OMG, Did You Know That March 1 &2, Yesterday And Today, Are Marpa and Milarepa Day? I Almost Missed It!

Question

Milarepa is considered to be a great buddha of Tibetan Buddhism, and (as I recall) he is one of the greatest spiritual inspirations of all time. And that is because before he met his teacher, Marpa, he murdered something like forty people! (All this was happening in the 11th century, I think.)

The point being that no matter how bad your life has been, it is never too late to turn yourself around and get it all together. Actually, the forty people were not at all nice, either, but murder is not considered a good way to handle this kind of thing...

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So here is a famous statue of Milarepa, from a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. I like Milarepa a lot, for a while I had some actual threads from his meditation blanket! (I will sell these threads to you cash on the barrelhead, Tink no credit though.)

Answer 1

I don't know anything about it. It is interesting. I like Buddhism because Buddhists don't believe in God. 

Comments

I like Buddhism also, Kninjanin, it has helped me VERY much.

Answer 2

Actually I did not know that this special event was today. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marpa_Lotsawa 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milarepa

Comments

Marianne, isn't it rather surprising that Wikipedia has such thorough articles on Marpa and Milarepa? Wikip is quite interesting. And I recall from peeking in on links exchanged by you and Tink, Wikip also has articles in other languages than English...quite a global resource really!

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Oh yes. Virginia, I think that Wikipedia is very useful in many domains and languages - and they provide links and references.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

Answer 3

I've always leaned towards Buddhism and Shintoism but this is new info to me. Thank you for posting it.

Answer 4

Milarepa successfully used sorcery to kill people he had a grudge against.

Simon Magus should have taken a crash course with someone like Milarepa. 

(see 3:50 in particular)

Comments

O'Tink it's Jack Palance!      

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Yes, it is Jack Palance, Virginia;  Simon Magus wasn't available for the role. 

But he (Jack) never seems to do very well. 

(see starting at 1:45)

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Anthony Quinn appears very young here...I was hoping he would defy the emperor, and l let Jack Palance live...

And I always like Jack Palance, but these were certainly not his best roles, imo. I appreciated him, along with Lee van Cleef, for their ability to portray evildoers! (cf. Lee van Cleef in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY...)

Tink I actually DO accept the possibility/probability of Milarepa's "sorcery"....different cultures, different realities...along with the whole Milarepa legend.

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But (sniff) does this mean you won't buy the threads? 

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But, but... I told you I didn't have the ready cash, Virginia.  I've been working very hard with the old chicken bones, trying to sell them as saintly relics, but I haven't had much luck yet.  And that was to raise the cash for the lock of Mary Magdalene's hair.  One relic at a time, please!  

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Tink I hope you see I finally found this post of yours...somehow missed it from all these four years ago now!

Anyway, hope you were finally able to find a gullible buyer for the chicken bones, so you could afford the asking price for that lock of Mary Magdalene's hair...

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Yes, I did...

But dammit, the lock of hair they sold me doesn't seem to work!  

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Ha ha, well I enjoyed coming back to this old thread, revisiting our fun from back then...oh and I may have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn...or was it London Bridge? Oh, wait wait...didn't they take the Brooklyn Bridge to Arizona a while back, or something?

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