Marpa - His Life

Marpa

Fourth Chapter : Having received abhisekas and the oral instructions, Marpa returns to Tibet.

Marpa's provisions had run out, as had those of Nyo. They met at a mutually prearranged time and traveled together on the return route. Nyo began to think, "Although I had more gold, he seems to be the more learned," and evil, jealous thoughts arose in him. Nyo had with him two pandita friends, an atsara, and some others who carried his books and his baggage. Marpa carried his own books in a bundle. Nyo said to him, "It isn't right that we great lotsawas should carry baggage. Let this atsara carry your bundle." Later, Nyo secretly bribed this atsara, saying, "Throw Marpa's books into the water, as if by accident."

When their boat came to the middle of the Ganges, the atsara threw Marpa's books into the water. Marpa knew that this was the work of Nyo. He thought, "In Tibet, searching for gold is hard work. In India, searching for gurus is hard work. Nothing was more precious than these teachings and oral instructions, and now they are gone. Should I throw myself into the water?" He considered this seriously, but remembering the oral instructions of his guru, he calmed his mind a little. Although he had no intention of seeking revenge, he told Nyo, "This was your doing."

"I didn't do it," Nyo replied.

As soon as the boat landed, Marpa grabbed the atsara and said, ' 'I am going to talk to the king about this.'' The atsara fully recounted all that Nyo had told him to do. Then Marpa spontaneously sang to Nyo this song of shame:

Listen to me, companion met through the power of karma.
You are the man I agreed to travel with.
In general, you have entered the gate of dharma.
In particular, you are known as a lotsawa, pandita, and gum.
With perverted intentions you entered the boat.
Even though you cannot benefit someone,
In general, you should not cause harm to another.
In particular, by harming the teachings of Buddha,
You have injured me and all sentient beings.
How could you possibly cause such harm?

By the thought and deed of the five poisonous klesas,
Along with my books
You threw the fame you cultivated,
Your gold, and the holy dharma into the water.
It is not the material value I am thinking of,
But these special teachings were precious for others.
I am sad that others will not be benefited.

However, by my earnest application and questioning,
The dharma and my mind have mixed.
I clearly recall their words and meaning.
Returning to India again,
I need only ask for them
From Mahapandita Naropa and other siddha gurus.

Today, you should abandon
The name of guru, dharma teacher, and lotsawa.
With remorse and repentance, return to your country.
Confess your evil deeds and do rigorous penance.
Thinking and acting as you have done
And boasting that you are a guru,
Though you might deceive a few fools,
How can you ripen and free those who are worthy?
With your precious human body so difficult to gain,
Please do not cultivate the three lower realms.

Thus Marpa sang.

Nyo said, "Don't worry about it. I will lend you my original texts and you can copy them."

Marpa said, "I don't know whether you will lend me the originals or not, but even if you did, our gurus and oral instructions are different so it would be of no use. I prefer what I have in my mind to your books."

Though Marpa thought of returning quickly to India, he then said, "Lend me your originals later, as you suggested."

When they arrived in Nepal, Marpa thought, "Accompanying Nyo, I will only accumulate evil deeds," and he told Nyo that he intended to go no further with him.

When they parted, Nyo said, "Don't spread the story of how your books were lost in the water. Come to my house and ask for my books," and Marpa promised that he would. Nyo went first from Nepal to the Nepalese-Tibetan border. There he sent a messenger instructing that attendants meet him. When they arrived, he went with them to Kharak.

Marpa met guru Chitherpa and the dharma friends headed by his friend White Hadu, who gave Marpa a fine reception. They said, "It was wonderful to hear that you sang a song to Nyo without being angry, even though he threw your books in the water out of jealousy. Your meditation practice is taking effect; it is the sign that you have given birth to unperverted, good view. Not relying on the words of texts, but arising out of your own mind, please sing us a song of the ultimate view."

In answer, Marpa sang this song:

O holy guru who is the guide,
And you who are headed by White Hadu
And who have completed your study of the sutras and tantras,
Listen for a moment to a Tibetan's song.
The ultimate view is very special,
Indivisible and nondwellmg.
It is the mind of the victorious ones of the three times.
Those who want to separate upaya and prajria
Must be prevented from falling into extremes.

To speak to such learned ones as you is difficult.
I have not sung this song before, so it may not go well.
Nonetheless, listen and I will sing you a song of the sastras.

Preventing the grasping onto things as real
Is said to be the only way to conquer the hordes of Mara.
Understand that grasping in this way causes obscuration.
As for the glory of servants and personal virtues,
Abandon special attempts to gain it.

Ignorant ones believe that "emptiness" is nihilism.
The extreme of nihilism undermines the accumulation of virtue.
Those who desire flowers in the sky
Destroy the harvest of virtue
With the hail of perverted views.

One should know the characteristics of space.
All those who do not know emptiness
Claim nonexistence is existence.
The perverted regard a mirage as water.
Ignorance about the truth is the cause of samsara.
Cittamatrins and heretics like the Sankhyas and the rest
Maintain that upaya and prajfia are separate.
Each has his own theory.
This is the same as maintaining that a dead tree has flowers.

Free from all assumptions
Is nondwelling truth.
Knowing this fully is prajfiaparamita.
Not dwelling in the extremes of samsara and nirvana,
Compassion possesses the essence of emptiness
And unifies upaya and prajria.
This is self-existing coemergence.
In the same way, I understand
Bliss-emptiness and insight-emptiness
As not being different.

Nonconceptual compassion
And the primordial nature of emptiness
Are inseparable in the nature of simplicity.
You should understand all dharmas like this.

As for the view that is merely shown by words,
See this as an object of clinging.
In accord with the common view,
Have confidence in the cause and result of karma.
It does not wear out in a hundred kalpas,
Just as the supreme wise one has said.

People without compassion
Are like sesame seeds burnt by fire.
How could further seeds come from that?
If there is no ground, how could there be any characteristics?
Therefore, these people cannot enter the mahayana.
Thus said the supremely wise Nagarjuna.

If there is not a proper view of the objects of mind,
It is useless to give the holy dharma.
It is like chaff with no grain.
Thus says Marpa Lotsawa.

You whose minds are vast with the truth of wisdom,
If I have the wrong meaning, please forgive me.

Thus Marpa sang.

The Nepalese guru, his friend White Hadu, and the others were very joyful.

Marpa's Dream of Saraha

On his way to Tibet, Marpa came to a village on the border between Nepal and Tibet called Lisokara, where the people collected many custom taxes. Lord Marpa was forced to stay there several days. His last night there, he had a dream in which dakinis lifted him up in a palanquin and carried him to Sri Parvata in the South. There Marpa met the Great Brahman Saraha, who blessed his body, speech, and mind. Saraha gave him the signs and the meanings of the dhaima of the essential truth, mahamudra. Undefiled bliss dawned in his body, and Jinpervertcd realizatioJi dawned in his mind, so that Marpa's dream was filled with immeasurable delight. Even after he awoke, he did not forget what Saraha had said. In a state of delight, Marpa went to the province of Mang where he stayed at Langpokhar about two months and taught the dharma.

In Tsang at Kyerphu, the prince of Lokya had passed away, leaving his eldest son as prince. Hearing that Marpa was nearby, the prince sent a messenger to Kyitrong to invite Marpa to Kyerphu. Marpa accepted, set a time for the meeting, and sent the messenger back. The people of Palkhti escorted him from the lake ofLhatso Sintso, and he was welcomed warmly when he arrived at Kyerphu. For a month, Marpa taught a good course on the dharma.

On the tenth day of the waxing moon, the festival of the dakas, a ganacakra was held. During the feast, the prince said to guru Marpa, "Guru, my father and I received you warmly before. Now I alone am doing so, and today I request you at this ganacakra to please sing a song not sung before, a song unifying words and meaning."

Marpa answered, "Last spring, I traveled from central Nepal to a place the time of one meal's journey from there. In that uncivilized border town called Lisokara, the people collect many custom taxes. I stayed there a few days. One night, in a dream, women of authentic being dressed in the clothes of a brahman's daughter came to me and said, 'Let us go to Sri Parvata in the South,' and they took me there. It seemed in the dream that I met the Great Brahman in person. At that time, I heard the essential truth which is not fabricated by the mind, sung by the Great Brahman."

Marpa then sang, in the melody of the outstretched wings of a soaring garuda, this grand song, a vajra doha that pierces to the pith of mind:

On this glorious and auspicious day of the waxing moon,
The holiday of the tenth day,
At the ganacakra feast of the dakas,
A son who is unswerving in samaya,
You, the prince of Lokya, have requested, "Sing a song never heard before."
I have traveled a long way on the road,
And my body is overcome with weariness.
Therefore, this song will not be melodious nor ravishing to your mind,
And I am not even skilled in composing songs.
But because there is no one more important than you, my friend,
And since I cannot refuse an important man,
I will sing a wondrous song which has never been heard before,
A song of the sayings and thoughts of the Lord Brahman
You, the many monks and tamrikas who fill these seats,
Listen carefully and consider this in your hearts.

In the third month of last spring,
I came up from the land of central Nepal.
After being on the road the time of one meal,
I arrived at the Nepalese custom-tax station
In a town of lower caste people.
The custom-tax collectors exploit any man they meet,
And detain defenseless traveling Tibetans.
I, too, had to stay several days against my will.

One night, while dreaming in a light sleep,
Two beautiful brahman girls of authentic being,
Wearing the brahmanical thread,
Smiling coyly, and glancing out of the corners of their eyes,
Came before me and said,
"You must go to Sri Parvata in the South!"
I said, "I have never gone there before;
I don't even know the way."
The two girls replied,
"Brother, you don't have to do anything difficult;
We shall carry you on our shoulders."
They put me on the seat of a cloth palanquin
And lifted it into the sky like a parasol.
Like a flash of lightning, in a mere instant of time,
I dreamt that I arrived at Sri Parvata in the South.

In the cool shade of a grove of plaksa trees,
On a tira corpse seat
Sat Lord Saraha, the Great Brahman.
I had never before seen such majestic brilliance.
He was flanked by two queens.
His body was adorned with charnel ground ornaments.
His joyous face was beaming.

"Welcome, my son!" he said.
Seeing the lord, I was overwhelmed with joy.
The hairs of my body stood on end, and I was moved to tears.
I circumambulated him seven times and I offered a full prostration.
I received the soles of his feet on the top of my head.
"Father, accept me with kindness," I supplicated.

He blessed my body with his.
The moment he touched his hand to the top of my head,
My body was intoxicated with undefiled bliss.
Like an elephant drunk with liquor,
There dawned an experience of immovability.

He blessed my speech with his.
With the lion's roar of emptiness,
He spoke "that without letter."
Like a dream dreamt by a mute,
There dawned an experience beyond words.

He blessed my mind with his.
I realized the coemergent dharmakaya,
That which neither comes nor goes.
Like a human corpse left in a charnel ground,
There dawned an experience of nonthought.

Then the pure speech of great bliss arose
From the vase-of his precious throat.
With sign speech in the melody of Brahma,
He sang this vajra song which points out things as they are,
The meaning of an empty sky free from clouds.
Thus I heard this unborn self-utterance:

"NAMO Compassion and emptiness are inseparable.
This uninterrupted flowing innate mind
Is suchness, primordially pure.
Space is seen in intercourse with space.
Because the root resides at home,
Mind consciousness is imprisoned.
Meditating on this, subsequent thoughts
Are not patched together in the mind.
Knowing the phenomenal world is the nature of mind,
Meditation requires no further antidote.
The nature of mind cannot be thought.
Rest in this natural state.
When you see this truth, you will be liberated.
Just as a child would, watch the behavior of barbarians.
Be carefree; eat flesh; be a madman.

"Just like a fearless lion,
Let your elephant mind wander free.
See the bees hovering among the flowers.
Not viewing samsara as wrong,
There is no such thing as attaining nirvana.
This is the way of ordinary mind.
Rest in natural freshness.
Do not think of activities.
Do not cling to one side or one direction.
Look into the midst of the space of simplicity.''

Going beyond the exhausting of dharmata is the essential truth,
The summit of views, mahamudra.
This sign meaning, which pierces to the pith of mind,
I heard from the mouth of the Great Brahman.

At that instant, I awoke.
I was caught by the iron hook of this unforgettable memory.
Within the dungeon of ignorant sleep,
The vision of insight-wisdom opened up
And the sun dawned in a cloudless sky,
Clearing the darkness of confusion.
I thought, "Even if I met the buddhas of the three times,
From now on, I would have nothing to ask them."

This was a decisive experience.
Discursive thoughts were exhausted, what a wonder!
E ma! The prophecies of yidams and dakinis
And the profound truth spoken by the gum,
Although I have been told not to speak of these things,
Tonight I cannot help but speak them.
Except for this very occasion,
I have never said this before.
Listen with your ears and repeat it at a later time.

I am a man who has traveled a long way
Without intimate friends and relatives.
Now, when my body becomes tired and hungry,
Son, what you have done will be in my mind.
I will not forget this; it is impressed deeply in my mind.
My heart friend, your kindness is repaid.

The lords who dwell above, the gurus,
The divine yidams who bestow siddhis,
And the dharmapalas who clear obstacles,
May all these please not scold me.
Please forgive me if there is any confusion in what I have said.

Thus, this song was sung, and the guru Marpa was seen as the buddha in person by the prince of Lokya.

On the way to Lhotrak, Lord Marpa went to Nyo's house in Kharak to see if Nyo would lend him the books to make copies. "I need the copies of the texts," he said.

Nyo offered Lord Marpa one sang of gold and a mandala and said, "You are very knowledgeable about the Mahamaya. You have no need for these texts. You expound the Mahamaya and other teachings of the mother tantra. I will expound the Guhyasamaja and other teachings of the father tantra." Speaking in this way, Nyo refused to let him copy the texts.

Feeling intense longing to return soon to India, Marpa traveled to Lhotrak. His father and mother had both passed away. His teacher and older brother gave him a good welcome. Since Marpa had been a former pupil, the teacher did not request teachings from him, but he respected Marpa's learning in the dharma. Furthermore, none of his relatives, servants, or any of the local folk requested teachings from him or prostrated to him. However, they all held him in high esteem and trusted him. Some people came to Lhotrak from far away to request teachings and abhiseka. There were many who offered him prostrations and some token gifts.

This ends the section on Marpa's first journey to India.

go to Fifth Chapter: Life of Marpa