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Milarepa's final teaching to Gampopa

personperson Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
in Meditation
Excerpt from Kalu Rinpoche's LUMINOUS MIND: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA (1997):

One day, Milarepa warned Gampopa that the time had come for him to depart.

He told Gampopa, "You have received the entire transmission. I have given you all the teachings, as if pouring water from one vase into another. Only 1 pith instruction remains that I haven't taught you. It's very secret."

He then accompanied Gampopa to a river, where they were to part. Gampopa made prostrations to take his leave and started across. But Milarepa called him back: "You are a really good disciple. Anyway I will give you this last teaching."

Overjoyed, Gampopa prostrated 9 times, then waited for the instructions. Milarepa proceeded to turn around, pull up his robe, showing Gampopa his bottom. "Do you see?"

And Gampopa said, "Uh...yes..."

"Do you really see?"

Gampopa was not sure what he was supposed to see. Milarepa had calluses on his buttocks; they looked as though they were half flesh and half stone.

"You see, this is how I reached enlightenment: sitting and meditating. If you want to reach it in this life, make the same effort. This is my final teaching. I have nothing more to add."
JeffreyVastmindCinorjer

Comments

  • SillyPuttySillyPutty Veteran
    So... the moral of this story is... to buy a zafu?

    :D
    personTheEccentricBodhivaka
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    Great story. I love Milarepa and Gompopa.
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    I am always saddened by this story because it seems to indicate that Milarepa was still trying to shock Gompopa into realization. In other words genuine transmission had not occurred. It seemingly shows how even stone buttocks do not confer an ability to awaken others.

    When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick. Every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.
    ~ Milarepa

    . . . just a thought . . . soon time to work on my calluses . . .
    :buck:
    SillyPutty
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    edited July 2013
    @Lobster
    All this time, I've been apparently mistakenly telling folks this story is another confirmation that the real transmission is the practise and any secret teachings are best left where the sun don't shine.
    NB rules again!
    lobsterBodhivaka
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    @How

    A good story is like an asshole (we all know one - or in my case are one) and it lets our crap out . . .

    One storey
    Many levels :wave:
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited July 2013
    It is said that Milarepa had stinging nettles plants near the exit to his cave. He never pulled them up because he felt any effort to make samsara more comfortable was just a pipe dream and he himself would spend his time meditating. Sure there are some who are enlightened by hearing a rock drop to the ground, but most of us have to put a lot of time on the cushion just to get another human birth.
    karmablues
  • karmablueskarmablues Veteran
    edited July 2013
    According to the Mahagosinga Sutta, Sariputta is visited by Maha Moggallana, Maha Kassapa, Anuruddha, Revata and Ananda, and he asks each of them what type of monk would illuminate the Gosinga Woods. Each gives their own answer and after that they all seek the Buddha to ask for his opinion. The Buddha said:
    "You have all spoken well, Sariputta, each in his own way. Hear also from me what kind of bhikkhu could illuminate this Gosinga Woods. Here, Sariputta, when a bhikkhu has returned from his almsround, after his meal, he sits down, folds his legs crosswise, sets his body erect, and establishing mindfulness in front of him, resolves: 'I shall not break this sitting position until through not clinging my mind is liberated from the taints [greed, aversion and delusion].' That kind of bhikkhu could illuminate this Gosinga Woods."
    person
  • betaboybetaboy Veteran
    Moral of the story: Hemorrhoids and enlightenment go together.
  • betaboybetaboy Veteran
    lobster said:

    I am always saddened by this story because it seems to indicate that Milarepa was still trying to shock Gompopa into realization. In other words genuine transmission had not occurred. It seemingly shows how even stone buttocks do not confer an ability to awaken others.

    When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick. Every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.
    ~ Milarepa

    . . . just a thought . . . soon time to work on my calluses . . .
    :buck:

    How do you understand this - the stick/lion stuff?
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    Lobster will give you his view but...

    Skandas/attachment/identity exists through our habituated response to stimuli that make us look like dogs mindlessly chasing thrown sticks.
    The one who learns (meditation) to not fiddle with stimuli is free to clearly see where it arose from, just as a lion would if someone tried throwing a stick for it to chase.
  • betaboybetaboy Veteran
    how said:

    Lobster will give you his view but...

    Skandas/attachment/identity exists through our habituated response to stimuli that make us look like dogs mindlessly chasing thrown sticks.
    The one who learns (meditation) to not fiddle with stimuli is free to clearly see where it arose from, just as a lion would if someone tried throwing a stick for it to chase.

    I get that, but it says 'turn to face the thrower.' Who is the thrower - ourselves?
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick. Every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once
    @how is of course right . . .

    Also . . . In a sense the three components dogchien chasing mind
    sticky mind
    and lion roaring mind are one.
    When saying mindlessly - without mind, is this mindful?
    When a stick moves, is it unstuck?
    If the lion devours the thrower, what happens to the stick?

    In other words: throw the dog to the lion
    return the stick
    and . . . what was the question again?

    NB: No lions were fed sticks in the production of this post . . .
  • pegembarapegembara Veteran
    edited July 2013
    betaboy said:

    how said:

    Lobster will give you his view but...

    Skandas/attachment/identity exists through our habituated response to stimuli that make us look like dogs mindlessly chasing thrown sticks.
    The one who learns (meditation) to not fiddle with stimuli is free to clearly see where it arose from, just as a lion would if someone tried throwing a stick for it to chase.

    I get that, but it says 'turn to face the thrower.' Who is the thrower - ourselves?
    The thrower is consciousness or the "one who knows". The mind turn back to look at itself.
    Be like a lion.
    ‘The watching of the mind by the mind.’

    It’s only meditation when there are two minds:
    Knowing-noting mind and observing mind.
    If there is only one mind, ‘I’ is always there.
    The object is not the dhamma,
    The dhamma is the mind
    That is being aware.

    Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw
    When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick. Every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.
    ~ Milarepa
    Jeffreykarmablues
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