The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Five (46 page)

Cathryn Stein Abato

David Cox

Dana Dudley

Tony Duff

Christine Keyser

Sherab Chödzin Kohn

Derek Kolleeny

Robin Kornman

Jud Levinson

Mark Nowakowski

Reginald A. Ray

John Rockwell, Jr.

Susan Schultz

Robert Vogler

Ives Waldo

Scott Wellenbach

Gerry Wiener

Preface

I
T IS MY GREAT PRIVILEGE
and honor to present the life of Marpa the Translator. The life of Marpa is a great example of how the Tibetans of ancient times brought the buddhadharma from India to Tibet. It shows how the Tibetans conducted themselves on their journeys and how much hardship they went through to bring the teachings to Tibet. So Marpa was not purely a translator who translated from Sanskrit to Tibetan, but he actually brought Buddhism to Tibet.

Marpa is one of the great saints in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet. He was a scholar and a practitioner as well as a very practical person, being a farmer and householder. It seems that we don’t have any equivalent of him in modern days. Today, you are either a scholar who translates from one language to another, or you are a devotee of a guru who is supposed to transmit the essence of the teachings he has studied. In the West, many scholars would agree that you become either a practitioner or a scholar; you can’t be both. If you are a practitioner, you lose your “objective” viewpoint, and if you are a scholar, you lose the heartfelt magic. From that point of view, there is no hope of combining the two. But here, in the life of Marpa, we have a unique story that has been handed down from generation to generation of how translation and practice can be brought together.

The Tibetans, Chinese, and Japanese throughout history have both translated and practiced, and in these cultures, the belief is that if you don’t practice, you can’t translate accurately. Therefore, practice and translation go hand in hand. There is no particular bias to either side; rather, the idea is that if you have personal experience of the basic logic or dharma of the teachings, you are in a better position to translate accurately with feeling. We could say that this approach is like a human being singing, as opposed to a computer making the same sound. A computer might be a technically good singer, but we still prefer the human voice.

We hope that presenting Marpa’s life and his life example—how he brought Buddhism to Tibet—will be of some use to those who are practicing Buddhism, as well as to those who are purely interested in how Buddhism comes from one culture to another. In turn, at this point, we have a further translation happening, in that Buddhism and Buddhist literature are being translated into the English language. We have done this translation in the hope that it may be able to cross the cultural gap and enlighten people through the profound and powerful messages that come across in the example of Marpa’s activity. Hopefully, this work could now be translated into other European languages, as well as Chinese and Japanese.

The working style of translation that we have adopted is to combine precision and accuracy with a certain sense of devotion. Because of this, we have had no need to add anything new or omit anything as irrelevant. Working in this way, we have also found that translating together as a committee is most enjoyable.

I would like to invite the readers to share in what we have found. I am so pleased that we are able to present this work. What we have discovered could be equally yours.

Translator’s Colophon

Like a sword slashing through water

One sees mahamudra

And attains the teachings of the formless dakinis.

This indeed is your kindness, Marpa the Translator.

Though enveloped by the darkness of maras,

One sees the luminosity of the Great Eastern Sun

And discovers the sun of insight transcending mind.

This indeed is your kindness, Marpa the Translator.

The view arises free from bias,

Meditation arises free from grasping,

Action arises free from hesitation—

This indeed is your kindness, Marpa the Translator.

If we did not have you, Marpa the Translator,

The hearing lineage could not pervade everywhere.

Whenever your life example is heard,

Darkness in the mind of this little one, Chökyi Gyatso,

Is always dispelled.

By the power of propagating your life example,

This kalpa of plague, war, and famine is pacified.

In the great bliss of That

May all beings without exception

Enjoy this feast offering

Together with you, Vajracharya Marpa,

And may all attain enlightenment.

This was written on May 10, 1982, by Chökyi Gyatso, the eleventh Trungpa at the Kalapa Court within the dharmic sphere of Karma Dzong.

From

T
HE
R
AIN OF
W
ISDOM

The Essence of the Ocean of True Meaning

BRINGING THE RAIN OF WISDOM

THE SPONTANEOUS SELF-LIBERATION

THE BLAZING GREAT BLISS

THE QUICK PATH TO REALIZATION

OF THE SUPREME SIDDHI

The Vajra Songs of the Kagyü Gurus

Translated by the Nālandā Translation Committee under the direction of Chögyam Trungpa

N
ĀLANDĀ
T
RANSLATION
C
OMMITTEE

Chögyam Trungpa, Director

Lama Ugyen Shenpen

Loppön Lodrö Dorje Holm

Larry Mermelstein, Executive Director

David Cox

Dana Dudley

Christine Keyser

Sherab Chödzin Kohn

Robin Kornman

Jud Levinson

John Rockwell, Jr.

Cathryn Stein

Ives Waldo

Scott Wellenbach

Gerry Wiener

C
HÖKYI
G
YATSO,
the eleventh in the succession of supreme Trungpa tulkus, radiates like the sun all the precious teachings of the Kagyü in all the kingdoms of the world. This is evidence of his ability to incarnate according to his wish. Not only has he properly translated into English the realization songs of the great siddhas of the Practice Lineage, but in the western land of America, he has spread the teachings of the Kagyü in a hundred directions.

For the tenth-year anniversary celebration, I, the holder of the crown and title of the glorious Karmapa, proclaimed these good wishes of auspiciousness in the Tibetan Iron Monkey year, on the fifth day of the Vaishakha month, in the year 1980, on the good nineteenth day of the fifth month.
SHUBHAM

His Holiness the XVIth Gyalwa Karmapa

Dharma Chakra Centre

Rumtek

Gangtok Sikkim

Foreword

I
AM VERY PLEASED
to present this translation of
The Rain of Wisdom,
the
Kagyü Gurtso.
I feel highly inspired by the translation work that I and my students have done. I am realizing for the first time that the basically theistic English language has now been blessed by the Practice Lineages and is becoming a great medium for expressing the nontheistic, enlightened dharma. I and my translators have worked very hard and feel somewhat proud of what we have produced.

When I was eight my tutor recommended that I use the life of Milarepa as part of my reading practice. I remember clearly the illuminated manuscript of Milarepa’s life that I used. Occasionally I would look at the illustrations and try to understand the contents. Reading this text not only improved my literacy, but aroused my feeling for the Kagyü tradition and my admiration of Milarepa’s life and his asceticism.

I wept and laughed as my reading practice went on. Sometimes my tutor thought that I was weeping because I missed my mother, or because I was trying to get out of the harsh discipline that was part of my training. I used to tell him, “No, I’m crying because of what I am reading.” So this reading had a profound effect on me. In fact, reading this book inspired me to compose beginning-level songs myself, which at that point I did by trial and error.

The sense of dedication and exertion that is expressed in the life examples and songs of our Kagyü forefathers is something one can never forget. The Practice Lineage of the Kagyü tradition inspires one to become fully involved in a heartfelt connection with the teachings. From my childhood until the present day, each time I open
The Rain of Wisdom
and read a few passages it makes me appreciate the hardships that our forefathers endured for the sake of future generations such as ourselves.

The Kagyü tradition is said to be the most stubborn and honest in following its heritage. We take delight in our heritage. Doubt, challenge, hesitation—in brief, any form of second thoughts—are not regarded as obstacles, but rather as fuel to push us further and cause our devotion and heartfelt longing to blaze, to increase our intense desire to follow the example of our forefathers. So we, as Kagyüs, have thrived on the transmissions of our forefathers, and sustained and nourished ourselves in reading and reciting their vajra songs along with their life stories.

As for myself, the older I get, the more of a Kagyü person I become. Aging in this way is wonderful. My thanks and appreciation to the forefathers.

Because of the destruction of Tibetan tradition and the disruption of the Kagyü dharma by the recent Communist takeover of Tibet, out of humble duty and with the inspiration of the Practice Lineage, I have accomplished some small deeds to enable the Practice Lineage to be kindled further. Here in North America and the Western world, a group of sincere students has gathered around me—dedicated practitioners who are free from arrogance, students who do not lean on their Kagyü religion in order to glorify their individual egos. I am immensely thankful to my students, particularly my Vajra Regent, Ösel Tendzin, and to the guidance of my own teacher.

Needless to say, I am thankful to the splendor and magnificence of His Holiness the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa. His manifestation and existence are so fortunate and powerful for us in this dark age. The propagation of the Kagyü dharma is always within his empire. The brilliant sunshine of His Holiness’s kindness, as well as that of Khyentse Rinpoche and Dudjom Rinpoche, has encouraged me in continuing my teaching in the Western world. Through their kindness they have acknowledged my transformation from a pebble to gold, and they have given me further responsibility as vajrācārya and vidyādhara in the modern world, so that I can teach continuously and further the dharma of the Practice Lineages.

Nonetheless, even with such encouragement from the present lineage fathers and my devoted students, I have been left out in the cold as full-time garbageman, janitor, diaper service, and baby-sitter. So finally I alone have ended up as captain of this great vessel. I alone have to liberate its millions of passengers in this dark age. I alone have to sail this degraded saṃsāric ocean, which is very turbulent. With the blessings of the lineage, and because of my unyielding vow, there is obviously no choice.

The readers of this book should reflect on the value and wisdom which exist in these songs of the lineage in the following ways. First there are the life examples of our forefathers to inspire our devotion. There are songs which help us understand the cause and effect of karma and so illuminate the path to liberation. There are songs which give instruction in relative bodhicitta, so that we can realize the immediacy of our connection to the dharma. Some are songs of mahāmudrā and transmit how we can actually join together bliss and emptiness through the profound methods of coemergence, melting, and bliss. Other songs show the realization of Buddha in the palm of our hand.

Needless to say, these songs should be regarded as the best of the butter which has been churned from the ocean of milk of the Buddha’s teachings. Reading these songs or even glancing at a paragraph of this literature always brings timely messages of how to conduct oneself, how to discipline oneself, and how to reach accomplishment. Furthermore, these songs are very pithy and direct. Their wisdom is both old and new. It is old because it is a tradition of twenty-five hundred years; it is new because it directs itself to one’s very moment of mind, at this very second.

These songs should not be regarded as ordinary poetry, as a purely literary endeavor. They are the insight of our forefathers, conceived, described, and proclaimed. The reason we refer to them as songs is because they are based on the melody of circumstance, and on meditative experience. They are cosmic onomatopoeia, the best expression of sanity. Traditionally they are known as vajra dohās.

These vajra dohās of the Kagyü forefathers are read annually in the celebration of the parinirvāṇa of Milarepa by a group of students who have accomplished the preliminary discipline of entering into Buddhism, taken the vow of benevolence of the bodhisattva path, and also glimpsed the power of vajrayāna, so that they are not fearful, but further inspired. Students are also advised to read this book for instructions when their life is filled with disruption and uncertainty and neurosis. Even reading only one passage is better than going to a psychiatrist or taking a dose of aspirin. This is not a myth: from my personal experience these songs do provide a kind of staircase of liberation. They actually enable us to interrupt our perpetual subconscious gossip, awaken ourselves on the path, and energize ourselves so that we can help others.