Milarepa and the Bon sorcerer Naro Bonchung waged a series of magical duels for possession of Mount Kailash. In the final contest to reach the summit, Milarepa sat motionless while Naro Bonchung flew upward on his drum, then at the first ray of dawn rode a sunbeam to the peak, claiming the sacred mountain for Buddhism.
Milarepa's Trials describe the years of grueling labor Marpa the Translator imposed on Milarepa — repeatedly building and demolishing stone towers — to purify the karmic debt from Milarepa's earlier sorcery before granting tantric initiation.
Gampopa came to Milarepa as a monk already accomplished in Kadampa meditation, but the cotton-clad yogi shattered his scholarly certainties and transmitted the raw experience of Mahamudra realization, sending him away to meditate until he could found a monastery that would carry the Kagyu lineage forward.
Milarepa subdued and converted Tseringma, queen of the five Long-Life Sisters, to Buddhism through his yogic power and songs of realization on Mount Everest.
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