Milarepa's Quotes

#1. Why exactly are we so frightened of death that we avoid looking at it altogether? Somewhere, deep down, we know we cannot avoid facing death forever. We know, in Milarepa's words: "This thing called 'corpse' we dread so much is living with us here and now."

Sogyal Rinpoche

#2. Take the lowest place, and you shall reach the highest.

Milarepa

#3. When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.

Milarepa

#4. Mental activity in the daytime creates a latent form of habitual thought which again transforms itself at night into various delusory visions sensed by the semi-consciousness. This is called the deceptive and magic-like Bardo of Dream.

Milarepa

#5. Strong and healthy, who thinks of sickness until it strikes like lightning? Preoccupied with the world, who thinks of death, until it arrives like thunder?

Milarepa

#6. My religion is to live - and die - without regret.

Milarepa

#7. Life is short and the time of death is uncertain; so apply yourself to meditation. Avoid doing evil, and acquire merit, to the best of your ability, even at the cost of life itself. In short: Act so that you have no cause to be ashamed of yourselves and hold fast to this rule.

Milarepa

#8. All meditation must begin with arousing deep compassion. Whatever one does must emerge from an attitude of love and benefitting others.

Milarepa

#9. Know emptiness, Be compassionate.

Milarepa

#10. In horror of death, I took to the mountains - again and again I meditated on the uncertainty of the hour of death, capturing the fortress of the deathless unending nature of mind. Now all fear of death is over and done.

Milarepa

#11. My religion is not deceiving myself.

Milarepa

#12. At firs,money is like the wish-fulfilling Gem
Later,it becomes indispensable
In the end;you feel like a penniless beggar
These are my thoughts and feelings on money
So I renounced both wealth and goods

Milarepa

#13. One should see that all appearance is like mist and fog.

Milarepa

#14. Desires achieved increase thirst like salt water.

Milarepa

#15. I have no desire for wealth or possessions, and so I have nothing. I do not experience the initial suffering of having to accumulate possessions, the intermediate suffering of having to guard and keep up possessions, nor the final suffering of loosing the possessions.

Milarepa

#16. The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation.

Milarepa

#17. I need nothing. I seek nothing. I desire nothing.

Milarepa

#18. He who avoids misunderstandings,
Amused at the play of his own mind,
Is ever joyful.

Milarepa

#19. The world knows caterpillar becomes butterfly but they don't care that it also becomes a moth. One is diurnal another nocturnal.Human once awakened can change the view to change self from Angulimala to a Buddha

Milarepa

#20. You menace others with your deadly fangs. But in tormenting them, you are only tormenting yourselves.

Milarepa

#21. In brief, without being mindful of death, whatever Dharma practices you take up will be merely superficial.

Milarepa

#22. In the gap between thoughts
nonconceptual wisdom shines continuously.

Milarepa

#23. If one stays too long with friends They will soon tire of him; Living in such closeness leads to dislike and hate. It is but human to expect and demand too much When one dwells too long in companionship.

Milarepa

#24. To attain Buddhahood ... we must scatter this life's aims and objects to the wind.

Milarepa

#25. Accustomed long to contemplating love and compassion I have forgotten all difference between myself and others

Milarepa

#26. Let distractions melt away like clouds disappearing in the sky. - MILAREPA

Dalai Lama XIV

#27. In the monastery of your heart, you have a temple where all Buddhas unite.

Milarepa

#28. As the twelfth-century Tibetian yogi Milarepa said when he heard of his student Gampopa's peak experiences, 'They are neither good nor bad. Keep meditating.'

Pema Chodron

#29. He who knows that all things are his mind, That all with which he meets are friendly, Is ever joyful.

Milarepa

#30. Do not entertain hopes for realization, but practice all your life..

Milarepa

#31. I trained my spirit in method.

Milarepa

#32. Hasten slowly and ye shall soon arrive.

Milarepa

#33. Deep in the wild mountains, is a strange marketplace,where you can trade the hassle and noise of everyday life, for eternal Light.

Milarepa

#34. When you are strong and healthy, You never think of sickness coming, But it descends with sudden force, Like a stroke of lightning. When involved in worldly things, You never think of death's approach; Quick it comes like thunder, Crashing round your head.

Milarepa

#35. Pilgrimages are journeys to places of power. People sometimes make pilgrimages to the caves where Milarepa or other great yogis meditated.

Frederick Lenz

#36. Sri Krishna's message is the message of anyone who comes from far away. His message is the same as Buddha, Lao Tsu, Bodhidharma, Milarepa, Padmasambhava.

Frederick Lenz