Marpa- Tibetan FigureMortal"The Translator"

The Unfavorable Child

Marpa was born in Lhodrak, southern Tibet, to a prosperous farming family. Even as a boy he was fierce, stubborn, and difficult, so troublesome that his parents named him Dharma the Unfavorable, Chökyi Lodrö. The name was meant as reproach, but it described the very quality that would carry him across the Himalayas and back three times: a will that would not yield.

Despite his temperament, or because of it, Marpa developed a burning aspiration for the dharma. He sold his inheritance, learned Sanskrit, and at fifteen set out on the first of his three journeys to India.

Three Journeys

Finding Naropa took years. The great mahasiddha had abandoned his position as abbot of Nalanda to live as a wandering yogi, sleeping in charnel grounds, begging for scraps, indistinguishable from a madman. Marpa searched through the dangerous regions of medieval India before locating him. Once found, Naropa demanded not reverence but service: years of trials before the teachings would come.

Marpa studied with Naropa for over sixteen years across his three journeys, receiving the Six Yogas and the tantric practices that would become the Kagyu heritage. He studied also under Maitripa, from whom he received the mahamudra pointing-out instructions. Each journey required amassing gold in Tibet to pay for teachings in India, crossing the Himalayas, leaving his family for years at a time.

During his final journey, Naropa had become nearly impossible to find. After a long search, Marpa located the old master and received the last transmissions. Naropa told him that his lineage would flow like a river.

The Farmer Who Was a Master

Back in Tibet, Marpa settled on his farm in Lhodrak with his wife Dagmema. He raised sons, managed his estates, drank beer, and was known for his rough, irascible manner. From the outside he appeared to be an ordinary, even crude, Tibetan farmer. Neighbors came to him for teachings and found a man who could be generous or cutting, patient or explosive, depending on what the student needed.

Dagmema served as his partner in practice and often as a bridge of compassion to students whom Marpa's harshness had driven to despair. She would later do this for Milarepa, secretly admitting him to teachings that Marpa publicly denied.

The Towers and the Tears

Marpa's most famous student was Milarepa, who came to him stained by the karma of murder. The training Marpa devised is the substance of Tibetan legend: years of building stone towers on the mountainside and tearing them down, constant criticism, apparent rejection. It looked like cruelty. Each trial was calculated to burn away karma. Each refusal was designed to crush the ego that stood between Milarepa and enlightenment. When the purification was complete, Marpa wept. He had been more devoted to Milarepa than to any other student. He bestowed the complete teachings and told Milarepa that his realization would surpass his own.

The Broken Lineage

Marpa's grief did not end with Milarepa's departure. His son Darma Doday, whom he had chosen as his spiritual heir, died in a horse-riding accident. The lineage's intended vessel was shattered. Marpa was forced to reroute the transmission entirely. The main current of the Kagyu passed through Milarepa to his disciple Gampopa, and from Gampopa to the Karmapas and the branches of the Kagyu that flowered across Tibet.

The River's Course

Marpa died in Lhodrak around the age of eighty-six. According to the hagiographic tradition recorded by Tsang Nyön Heruka, his passing was accompanied by rainbow light and music from empty sky. His remains were enshrined in a stupa at his family estate.

Naropa's prophecy held. The river found its own course, not through the son Marpa had chosen but through the murderer he had purified.