Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

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Enochian
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Enochian »

Namdrol wrote:
No, that is not so -- there was a lot of gsar ma material in Tibet when Mila was a youth. He just happened to have had Nyingma masters.
Sarma material, of course I agree with that.

But is there anything unique about Sarma material?

Bottomline of Sarma is tummo and karmamudra which is probably present in the Nyingma beforehand, right?
There is an ever-present freedom from grasping the mind.

Mind being defined as the thing always on the Three Times.
Malcolm
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Malcolm »

Enochian wrote:
Namdrol wrote:
No, that is not so -- there was a lot of gsar ma material in Tibet when Mila was a youth. He just happened to have had Nyingma masters.
Sarma material, of course I agree with that.

But is there anything unique about Sarma material?

Bottomline of Sarma is tummo and karmamudra which is probably present in the Nyingma beforehand, right?
Actually, we have eleventh century Nyingma masters complaining about all this new-fangled stuff with cakras, and nadis and so on that was a Hindu corruption of Buddhism. They reacted quite negatively to Hevajra, Kalacakra, Cakrasamvara and so on at first.
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

Namdrol wrote: Mila had ten Nyingma masters before he met Marpa.

N

That's interesting and makes plenty of sense. What's the deal with his relationship with Marpa? He did consider Marpa his root guru no? It's funny, because Gampopa asked him, hey what's all the fuss about Dzogchen? Gampopa quotes Mila in one of the Kagyu's more cherished teachings of Gampopa, that Dzogchen is for 8th Bhumis and up. Then, that becomes Kagyu dogma.
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Malcolm
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Malcolm »

adinatha wrote:
Namdrol wrote: Mila had ten Nyingma masters before he met Marpa.

N

That's interesting and makes plenty of sense. What's the deal with his relationship with Marpa? He did consider Marpa his root guru no? It's funny, because Gampopa asked him, hey what's all the fuss about Dzogchen? Gampopa quotes Mila in one of the Kagyu's more cherished teachings of Gampopa, that Dzogchen is for 8th Bhumis and up. Then, that becomes Kagyu dogma.
There is another place, in Gampopa's advice to Gomchung, where he pretty much eviscerates mahāmudra, dzogchen, and so on in favor of what he terms "tathatā".
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

Enochian wrote:
Bottomline of Sarma is tummo and karmamudra which is probably present in the Nyingma beforehand, right?
Saraha taught a Sahaja Mahamudra not connected with tummo or karmamudra. There seems to be language in his dohas that are reminiscent of a luminosity teaching as well. Taranatha seems to indicate he taught this to Padmasambhava.
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

Namdrol wrote:
There is another place, in Gampopa's advice to Gomchung, where he pretty much eviscerates mahāmudra, dzogchen, and so on in favor of what he terms "tathatā".
Yes. This view came to the fore in Jigten Sumgon's Gongchig in his vajra verse where he says the highest view is nonattachment to the Three Great views.

My feeling is this is Saraha's stand-alone mahamudra as clear light lineage.
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Malcolm
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Malcolm »

adinatha wrote:
My feeling is this is Saraha's stand-alone mahamudra as clear light lineage.

Perhaps, but Yangongpa, writing on sahaja-mahāmudra is critical of 'od gsal and rejects the idea that mahāmudra and ābhāsvarāḥ are synonymous because luminosity lacks appearances.
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

Namdrol wrote:
Enochian wrote:
Namdrol wrote:
No, that is not so -- there was a lot of gsar ma material in Tibet when Mila was a youth. He just happened to have had Nyingma masters.
Sarma material, of course I agree with that.

But is there anything unique about Sarma material?

Bottomline of Sarma is tummo and karmamudra which is probably present in the Nyingma beforehand, right?
Actually, we have eleventh century Nyingma masters complaining about all this new-fangled stuff with cakras, and nadis and so on that was a Hindu corruption of Buddhism. They reacted quite negatively to Hevajra, Kalacakra, Cakrasamvara and so on at first.
That's wierd didn't Guru Padma teach prana, nadi and bindu?
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Enochian
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Enochian »

Namdrol wrote:
Enochian wrote:
Namdrol wrote:
No, that is not so -- there was a lot of gsar ma material in Tibet when Mila was a youth. He just happened to have had Nyingma masters.
Sarma material, of course I agree with that.

But is there anything unique about Sarma material?

Bottomline of Sarma is tummo and karmamudra which is probably present in the Nyingma beforehand, right?
Actually, we have eleventh century Nyingma masters complaining about all this new-fangled stuff with cakras, and nadis and so on that was a Hindu corruption of Buddhism. They reacted quite negatively to Hevajra, Kalacakra, Cakrasamvara and so on at first.

Its not about the root tantras and deities themselves.

Didn't Nyingmas have tummo before Sarma?
There is an ever-present freedom from grasping the mind.

Mind being defined as the thing always on the Three Times.
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

Namdrol wrote:
adinatha wrote:
My feeling is this is Saraha's stand-alone mahamudra as clear light lineage.

Perhaps, but Yangongpa, writing on sahaja-mahāmudra is critical of 'od gsal and rejects the idea that mahāmudra and ābhāsvarāḥ are synonymous because luminosity lacks appearances.
I'm not familiar with Yangongpa, but I don't see how anyone gets around inseparability.
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Malcolm
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Malcolm »

Enochian wrote:
Didn't Nyingmas have tummo before Sarma?
Tricky question. Tummo appears to have originated in the Hevajra tantra. We have tummo texts ala Krishnacarya in Dunhuang, but these are somewhat late.

The fact is that unless we accept the terma tradition as having probative value for dating practices in Tibet, it is hard to know.
Malcolm
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Malcolm »

adinatha wrote:
Namdrol wrote:
adinatha wrote:
My feeling is this is Saraha's stand-alone mahamudra as clear light lineage.

Perhaps, but Yangongpa, writing on sahaja-mahāmudra is critical of 'od gsal and rejects the idea that mahāmudra and ābhāsvarāḥ are synonymous because luminosity lacks appearances.
I'm not familiar with Yangongpa, but I don't see how anyone gets around inseparability.
You will have to read Yangong yourself. He is an extremely important Drugpa Kabgyu master who exclaimed "This begger's realization came from Dzogchen" and write one of the defining treatises on Mahamudra and the four yogas of Mahamudra. He considers the four yogas of Mahamudra to be Gampopa's unique system developed out of Gampopa's own experience on the basis of sahaja mahamudra.
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

Namdrol wrote:
Enochian wrote:
Didn't Nyingmas have tummo before Sarma?
Tricky question. Tummo appears to have originated in the Hevajra tantra. We have tummo texts ala Krishnacarya in Dunhuang, but these are somewhat late.

The fact is that unless we accept the terma tradition as having probative value for dating practices in Tibet, it is hard to know.
Then the termas which transmit tummo, being post-Hevajra means Guru Padma felt it better these should be revealed after Hevajra? Or it also implies the termas with tummo are Hevajra knock-offs.
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

You will have to read Yangong yourself. He is an extremely important Drugpa Kabgyu master who exclaimed "This begger's realization came from Dzogchen" and write one of the defining treatises on Mahamudra and the four yogas of Mahamudra.
I have the Padma Karpo material about four yogas. Gampopa is much clearer.
Namdrol wrote:He considers the four yogas of Mahamudra to be Gampopa's unique system developed out of Gampopa's own experience on the basis of sahaja mahamudra.
That's what Jigten Sumgon says too re Gampopa's own experience. However, that doesn't hold up re Four Yogas because, while Gampopa stated the four yogas in a variety of ways, Mila had a song of four yogas and Saraha has a four yoga-like presentation too. Clearly to me four yogas comes from Saraha and is based on the Hevajra Tantra four moments, four blisses, and all those fours. Basically, based on Gampopa's own experience, he did what Mila told him not to do and that was teach sahaja mahamudra independent of tummo.
Last edited by adinatha on Tue Apr 26, 2011 1:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Malcolm
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Malcolm »

adinatha wrote:
Namdrol wrote:
Enochian wrote:
Didn't Nyingmas have tummo before Sarma?
Tricky question. Tummo appears to have originated in the Hevajra tantra. We have tummo texts ala Krishnacarya in Dunhuang, but these are somewhat late.

The fact is that unless we accept the terma tradition as having probative value for dating practices in Tibet, it is hard to know.
Then the termas which transmit tummo, being post-Hevajra means Guru Padma felt it better these should be revealed after Hevajra? Or it also implies the termas with tummo are Hevajra knock-offs.

That all depends on whether you are text critical scholar or not, or even care. I think the western scholarly consensus is that channel and nadi theory was borrowed by Nyingmapas from sngags gsar ma tantras, especially Vajramala.

But the dating of Tantric material in India is very problematical, as you know.
Malcolm
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by Malcolm »

adinatha wrote:
Namdrol wrote:He considers the four yogas of Mahamudra to be Gampopa's unique system developed out of Gampopa's own experience on the basis of sahaja mahamudra.
That's what Jigten Sumgon says too re Gampopa's own experience. However, that doesn't hold up re Four Yogas because, while Gampopa stated the four yogas in a variety of ways, Mila had a song of four yogas and Saraha has a four yoga-like presentation too. Clearly to me four yogas comes from Saraha and is based on the Hevajra Tantra four moments, four blisses, and all those fours. Basically, based on Gampopa's own experience, he did what Mila told him not to do and that was teach sahaja mahamudra independent of tummo.

Have you considered the possibility that the Mila song is a later composition?

It is far more likely that the four yogas were adapted from Ratnakarashanti's Madhyamaka-alamkara and its upadesha where four yogas are explicitly taught. Alternately, they were adapted from the four samadhis of Semsde. Adzom Drugpa, when presenting Semsde, actually uses the scheme of the four yogas.

N
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

Namdrol wrote:
adinatha wrote:Have you considered the possibility that the Mila song is a later composition?

It is far more likely that the four yogas were adapted from Ratnakarashanti's Madhyamaka-alamkara and its upadesha where four yogas are explicitly taught. Alternately, they were adapted from the four samadhis of Semsde. Adzom Drugpa, when presenting Semsde, actually uses the scheme of the four yogas.

N
That doesn't explain Saraha's Four Symbols of Mahamudra in the King Doha, and he is one Hevajra revealer. One also must look at the earliest evidence of Semsde's four samadhis. Adzom Drugpa was like 19th Cent. Do they predate Saraha? My feeling is that there is ridiculous cross-fertilization, me-too-ism and one-ups-manship. For me, the only really clear and true lineage is the timeless lineage of ultimate realization. Everything else is just handy tools and nifty tricks.
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adinatha
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by adinatha »

Another very important thing about Kagyu Mahamudra is that at least for Drikung Kagyu, four yogas are presented as inseparability as nonmeditation, and are basically glossed over. For them, the oral pith instructions to Tilopa's Ganga Mahamudra are the highest explanation of mahamudra. There, there are no stages or yogas. Nonmeditation is presented as highest acumen. Tummo as medium acumen students basis to get the view. And karmamudra as lowest acumen students basis to get the view. For nonmeditation, mind is introduced as emptiness. Then, thoughts-feelings are introduced as emptiness. Then, appearances are introduced as emptiness. Finally, inseparability is introduced.
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conebeckham
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by conebeckham »

Enochian wrote:
Namdrol wrote:
adinatha wrote:For what it's worth... Mila said...

"...stabbed from the front by mahāmudra, stabbed from the back by Dzogchen."

Mila had ten Nyingma masters before he met Marpa.

N

Well by default they had to be Nyingma, since the other schools didn't exist yet.
Not sure about this...what about the Kadampa? Are you saying there was no such thing during Mila's time?
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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conebeckham
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Re: Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa Contradiction that Bothers Me

Post by conebeckham »

Tricky question. Tummo appears to have originated in the Hevajra tantra. We have tummo texts ala Krishnacarya in Dunhuang, but these are somewhat late.

The fact is that unless we accept the terma tradition as having probative value for dating practices in Tibet, it is hard to know.
Then the termas which transmit tummo, being post-Hevajra means Guru Padma felt it better these should be revealed after Hevajra? Or it also implies the termas with tummo are Hevajra knock-offs.

That all depends on whether you are text critical scholar or not, or even care. I think the western scholarly consensus is that channel and nadi theory was borrowed by Nyingmapas from sngags gsar ma tantras, especially Vajramala.

But the dating of Tantric material in India is very problematical, as you know.
Well, what about the completion stage of Yangdak?
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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