I am very happy to announce a new biography on Patriarch Milarepa that Don Asper has prepared and it is wonderful. B26-The Life of Milarepa by Tsangnyon Heruka has long been a favorite account of one of the greatest saints of Tibet and Don has done a masterful job of developing a class that makes it so relevant to our program. Don has promised to hold group discussions on the course when we have enough enrolled. You can find the excellent 2010 edition translated by Andrew Quintman on Amazon in Audible audiobook, kindle, and paperback editions. I have been listening to the Audible version and following the text on kindle and cannot say enough good things about this book. I think we will make this a required course for anyone in the Seminary program as it does so much to explain how the Practices and Blessings lineage differs from the exoteric forms of Buddhism and explains the importance of both cultivation and tantric Dharma practices to obtain enlightenment–at least in your current life time. It tells how an ordinary person—a person who murdered 35 people—was able to become a holy person in one lifetime.
In preparation for the course, you might want to find the excellent Tibetan film on the first part of Milarepa’s life and watch it again or for the first time, if you missed it when it was released in 2006. The second part was never done to my knowledge, but the first part is excellent and very entertaining for Buddhist and non-Buddhists alike. It gives you a feel for what Milarepa’s early years were like and the conditions that prepared him for his years with Marpa and beyond.
CLICK for link to 2006 movie MILAREPA. You may also purchase the DVD on Amazon and elsewhere.
Reba Jinbo Rinpoche and Don Asper commented on why the “50 Stanzas on Devotion to the Master” was an appropriate practice at the time of Milarepa, which led to a discussion of this course at our October 29, 2022 discussion on DCB26.
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