Milarepa's Kungfu: Mahamudra in His Songs of Realization

by Karl Brunnhïlzl, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche (Foreword by)

Overview

Lion's Roar says, "This book is a treasure of subtle revelation."

The view is the wisdom of being empty
Meditation is luminosity without fixation
Conduct is a continual flow free of attachment
Fruition is nakedness bare of any stain

This is the first stanza of Milarepa’s Ultimate View, Meditation, Conduct, and Fruition: pith instructions originally sang to the great yogi Rechungpa, Milarepa’s disciple. These teachings are Milarepa’s direct offering to his disciple of his own profound realization, gained after many years of dedicated practice. Karl Brunnhölzl, acclaimed translator and senior teacher at the Nalandabodhi community of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, calls this hard-earned understanding “kungfu”: “Gong means ‘skillful work,’ ‘hard training,’ or ‘endeavor,’ and fu means ‘time spent...’ The term refers to Milarepa’s diligent and skillful training in the techniques to realize the nature of his mind and benefit countless sentient beings.”

Ultimate View, Meditation, Conduct, and Fruition is a work of remarkable depth and clarity. In just five verses, Milarepa gives incisive instructions for progressing and for avoiding pitfalls in the stages of practice:

- View: the basis or ground from which the proper meditation, conduct, and fruition of mahamudra can arise

- Meditation: the training in or the familiarization with that view

- Conduct: the natural outflow of having familiarized with the view in meditation

- Fruition: the final outcome of having fully assimilated and realized the view, whose essence is not different from it

Milarepa dedicates one verse to each stage, and Karl dedicates one chapter to each verse, weaving in wisdom from other Milarepa songs, comments by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso, and from Karl’s own insight. Readers can thus fully immerse themselves in each point of Milarepa’s extraordinary teaching.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614296614
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	621,077
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Karl Brunnhölzl was originally trained as a physician. He received his systematic training in the Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, as well as Nitartha Institute, founded by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter of Tibetan and English. He is a senior teacher and translator in the Nalandabodhi community of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche as well as at Nitartha Institute. He is the author and translator of numerous texts, including most recently A Lullaby to Awaken the Heart (2018) and Luminous Melodies: Essential Dohas of Indian Mahamudra (2019).

Table of Contents

Mind-Bending Song: Foreword by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche vii

Preface xi

Introduction 1

Milarepa: From Mass Murderer to Buddha 1

The Setting of This Song 2

1 The Synopsis of View, Meditation, Conduct, and Fruition 5

View-The Outlook of Open and Spacious Luminosity 5

Meditation-Sustaining the View 7

Conduct-Meditation in Action 8

Fruition-Buddha Nature Undressed 9

2 The View Is Not a Theory but an Experience 11

Don't Look at the Finger, Look at the Moon 14

No Self, No Problem 17

What Is My Mind without Me? 19

Mind Is on Its Own 23

Do We Find Our Mind? 26

Letting Go of Everything 28

Relishing the Taste of Letting Go 28

Appearance and Emptiness: Why Can't They Just Get Along? 33

Waking Upfront Our Own Dream 38

Confused Mind's Tantrums and Luminous Mind's Dance 40

3 Meditation: Awareness in Both Stillness and Movement 49

Thoughts Ask, Experience Answers 54

Life Is a Dream 57

Beyond Sessions and Breaks 60

A Fish Leaping out of the Water 62

The Ice Sculptures of Our Thoughts 64

Concept Fails the Flame 66

Meditation as Undoing Our "Doing-Mind" 68

Dissolving into the Dharmakaya 72

Rest like a Child, the Ocean, a Flame, a Corpse, and a Mountain 74

Let Illusion-like Experiences Fly 77

4 Conduct: Beyond Dos and Don'ts 83

Crazy Wisdom 84

If We Let It Be, Mind Needs No Fix 89

5 Fruition: Nothing to Gain, Nothing to Lose 95

The Hose and the Snake 96

Nothing to Be Removed or to Be Added 99

Appendix: Milarepa's Ultimate View, Meditation, Conduct, and Fruition 105

Notes 107

Bibliography 109

About the Author 111

Editorial Reviews

Brunnhölzl’s book focuses particularly on Milarepa’s song called “Ultimate View, Meditation, Conduct, and Fruition.” What is this view? What kind of meditation? How does one do it? And how is it that—fruition being no different from the view—we’ve come anywhere at all by the end of the song? Brunnhölzl nimbly explains what each concept is, and is not. For both him and Milarepa, the process of recognizing then becoming deeply familiar with the ultimate view is a mysterious one. This book is a treasure of subtle revelation.

Lion's Roar - Bonnie Nadzam

Karl Brunnholzl provides a delightful overview of Milarepa and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso’s teachings on view, mediation, and action. The style is straightforward and profound, lighthearted, and even humorous. Karl adds his own images and observations while following Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso’s oral commentaries on Milarepa’s songs of realization. The book emphasizes how Milarepa is talking about ‘view’ as the direct experience of mahamudra, then provides a brief introduction to how Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso taught the progressive stages of approaching emptiness.

Lama Shenpen Hookham

In this book, Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl, our Nalandabodhi Mitra, unveils the secret of view, meditation, and action as sung by the king of yogins, Milarepa. This book is certain to open a new dimension for your mind and bring the mind-bending experience of the yogi into your heart. These teachings of Milarepa are a timely and straight-to-the-heart wisdom that will surely benefit many in this century and beyond. With heartfelt gratitude, I close with the aspiration that all who even glance at this book may see reality and free their mind.”

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

Milarepa, the eleventh-century Tibetan poet and meditation master, was acclaimed for his songs of inner realization and spiritual attainment. In Milarepa’s Kungfu, Karl Brunnhölzl explores the Mahamudra tradition through a detailed commentary on Milarepa’s song of the ultimate view, meditation, conduct, and fruition of Buddhist practice. Written with characteristic clarity and wit, and presented in a highly engaging style, Brunnhölzl’s masterful work elucidates the profound meaning of Milarepa’s words, which encompass the entire path to awakening. Milarepa’s Kungfu illuminates this thousand-year-old poem as part of a living tradition that will interest the newcomer to Buddhist literature and the longtime practitioner alike.

Andrew Quintman

In Milarepa’s Kungfu, Karl Brunnhölzl directly and simply—but not simplistically—unpacks the wisdom instructions in a medley of Milarepa’s songs of realization. Brunnhölzl makes the inexpressible accessible, opening up the meaning, explaining key terms and points, and linking the songs with Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s teachings, including his five stages of meditation on emptiness. This is a masterful and delightful presentation of some of Milarepa’s key teachings on mahamudra—to be enjoyed by all!”

Elizabeth Callahan