Singing In The Storm

 Even in the darkest hour,
I can see the light,
even in the hardest storm,
I can see the rainbow

It always struck me (as, how can this be?) when I was in school, to learn that a great lot of the people we call saints, could actually be described as villains (the narrative contains the part of the story where the person who later attained sainthood was a thief or a prostitute or a taxman or a sinner), before attaining sainthood. Although it makes sense that one turns to the light only after experiencing the dark side, the structures of our society, mainly the religions as for that matter, hold the narrative of divine versus evil, right versus wrong, good guys versus bad guys. Choose your battle field, either with us or against us. So, we are conditioned from early age to try to be good and righteous. Thus trying to exorcise the “bad”, the dark side. We try to bury it, to pretend it’s not there. But what gets buried can also be a seed. In this way, what we are educated to feel guilty and shame about, what we’re trying to fight to elimination, keeps on coming back, knocking on the door, shaking the foundations of our structure.  

 So the idea of sainthood in itself is well intentioned, after all it talks about how some people have come to realizing themselves, and become enlightened. The problem comes with the idea that the saints are in a different boat from the sinners. In this way the patrons of our society are trying to reduce us into flawed beings that need to get back in the safety and conformity of the herd.

They’re desperately trying to control people, but this tool for control turns against them and against humanity itself, as we clearly witnessed through the church’s sex scandals.

In this way we are “educated” to exorcise the shadow part of the self, as well as the dark parts of life. And then people try to walk in life with a smile on their face, with a façade of happiness. No wonder people feel numb, with no contact to their feelings, trying to compensate the luck of it with consumerism, use of tobacco, alcohol, substances. Even in the so called spiritual world, people are talking about the light from within, and shining your light to world and that sort of things. How about shining some light to our shadows? Eh? I know from experience that it is uncomfortable and scary. It’s a space from which I was conditioned to turn my head away, to try to ignore, to not talk about. But spirituality, walking in the path of light isn’t about wearing the mask of the Buddha. It’s not about celebrating our bright sides, only, but bringing awareness to our whole being. And again, I know it’s scary and uncomfortable but –apart from the fact that “ce la vie”- we are intelligent creatures and there are ways to get out of the drama narrative and deal with these things in an intelligent and helpful way, as I learnt from the amazing legacy of Osho and from philosophies like NLP.

The original reason for writing this was an article about the Buddhist saint Milarepa in Lion’s Roar magazine. The way it resonated with my life at this period is another reason for sharing these thoughts. Milarepa “committed grave crimes at an early age, then later had a radical change of heart”. Going through some very hard times he became one of the: “masters (who) sing spontaneously from their own immediate experience about what they have realized directly”.

 

Have you been chasing your thoughts—the objects of adverse conditions? Are the demons of hope and fear getting to you?

"All phenomena are one’s own mind, and that mind itself is luminosity-emptiness; Therefore, to take these demons and obstacles as external and delight over making them leave is useless.” 

Then, manifesting fearless confidence, Milarepa sang this song of realization, “Having Confidence in the View”:

Father, victorious over the armies of the four maras,
I bow at the feet of Marpa the Translator.

People call me a human, but
I am the son of the great snow lioness.
In my mother’s womb, I perfected three powers.
When I was a baby, I slept in my den.
When I was a youth, I guarded its gates.
As a full-grown lion I wander in snowy heights.
I have no fear of stormy blizzards.
I’m not afraid of steep rocky cliffs.

People call me a human, but
I am the son of the garuda, king of birds.
While inside the egg, I developed my wings.
When I was a baby, I slept in the nest.
When I was a youth, I guarded its gates.
A full-grown garuda, I fly in the sky.
I have no fear of the sky’s expanse.
I’m not afraid of narrow ravines.

People call me a human, but
I am the son of the colossal whale.
In my mother’s womb, my golden spots grew.
When I was a baby, I slept in the nest.
When I was a youth, I led the school.
A full-grown great fish, I roam the vast sea.
I have no fear of the sea’s mighty waves.
I’m not afraid of hooks or nets.

People call me a human, but
I am a son of the Kagyu gurus.
In my mother’s womb, I gave rise to faith.
When I was a baby, I entered the gateway of dharma.
When I was a youth, I put effort in study.
An adult, I wander in mountain retreats.
Though ghosts may be savage, I am not afraid.
Though demons play many tricks, I am not afraid.

When the lioness stands in the snow, her paws do not freeze.
If the lioness’s paws froze in the snow,
Her perfected three powers would be of little use.
The flying garuda cannot fall from the sky.
If the great garuda could fall from the sky,
Its broad wingspan would be of little use.

When the whale swims in water, it cannot drown.
If the great whale succumbed to the water and drowned,
Being born in the water would be of little use.

Iron boulders cannot be destroyed by stones.
If iron boulders could be destroyed by stones,
For smelting and refining, they would be of little use.

I, Milarepa, have no fear of ghosts.
If Milarepa had fear of ghosts,
Realizing the abiding nature would be of little use.

You band of ghosts, demons, and obstructing spirits here,
How sublime it is that you’ve come at this time.
Don’t hurry; relax and stay for a while.
Let’s chat about everything under the sun.

You’re hurried? Aw! You can stay just one night!
We’ll vie in a contest of all our three gates
And we’ll see the difference between virtue and nonvirtue.
I won’t let you leave until you’ve made some obstacles.
If you should go back without making obstacles,
How ashamed and embarrassed to have come here you’ll be.

After he sang this, Milarepa got up with confidence in his practice and charged in amongst the demons. 

(From Lion's Roar "The Hundred Thousand Songs Of Milarepa: A New translation")

https://www.lionsroar.com/the-hundred-thousand-songs-of-milarepa-a-new-translation/?mc_cid=cdd06470af&mc_eid=59d9457ca2