The Life of Marpa the Translator: Seeing Accomplishes All

THE LIFE OF MARPA THE TRANSLATOR

SEEING ACCOMPLISHES ALL

Tsang Nyön Heruka

Translated from the Tibetan by the Nālandā Translation

Committee under the direction of Chögyam Trungpa

SHAMBHALA

Boulder

2017

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Nālandā Translation Committee

CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA, DIRECTOR

LAMA UGYEN SHENPEN

LOPPÖN LODRÖ DORJE HOLM

LARRY MERMELSTEIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

CATHRYN STEIN ABATO

DAVID COX

DANA DUDLEY

TONY DUFF

CHRISTINE KEYSER

SHERAP 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

SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.

4720 Walnut Street

Boulder, Colorado 80301

www.shambhala.com

© 1982 by Chögyam Trungpa

Cover design by Chögyam Trungpa

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Gtsan-smyon He-ru-ka, 1452–1507.

The life of Marpa the translator.

Translation of: Mar-pa-mam-thar.

Reprint. Originally published: Boulder: Prajña Press, 1982.

1. Mar-pa Chos-kyi-blo-gros, 1012–1097.    2.  Bka′-rgyud-par lamas—China—Tibet—Biography.     I. Nalands

Translation Committee. II. Title.

BQ7679.9.M377G7713      1986      294.3′923′0924 [B]

86-11837

eISBN 9780834840980

ISBN 9781570620874 (pbk.)

BVG 01

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Maps

Introduction

SEEING ACCOMPLISHES ALL: THE LIFE OF MARPA THE TRANSLATOR

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER I MARPA TAKES BIRTH AND LATER MEETS WITH THE HOLY DHARMA.

CHAPTER II MARPA TRAVELS TO INDIA THREE TIMES AND UNDERGOES HARDSHIPS FOR THE SAKE OF THE DHARMA. RECEIVING THE HOLY DHARMA FROM PAṆḌITAS AND SIDDHA GURUS, HE BRINGS IT BACK TO TIBET.

Marpa’s First Journey to India

Marpa’s Second Journey to India

Marpa’s Third Journey to India

CHAPTER III THE PRACTICE OF THE ORAL INSTRUCTIONS IS BORN IN MARPA’S HEART.

CHAPTER IV THROUGH MANIFESTING HIS REALIZATION, MARPA BENEFITS SENTIENT BEINGS AND THE TEACHINGS.

CHAPTER V AFTER TEACHING THE VIEW AND WORKING FOR THE BENEFIT OF SENTIENT BEINGS, MARPA DISSOLVES INTO DHARMADHĀTU.

AUTHOR’S COLOPHON

TRANSLATOR’S COLOPHON

Pronunciation Guide

List of Translations by Marpa Lotsāwa

Glossary

Index

E-Mail Sign-Up

ILLUSTRATIONS

Marpa the Translator. Detail from a thangka painted by Karshu Gönpo Dorje, from a series of lineage thangkas at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, India. Photograph used by the gracious permission of the late His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rikpe Dorje.

Dagmema, the wife of Marpa. Detail from the above thangka by Karshu Gönpo Dorje.

Kālacakra Monogram. The stylized monogram of the Kālacakra mantra, known as the All-Powerful Ten, consisting of the syllables HA K-ṢA MA LA VA RA YA-Ṃ.

Hevajra, the principal yidam of Marpa. Detail from the above thangka by Karshu Gönpo Dorje.

Vajravārāhī Shrine at Phamthing. This shrine building houses a large Vajravārāhī statue, which is said to have been located here since the time of Marpa. Phamthing is presently known as Parpheng, Nepal. Photograph courtesy of Timothy and Elizabeth Olmsted.

Marpa the Translator. This is the entire above-mentioned thangka by Karshu Gönpo Dorje. Marpa’s principal yidam, Hevajra in consort with Nairātmyā, is in the upper right. Directly above Marpa is the Sekhar, built by Milarepa, and above that is Marpa’s dharma center of Trowo valley. On Marpa’s left is his wife Dagmema, and below her is his student Ngoktön. To the left, below, are Marpa’s students Metön and Tsurtön (bottom). Below, in the middle, is the protectress Vetālī.

Vetālī, an important mahākālī (protector of the dharma) of the Kagyü lineage since the time of Nāropa and Marpa. Detail from the above thangka by Karshu Gönpo Dorje.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Life of Marpa the Translator is the first translation to appear in the Biographies of the Ngetön Lineage Series. Ngetön (T: ngesdon; S: nītārtha) means direct, true, or ultimate meaning. In the Tibetan tradition, it refers specifically to the highest level of teachings given by Śākyamuni Buddha during his lifetime, in his various forms as teacher of hīnayāna, mahāyāna, and vajrayāna Buddhism. Thus the teachers of the ngetön lineage are understood to be those Tibetan masters who practiced, studied, realized, and taught these ultimate teachings of the Buddha, thereby causing the buddhadharma to flourish. The great eleventh-century Tibetan teacher, Marpa of Lhotrak, was just such a master, and embodied this ideal in his life in a direct, practical, and unusually complete way. Moreover, he did so through his efforts to translate (in both literal and figurative senses) the authentic buddhadharma from India to Tibet. Since this series seeks to further just that same end, rendering the buddhadharma from Tibetan into the Western idiom, it is particularly appropriate that The Life of Marpa is the first biography of the present series.

In accordance with the longstanding Buddhist tradition of translation, this work has been produced by a collaborative effort. Within the Nālandā Translation Committee, a core group of translators prepares a first draft, which is then carefully reviewed with Lama Ugyen Shenpen, who is a native of East Tibet and well studied in the English language and all facets of Tibetan Buddhism. Having thus prepared a second working draft, this is presented to the director, Vajrācārya the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, and with him we repeat the meticulous reading of the entire text. The Vajrācārya’s accomplishment in both Tibetan and English coupled with his own realization sparks a delightful feast of language and meaning. The text is then reworked a number of times by the core group and other members of the committee—revising, editing, and polishing the English. Research into technical matters continues, and many portions of the translation are often scrutinized again by the Vajrācārya.

Following the early directives of the Buddha, we strive to translate into a modern idiom that is both accurate and useful for practitioner and scholar alike. Rather than straining often inadequate and approximate English phraseology for key Buddhist terminology and concepts, we commonly render these in the ancient lingua franca of Buddhist culture, classical Sanskrit. While this demands more from particularly the nonscholarly reader, we feel that only in this way is the precision, accuracy, and brilliance of the teachings left uncompromised. Others may criticize that the Sanskrit does not fully encompass the range of meanings of the Tibetan term; this is often true. However, we try to remedy this potential shortcoming by appending a glossary of such terms, indicating something of the rich and varied meanings given to these words by the living Buddhist tradition of Tibet. Much of the glossary to this volume was originally compiled for The Rain of Wisdom; this has been adapted to accord with the terminology found in this biography.

In preparing this translation of The life of Marpa the Translator: Seeing Accomplishes All (T: sgra-bsgyur mar-pa lo-tsā’i rnam-thar mthong-ba don-yod) two complete editions were used: a modern handwritten text (Varanasi: E. Kalsang, 1970) and a reproduction of a late nineteenth-century Tengyeling (T: bstan-rgyas gling) edition entitled Bka’-brgyud-pa Hagiographies, compiled and edited by Khams-sprul Don-brgyud nyi-ma, Vol. 1 (Tashijong, India: Sungrab Nyamso Gyunphel Parkhang, Tibetan Craft Community, 1972). In addition, two partial editions were consulted: sections of the Kagyü Gurtso (T: bka’-brgyud mgurmtsho; translated by the Nālandā Translation Committee and published under the title, The Rain of Wisdom [Boulder & London: Shambhala, 1980]) and La Vie de Marpa (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1937) edited and translated by Jacques Bacot. In all these editions, only minor variant readings were found, mainly differences in spelling—a common inconsistency—which, however, did lead to some differences between our translation and that of Bacot. Bacot’s French translation has the virtues and faults of a pioneering work. He made the basic life story of Marpa accessible, yet made a number of errors, mostly due to his unfamiliarity with vajrayāna doctrine and practice. Moreover, he only translated roughly one-third of the entire biography and omitted almost all of the songs. These shortcomings have prompted our own efforts to make available in English the entire life example of Marpa the Translator.

Although other members of our committee participated in this translation, most of the work was prepared by a core group consisting of David Cox, Dana Dudley, John Rockwell, Jr., Ives Waldo, and Gerry Wiener, in collaboration with Loppön Lodrö Dorje and myself. We are deeply indebted to the Vajrācārya, Trungpa Rinpoche, and Lama Ugyen Shenpen for their close guidance, care, and wisdom throughout all aspects of this project.

Special thanks are due His Holiness Dingo Khyentse, Rinpoche, and His Eminence the Venerable Shamar Rinpoche for sharing their vast learning with us, clarifying various technical points; Robin Kornman, for his work in amending our Glossary; Reginald A. Ray, chairman of the Buddhist Studies Department of Naropa Institute, for reading the manuscript and making valuable suggestions toward both the form and content of the final presentation; Scott Wellenbach, for his close reading of the final text; Carolyn Rose Gimian, editor-in-chief of Vajradhatu, and Olive Colón, for their invaluable editorial contributions to the entire manuscript; Barbara Bash, for her elegant map drawings; Helen Berliner, for the preparation of the Index; and, in particular, to John Rockwell, Jr., for his work on the Introduction, Notes, and Maps, as well as serving as the general editor for the entire production. As well, we would like to acknowledge the efforts of the many volunteer typists who prepared the numerous drafts and revisions of our work. Finally, we would like to thank the entire staff of Prajñā Press for their support in facilitating this book.

The richness and diversity of Marpa’s life and teachings provide a genuine account of liberation. We hope that this translation will inspire a greater understanding of vajrayāna wisdom, and that it may benefit beings and lead them to the path of buddhadharma.

Larry Mermelstein

Nālandā Translation Committee

Dedicated to His Holiness the Sixteenth

Gyalwang Karmapa

May his blessings continue.

May the full moon of such a rebirth arise soon.

PREFACE

It 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 either you become 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.

Vajrācārya the Venerable

Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche

INTRODUCTION

THE Life of Marpa was written in Tibet at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a time when a whole school of biographical literature was coming into being. This so-called school of biographers originated with the author of our text, who signs his name in this work as Trakthung Gyalpo [King of Herukas], the yogin who wanders among charnel grounds. He is more commonly known as Tsang Nyön Heruka, or simply as the Mad Yogin of Tsang. Besides his biography of Marpa, his two other biographical works concern Marpa’s main disciple, Milarepa: The Life of Milarepa and The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa,¹ both of which have already been translated and published in English. One other work, The Life and Teaching of Nāropa,² written by Lhatsün Rinchen Namgyal, a major disciple of Tsang Nyön, has also been published in an English translation. Nāropa was Marpa’s guru, and so with this publication of Marpa’s biography, we have three generations of master-disciple relationship before us.

Tsang Nyön had at least four other disciples who, inspired by their teacher’s example, each compiled several biographies, including works on such famous teachers as Tilopa, Nāropa, Rechungpa, their guru Tsang Nyön Heruka, and others. It is from their biographies of their teacher that we learn of the life of our author.

TSANG NYÖN HERUKA: AUTHOR, TEACHER, AND MAD YOGIN³

Tsang Nyön Heruka was born in 1452 in Upper Nyang in Tsang (western Tibet). At the age of seven, he was ordained as a novice monk. Later, when he was eighteen, he had a vision that urged him to go on a pilgrimage to the sacred mountain of Tsāri. On his way there, he met with his guru, Shara Rabjampa, who gave him teaching and sent him into retreat to practice. After this retreat and in accordance with his guru’s instructions, Tsang Nyön entered a Sakya monastery to continue his studies of the teachings of tantric Buddhism. When he had studied for two or three years, he realized that this monastic way of life was not going to bring him to the fullest realization of these teachings.

On the occasion of a visit to the monastery by his patron prince with his court, Tsang Nyön displayed such wild and insulting behavior that he was expelled from the monastery. From that time on, he lived an eccentric, varied, and productive life. He traveled a great deal, covering much of Tibet and visiting Nepal several times. Most of his time, he spent in retreat in western Tibet, especially at the holy places where Milarepa practiced. It is obvious from the lifestyle he adopted, the places he frequented, and especially from the amount of energy he devoted to compiling the biography and realization songs of Milarepa that Tsang Nyön identified very closely with Milarepa. He completed both these works on Milarepa when he was thirty-seven (1488).⁴

Later, Tsang Nyön worked for many years on a multivolumed compilation of the teachings of the hearing lineage (T: snyan-brgyud). These teachings, connected with the Cakrasaṃvaratantra, were special instructions that Marpa received from his guru, Nāropa, on his last trip to India. Marpa passed them on to his main disciple, Milarepa, who in turn gave them to three of his major disciples—Gampopa, Rechungpa, and the teacher of Ngen Dzong. Tsang Nyön himself belonged to the lineage passed down through Rechungpa.

Through his travels, his writings, his attainment, and his unconventional behavior, Tsang Nyön became renowned throughout both Tibet and Nepal. He attracted many disciples and was patronized by several royal families. At one point, he was called upon to mediate between rivaling factions during these troubled political times. Requesting a highly accomplished teacher to act as an impartial mediator (T: gzu-ba) was frequently done in Tibet to settle all kinds of disputes.⁵

Around 1505, during his last years, Tsang Nyön dictated the biography and songs of Marpa. He did this at Chuwar, one of the famous caves where Milarepa had meditated. He died two years later, at the age of fifty-four (1507), at Rechung Phuk (Cave of Rechungpa).

The Nature and Intent of Tibetan Biography

It is interesting and helpful to examine the question of why Tsang Nyön and his disciples devoted so much time in compiling these biographies. What is the nature of these biographies that makes them so important? Why should we be interested in reading them?

The word for biography in Tibetan is namthar (T: rnam-thar, short for rnam-par thar-pa), which literally means complete liberation. This clearly shows the intent of Tibetan biography. The central concern is to portray the spiritual development and fruition of the person’s life. This is why enlightening dreams and visions are often to be found as part of a biography. Moreover, this explains why songs are included as a central part of the biography. As we shall later discuss, spontaneous song was a traditional way of communicating an experience or teaching of spiritual significance.

Being a spiritual biography, it serves as a supreme example for sincere beings.⁶ Seeing the example of how Marpa or Milarepa overcame their own personal obstacles can inspire later spiritual practitioners in their own efforts to attain complete liberation. In this way, Marpa’s or Mila’s life story becomes a teaching to be studied and contemplated, since it can spark one’s own realization. This liberating quality that comes from reading these biographies is stated in the title of Marpa’s biography, Seeing Accomplishes All (T: Mthong-ba don-yod). The meaning of this pithy title is that merely seeing or reading this biography can accomplish one’s purpose, which is to awaken enlightenment. This is the intent with which Tibetan authors write these biographies, or namthars.

In his own time, Tsang Nyön became dissatisfied with the restrictive pattern that Buddhism was taking, to the detriment of keeping the heart of the teachings alive. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, monasteries in Tibet were not only the repositories of spiritual learning and practice, but were also the bastions of secular power. They had become wealthy and powerful, and so political disputes between rivaling monasteries were not uncommon. At times like these, the practice of meditation was sometimes forgotten or considered secondary.

When Tsang Nyön took up the lifestyle of the crazy yogin, the nyönpa (T: smyon-pa, madman), he devoted his life primarily to meditation in solitude. It seems clear that he wanted to break free from the busier and more regulated life of the monastic scholar and as well from any involvement in political power and wealth. In taking this step, he was not alone. During the fifteenth century, there were many other nyönpas, of whom three were as renowned as Tsang Nyön. They were Thangtong Gyalpo⁷ (1385-1464 or 1361-1485?, also known as Lungtong Nyönpa, Madman of the Empty Valley), Druk Nyön Künga Lekpa⁸ (1455-1529, otherwise known as Drukpa Künlek), and Ü Nyön Künga Zangpo (1458–?).⁹ Moreover, the appearance of the nyönpa was not a new occurrence, but can be traced back to India, in particular to the tradition of the eighty-four mahāsiddhas (who will be discussed below) and probably much earlier. It seems that for as long as there have been practitioners who chose to live within the monastic structure, there also have been those who chose to live outside it, Over time, they have served to counterbalance each other in preserving the practice and teachings of the Buddha.

In Tibet, Milarepa was the exemplar of the crazy yogin who devoted his life to meditation in mountain solitudes. He epitomized the style of the nyönpa—unconventional, uninhibited, full of earthy humor, skilled in teaching through song and story-telling, and possessing great insight into the nature of the world through his intensive practice.¹⁰ In his biographies of Marpa and Milarepa, Tsang Nyön has masterfully woven many of the qualities of the nyönpa into their stories. He uses a more colloquial style of language in both the prose and songs, infuses the plot with lively humor and human pathos, and delights in describing both the details of ordinary life and the profound wisdom of the solitary practitioner. It is no wonder that these biographies have been extemely popular among all Tibetans.

Tsang Nyön has not only created masterpieces of literature, but has also portrayed the profound and heartfelt spiritual development of two great teachers and practitioners. Marpa was a farmer and layman; Mila was an ascetic, a renunciant. Each of them forged his own path based on who he was and what his resources were. Tsang Nyön held their life examples up, not as lifestyles or forms for one to imitate, but as examples of how one’s life—anyone’s life—could be devoted wholeheartedly to the practice and realization of the buddhadharma.

THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM IN TIBET

Tibet, the land of Marpa’s birth, has long been a country that is remote and difficult to reach. In the South, it is separated from India and Nepal by the great Himalayan mountain range. In the West and North, it is bordered by the Karakorum and Kunlun ranges. In the East, there are a series of smaller ranges and stretches of sparsely settled land. But besides mountains, Tibet was, at one time, also a land surrounded by either Buddhist countries or areas heavily influenced by Buddhism. Most notably, there were China, the Tarim Basin (where the Silk Route crossed from China to India), Kashmir, Nepal, and India. Though geographically remote, Tibet was by no means culturally isolated. Long before Tibetans actively sought to acquire the teachings of the Buddha, opportunities for contact with Buddhist and other ideas and forms were present.

According to traditional accounts,¹¹ Buddhism made its debut in Tibet when some Buddhist texts and a small stūpa fell from the sky onto the roof of the royal palace. At that time, no one knew how to read the texts, since Tibet did not even have a written form for its own language yet. A Tibetan alphabet and grammar were formulated around 632 A.D., after the model of an Indian language, and gradually, Buddhist ideas began to penetrate the Tibetan mind more deeply, beginning in the eighth century. In time, Buddhist teachers from India, such as Śāntarakṣita and Padmasambhava, and from China and elsewhere were invited to Tibet to teach, and Tibetan students were sent abroad to study. Eventually, the first Tibetan monastery, Samye, was constructed in 779, the first seven Tibetan monks were ordained, and translations of Buddhist texts were undertaken. According to tradition, by 792, the Tibetans had chosen to commit themselves solely to the Indian tradition of Buddhism over and against the Chinese tradition, which had also been taught in Tibet up to that time. The end result of all these developments was that Indian Buddhism was officially declared the state religion by King Trisong Detsen. This marked the climax of what was called the first spreading of Buddhism in Tibet.

The success of this first spreading was short-lived. In 836, Langdarma assumed the throne and initiated a period in which Buddhism was suppressed. The monasteries were emptied, and the monks and nuns