Milarepa Tames Rechungpa: His Second Major Disciple

Milarepa had two main disciples: Gampopa and Rechungpa. Gampopa is well known for his book Jewel Ornament of Liberation and for becoming a major lineage holder. Rechungpa met Milarepa at the age of 11 and studied under him which was many years before Gampopa met Milarepa.

It was Rechungpa who took three dangerous journeys to India to bring back important texts that Milarepa needed to teach his students, and it was Rechungpa who was Milarpa's only disciple to have received all of Milarepa's teachings, which he then passed on after Milarepa's death.

In Tibetan there are a several complete spiritual biographies on the life of Rechungpa, and except for this book by Thrangu Rinpoche there are no others in English. Tibetan spiritual biographies of Buddhist masters usually present them in a very positive light. But Rechungpa's biography differs because it presents his serious flaws the fact that he defied his root guru's commands three times, and that he went and received teachings on sorcery, and that at times he had a wife and lived in luxury.

However, with Rechungpa's strong devotion to Milarepa, he was tamed and spent last part of his life living in caves, teaching many disciples, singing spiritual Dharma songs in the same way that Milarepa did. He also reached the highest spiritual achievement of rainbow body on his death.

Thrangu Rinpoche chose this Tibetan text to present because it describes the teachings Rechungpa received and the miracles Milarepa performed to change Rechungpa's attitude. He also included many of these spiritual songs (dohas sung by Rechungpa and explains their meaning. The book also has some good descriptions of what life was like in 13th century Tibet.

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