The six paramitas are what transform our afflictions into enlightenment. Among the six, the paramita of patience is sure to be tested while we cultivate the spiritual path. However, the most difficult trials offer the greatest and most enduring blessings. One concrete example of such a series of trials to learn the Dharma is the life of Milarepa.

Milarepa’s hometown was located in the Gungtang Province¹ of Posterior Tibet. While his parents lived, Milarepa’s entire family supported themselves from the lands bequeathed by his grandfather, allowing them quite an affluent lifestyle.

When Milarepa was seven, his father died, and in his will he clearly stipulated that Milarepa was to inherent the entire estate upon reaching adulthood. The will also requested that his paternal aunt and uncle were to act as his guardians. However, not only did his aunt and uncle take over the estate, they even forced Milarepa and his mother to labor endlessly in the fields during the blazing heat of the summer months. Over time, the villagers grew to despise Milarepa and his mother. Milarepa’s mother swallowed her sadness and put up with the ill-treatment until Milarepa came of age. Once Milarepa became an adult, the aunt and uncle then simply sent both mother and son away. Milarepa’s mother was full of rage and resentment, and she had Milarepa swear an oath that he would take his revenge on these wicked foes.

Milarepa then went to U-Tsang, a province in western Tibet, and began to study sorcery, quickly mastering it. He cast a spell which killed thirty-five people, including his uncle’s son, daughter-in-law, family members, and friends. Fearing that people in the village may seek revenge, his mother sent word that Milarepa would summon a hailstorm to destroy the grain seedlings to intimidate the villagers into not taking action. And so Milarepa sent another hailstorm that destroyed the crops of the entire village. However, Milarepa was kind and good by nature, and felt great remorse over what he had done, so he decided to dedicate the rest of his life to seeking liberation through practicing the Dharma as a disciple of the Buddhist teacher Marpa.

Marpa tested Milarepa in a hundred different ways. First he said to Milarepa, “Construct a stone building for storing Buddhist texts. After that is done I will transmit the Dharma to you.”

Milarepa had finished construction on half of the building when Marpa said to him, “I didn’t think this out clearly beforehand. This is not the right place. You should go to the top of the western mountain and build it there.”

All Milarepa could do was tear down what he had built, stone by stone and beam by beam, and then carry these materials over to the western mountain for construction there. Milarepa was about halfway through when Marpa spoke once more, “That’s all wrong! You should go build it on top of the northern mountain. And it should be shaped like a triangle.”

Milarepa’s rebuilding was about a third of the way completed when Marpa spoke up yet again:

“This looks like an altar for practicing sorcery. Tear it down!”

Having built up and then torn down the structure several times, Milrepa’s s back was already very worn and bruised, and he was enduring an unbearable level of pain. But his teacher demanded that he construct a nine-story building in the shape of a cube. Milarepa worked quickly day and night, and Marpa’s three main disciples even helped him to move stones. When Marpa found out, he had Milarepa tear out any stones that others had moved into place. He said that each and every stone and wooden beam must be put in place by Milarepa personally.

After the construction of the building was finished, Marpa angrily drove Milarepa away and said, “Is that your offering? Do you think that constructing this building makes you so great?”

As he continued to try to make a suitable offering to his teacher, Milarepa solicited donations by wandering with his alms bowl, garnering enough to purchase a large, square copper lamp. He then offered the lamp to his teacher in hopes that Marpa would teach him the Dharma and pass onto him his secret teachings as soon as possible. Instead, Marpa ordered Milarepa to call down a hailstorm upon the two villages of Yehpo and Yemo. After finishing this task, Milarepa requested the teachings once again. Marpa surprised Milarepa, and told him, “Only when you restore the crops belonging to the villages of Yehpo and Yemo, will I transmit the Dharma to you!”

Milarepa was ashamed. The fact that he could not receive the Dharma pained him greatly, and he was sad and hopeless. Marpa’s wife consoled Milarepa with tears in her eyes. She stole Marpa’s ruby seal along with some jewelry that belonged to Naropa, Marpa’s teacher, and gave them to Milarepa. She also forged a letter which would enable Milarepa to gain an audience with Marpa’s chief disciple, Lama Ngokpa. When Ngokpa saw the letter, he immediately bestowed upon Milarepa the empowerment and secret instructions pertaining to the deity Hevajra. Even then, without Marpa certifying his transmission, Milarepa couldn’t connect with the teachings no matter how assiduously he practiced.

Before long, Marpa ordered Ngokpa and Milarepa to come and see him. Marpa thundered with rage, and scolded both his wife and Ngokpa. Marpa then said, “In order to eliminate Milarepa’s past negative karma, I tested him in a hundred different ways so that he must practice austerity. Over the course of the past eight phases in austere practice, his karmic hindrances have mostly been eliminated. I will now give him my blessing and bestow upon him the empowerments and instructions, enabling him to succeed in his practice.”

Those present were so happy for Milarepa that many were moved to tears.

The story of Milarepa shows us that Buddhahood is to be realized by human beings. Everyone can attain Buddhhood as long as there is determination, renunciation, and forbearance. In the end, Milarepa’ s genuine devotion to his teacher and his assiduous and diligent cultivation of the practice was able to eliminate his severely negative karma and attain enlightenment.

Just after the Diamond Sutra opens, it is said that Subhuti “rose from his seat, bore his right shoulder, knelt on his right knee, and [pressed his palms] together before him” -this is how to make an offering to the Buddha with purity of body, speech, and mind, and respectfully request that the Buddha teach the Dharma. The Diamond Sutra begins with daily life, for the best kind of practice is to offer the three kinds of karma every day:

1. Offer physical karma by doing good deeds.
2. Offer verbal karma by speaking good words.
3. Offer mental karma by keeping good thoughts.

Source: Hsing Yun, Four Insights for Finding Fulfillment: A Practical Guide to the Buddha’s Diamond Sutra, Los Angeles: Buddha’s Light Publishing, 2012.

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Footnote:

1. Located north of present-day Gyirong county in Western Tibet near the Ngari region. Ed.