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Previous scholarship[1] brought to light a rich literary corpus of life-and-song stories regarding Jetsün Milarepa that had come into being from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries – 1488 when Tsangnyön Heruka created Life and Songs. Most of the research concentrates on the study of the narrative of different episodes of Milaʼs Life throughout the centuries and how these led to the famous ‟standard” image of Milarepa and the world he lived in presented by Tsangnyön Heruka and his disciples. By comparing the available biographies before Tsangnyönʼs Life and Songs, these studies illustrate the gradual build-up of a more and more detailed narrative of the yoginʼs evolution, from his childhood to his search for a teacher, his apprenticeship under Marpa, his meditative experiences, his teaching career, and finally his death. Milaʼs life, the lives of his closest disciples and those of the authors of these life stories receive significant attention. In particular, Tsangnyön Herukaʼs endeavours to print his works brought forth the spreading of Milaʼs Life and Songs to all levels of society – meditators, monks, lay people and politicians alike. In his iconic image of Milarepa, Tsangnyön Heruka skillfully wove together most of the elements in the previous hagiographies, modelling them to the political, social and religious situation of his time and to his own experiences. In so doing, ‟his” Milarepa became the version universally accepted until now, the reference point for the devotional cult of Milarepa and later doctrinal evolutions – principally within the Kagyü lineages.
While previous research has acknowledged the existence of the texts that form the literary corpus, indexed their content, and studied a few fragments, there is still much to be discovered about the uniqueness of each of these texts. This leaves a vast potential for future in-depth studies to reveal more about these texts and their significance.
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The present study focuses mainly on Milaʼs songs. These experiential songs appear to me as Milaʼs true legacy as a teacher. They are expressions of the life of a wandering Tibetan yogin between the eleventh and twelfth century, happy with the solitary life that enabled him to realise his nature and happy to poetically share his experiences with disciples, devotees, and whoever he met. Therefore, the temptation to go back to the beginnings and study the evolution of the songs and their narrative context has been irresistible to me.
Using Tsangnyön Herukaʼs Collected Songs of Milarepa (Mi laʼi mgur ʼbum) as the reference point for the present study, I have meticulously numbered the chapters in his work (Chapters 1-61) and the songs within each chapter. Although strictly speaking the episodes of Milaʼs training under Marpa and his death do not belong to the Songs, I have also paid attention to the teaching transmission from Marpa to Milarepa and the chapter relating Milaʼs death. Each song has been systematically compared with its precursors in other texts, be it Golden Rosaries or the Zhepé Dorje Compendia, ensuring a thorough and comprehensive analysis.
In Part One of the book, I review the different sources and their characteristics.
Chapter 1 considers the life-and-song stories of Milarepa, Gampopa, Ngendzong Tönpa, and Rechungpa included in the texts produced before Tsangnyön Heruka. Roberts and Quintman have already thoroughly studied most of these sources. The present contribution further specifies the differences in approach to life-and-song writing in the various lineages.
Chapter 2 examines Tsangnyön Herukaʼs Collected Songs of Milarepa. I point out his contributions and the details he omitted from the previous works and try to understand the reasons behind these changes.
In Chapter 3, I examine some doctrinal points revealed in Milaʼs songs and their evolution in time through cross-section comparisons of specific topics in the works studied.
Part One ends with some conclusions from this comparative study.
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Part Two of the book contains translations. Relying primarily on existing translations, I choose specific topics and verify how they are presented in each work to corroborate what has been discussed in Part One. I use Quintmanʼs translation for episodes from Tsangnyönʼs Life, Khenpo Könchog Gyaltsenʼs translation for those from Dönmo Ripaʼs text, and Staggʼs translation for Tsangnyönʼs Songs.[2] These chapters thoroughly analyse the way how the relationship between Mila and his foremost disciples is recounted in the different texts.
Chapter 4 contains a translation of Ngendzong Tönpaʼs unstudied life story of Milarepa – The Complete Liberation of Mila Vajra-Victory Banner. It is an example of very early liberation stories structured into different ‟qualities” that brought Milarepa to enlightenment.
The following three chapters are cross-sections of the works centred around a particular topic.
Chapter 5 analyses the teaching transmission from Marpa to Mila narrated in the hagiographies. Besides the biographies of Milarepa, those of Marpa are taken into account wherever these provide additional information not contained in Milaʼs biography.
Chapter 6 regards the entrustment of the Aural Transmission of Saṃvara (bDe mchog snyan brgyud) to Rechungpa. Although this Aural Transmission, also translated as ‟hearing lineage,” seems to be the principal teaching corpus transmitted by Mila to his disciples, the actual transmission to Rechungpa is included only in the liberation stories in Rechungpaʼs lineage.
Chapter 7 includes the exchanges between Mila and Gampopa. The core narrative of Gampopaʼs stay with Milarepa was already written down from the very early times, as can be seen in the liberation story of Gampopa by Barompa Darma Wangchuk (ʼBaʼ rom pa Dar ma dBang phyug, 1127–1199, a direct disciple of Gampopa).
Chapter 8 contains some interesting aspects of Zhijé Ripaʼs Illuminating Lamp of Sun and Moon Beams. A lively exchange between Mila and his disciples provides an early outline of the Aural Transmission of Saṃvara. Among other points, Zhijé Ripa includes a list of Milaʼs most famous songs, with details that are particularly relevant for this study.
In Chapter 9, I compare the episode of a dying Bönpo (Tsangnyönʼs Chapter 54) to the same episode throughout the previous works.
In Chapter 10, I examine three episodes in the Zhepé Dorje Compendia, comparing these to the same chapter in Tsangnyönʼs Songs:
· ‟Meeting Paldarbum,” Tsangnyönʼs Chapter 14
· ‟The Episode at the Zangyü Kitchen,” Tsangnyönʼs Chapter 24, ‟Meeting Shengom Repa.”
· ‟The Episode at the Tsibri Mountain
Chapter 11 is a translation of an interesting supplement, a short text by Lord Barompa Darma Wangchuk found in one group of A River of Blessings – Ms-Drepung, BCG-D and BCG-Si. Here, Darma Wangchuk discusses the interconnections between the development of the elements of the subtle body and Milaʼs visual appearances of demons and gods.
Chapter 12 contains an overview regarding the Tseringma Chapters 28-31 included in Tsangnyönʼs Songs. It studies the differences in the colophons in the Zhepé Dorje Compendia and references these episodes in other texts.
In Chapter 13, I translate two doctrinal texts with instructions on the intermediate states attributed to Milarepa. Supposedly, Ngendzong Tönpa wrote down the first text (twelfth century) and Zhang Lotsāwa (†1237) the second. A comparison between both texts shows that although the core instructions are identical, some differences appear due to the respective lineage transmissions and the addition of elements from later times.
The book ends with a bibliography.
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In the Appendix, I provide eight Song Charts, grouping the works with similar structure and song content in the same order as explained in Part One. Each chart indicates the chapters and page numbers where each song can be found in the studied texts. The Song Charts should help future researchers locate and compare specific episodes or songs throughout all the available texts. Therefore, I indicate the BDRC reference codes for downloading the texts wherever they are available.
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This book will hopefully inspire and facilitate future researchers to conduct more in-depth studies of this incredible treasure trove of knowledge. The present work offers suggestions to re-evaluate the stories and songs attributed to Milarepa, considering the elements present from the beginning and the new inputs integrated into the texts as time went by. On the one hand, the study tries to shed more light on the differences between the lineages in representing Milarepa and his disciples. On the other hand, it allows us to appreciate the richness of the evolutions that have taken place within the Kagyü lineages in the period between Milarepa and Tsangnyön Herukaʼs life.
[1] Tiso 2014 and 2019; Roberts 2010a and 2010b; Quintman 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 & 2013b, 2014a and 2014b; Ducher 2017 and 2020; Torricelli 2001 and 2019; Sernesi 2007, 2011, 2021 and 2022; Larsson 2012, 2016 and 2021; Larsson & Quintman 2015.
[2] Quintman 2010; Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen 2006; Stagg 2017; I use the spellings and vocabulary of these translators, whereas, in my translations, I sometimes use different spelling and terminology.
To contact me - Per contattarmi
kristinblancke@gmail.com