Lesesaal

The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa (Mgur 'bum)

Milarepa

Some sixty chapters, each an encounter—with demons, shepherds, the hunter Gonpo Dorje, his sister, the Bön priest Naro Bönchung on Kailash, Rechungpa, Gampopa—that ends in an improvised song. The poetry, simple in metre and colloquial in diction, condenses Kagyu doctrine: impermanence, devotion to the guru, tummo and mahāmudrā, mountain solitude as the place of practice. The BDRC record (WA1KG1252) describes the work as a “collection of select songs of spiritual realization by the poet yogin Milarepa”.