Milarepa

According to his traditional biography, Milarepa was born in western Tibet; after his father’s death, relatives seized the family’s property and reduced him, his mother and sister to poverty. At his mother’s urging he learned sorcery and took revenge, causing the deaths of many people. Overwhelmed by remorse, he sought the Dharma.

He became the disciple of Marpa the Translator, who for years refused him teaching and made him build and tear down stone towers, until his bad karma was purified. Marpa then gave him the teachings of mahāmudrā and the yogas of Nāropa. Milarepa spent the rest of his life in solitary retreat in caves in the Himalaya, living, the story says, on nettles until his skin turned green, and attained full awakening in one life.

He taught through spontaneous songs, which his disciples remembered. His disciple Gampopa founded the monastic Kagyu order, which traces its lineage through him. In 1488 Tsangnyön Heruka compiled the classic Life of Milarepa and The Hundred Thousand Songs, which have made him one of the best-loved figures of Tibetan religion.

Scholars treat the details of the traditional biography with caution, since it was composed some four centuries after his death; but the songs and stories it gathered have shaped the Tibetan ideal of the yogin who renounces everything for practice.