And later Milarepa himself says, “Insofar as the Ultimate, or the true nature of being is concerned, there are neither Buddhas nor demons. He who frees himself from fear and hope, evil and virtue, will realize the insubstantial and groundless nature of confusion. Samsara will then appear to be the Mahamudra itself ...” 3
The rest of The Hundred Thousand Songs deals with Milarepa’s development as a teacher and his relationships with his students. Toward the end of his life he had completely perfected the transmutation process to the point where he could be called the Vidyadhara or “Holder of the Crazy Wisdom.” No longer could he be swayed by the winds of hope and fear. The gods and goddesses and demons, his passions and their external projections, had been completely subjugated and transformed. Now his life was a continual dance with the dakinis.
Finally Milarepa reached the “old dog” stage, his highest attainment. People could tread on him, use him as a road, as earth; he would always be there. He transcended his own individual existence so that, as we read his last teachings, there is a sense of the universality of Milarepa, the example of enlightenment.
Index
Abhidharma, ※
abhisheka, ※ ※ ※. See also initiation
Action, All-Accomplishing. See Wisdoms, Five
adhishthana, ※
aggression, ※ ※ ※ ※; expression of, ※ ※ ※ ※; Vajra and ※; in Hell Realm, ※ ※; in love, ※
alaya-vijnana, ※
ambition, ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※; in meditation, ※ ※ ※. See also struggle
Amitabha, color of, ※
anger. See aggression and vajra-anger
Animal Realm. See Realms, Six
“as it is”, ※ ※ ※ ※ ※; surrendering to, ※ ※ ※ ※; in Tantra, ※. See also reality and tathata
asceticism, ※ ※ ※. See also disciplines, spiritual and renunciation
Asura Loka, ※ ※. See also Realms, Six
atman, ※
atomism, ※
Avalokiteshvara, ※
avidya, ※. See also Skandhas, Five
awakened state, ※ ※; discovery of, ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※; evaluation of, ※; expressions of, ※; and bodhisattva, ※. See also bodhi and enlightenment
Awareness, Discriminating. See Wisdoms, Five
awareness, panoramic, ※ ※ ※ ※; loss of, ※
basic ground, ※ ※ ※. See also “being as you are” and openness
“being as you are”, ※ ※ ※ ※. See also openness
“being here”, ※ ※ ※; difficulty of, ※ ※; as focus of meditation practice, ※; in therapy, ※. See also “as it is"
bhumi, ※. See also Bodhisattva Path
“blackout” ※ ※ ※ ※. See also ego, development of
bliss, ※ ※ ※ ※ ※; irrelevancy of, ※; search for, ※ ※. See also luminosity and virya
bodhi, ※ ※ ※. See also awakened state and Bodhisattva Path
bodhisattva, transcendental activities of, ※ ※ ※
Bodhisattva Path, ※ ※ ※; levels of, ※ ※ ※. See also Mahayana
Bodhisattva-charyavatara, ※
Brahman, ※
Buddha, Gautama (Shakyamuni), ※ ※ ※ ※ ※; and daughters of Mara, ※; and Four Noble Truths, ※ ※; and Heart Sutra, ※ ※; and shamatha, ※; and teachings, ※; and Three Lords of Materialism, ※
1 Garma C. C. Chang, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, (New York, 1962), p. 306.
2 Ibid., p. 307.
3 Ibid., p. 308.