Faith plays a central role in the historical roots of every spiritual tradition. In our modern world, as compared to times before the widespread adoption of the scientific worldview, spiritual faith seems to have a much less prominent role in the common person’s daily life and is often downplayed in favor of a purely objective, materialist view of reality. This is not to disparage the importance and benefit of science, but from the perspective of the spiritual path of awakening to the mind’s full potential, modern science seems not yet able to convey the same depth found within the world’s wisdom traditions. In the Western world, where democratic ideals are placed in the highest standing, authority of any kind is questioned, often to the point of deep cynicism and disdain. The notion of accepting the assertions of any authority, spiritual or otherwise, let alone “faith” in them, is often treated with deep suspicion.
In recent decades, Buddhism has started being described as a “science of mind,” where investigation and analysis of what can be directly experienced is greatly emphasized. This leads some to go so far as to say that Buddhism is not a religion at all. Many in the West turn to Buddhism because they perceive it as a sane, antiestablishment alternative that speaks to their spiritual needs in a way the dogmatic traditions of their upbringing were unable to. Yet, while objectivity and intelligent inquiry play a crucial role in the Buddhist approach, faith is still taught to be an integral component of the path. In the Collected Songs alone, the word “faith” or “faithful” shows up more than 250 times. Faith is portrayed in a positive light, as essential for anyone who wishes to train in the path that Milarepa teaches. Milarepa frequently remarks on the importance of faith to those with whom he interacts, even describing those lacking it as “unsuitable vessels” for his profound instructions. Frequently after hearing Milarepa’s songs of instruction, the audience is described as having given rise to “exceeding faith.”
So what does “faith” actually mean here? In common Western usage, faith often refers to a blind belief in something based solely on what one has been taught by someone else (one’s parents or some institution, perhaps). Individuals are, at times, told that they must simply have faith toward certain things that are unseen or cannot be directly known. They are further told that it is important not to lose faith. Should they accept these notions, these individuals may work to contrive something that may feel like faith in a particular object, often unsuccessfully. This is not to say that the term is used in such a way all the time. Earnest practitioners of non-Buddhist traditions may disagree that this dogmatic depiction of faith is a valid one. Likewise, this blind, dogmatic kind of faith is not what is meant when used in the Buddhist context, and specifically throughout the Collected Songs. To turn to a traditional explanation in the Buddhist context, Gampopa, Milarepa’s main disciple, explains in his own work, the Jewel Ornament of Liberation, that faith is an essential quality and the working basis or support for the journey toward liberation and enlightenment. Gampopa summarizes his points:
The freedoms, resources,
Confidence, desire, and admiration;
Two for the body, and three for mind,
The precious birth comprises these five points.
Here, the “precious birth” refers to what is traditionally called a precious human birth, or in plainer words, a situation conducive for attaining awakening. The tradition says that one must have “eight freedoms and ten resources” completely present to qualify as having a “precious human birth” (these two, freedoms and resources, are what “two for the body” refers to in Gampopa’s verse). These eighteen conditions, many of which are not under one’s direct control, must be present in the basic situation of one’s life in order to engage the Buddhist path. In addition to those, Gampopa then describes three qualities of mind that must be present. These are the three qualities of what Buddhists refer to as faith: confident faith, desiring faith, and admiring or inspired faith.
The first of these, confident faith, means that one has a sense of confidence, a basic trust in the teachings of the Buddha and those who can teach them in an authentic way. How such confidence is arrived at depends on the individual. Some may naturally have an immediate connection; the teachings just “click” right away for them. For others, deep inquiry and analysis must take place before arriving at some level of confidence. However it may come to manifest, this confident or trusting faith must be genuine and personal. In the Collected Songs, Milarepa often states that one should be “free of hypocrisy”; it does not help to outwardly act as if one has confidence but internally to have nothing but doubts. That is not to say that doubts cannot be present at this stage. Inquisitiveness and intelligence are necessary to develop genuine confidence, but at the same time, this confident faith includes a sense of openness with any doubts present, leaning toward seeing the “object of faith” as a worthy one despite the doubts.
Based on that genuine confidence or trust, Gampopa explains, one sees the good qualities of enlightenment or awakening. With a sense of admiration toward the attainment of awakening, one develops a desire to engage in the path to achieve it. There is a desire for and a general orientation toward wanting to manifest such good qualities oneself.
With that confidence, one develops inspiration, devoted interest, and respect toward the Buddha, his teachings, and the community of supporters in practice. With each of these qualities joined together—confidence, desire, and admiration—in the Buddhist context, faith is described as genuine confidence or trust imbued with a quality of inspiration and interest.
The Sanskrit word for this is śraddhā, which in Tibetan came to be translated as “dépa” (dad pa). In translation, words from the source language must inevitably be rendered by some preexisting word in the new language, despite the semantic difficulties this may present. In English, “faith” seems to be the most common word choice. However, some translators use the word “confidence,” which circumvents the usual pitfalls of misunderstanding “faith” as simply accepting dogma. “Confidence” is a good word if it is understood as confidence with a little bit of “juice,” some inspiration, interest, and a general orientation toward the object of faith. Without that added element of interest and inspiration, confidence alone remains static and does not function to compel one to investigate further and deepen one’s spiritual practice. In his text, Gampopa reinforces the importance of faith by quoting the Ten Attributes of the Noble Ones Sutra:
For humans without any faith,
The virtuous dharmas cannot arise;
Just as a seed that is scorched by fire
Cannot become a sprout that is green.*44
Faith must be present to engage the spiritual journey in the first place. But while important for engaging the teachings, faith in and of itself cannot bring one to liberation. There must also be some intelligent wisdom present. Nagarjuna says in his Ratnavali:
Because of having faith, one relies on dharma;
Because of having prajña, one understands it correctly.
Of these two, the primary one is prajña,
But faith is what comes before.
Faith functions as the impetus for meeting and engaging in the dharma, and must come first. Then intelligent wisdom, or prajña, is necessary in order to understand and practice the dharma correctly. Fully fledged faith necessarily entails this quality of intelligence. In a short study on the term śraddhā (or saddhā in Pali) within the Pali canon, Giustarini describes faith in the context of the sutras as a quality of wisdom: “[it is] a capacity of seeing the truth…it is the first blossoming of the faculty of knowing and seeing.”*45 Faith as a capacity to see is echoed in the great Mahayana treatise on buddha nature, the Uttaratantrashastra:
The ultimate of all the Self-Arisen Ones
Is realized through faith.
The orb of the sun blazes with light,
But it is not seen by those without eyes.
The “ultimate” here refers to buddha nature, every sentient being’s capacity to become awakened
, and “the Self-Arisen Ones” refers to the buddhas for whom that buddha nature is fully manifest. Jamgön Kongtrul comments on this verse:
This true nature of all self-[arisen] buddhas, who have not come about through conditions but have been spontaneously present from the very beginning, is within all sentient beings. Nevertheless ordinary beings, shravakas,*46 pratyekabuddhas,*47 and those bodhisattvas*48 who have newly entered [the path] do not realize it directly, as it is. Relying on the trustworthy words of the Buddha, they first have to realize it in a general way by means of faith, devotion, and finally firm conviction. This is similar to the example of the orb of the sun, which, blazing with light, is still not seen by the blind.*49
Milarepa also sings:
If you know how to look with the eye of faith,
All the blessings you desire will fall like rain.
When Milarepa speaks of faith in the Collected Songs, he brings the topic to a more specific context. The common Buddhist presentation says that one must have faith toward the Buddha’s teachings to engage the path. The Vajrayana path, which Milarepa primarily emphasizes in his teaching, is a subset of the Mahayana, having the same profound view of emptiness and the same vast scope of seeking liberation for all sentient beings. However, one of the primary distinctions between the general Mahayana and the Vajrayana is the presence of many different methods that act as a support for traversing the path very quickly. The Vajrayana is said to be a path for those with the sharpest faculties, and on this path the student must have a strong aptitude for giving rise to faith.
What does the student need to have faith toward? Here, one must first have faith in one’s own innate potential to gain awakening, and to facilitate that awakening, faith in the Vajrayana spiritual friend, or guru, is considered paramount. In the Vajrayana context, the living guru is seen as even more important than the Buddha himself because, unlike the historical Buddha, such a guru is actually present and able to guide the student in a direct and personal way. Relating to a Vajrayana guru, there must be some kind of chemistry or karmic connection for the relationship to work.
On the point of connecting with a guru, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche explains:
As for assessing our connection with a spiritual friend, we should rely on both our personal feeling of connection and the prajña of analyzing the qualities of the guru. If we combine these two elements, we will find the right balance. If we just rely on our feelings, we can be deceived, because they change all the time…we need to sit for a while with our intuitive feeling of connection for a teacher.*50
Again, faith is not seen as dogma or passive acceptance, but rather as a quality of intelligence. It is taught that potential gurus should be examined for as long as twelve years before practitioners fully devote themselves to becoming followers. If basic trust and a sense of connection based on a mutual examination of guru and student is not present, then on the Vajrayana path, one’s personal practice has no foundation on which to develop.
Certainly there are those who are naturally predisposed to having spontaneous and deep faith in a teacher, as demonstrated by many of the students Milarepa meets in this volume; but what about those for whom such faith does not arise so spontaneously? If there is a sense of initial connection, interest, or “spark” present toward a particular teacher, however faint it may be, for those who have the inclination, the connection can be developed and deepened.
Traditionally, before engaging in any Vajrayana practice, an extensive series of preliminary practices must be undertaken. The forms these preliminary practices take are as varied as the individuals who undertake them. However, a traditional template for such preliminaries has emerged in Milarepa’s Kagyu lineage codifying the practices of going for refuge, generating bodhichitta,*51 purification, accumulating merit, and most importantly, cultivating devotion and personal connection toward the guru and lineage. For the practices to be effective, the Vajrayana requires that faith and devotion be present. Devotion and the “receiving of blessings” are relied upon in the Vajrayana context as a key method for bringing about direct awakening in the student’s mind-stream. In Vajrayana, faith and devotion are generally synonymous, though the term “devotion” is used more widely in the Kagyu tradition of Milarepa. According to an often-quoted saying of the Kagyu masters:
If you don’t shine the sun of devotion
On the glacier mountain of the guru’s four kayas,
The river of blessing will not flow;
Therefore, be assiduous in the mind of devotion.
Another well-known supplication to the Kagyu lineage masters states:
Devotion is the head of meditation as is taught;
The guru opens the gate to the treasury of oral instructions.
To this meditator who continually supplicates him,
Grant your blessings that genuine devotion be born in me.
Cultivating faith and devotion, especially in the Vajrayana tradition, is a practice and not a static state; not something one simply has or does not have. Faith and devotion are ever evolving and changing. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche has likened devotion to a cardiogram: it is always going up and down. If one’s devotion has flat-lined, then that’s a sign it is not a genuine living experience.
This is wonderfully illustrated in the Collected Songs by the example of Rechungpa, who some would call Milarepa’s closest disciple. Rechungpa returned from India with a bit of pride in having received many teachings that Milarepa had not. His story describes how he loses his faith, at least temporarily, then struggles to regain it. The narrative gives us a firsthand look at how a student can struggle with faith and also how the guru can work with those difficulties. Rechungpa’s story, in the Collected Songs, gives us a clear, human example of how even the greatest of practitioners can struggle and work with the practice of faith and devotion.*52
ULTIMATE VIEW, MEDITATION, CONDUCT, AND FRUITION
Throughout the Collected Songs, Milarepa addresses his teachings to all levels of students, but the majority of his songs of realization and experience reflect, at least in brief, his own ultimate view and practice. In many of his songs, he emphasizes only what is necessary as a foundation for that practice, primarily renunciation and the necessity of following a qualified spiritual master. But in others he speaks of the main practice itself, which in Milarepa’s tradition is called Mahamudra, or the Great Seal. The term “Mahamudra” can be used to refer to both the practice through which one comes to ultimate realization as well as the unfabricated, genuine reality one realizes.
The meditation of Mahamudra and the methods used to support that meditation are generally not for beginners. One’s mind must be fully prepared through training in the various preliminary practices before embarking upon Mahamudra meditation as a main practice. In addition to the preliminaries mentioned above, most individuals need to have a clear and stable conceptual or inferential understanding of the view of Mahamudra before attempting to engage in its actual practice. Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche describes those who try to force an understanding of Mahamudra through meditation without having first developed an understanding of the profound view as “naïve meditators.” Khenpo Rinpoche teaches that most individuals must go about gaining certainty in that ultimate view in gradual stages. This approach employs deep study and contemplation of Buddhist philosophical tenets as a tool to gradually bring about a personal and direct experience of the true empty nature of phenomena.*53 Milarepa does not teach these gradual stages of familiarizing with the ultimate view directly in the Songs, generally assuming his audience already has some understanding.
A presentation common to all practitioners of the Mahamudra lineage and one Milarepa himself uses to explain the practice is the “view, meditation, conduct, and fruition.” Milarepa teaches the “view” of Mahamudra as the basis for practice, “meditation” as the path of familiarizing with that view, “conduct” as the activity one engages in outside of formal meditation that also functions as enhancement of the practice, and
the “fruition” as the result of Mahamudra meditation. Milarepa uses this template in various songs throughout the Collected Songs, but a particularly clear and explicit presentation is found in the final song of the thirty-ninth chapter.
In the first verse of this song, Milarepa summarizes the ultimate view, meditation, conduct, and fruition:
The view is wisdom, which is empty.
The meditation is luminosity free of fixation.
The conduct is the continual stream of nonattachment.
The fruition is nakedness free of stains.
It is typical for Milarepa to list the main points of a topic at the beginning of his songs and then expound upon them. To clarify the first point, the ultimate view, he sings:
With this view, the wisdom that is empty,
There’s the danger of straying into mere talk.
If you don’t develop certainty in reality,
Words will not liberate the clinging to a self.
Therefore, certainty is extremely important.
The general teachings of Buddhism contain many philosophical descriptions and reasonings to help one come to an understanding of the view of emptiness in a conceptual and inferential way. As stated above, for most individuals this is an important prerequisite for the actual meditation of Mahamudra. However, Milarepa says that if we leave such understanding as merely conceptual or theoretical (or as he calls it, “mere talk”), then we will not be able to attain liberation. The study, contemplation, and meditation upon such teachings are an important preliminary, but in the end we must have a direct experience, which is pointed out or introduced by someone who has direct understanding themselves: a guru who holds the lineage. For this practice, the ultimate view is not one that can be expressed through words or logic; rather it is a direct experience. This personal and genuine experience of emptiness, the view, serves as the basis for practice in the context of Mahamudra. One must have some direct experience of emptiness before one can meditate upon it.
The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa Page 3
