Rivergaro

Escursione collinare in Val Trebbia partendo da Rivergaro, il percorso è quello della manifestazione locale Trail Ballando




The Shepherd's Search for Mind
Follow my example and for twelve years meditate.
Then you will understand the nature of Mind.
Think well on this, dear boy!
127
The shepherd said, "I offer you my body and my head. Please
make me understand my own mind definitely and clearly." The Jet-
sun thought, "I shall see whether this child can really practice," and
then he said, "First pray to the Three Precious Ones, then visualize
an image of Buddha in front of your nose." Thus Milarepa gave the
shepherd the instruction of concentration and sent him away.
There was no sign of the boy for seven days. On the seventh day;
his father came to Milarepa, saying, "Dear Lama, my son has not
come home for a week. This is very unusual. Wondering whether he
was lost, I inquired of the other shepherds who had been with him.
They all said that he had come to you for the Dharma, and thought
he had then gone home. But where is he?" "He was here," replied
Milarepa, "but has not come back now for seven days."
The father was deeply grieved and wept bitterly as he left Milarepa.
Many people were then sent out to search for the boy. Finally, they
found him in a clay pit sitting upright with his eyes wide open star-
ing straight in front. They asked him, "\Vhat are you doing here?''
He replied, "I am practicing the meditation my Guru taught me." "Then
why have you not returned home for seven days?" "I have only been
meditating a little while, you must be joking!" As he said this, he
looked at the sun and found that it was earlier than the time he had
started to meditate. In his bewilderment he asked, "What has hap-
pened?"
From that day on, the boy's family had great difficulty with him,
because he had almost completely lost the notion of time. What ap-
peared to him to have been only one day, was the passing of four
or five days to others. l\1any times his parents sent people out to
search for him. Thus both he and his family began to feel miserable.
At this juncture they asked him whether he wanted to live with Mila-
repa for good. He said that he would like nothing better. So they
provided him with food and sent him to the Teacher.
Milarepa first gave him the Precepts of Five Virtues,10 preached
the doctrine of Dharma, and then granted him the teaching of the
Innate-born Wisdom.11 Through practice, the boy gradually attained
good meditation experience and l'vlilarepa was very pleased. [In order,
however, to clarify the boy's misapprehension on the nature of true
Realization], he sang:
I bow down at the feet of Marpa,
He who received grace from Naropa and Medripa.
THE HUNDRED THOUSAND SONGS OF MILAREPA
Those who practice the Dharma with their mouths
Talk much and seem to know much teaching,
But when the time comes for the perceiver to
leave the deadened body,
The mouth-bound preacher into space is thrown.
When the Clear Light12 shines, it is cloaked
by blindness;
The chance to see the Dharmakaya at the time
of death
Is lost through fear and confusion.
Even though one spends his life in studying
the Canon,
It helps not at the moment of the mind's departure.
Alas! Those proficient yogis who long
have practiced meditation
Mistake the psychic experience of illumination
For Transcendental Wisdom,
And are happy with this form of self-deception.13
Therefore when at death the Transcendental
Wisdom of the Dharmakaya shines,
These yogis cannot unify the Light of
Mother-and-Son. 14
Since meditation cannot help them as they die,
They are still in danger of rebirth in
lower Realms.l5
My dear son, best of laymen, listen to me carefully!
When your body is rightly posed, and your
mind absorbed deep in meditation,
You may feel that thought and mind both disappear;
Yet this is but the surface experience of Dhyana.
By constant practice and mindfulness thereon,
One feels radiant Self-awareness shining like
a brilliant lamp.
It is pure and bright as a flower,
It is like the feeling of staring
Into the vast and empty sky.
The Awareness of Voidness is limpid and