Drinking the Mountain Stream: Songs of Tibet's Beloved Saint, Milarepa by Jetsun Milarepa

Author:Jetsun Milarepa
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780861718375
Publisher: Wisdom Publications
Published: 2013-02-07T16:00:00+00:00

10

Song of the Horned Staff

JETSÜN AND SEBEN REPA WENT TOGETHER to Upper Nyang in the province of Tsang. Traveling through unfamiliar territory, they reached the edge of a village where several men were gathered. Mila said to them, “We two yogis have a vow of begging only at the ‘first door.’ Someone who has strong faith give us some food.”

A young man, in his thirties, asked, “Where are you from?”

“We’ve come to Tsang from Upper Tibet.”

“It’s said that a good yogi should be able to draw examples from any object or event. Sing us a song about the symbolic meanings of that antelope-horn staff in your hand; then I’ll offer you food.”

So Jetsün sang this song:

I pray at the feet of Marpa, best of men,

Who nurtured me with unstinting compassion

While absorbed in the clear light of mahāmudrā

In the dharma-body palace void and free of fabrication.

Bless all beings to direct them to Dharma!

Listen to this, patron-interrogator:

This horn with spear shaft and rope windings

That I the yogi hold in hand—

Where is it from?

It’s from the northern land of the gods of wealth.

Its origin in the land of the gods of wealth

Symbolizes my wealth through knowing what’s sufficient.

It grew on an antelope’s head.

Its growth on a living being’s head

Symbolizes superficial reality.

The horn itself is insentient, lifeless.

This insentience and lack of perceiver

Symbolizes absolute reality.

Cutting it from the animal’s head

Symbolizes separation of body and mind;

Its massive root

Symbolizes knowledge of samsara’s hidden root,

And its many ridges

Symbolize the overwhelming waves of misery

On samsara’s great ocean.

This horn’s three bends

Symbolize straying into the three lower states

Through evils produced by the three poisons;

The straight sections between the bends

Indicate that though we’re now wandering in samsara,

The ultimate goal will at last be attained.

This horn’s hollow inside

Symbolizes the hollowness of samsara;

Its dark color,

The changelessness of reality;

And its toughness and hardness,

The strong diligence in Dharma

Of me, the Tibetan yogi-repa.

This spear shaft below the horn

Indicates that I, Tibetan yogi-repa,

Fly like a shot arrow

Through the space of samsara’s six realms.

The ten turns of rope at its base

Indicate that I, Tibetan yogi-repa,

Have arrived at the palace of dharma-body

By traveling the ten bodhisattva stages.

Sticking the horn’s tip in the earth

Symbolizes the leading of hell beings dwelling below.

Or sometimes I lay it on the ground

To indicate the leading of frustrated spirits and animals.

Sometimes I point it at the sky

To symbolize the taming of gods and anti-gods,

And when I take it up and wander the countryside,

It symbolizes the taming and leading of humankind.

This handle hole bored through the staff

Shows how my mind penetrates appearances without obstruction;

This grip of soft buckskin

Indicates the yogi’s suppleness of mind.

This tough, unbreakable thong handle

Indicates that I, Tibetan yogi-repa,

Have no fear of falling into lower states.

This song expresses the actual meaning,

But there’s no assurance the symbols will be understood;

So now receive a song of explanation:

Carrying this horned spear

Symbolizes my battle with the dogs of hatred

While wandering the countryside aimlessly.

This short song from my lips

Indicates I seek sustenance by begging;

And the symbolic language of this song

Shows a yogi’s childish prattling.

Understand its significance, gods and men!

Make it

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