Get a Lifetime Dot Com

“The whole point is to take care of one another. Help each other………. Men [I like to use the Jungian concept of “animus”— in this case negative animus”— rather than “men,” because it is a component that women have as well] don’t listen. They are closed off. They’ve got all the testosterone but women [I like to use the Jungian concept of “anima”— both positive and negative — rather than “women,” because it is a component that men have as well] are much more powerful. They intuitively understand the power of love and goodness and kindness…..Ego with its fear and guilt keeps people from properly helping others……  The most basic emotion is love……..”<source of quote: my doctor; July 03, 2013, Toronto, Canada> Please note: as I understand it, both positive and negative are part of ultimate basic goodness.

One of my doctors — a Canadian icon in the field of integrative medicine — is a popular lecturer and author. So I shouldn’t have been surprised by his soliloqy when I went to see him for my quarterly appointment. But I was. I mean, although he’s a voluble guy, I have never seen this display before. It is fabulous. This soliloqy goes on non-stop for three or four minutes.

I feel that his office has become a stage from which he is proclaiming the good news! The good news of basic goodness.

You see, I have I just spent a week (from May 25 – July 02, 2013) in the wrap-around sky of Juniper Hill Retreat Centre participating in a Shambhala Meditation retreat lead by Patricia Ullman Hayward, former director of Dorje Denma Ling .

The retreat group of 11 participants is poised to experience a great paradigm shift (I think of it as nothing less than a revolution), the “push” the Sakyong is making right now to create enlightened society and introduce us to our own basic goodness.

It is only on July 03’13, the day after I return to Toronto from the weekthun, when I hear my doctor “hold forth” on basic goodness, that I realize how powerful the three-step process of Shambhala meditation is.

Another way to put this is that I feel certain that my doctor was reflecting back to me the results of a week-long practice — results that included touching the actual face of my own basic goodnes in all its many manifestations, e.g. feelings, thoughts, emotions.

Patricia told us that Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche asked her in February whether Shambhala meditation changed the culture <my emphasis>at a recent winter dathun (month of meditation). By the last day it was very palpable that we had created a culture of kindness.  The weekthun had roused my motivation and confidence. The other participants also spoke about the power and inspiration arising from touching our vulnerability, our appreciation. <source: Jacquline Larson: Back to Basic Goodness, Beginner’s Mind and Butter Tarts on a First Weekthun>

As is customary at Juniper Hill, we have our celebratory supper at the end of the weekthun. There are the toasts to our teachers. And then the entertainment.

Suzanne Bassett from Ottawa read her own poem. Here it is.

 

Take Your Seat

a story poem for drum accompaniment

by Suzanne Bassett

at Juniper Hill, May 25-June 2, 2013

 

In the jungle of my mind,
Tiger walks
on soft, strong paws,
content in her beautiful skin.

In the jungle of my mind,
Tiger sees
a waterfall of thoughts,
a geyser of emotions,
a roiling pool of memories and dreams,
hopes and fears,
broken battlements,
and barriers hastily erected
to protect against an unknown foe.

In the jungle of my mind,
Tiger sees
a gerbil on a wheel,
little paws turning the wheel of time
faster and faster and faster
frantic breath fast and hot.

Tiger says
Little sister
rest,
dip your tired paws
into the ocean of basic goodness.
Remember, little one,
you are worthy just as you are.
All you need is to relearn how to be.

Feel your heart, your
strong heart
whole heart
worthy heart
alive heart
remembering heart
awakened heart
warrior heart.

The blade of nowness
severs the shackles of the cocoon

And we take our seats
at the celebration, where we belong.

Home at last.

For some well-crafted descriptions of one of the participant’s experiences of the practice, please see the webpost by Jaqueline Larson, Toronto:

http://toronto.shambhala.org/2013/06/13/back-to-basic-goodness-beginners-mind-and-butter-tarts-on-a-first-weekthun/

Jacqueline Larson, retreat participant, and Louis Allen, one of the stewards of Juniper Hill Retreat Centre.

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the light blue-coloured Comment button at the end of the webpost.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and following one of three sets of simple instructions.

Thank you.

The Sakyong has designated May 7, 2013 — the day of the release of [his latest book] The Shambhala Principle — as Basic Goodness Day. This will be an opportunity for each of us to celebrate our understanding and manifestation of basic goodness.

Rinpoche passed on April 04, 1987, 19h00 EST. A number of dharma students —and some who never met him — have had so-called “mystical” experiences vis-a-vis Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

I’d like to share this story with you as an example of how I received a very clear instruction thirteen years after Rinpoche had died on how to manifest basic goodness at its most simple level in April 1990. This is exactly how I wrote about the experience in my journal.

It is 23h03, April 11, 1990, Toronto, Canada.

I put my head on the pillow.

Immediately, I am in the guestroom at my childhood home in Forest Hill Village, Toronto, Canada. Same yellow-gold bedspread that used to be there when I was a child. I prepare to die.Try to remember a mantra to say — I repeat the Padmasambhava mantra several times, and remind myself about the lights one sees in the bardo after death [see Tibetan Book of the Dead].

I shoot out of my body on a channel of energy in the northwest corner of the ceiling. There are flashing lights. People I know welcome me.

There are other people in the area who had not died. They are still in the bardo of this life. [In other words, we all share the same “space.”] They are not aware of those of us who have died. We move among them freely but they do not see us. Two women sit on a park bench talking; they do not see me — I am dead. I am standing behind them. They are chatting. I listen to their discussion. But not for long. It bores me.

So I turn away.

And there is Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche!  Sitting at a 45-inch floor Nilus LeClerc loom — the very loom I have in my recreation room — surrounded by two women with long dark hair — dakinis. I have never seen such black hair. Nor so straight. Blacker than black.[Do you remember the elocution lessons we had in the 1980’s? One of Trungpa’s examples was the sentence “Cathy’s hair is black.”] And straighter than straight.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche tells me “Be nice.” I was somewhat baffled. Just “be nice”? Is that all? No more message? Just…. “be nice”???

{Turns out that our present Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche had a similar reaction when his father [Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche] told him decades ago that he [Sakyong] would become a sakyong:

“When I asked my father what the sakyong did, he replied “The sakyong wakes people up to their own basic goodness.”

That’s it? I thought. <Please click here for source>}

That’s it.

I then move back “out” of the experience and into my body. Whereas at the beginning of the experience, I shot out to “the other side” in an extremely fast way through what I can only describe as a column of energy, I return to the bardo of this life in “stages.” In other words, I am in control of how quickly I re-enter the bardo of this life.

I realize that I’ve just had a monumental experience.  Felt some sort of freedom altogether. Once fully back in the body, I am in a state of bliss, and I realize that I will will not fear anything anymore. I have a totaly new perspective on life now.

I had just had my first direct exposure to the Shambhala principle of basic goodness in Plain English. “Be nice.” Be kind. Be wise. Be brave. Do no harm.

Went to sleep in a state of bliss and peace.

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the light blue-coloured Comment button at the end of the webpost.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and following one of three sets of simple instructions.

Thank you.

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

I am having a back-and-forth with my friend Louise about an intense situation in which I was recently involved. Her last e-mail to me was “so what [are you going to do] now?”

I hope my reply to Louise is helpful to more than myself. May it be so.

I can’t change the karma. The outcome has already been decided from my actions in previous lifetimes. There’s some karmic obstacle here.

In certain ways, this is very helpful to know. I simply stopped struggling. Instead, I continued to practice and study; to, hopefully, serve others by being emotionally nurturing; and to help people deal with crises with some insight, dignity and integrity.

On the other hand, I am left with a lingering sadness that I really cannot do anything about the situation. Once we have committed certain actions in a past lifetime, we cannot take them back. We can soften the effect. But we can’t take the actions back. The karma is going to ripen. [Added May 12’13: Of course, as senior teacher Jay Lippman pointed out to me today, you don’t know how long the karma will last. It might be for a whole lifetime. Or just a part of a lifetime.]

My lifetime has been about one choice and one choice only: simply deciding on what my response will be when the karma ripens. That’s it! What I do or don’t do makes no difference whatsoever to the outcome. Other than creating future karma, my present actions have no effect on the karma that is ripening. To repeat, once we have committed certain actions in a previous lifetime, we cannot take them back. We can soften the effect. But we can’t take the actions back. The karma is going to ripen.

 

Recognizing that I had one choice, I made it: I could be resentful, angry, paranoid, embittered, morose etc. But I decided decades ago that I would be as gracious as possible in the face of an almost overpowering amount of negative karma.

 

I knew what I was heading into before I was born. Supposed to be born around February 27th,  exactly 38 weeks after the day of conception, D-day June 6, 1944. But refuse to exit the womb. Wait until March 11th. Still only 5 lb 5 oz. I am called “5 by 5” in the hospital. Umbilical cord wrapped tightly around my neck. Doctor gets it off just in time. It is 60 degrees Fahrenheit in winter, Toronto, Canada. People are playing tennis.

Fast forward to 1956. I have a distict and very vivid memory of sitting in my bathtub at age 11 and realizing what the rest of my life would be like. It wasn’t pretty.

But there’s another factor that impinges on my life that we must consider: Up until now, I’ve only been talking about my own karma and karmic obstacles. There are other people’s karma and their obstacles as well! I cannnot change that. It is up to them.

So, Louise, back to your question “so what [are you going to do] now?”

Isn’t there some story about a princess and a frog? The frog tells the princess that he once was a human being. But then, by some evil [ego], got turned into a frog. Now the princess must kiss the frog to turn him back into a human being.

Let’s tweek that story a bit.

Frogs seem to think that they have to be in love with someone to be loving. Otherwise, they fear they may get embroiled in something they don’t want. So they hold back. Perform harmful, hurtful actions that show rejection. Become takers rather than givers. Are completely self-involved. They have lost their humanity to the forces of fear. This creates and maintains negative karma. In short, frogs put their fears before their friends.

But frogs, too, have a choice. If they are aware that they have become frogs who are stuck in their ponds, they can ask the warrior princess (heart, feeling, basic goodness, bravery) to embrace them so that that mind of fear can be put into the cradle of lovingkindess.

The frogs then awaken into full human beings, warrior princes. They put their friends before their fears.Princes understand that, no matter what type of relationship they are in, they can be true to the core of their being, which is to be kind, loving, caring, supportive. This creates and maintains positive karma.

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

BOSTON, MA, March 05, 1770 The Boston Massacre — British troops kill five unarmed colonists and wound six others after the colonists hurled taunts and snowballs.

The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on colonists that were heckling a British sentry.

BOSTON, MA – Monday, April 15, 2013, 14h50 EST — two bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon at 673 Boylston Street

A Boston Marathon competitor and Boston police run from the area of an explosion near the finish line in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/MetroWest Daily News, Ken McGagh) MANDATORY CREDIT

Violence is rare in this picture-book city.

What would make two young men alleged to be the bombers perpetrate this horror? In this post, we’ll try to answer this question.

1.  Ignorance — The two killers don’t realize how bad this type of action is, or understand the karmic results that flow from such a negative action.
2. Karmic creation — Because of this ignorance, the killers perform the actual act of killing.
3. Consciousness — This factor includes the killers’ motivation, how strongly they feel about what they want to do, and their vizualization of the act step-by-step. Their feelings, and imagining the act, “nourish” the minds of the killers. Seeds of negative karma are now sown in killers’ minds and they will come to fruition at some point in the future.
4. Name and Form— The act of killing confirms the killers’ (ego) identity.
5. Six Senses — During the act of killing the killers’ senses are active – seeing, hearing, touching etc.
6. Contact — takes place when victim is actually killed by the weapon.
7. Feeling — how the killers feel – upset, pleased, neutral etc.
8. Craving or Adoption — Emotional indulgence is now full-blown. Their minds are fixated on the act and killers carry it out to the end.
9. Grasping or involvement — Killers becomes involved in the act because they want something, or want to avoid something. In other words, a self-indulgent reaction to their feelings takes place.
10. Becoming — Now that the killing has been committed, karma has been created.
11. Birth — Killers have given birth to consequences that will affect their future in a negative way.
12. Aging and Death — End of the act of killing.

<source: based on Thrangu Rinpoche’s schemata>

This is the mind of the killers.

It can make us question whether people are basically evil or basically good.

A video of the attack surfaced today showing the moment when the bomb detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The video captures the fiery explosion of one bomb and the thunderous boom of another. But it also captured something else. <source: click here>

Then the Boston Bodhisattva Warriors step forward. They are motivated by selfless and courageous service to others despite the possible danger to themselves.

Before the dust had settled from the explosion police officers and marathon runners were rushing to the scene to help those who were injured. No one knew at the moment what was going to happen next. No one knew if there would be another explosion. All they knew was that there were people who needed help and they rushed to help them. <source: click here>

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the light blue-coloured Comment button at the end of the webpost.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and following one of three sets of simple instructions.

Thank you.

Usually, to tell someone they are a dreamer, is a bit of a criticism. It somehow means that they don’t have their “feet on the ground.” They may be, in the words of the Everly Brothers, “dreamin’ [their] life away.”

In the case of our spiritual guides, it means that they are great visionaries. As The Monkees would say, they are “daydream believers.”

My own dreams aren’t of that calibre and they appear when I am asleep at night. But they sometimes explain the meaning of a concept that I have not yet fully grasped experientially.

That was the case on April 06’13.  My centre celebrates the 26th passing of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Among other things, we listen to Talk One of a series of talks entitled How to Manifest Enlightened Society, Boulder, December 26, 1980. Harald Dienes leads the post-talk discussion. He points out a vivid phrase — “glaring light of the Great Eastern Sun” — that Rinpoche used to illustrate the idea that we’d prefer to stay inside our cocoons than come out into open space where we may be exposed.

Listening to my brothers and sisters share opinions and views of this phrase  triggers a memory of a dream I had had on April 05.

Dream

I and a friend are standing on a white beach looking out to the water. I am simultaneously standing beside my friend and can see our backs. I  say “look at how blue the water is.  Look at how yellow the sun is. Look at how red that [don’t remember what the object is] is!” The colours are so vivid.”

Next to that scene (stage left) is the exact same picture – the water, the sun, the white beach and some red object. But the colours are dull, washed out.

Notes

• the colours red, blue, yellow are primary colours = our own primordial wisdom; non-conceptual wisdom; primordial awareness beyond our own projections
• the sun = the mind of basic goodness, complete perfection, arises
• the colours are so vivid = when you actually see a colour, rather than your own concept of the colour, it is vivid, almost in a surreal way
• dull, washed out, pastel = seeing our projections, not the actual objects themselves
• simultaneously standing beside my friend and am also standing behind us so that I can see our backs = there is spaciousness  such that I can both be with my friend and get another (wider) view of the situation
• the two scenes placed side-by-side = coemergent quality, that is, both wisdom and confusion arise simultaneously — which one will we pick at any given time?

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the light blue-coloured Comment button at the end of the webpost.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and following one of three sets of simple instructions.

Thank you.

Toronto, May 26’79 – Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche arrives to visit his students and hold a five-day public seminar

Halifax, Canada. Saturday, March 04, 2006. 19h00 AST…… Evening reception for participants of a five-day programme. Alan Sloan proposes a toast to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the Dorje Dradul. It is one of the best I’ve heard in 40 years. Alan has kindly given permission to quote his remarks.

I would like to propose a toast to what I personally feel is the essential Chogyam Trungpa. If I close my eyes and think of Rinpoche, the very first impression, the first thought is of his incredible warmth, his tenderness and amazing sensitivity to what it means to be a human being. The Vidyadhara was the most human human being I ever met.

He made us feel that being human was precious, that having a human body, heart and mind was the greatest treasure. He clearly loved his life and communicated that love to us. In his presence, every detail of perception, every emotion, thought, word, the most ordinary activities, all seemed potent and filled with meaning.

His tenderness was pervasive and penetrating. Whatever rock hard opinions his students held were illuminated and then melted, like glaciers, by the Dorje Dradul’s heat and brilliance. He loved us so passionately. His love encouraged us to be truly human, to feel everything, no matter how painful or pleasurable, exactly as it is — to respect our own experiences no matter what.

I would like to raise a toast to the ultimate human drala, to the Father and Grandfather Guru, to the kindest and most generous spiritual friend, who continues to inspire us all to be truly human and truly liberated.

To the Dorje Dradul.

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the light blue-coloured Comment button at the end of the webpost.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and following one of three sets of simple instructions.

Thank you.

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

Karma isn’t just accumulated by individuals. It can be accumulated by groups as well. I believe that companies like Red Bull that make “energy drinks,” heavily laced with much more caffeine than regular soft drinks, are motivated by greed for money. So they “shoot the bull” and promote their drinks to impressionable adolescents as “harmless.” Just like the cigarette companies once did.

On January 6, 2008, my 15-year-old son Brian was competing in a day-long paintball tournament. Around noon, Red Bull representatives came into the venue and handed out free samples of energy drinks. The lead detective investigating Brian’s death stated that Brian was witnessed drinking one of these samples. My wife and I arrived around 4:00 p.m. to watch the semi-finals and finals. His team won second place overall for the day. At about 7:20 p.m., while waiting for the awards ceremony, and a victory team dinner, Brian collapsed and later died in hospital to an arrhythmic event that could not be corrected. <source: Jim Shepherd, Toronto, Canada>

Jim makes a promise to himself, his family, and his dead son Brian: he will work tirelessly to inform others of what he believes caused the death, or partially contributed to the death, of his son: energy drinks.

The Government of Canada’s Standing Committee on Health invites Jim to speak before them on June 08, 2010. A friend of his asks if I would like to help Jim with his speech. As I used to write speeches for a cabinet minister in the Government of Ontario, I’m glad to support Jim’s campaign against these deadly, dangerous drinks. He has five minutes to convince the Minister of Health, through this Standing Committee on Health, to regulate the companies that make “energy drinks.” Read the rest of this entry »

What do Einstein and the Mukpo family’s newest addition have in common?

They were both born on March 14th. Both Pisces.

Welcome to Jetsun Yudra Lhamo Yangchen Ziji Mukpo. She appeared in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the Year of the Snake to the Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo.Her name means Turquoise Princess Thunder Melodious Lady of Brilliance.This is the second daughter for the Mukpo family. I’ll bet they’ve already got daddy wrapped around their little fingers. Long live girl power!

After participating in the Rigden Abhisheka in Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 2006, I wrote the original version of the song and offered it as a gift to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche — who teaches children and adults alike — for granting me an interview held on April 15, 2006.

At the time, I wondered if I should offer it to others.

When I asked David Brown of Kalapa Court in April, 2007, he kindly replied that

Having had the joy of reading the song myself, I thank you, and suggest you do offer it to others.

He also offered the Sakyong’s view: 

As he once said to me, (I paraphrase) “I don’t want Shambhala to become like China, where every part of our culture is directed from the top. I don’t want everyone to have to play one Shambhala national sport, like they play ping pong there!)”

And:

In his Treatise on Society and Organization, he <Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche> wrote:

“I have always encouraged both older and newer students to take initiative where they see fit, to jump in if it is truly beneficial, not to wait for the perfect conditions to come about, or for me to formally direct them or invite them to participate. It is not necessary for everyone to have specific instruction from me personally. When it rains, you don’t ask the clouds how to grow vegetables. You take the water and you grow vegetables. This is the notion of society. The role of the Sakyong is to provide space, to protect the space, so that the flowers can blossom. The sun does not pull the flowers up to the sky; the flowers grow, reaching toward heaven. If heaven is too close, the flowers will not exert themselves.”

I must also credit David for his suggesting the word “highlands” to replace my original word “forest” which might sound a little gloomy. I agreed. Forests could bring to mind Little Red Riding Hood and the big, bad wolf.

The song I wrote is sung to the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

I supplicate the Sakyong and the Sakyong Wangmo and request that I may offer a children’s song to the latest addition to their family.

The Rigden King had a castle in the highlands
KI KI SO SO KI
And in the east of the forest was a meek, humble tiger
KI KI SO SO KI
With a tiger’s growl here and a tiger’s growl there <children can make growling sounds>
Here a growl there a growl
Everywhere a growl growl.
The Rigden King had a castle in the highlands
KI KI SO SO KI

And in the north of the highlands was a perky lion
KI KI SO SO KI
With a lion’s roar here and a lion’s roar there <children can make roaring sounds>
Here a roar, there a roar
Everywhere a roar roar.
The  Rigden King had a castle in the highlands
KI KI SO SO KI

And in the west of the highlands was a fearless garuda|
KI KI SO SO KI
With a garuda’s shriek here and a garuda’s shriek there <children can make shrieking sounds>
Here a shriek, there a shriek
Everywhere a shriek shriek.
The   Rigden King had a castle in the highlands
KI KI SO SO KI

And in the south of the highlands was a turquoise dragon
KI KI SO SO KI
With a dragon’s thunder here and a dragon’s thunder there <children can make boom\thunder sounds by clapping their hands together loudly>
Here a thunder, there a thunder
Everywhere a thunder thunder.
The  Rigden King had a castle in the highlands
KI KI SO SO KI

 Long may the Rigden King reign!

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the light blue-coloured Comment button at the end of the webpost. Thank you.

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

(Note: The phrase May-to-December in the title is a take-off on “May-to-December” romances that are based on the romantic love tradition of the Middle Ages.)

Before I go into a month-long in-house retreat from March 04 to the day before Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s parnirvana, I must thank Judith Simmer-Brown  (JSB) for her work on romantic love.  Had I not had her programmes and articles to refer to, my year of dangerous living <click here and here for details> could have been “dangerous” in a destructive way. As it was, I was able to navigate the dangers, not without pain, but at least with some awareness. This enabled me to use romantic love as a jump-off point to develop the beginnings of some genuine affection and appreciation for people as they are in any given moment, not for cardboard cut-outs and cookie-cutter templates.

The intelligent way of working with romantic love is to experience it fully, beginning with the romanatic passion, and then experience the disappointment and go on from there. We should understand fully what we are doing, being aware of our tendencies toward delusion when we are “in love.” <source: Judith Simmer-Brown: Romantic Vision vs Everyday Disappointment>

May this post benefit others besides myself. Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

Please note: the underlined words are hyperlinks. Click on them for more information.

This weblog is dedicated to an in-depth study of karma and its many facets and factors. Today is Milarepa Day in the Buddhist calendar. Milarepa, a magician, murderer and saint is, for me, the best object lesson for karma!

When we hear the name Tibet, many people think of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Gentle. Compassionate. Humourous. Loving. Wise.

Milarepa, one of the greatest figures of Tibetan Buddhism, couldn’t present a better contrast to the perception we have of the Dalai Lama.

Mila was one bad dude. Got into black magic in a big way. Murdered his enemies to avenge some wrong-doing done to his family after his father had died.

But he is favourite of mine. Why? It’s really quite simple. He was a very naughty boy who went from sinner to saint. From a murderer to a magician and mystic. And did it all in one lifetime.

Milarepa’s message to me is: “I transformed a great deal of negative karma into enlightenment. So can you.” Well, it’s taking me many, many lifetimes. But Mila is my inspiration.

Let’s start at the beginning of his story. Read the rest of this entry »