The Life of Milarepa
This chronology of Milarepa’s life is described in 1) The Profound Biography of Great Jetsun Milarepa, compiled by 12 Great Sons of Milarepa, 2) the Black Treasury by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, 3) the Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa (Gurbum), by Tsangyön Heruka, and 4) the The Life of Jetsun Milarepa: An Illuminating Lamp of Sun and the Moon Beams by Bhikhsu Shije Ritröpa. Milarepa’s birth and death dates which create the framework for this chronology are based on the writings of Tsangyön Heruka.
Father: Mila Sherab Gyaltsen
ཡབ། མི་ལ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
Mother: Nyangtsa Kargyen
ཡུམ། མྱང་ཚ་དཀར་རྒྱན།
Clan: Khyungpo
གདུང་། ཁྱུང་པོ།
Birthplace: Kyangatsa of Mangyul Gyungthang
འཁྲུངས་ཡུལ། མང་ཡུལ་གུང་ཐང་གི་སྐྱ་སྔ་རྩ།
Peta Gönkyi, born when Milarepa was 4 years old.
At age 7 his father, Mila Sherab Gyaltsen, passed away.
At age 15, his mother Nyangtsa Kargyen tried to reclaim their property and wealth from Töpa Ga’s paternal uncle and aunt in accordance with Mila Sherab Gyaltsen’s will, but failed.
Soon after, Mila Töpa Ga began his education under a Nyingma master in the village.
At the age of 18, under his mother’s command Mila Töpa Ga went to learn black magic from master Yungtön Trogyal. After a year he was sent by his master to Tsangrong to gain further mastery of black magic under the master Yönten Gyatso.
Date taken from The Life of Jetsun Milarepa: An Illuminating Lamp of Sun and the Moon Beams by Bhikhsu Shije Ritröpa.
After Mila gained power to cast spells on his enemies and destroyed many lives, he became known as Apo Thuchen.
With great regret for his negative deeds Apo Thuchen searched for a path to purify his karma and achieve liberation.
His master Yungtön Trogyal sent him to a Dzogchen master, Rongtön Lhaga. Rangtön soon realized Apo Thuchen’s heavy karma and told him that the only person who could help him was Marpa, and sent him to search for Marpa.
Date taken from The Life of Jetsun Milarepa: An Illuminating Lamp of Sun and the Moon Beams by Bhikhsu Shije Ritröpa.
At age 28, Mila first met Marpa. He followed Marpa closely for six years and eight months. He then became known as Milarepa.
མི་ལ་དགུང་གྲངས་སོ་བདུན་ལ་སྒྲ་བསྒྱུར་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་མར་པ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཐོག་མར་མཇལ་བ་ནས་བཟུང་ལོ་དྲུག་དང་ཟླ་བ་བརྒྱད་ལ་བསྙེན།
Date taken from The Life of Jetsun Milarepa: An Illuminating Lamp of Sun and the Moon Beams by Bhikhsu Shije Ritröpa.
At age 34, with permission from his guru, Marpa Lotsawa Chökyi Dorje and his consort Dagmema, Milarepa returned to his home town, Kyangatsa.
When he went home his mother had passed away already, and his sister’s whereabouts were unknown. Milarepa practiced for weeks at his childhood home to help his deceased parents’ path to liberation.
He then found a cave in Kyangasta area, where he meditated for several months, during which his provisions were provided by the people of the village including his previous enemy, his paternal aunt, to whom he gave all his family land and property. During this time he also met with his childhood betrothed, Dzesé.
Milarepa made the deep aspiration to continually stay in retreat. He continued his retreat at Rakma Changchup Dzong, after which he moved to Drakar Taso Uma Dzong for about a year. Following that he moved to Pori Potho Namkha Dzong.
In these mountain caves, he practiced for 6 years in total.
From The Profound Biography of Great Jetsun Milarepa, compiled by 12 Great Sons of Milarepa, pg 47.
Milarepa then went to Drakmar Chongling Khyung Dzong, and practiced for another 13 years (12 years, 12 months, 12 days, and 12 hours).
After completing his practice commitment in 1103 CE, Milarepa departed for Lapchi Snowy Range and continued to hoist the banner of the Practice Lineage.
From The Profound Biography of Great Jetsun Milarepa, compiled by 12 Great Sons of Milarepa, pg. 47 and 54.
After years of meditation at all the sacred places prophesied to him by Lord Marpa, and many other solitary mountain retreats, Jetsun Milarepa seized the fortress of dharmakaya [complete enlightenment].
Following his liberation, Milarepa spent the rest of his life teaching the dharma, and leading his heart sons and daughters to ripening and liberation.
At the age of 84, Milarepa passed away in Chuwar, his body dissolving into the dharmadhatu.
དགུངས་གྲངས་གྱ་བཞི་ལ་ཕེབས་སྐབས་ཆུ་དབར་དུ་དགོངས་པ་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་སུ་གཤེགས།
This site is inspired by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, the Milarepa of our generation.
milarepa.info ©2022 is created by Ponlop (Karma Ngedon Sungrap Tenpe Gyaltsen) with support from L.A.M. Jnana Bodhi.
