|
Message |
| Posted By: |
abc |
| Date: |
24-Nov-2007-11:36:28 |
| Subject: |
Milarepa |
Milarepa inspires me. He gave up everything he had to be bad, realized he fucked up and then gave up everything he had to be good.
Hey, if you're going to fuck up, fuck up really, really big - that way you can learn as much as possible during that "Oh fuck - I fucked up moment" and use that realization to carry you as far as you can when you're trying to get unfucked up.
Here's the thing though. Even after Milarepa realizes, "Oh shit, I have fucked up my karma and my mom's screwed too," and he seeks out Marpa to help him go straight up the mountain and fix everything, he still finds himself up to a bunch of mischief for some time to come. He tries to get the teachings deceptively, sneaking off to another lama with stuff he stole from Marpa, trying to pass it off as proof that he's supposed to get the teachings from him. Of course, the teachings don't do him any good without Marpa's blessing because Milarepa has not yet worked off his karma, a prerequisite to being able to put these teachings to work. And so, he returns to Marpa for another ass kicking and back to square 1, realizing, yet again that he fucked up.
Eventually, everything works out and Milarepa hangs out in his cave long enough meditating and works off all the karma and then goes into Nirvana and helps all sentient beings etc, but his story wasn't all skipping and whistling his way to enlightenment.
I always come back to the same thing on this website. I see people come on here posting with a fair amount of controversy and struggle over enlightenment, where some days are good and some days are bad and sometimes we fight amongst ourselves. And then, the Monty Python song comes into my head again, "Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, and things seem hard or rough, people seem stupid, obnoxious or daft and you feel that you've had quite e-nou-ou-ou-ou-ough...just..re..member that your standing on a planet that's evolving, revolving at 900 miles an hour...." and how the entire song is geared to make one feel like a small, insignificant part of the whole to change the entire perspective of the listener so that she is willing, by the end of the song, to give up everything for another. In this case, "Alright then, you've convinced me. You can have my liver." Personally, there are two things I don't like the taste of and one is liver, so you can all feel free to have my liver; I wasn't going to eat it anyway.
So, Milarepa gives up his ego through much karmic work and meditation so that he can save himself and his mom who put him up to so much mischief in the first place. I wonder if the turning point for him was when he finished killing all those people and got a knock on the door from Terry Gilliam or John Cleese or one of them serenading him with that song. What was it exactly that made Milarepa stop for a second and go, "Gee, that was dumb! I think I'll do good instead of bad."
I'm not sure if Monty Python was around in 12th century Tibet, but they might be reincarnations of some very funny monks. Either way, I was inspired by the story of Milarepa and continue to be again and again. At every moment, one can just decide to do something to work off their karma, no matter how incredibly stupid their 'past actions' were. Think of it; at every single moment for eternity, one can realize, "Whenever life gets you down Mrs. Brown and things seem hard or rough, people seem stupid, obnoxious or daft and you feel that you've had quite e-nou-ou-ou-ou-ough!...just...re...member that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, revolving at 900 miles an hour...." |
The messages posted hear are those of the specific individual and may not represent the policies of Lila Publishing, the ideas of any other member of this bulletin board community or the teachings of Dr. Frederick Lenz. All copyrights are maintained by respective contributors and may not be reused without permission. By posting on this board you grant Lila Publishing a non-exclusive royalty free license under your copyright to use, store, display and reproduce your messages in whole or in part. All site assets, including these Perl scripts copyright © 1999-2002 Lila Publishing. These Perl scripts may not be directly linked to.
|
Communication Center - Version 3.50
© 2000-2002 Lila Publishing
|
