Carpe Diem Theme Week "The Songs of Milarepa" (4) like a summer flower

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this last episode of our Theme Week about "The Songs of Milarepa", a renown Tibetan poet and yogi. I think I have made a nice selection this week and today I love to share another beauty written by Milarepa.

This song is part of the bigger song "The Fleeting Bubbles" a song about Dharma:

Youth is like a summer flower -
Suddenly it fades away.
Old age is like a fire spreading
Through the fields - suddenly 'tis at your heels.
The Buddha once said, "Birth and Death
Are like Sunrise and sunset -
Now come, now go."

Youth is like a summer flower (image found on Pinterest)

Sickness is like a little bird
Wounded by a sling.
Know you not, health and strength
Will in time desert you?
Death is like an oil-dry lamp
(After the last flicker).
Nothing, I assure you,
In this world is permanent.

© Milarepa

In this poem you can read what we all know ... we all live in a fleeting world, nothing is permanent. Nothing is permanent at all ... so enjoy your life ...

It was really a joy to create this Theme Week for you all and I hope you did like it. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 26th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new "weekend-meditation" later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem Theme Week "The Songs of Milarepa" (3) The Shepherd

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you can remember our CDHK month in which I used prompts extracted from "Manuscript Found In Accra", by Paulo Coelho in July 2013, or maybe you know "The Prophet" written by Khalil Gibran. Both are books in which people question prophets or spiritual people, or just wise people. This Theme Week "The Songs of Milarepa" the prompts are extracted from "Hundred Thousand Songs by Milarepa". This book is written in the same way as the both I mentioned above.

In "The Songs of ..." Milarepa answers different questions by people around him and today I love to share a part of "The Songs of ..." in which a young shepherd asks him a question:

[...] A young shepherd boy came to Milarepa and said:, "Dear Lama, last night I tried to find out what my mind is and how it works. I observed it carefully and found that I have only one mind. Even though one wants to, one cannot kill this mind. However much one wishes to dismiss it, it will not go away. If one tries to catch it, it cannot be grasped; nor can it be held by pressing it. If you want it to remain, it will not stay; if you release it, it will not go. You try to gather it; it cannot be picked up. You try to see it; it cannot be seen. You try to understand it; it cannot be known. If you think it is an existing entity and cast it off, it will not leave you. If you think that it is non-existent, you feel it running on. It is something illuminating, aware, wide-awake, yet incomprehensible. In short, it is hard to say what the mind really is. Please be kind enough to explain the meaning of the mind." 

Tibetan shepherd

In response, Milarepa sang: 

Listen to me, dear shepherd, the protector [of sheep)!
By merely hearing about sugar's taste, 
Sweetness cannot be experienced; 
Though one's mind may understand 
What sweetness is, 
It cannot experience directly; 
Only the tongue can know it. 
In the same way one cannot see in full the nature of mind, 
Though he may have a glimpse of it 
If it has been pointed out by others.
If one relies not on this one glimpse, 
But continues searching for the nature of mind, 
He will see it fully in the end. 
Dear shepherd, in this way you should observe your mind. 

© Milarepa

The boy then said, "In that case, please give me the Pointing-out-Instruction*, and this evening I will look into it. I shall return to-morrow and tell you the result." Milarepa replied, "Very well. When you get home, try to find out the color of the mind. Is it white, red, or what? What is its shape? Is it oblong, round, or what? Also, try to locate where in your body it dwells."
The next morning when the sun rose, the shepherd drove the sheep before him, and came to Milarepa, who asked, "Did you try last night to find out what the mind is like?" The boy replied, "Yes, I did." 
"What does it look like?" [...] (Source: The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, page 123 & 124)

*) Lit.: "Through the 'Pointing-out-Instruction' one may glimpse it." The Pointing-out-Instruction is an essential practice of Mahamudra. The main concern of Mahamudra is the unfoldment of the essence of one's mind. To accomplish this, the disciple is given by his Guru the "Pointing-out" demonstration. This can be done in different ways with different gestures-a smile, a blow, a push, a remark, etc. This is strikingly similar to the “koan”-tradition of Zen, though the style and process appear somewhat different.

An amazing song ... I hope to read wonderful haiku and tanka inspired on this Song by Milarepa in which we can see the hidden spiritual meaning of our nature, of our beautiful little poems.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 25th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our last episode of this Carpe Diem Theme Week, an other song by Milarepa, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem's Theme Week: The Songs Of Milarepa (1) Introduction

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this month's Theme Week. This month while we are discovering magical and spiritual Tibet I have included a nice Theme Week. This Theme Week it's all about Tibet's renown poet and yogi Milarepa and is titled "The Songs of Milarepa".

Maybe you can remember our first Theme Week in which we explored the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. In the e-book that followed after that Theme Week I included a "song by Milarepa". In this Theme Week that starts today I have gathered a few wonderful "songs" by Milarepa to inspire you. So let's go!

Let me first introduce to you Milarepa:

Milarepa is one of the most widely known Tibetan Saints. In a superhuman effort, he rose above the miseries of his younger life and with the help of his Guru, Marpa the Translator, took to a solitary life of meditation until he had achieved the pinnacle of the enlightened state, never to be born again into the Samsara (whirlpool of life and death) of worldly existence. Out of compassion for humanity, he undertook the most rigid asceticism to reach the Buddhic state of enlightenment and to pass his accomplishments on to the rest of humanity. His spiritual lineage was passed along to his chief disciples, Gambopa and Rechung. It was Rechung who recorded in detail the incidents of Milarepa's life for posterity. The narrative of his life has thus been passed down through almost a millennium of time and has become an integral part of Tibetan culture.
Milarepa extemporaneously composed innumerable songs throughout his life relevant to the dramatic turns of events of himself and his disciples in accordance with an art form that was in practice at the time. These songs have been widely sung and studied in Tibet ever since and have been recorded as the Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. His faithful devotion, boundless religious zeal, monumental forbearance, superhuman perseverance, and ultimate final attainment are a great inspiration today for all. His auspicious life illumined the Buddhist faith and brought the light of wisdom to sentient beings everywhere. (Source: Cosmic Harmony)

Red Rock Jewel Valley (Tibet/India)

Milarepa was not only a poet, but also a yogi who sang his teachings for his followers. These songs are gathered in "Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa", of course he didn't compose that much songs, but he composed a lot of them.

The song I love to share here for your inspiration is part of "The Tale of Red Rock Jewel Valley" in which Milarepa has to conquer demons. Here is the song to inspire you:

This lonely spot where stands my hut 
Is a place pleasing to the Buddhas, 
A place where accomplished beings dwell, 
A refuge where I dwell alone. 

Above Red Rock Jewel Valley 
White clouds are gliding; 
Below, the Tsang River gently flows; 
Wild vultures wheel between. 

Bees are humming among the flowers, 
Intoxicated by their fragrance; 
In the trees birds swoop and dart, 
Filling the air with their song. 

Image source

In Red Rock Jewel Valley 
Young sparrows learn to fly, 
Monkeys love to leap and swing, 
And beasts to run and race, 
While I practice the Two Bodhi-Minds
and love to meditate. 

Ye local demons, ghosts and gods, 
All friends of Milarepa, 
Drink the nectar of kindness and compassion, 
Then return to your abode

© Milarepa (Tr.: Garma C. C. Chang; Shambhala Publications, 1977)

And here is my inspired haiku. I hope you like it:

deep silence
inhaling the sounds of nature -
white clouds dance

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope I have inspired you. This was our introductory episode of this Theme Week: "Songs Of Milarepa". I am looking forward to the upcoming days and your responses of course.

PS.: More reading? Follow this link and find out more about Milarepa.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 23rd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our nex Theme Week episode, later on. For now ... have fun