Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: Milarepa

  • Hair


    Keep a watchful eye for spiritual materialism.
    Don’t look for a goal,
    but practice meditation nevertheless.

    Don’t try to push your ideas,
    don’t dictate,
    and don’t edit the dharma,
    the truth and the teachings.

    The dharma is yours,
    so you could relate to the dharma very simply.

    Let dharma come to you.

    If there is a conflict between you and dharma,
    if I may say so,
    it is your conflict.

    Dharma has no conflict.

    ~ Excerpted from: Milarepa: Lessons from the Life and Songs of Tibet’s Great Yogi,
    by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, pages 115–116

    My hair is getting so long!

    My hair brought to mind for John and me “Rapunzel,” the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. I had to look it up to remind myself of the details, so you might enjoy at least a refresher of the end.

    For two years the poor blind prince wandered the world, looking for Rapunzel. From morning to night he called for her, but it was no use. At last, he reached a desert. One day, he heard a beautiful voice singing. “Oh!” he thought. “I know that voice!” It was his dear Rapunzel! He went closer and closer to the voice he knew so well.

    “My prince!” called Rapunzel when she saw him. The two of them hugged tight. Two tears of joy fell into the eyes of the prince. All at once, he could see again!

    The opening quotation from Milarepa sits at a very hollow home in my heart, especially the phrase: “Don’t try to push your ideas, don’t dictate…”

    And that last line: “Dharma has no conflict.”

    I feel the subtle grasping to have our country and my world be free of conflict.

    That longing for freedom from conflict is amplified as we winter here in Florida where political signs continue to swing in the tropical breezes and the doors to restaurants and bars are wide open even as Covid cases continue to rise.

    Of course, these conditions are impermanent.

    This, too, shall pass.

    For those who are not inclined to click on the link to read the entire story of Rapunzel’s long hair, here is the end:

    And what happened next, well, I’m sure you can guess! The prince and Rapunzel went back to the kingdom where the prince lived. They were married as soon as they could. The prince became king of the land and Rapunzel became queen. The two of them lived happily ever after.

    Today, I will let the dharma come to me.

    Hair grows.

  • Learn the Tables

    Recently I wrote a poem titled ‘Longing’ that was inspired by an exchange with a dear friend that left me feeling less than valued, wondering if I should have, or could have, done something differently in our past to allow for a more pleasant current exchange.

    Sitting heart-to-heart with another precious friend a week or so later, I was stunned to have her say to me, “You are more invested in saving my marriage than I am.”

    Later, as I was writing in my journal, some clarity came about all of this, inspired in part by the Thought for Today from Deep Spring Center.

    You as a world are inviting conflict but then not doing the needed practice with it, so you must invite it again and again. You are like the child in school doing endless multiplication table drills; they are unpleasant but you have not studied the tables, and will not, so the teacher repeats the drills. Your inattention calls forth the repetition. If you wish the drills to cease, learn the tables.
    ~ Aaron

    The “D” stands for Debra, and the “V” stands for the voice of wisdom I call Holy Spirit, from my journal entry:

    D: I know the truth that ‘wherever you go, there you are.’ If she is so easily offended because he yelled at her, she will encounter that energy again. It is today’s quotation from Aaron about calling difficulties to us over and over to learn what we need to know.

    V: If you had a lesson you are still learning that expresses itself in the ‘Longing’ poem, what might that lesson be?

    D: Take nothing personally. I am not responsible for another person’s emotional state.

    Note—As I wrote these words on to the journal page, I could feel something leaving my energy!

    V: What else?

    D: Wonderings are a symptom of not being present moment where I can gently say, “Oh, this is that old habit energy. I know you. Come, sit, have tea. I’ve been expecting you.” *

    V: Tell all who know. They all know. Love, Holy Spirit

    A very wonderful message on an Easter morning.

    Going right along with that, was the quotation, “When humanity awakens, it will move beyond time,” which came from the Brahma Kumaris with this image:

    *This is a reference to the stories of Milarepa (c. 1052 – c. 1135 CE), one of Tibet’s most famous yogis and poets.

  • Milarepa’s Muses


    I am in a poetry writing group. We are working our way through The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop by Diane Lockward. Craft Tip #12 is about the uses of myth. “Milarepa’s Muses” is based on The Non-Duality of Coming to Know the Light Within the Darkness; Age of Kali , a talk given by Aaron on Saturday Morning, December 3, 2016, at a retreat in Seattle. Aaron is channeled by Barbara Brodsky. You can read Aaron’s entire talk at the Deep Spring Center Archives. I have included a clip of just the story of Milarepa at the end of this post.

    Milarepa’s Muses

    Demons on the doorstep
    Demons outside, Milarepa inside
    Duality

    Delighted demons destroying
    Property and Milarepa’s
    Peace

    Always there, those demons
    Doing their demon things
    Determined

    Dogging his footsteps
    Dodging his arrows
    Dastardly

    “Eat me,” mouthed as
    Milarepa puts his head inside the demon’s mouth
    Victory

    The demon disappears
    Light merging with darkness
    Oneness

    Debra Basham 7-17-2018 (WC 53) based on The Non-Duality of Coming to Know the Light Within the Darkness; Age of Kali by Aaron

    It seems one of the most common demons visiting humans is the demon of the fear of death. I just finished reading Frank J. Cunningham’s, Vesper Time: The Spiritual Practice of Aging. On page 131-132, Cunningham writes that when the Dali Lama was asked if he feared death, he replied, “It’s just a change of clothes.”

    Ending the duality and recognizing the truth that death is just a change of clothes is putting your head inside the demon’s mouth and watching the demon disappear.

    The Non-Duality of Coming to Know the Light Within the Darkness; Age of Kali
     
    December 3, 2016 Saturday Morning, Seattle Retreat;
    Combined retreat opening talk and morning instruction with Aaron

    Some years ago, I offered the group at this retreat the second Milarepa practice. Not the serving tea practice, that’s Part 1. First we serve him tea. We get used to the demon. We stop running from or denying the demon. We open our hearts to ourselves and the demon. We serve him tea and say, “Shh, no dialogue. We’re not going to talk, but you may be here. I’ll let you be present.” To let him be present there must be a deep sense of, not your power, the power, when you rest in connection with the light. It is that connection that allows you to permit the demon to sit before you. But there’s still separation: me here, the demon there.

    The second Milarepa practice. He comes back to the area of his cave carrying firewood on his back. As he approaches his home he finds it’s overrun by demons. His first impulse is to grab a stick of firewood. He starts chasing them with one big club. Of course, they’re delighted; they laugh. They were really getting to him! “Look how much anger! Ooo! More! More!” So the more he chases them, the more they take delight in his fear and anger.

    Finally he realizes this isn’t working. He sits, he meditates, he thinks, “What can I do? I’ll send loving wishes to them.” They laugh. They don’t care about his loving wishes. They’re busy destroying his home. “What else can we do? How can we get him more riled up?” and proceed with their destruction. Finally he looks around. He thinks, “maybe they’ve always been here and I just never noticed them before. I’ll just be here and present with them”. Most of them get bored when he’s no longer agitated, and they leave. But there’s one fierce demon with bulging eyes, big teeth, a huge, gaping mouth, and he follows Milarepa everywhere, 6 inches behind him, always right there, sometimes coming around face to face.

    The days pass, the weeks pass. Finally, Milarepa understands there’s only one choice here. He approaches the demon, looks him in the eyes, says, “Eat me,” and puts his head in the demon’s mouth. What happens then? The demon disappears. Why?

    Q: The demon has no power over Milarepa.

    Aaron: Even more than that. Thank you, but one more step.

    Q: Non-duality.

    Aaron: He ends the duality. This is what we’re doing here, not just at the retreat, but this is what your world has invited you to. This is the whole image of Kali, the destroyer, destroying the duality. Fully embracing not only the light, but the darkness. Instead of clinging to the light and in any way trying to push the negative away, as we embrace the darkness and merge the light with the darkness, they dissolve into one. I use the image here of a huge dark cave; if you light one match the whole cave is lit even if dimly. You can’t see into the darkest corners, no. But as soon as there’s light, there’s light. It’s no longer dark.