in any after-death paradise—not even in the Heaven of the Semitic Faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), which is within the realm of phenomena, of appearances, of personality, of sensation, of things. Nirvāṇa is beyond Nature, beyond phenomena. It is the 'Unbecome, Unborn, Unmade, Unformed'—the One Reality.
4
This is one of the eight symbols of Northern Buddhism, called the Eight Glorious Emblems, which are : (i) the Golden Fish, (a) the Royal Umbrella, (3) the Conch-shell Trumpet of Victory, (4) the Lucky Diagram, (5) the Banner of Victory, (6) the Vase, (7) the Lotus, and (8) the Wheel of the Law. The Banner of Victory (Tib. Rgyal-mts'an: Skt. Dhvaja) symbolizes Victory over the Sangsāra, or the attainment of Perfect Enlightenment—Nirvāṇa.
5
The Vajra (or 'Immutable') Path (Skt. Vajra-yāna) is the Path of Mysticism as known to the Kargyütpa Sect, in which Milarepa is one of the Great Dynasty, or Line, of Gurus.
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[He was] one whose fame of surpassing merit, being hymned by gods and angels, hath filled all the ten divisions of the universe 1 with the waving of the Banner of Fame, and with the reverberating tones of the Melody of Praise.
[He was] one whose physical body was pervaded by the descending bliss down to his very toes, and by the ascending bliss up to the crown of his head, where both merge in the moon-fluid bliss, thence rebounding and coursing down the three principal nerves, uncoiling the coils of the nerve-centres, and then finally enlarging the minutest nerves and changing them all into so many actual median-nerves. 2
[He was] one who thus was able to expound fluently the meanings and ideas contained in the twelve collections of Sūtras and the Four Scriptures, and to render them into metrical stanzas to be sung in the rites and ritual of the Vajra Path.
These are the four cardinal points, the four mid-way points, and the nadir and zenith.
This paragraph refers to the yogic process, as in Kuṇḍalinī Yoga, of developing the psychic nerves (Skt. nāḍī) and psychic nerve-centres (Skt. chakra) of the human body. The psychic nerve situated in the hollow of the spinal column (Skt. Brahma-daṇḍa) is the chief, or median nerve (Skt. suṣḥumṇā-nāḍī), and interconnected by it are the psychic nerve-centres, wherein are stored, like electricity in dynamos, the vital force (Skt. prāṇa), upon which all psycho‐ physical processes ultimately depend. Once the psychic nerve-centres have been awakened or uncoiled, beginning with the first, known as the Root-Support (Skt. Mūlādhāra) of the median-nerve, situated in the perineum, wherein the mighty occult power personified as the Goddess Kuṇḍalinī lies coiled like a serpent asleep, the yogī experiences Illumination. The Kuṇḍalinī, or Serpent, Power, having risen through the median-nerve and uncoiled the Root-Support, continues its upward course, penetrating and setting into psychic activity the second nerve-centre, called in Sanskrit the Svādiṣḥṭḥāna, which is the centre of the sex-organs, then the third, or navel nerve-centre, the Maṇipūra-chakra, then the fourth, or heart nerve-centre, the Anāhata-chakra, then the fifth, or throat nerve-centre, the Vishuddha-chakra, then the sixth, the Ājñā-chakra, situated between the eyebrows like a third eye, until, like mercury in a magic tube, it reaches the brain psychic nerve-centre, called the Thousand-Petalled Lotus (Skt. Sahasrāra-Padma), which is the Supreme, or Seventh, of the centres. Therein a subtle transformation is effected, in which the moon‐ fluid, or transmuted sex forces, are psycho-physically all-powerful. The divine bliss, arising from the Illumination, descends as heavenly ambrosia to feed all parts of the psychic body, even to the very toes. All the psychic nerve-centres are uncoiled, or set into functioning activity, and the smallest of the psychic nerves, compared to their undeveloped condition, are like median-nerves in the ecstatic condition of body such as Milarepa commonly enjoyed.
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He was] one who, having all his ideas and concepts merged with the Primal Cause, had eliminated the Illusion of Duality. 1
[He was] one who, being well versed in the science of mind and intellect, read external phenomena like a book.
[He was] a being boundlessly endowed with grace, omniscience, and power, and able to develop and emancipate even dumb beasts by preaching to them.
[He was] a being who had passed beyond the need of observing worldly rules, artificial conventions, and flattery, reverently worshipped by all rational beings [gods and men] with profound obeisance, while he remained tranquil, dignified, and attentive.
[He was] a being most diligent and persevering in meditation upon the Rare Path, not excelled by, but rather excelling all...
Suryamitra