Marpa

This article deals with the founder of the entire Kagyu, the founder of the Marpa / Martshang Kagyu school, one of the eight small schools of the Kagyu, see Marpa Sherab Yeshe .

Marpa Lotsawa

Marpa Chökyi Lodrö - the translator ( Tib .: mar pa lo tsa ba ; * Lhodrag 1012 ; † 1097 ) was an important lama of Tibetan Buddhism . He was one of the translators who in the 11th century the traditions of the New translations in Tibet justified. He was also the first Tibetan lineage holder of the Kagyu .

biography

Marpa was born into a peasant family, but he decided at an early age to dedicate his life to translating Buddhist texts from Sanskrit . He learned Sanskrit with the translator of the Sakya school Drogmi . Marpa met Atisha (982-1054) during one of his trips to India and studied with him the teachings that later became the basis of the earlier Kadampa School. He traveled to India three times to translate Buddhist teachings from Sanskrit into Tibetan .

In India he finally met his master Naropa (1016–1100) near Nalanda , whose Mahamudra transmission was realized and continued by Marpa. In addition, Marpa studied with the Indian masters Maitripa and Kukuripa (Jnanagarbha) and the master Niguma , who gave him the teachings of the Six Yogas of Naropa . From his travels to India, where he stayed for a total of 17 years, he brought back many Buddhist scriptures and translated them into Tibetan.

student

Marpa's best-known student was Yogi Milarepa (1042–1123), who was widely known in Tibet because of his hard teaching time and his spiritual chants . Already at his first meeting with Milarepa, Marpa recognized that he had the prerequisites to fully realize Marpa's tantric transmission. However, due to his earlier black magic activities, through which he caused great suffering , Milarepa was introduced into tantric practice only after a long period of extremely severe trials by Marpa. The lineage of Marpa was passed on to Gampopa through Milarepa . The so-called four large Kagyu schools developed from Gampopa, and a further eight smaller Kagyu schools developed from one of Gampopa's students.

Legends

The Kagyu tradition writes that although Marpa had a wife and children, his life cannot be compared to the life of an ordinary householder or an ordinary samsaric being . He had such a high spiritual development that he could live as a housekeeper unsullied from spiritual poisons . Even Milarepa did not dare to lead such a life as a housekeeper and responded to the suggestion to marry like his teacher: “Marpa is like a lion and I am like a fox. If the fox tries to jump as high as the lion, it will only break its neck. "

According to tradition, Marpa perceived all spiritual phenomena as Buddha-land due to his high spiritual realization of the pure vision, all sentient beings as enlightened deities and all sounds as Dharma teachings.

Web links

• Literature by and about Marpa in the catalog of the German National Library
• www2.bremen.de: Lhodrak Marpa (1012-1096)

References and footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b} The Great Kagyu Masters: The Treasury of the Golden Lineage, by Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen, ISBN 3-933529-11-5 , Otter Verlag, page 10

Marpa (alternative names of the lemma)
Marpa Chökyi Lodrö, T. mar pa chos kyi blo gros