Milarepa

each stage of the four yogas is defined by a cognitive criterion (E-31, E-32); and the core of the final testament is “cut through to the bottom of the nature of mind” (E-33). The overall classification is ② “Direct Seeing of the Ground” (B): the ground is originally present, cognition is positively placed within the nature of mind, and the fruit is not sought elsewhere; but the boundary of “saṃsāra / dharmakāya” is consistently tied to “not realized / realized”, and completion is stated by Milarepa himself as “nothing to seek” and “work done” after recognition.

Most distinctive: the songs place language of the ① direction and language of the ② direction in the same song, even in the same stanza. “The three nails of the fruit” says that nirvāṇa need not be accomplished elsewhere and that one’s own mind is the buddha (the ① direction), and immediately goes on to say “the one who drives the nail is the guru; with much reflection the nail does not hold; realizing all at once, it holds” (E-18); “without looking one sees the dharmakāya” (the ① direction) is preceded by “through the purity of the path of seeing … one realizes the superior insight of non-seeing” (E-06). The songs are strongly didactic: each song answers a particular disciple; the sentences in the ① direction mostly describe “what the realized see”, those in the ② direction mostly stipulate “how to arrive”. (A: stated explicitly in the text; overall structure B)

Final load-bearing point: seen in three layers. (1) The ground layer: the nature of mind is like the sky (E-07); sentient beings and the wisdom of nirvāṇa are one in essence (E-20); one’s own mind is the buddha (E-18, E-22). This layer does not await realization, and the deletion test passes. (2) The dismantling layer: hoping for liberation is bondage (E-10); practice without effort (E-13); ground, path and fruit are all uncontrived (E-09); delusion and words are forgotten (E-29, E-30); self-reflexivity regarding the Buddha’s teachings of provisional meaning (E-34). (3) The completion layer: unrealized it is saṃsāra, realized it is the dharmakāya (E-14); realizing that delusion is groundless, awareness becomes clear (E-12); realizing all at once, the nail holds (E-18); recognizing that the buddha is the mind, there is nothing to seek (E-26); the yogin’s work is done (E-27); the four yogas are defined by recognition and by “when the three kāyas are complete in oneself” (E-31, E-32); the final testament enjoins realizing the nature of mind (E-33). The B inference for ② depends on the third layer, and the third layer is explicit in the songs.

Most delicate point: the last stage of the “four yogas”, “non-meditation”, is defined as “conceptual thought has wisdom as its essence, the spontaneously accomplished cause and effect are non-dual; when the three kāyas are complete in oneself, non-meditation reaches its end” (E-32).

① can say: the three kāyas are originally complete in oneself, non-meditation is simply being originally so, and cognition need not occur. This archive’s judgment is: “when …” (ཚང་ཙ་ན) is a temporal condition, and “reaches its end” (མཐར་ཕྱིན) is the endpoint of the sequence of practice and realization; the same passage immediately distinguishes fools who “say ‘non-meditation’ while engaging in mental activity”, so there are true and false non-meditation yogas. Under v1.3, this completion is still conditioned on a cognitive discrimination; the full competing interpretation in the ① direction is retained at C.

Note on the texts: Milarepa’s songs were long transmitted orally; the extant common editions of the Collected Songs and the Life of Milarepa were compiled by Tsangnyön Heruka (by common account at the end of the fifteenth century; this archive has not checked the date of printing); earlier there were several transmissions of early biographies and song collections, which this archive has not checked. Milarepa’s dates have various traditional accounts, which this archive does not attempt to settle. The verifiable transcription this archive could obtain is the Larung anthology (Norbu Ketaka proofread text): the anthology rearranges the songs according to the stages of the sūtra and mantra path, the narratives of the occasions before each song follow the Collected Songs, and the texts of the songs are what this archive quotes (E-03).

• Of these, E-11 is Marpa’s words quoted in a song; E-33—E-35 are the testament traditionally recorded at the time of cremation.

Boundary of quoted teachers’ words｜E-11 quotes Marpa’s words, a teacher’s instruction received and restated in the transmitted songs, and may not be treated as a proposition independently invented by Milarepa; in the final classification it does not serve as independent load for ②.

• T3 = the editor’s introduction to the Larung anthology (E-03): used only to explain the arrangement of the anthology followed by this archive.
• T4 = no separate cards; the biographical narrative of the Life of Milarepa has not been checked in the original by this archive, and is touched on only in the biographical songs of E-01 and E-02.
• Missing evidence: the original prints of the common editions of the Collected Songs and the Life of Milarepa; earlier biographies and transmissions of the songs of Milarepa.

Edition and transcription: this archive follows the Norbu Ketaka proofread transcription of the Larung anthology (OpenPecha I8CA9F909), located by BDRC image page number; quotations reproduce the transcription, ignoring whitespace at line breaks when comparing.

• “this unborn nature of mind cannot be indicated by any example” (E-17 context passage).
• The layer of beings and buddha without difference: “sentient beings of the six realms and the wisdom of nirvāṇa, the two are one in essence within non-distinction” (E-20); “one’s own mind is the buddha, is it not?” (E-22); “be certain that one’s own mind is the buddha” (E-18).
• The layer of appearance as mind: “appearance is one’s own nature of mind” (E-23); “conceptual thought is the magical display of mind” (E-16).

Hence the ground of the songs is not an external object, nor a fruit to be produced by practice, but the nature of mind, originally like the sky, of which all appearances and thoughts are the magical display. This layer does not await realization: E-07, E-20 and E-22 directly support that the ground is originally so. The inference to ② does not come from the ground layer, but from the songs’ stipulations about completion.

The ① direction can interpret “realization” as “the manifesting of what is originally present”, but the manifesting of the originally present may itself still be a non-deletable completing function; the point of dispute is the function at the ending, not whether a fruit is manufactured.

Control for editorial arrangement｜The modern Larung anthology reorders the songs according to the stages of the path; this sequence cannot be used as a single chain of completion in Milarepa’s original, still less as early authorial intent. The consistency of themes across songs is kept, but load that is truly independent of the editorial order comes first from “the fruit not sought elsewhere / realizing, the nail holds” within the single song of E-18, and is then supported by the same-direction statements of E-14 and E-26. Hence the overall B applies only to the textual layer of this anthology; for the historical person of the eleventh to twelfth century there is still only a ② candidate.

Deletion test: from the complete structure delete only the function “realizing / recognizing the nature of mind” (seeking the mind and seeing it, realization, recognition, the cognitive criteria of the four yogas), keeping the nature of mind like the sky, beings and buddha without difference, thought within luminosity, one’s own mind the buddha, and keeping practice as a control.

Check separately which layer breaks: the stipulation of the ground, appearing as the dharmakāya, the holding of the nail of the fruit, Milarepa’s measure of realization and “work done”. One may not declare realization abolished because of “without looking one sees the dharmakāya” or “nirvāṇa need not be accomplished elsewhere”, nor ignore the songs’ positive stipulation that one’s own mind is the buddha because of “realization”.

(1) The ground holds: the nature of mind is like the sky (E-07); sentient beings and the wisdom of nirvāṇa are one in essence (E-20); one’s own mind is the buddha (E-22). Delete realization, and these stipulations do not change by a word. The first layer passes the deletion; these are substantive positive evidence for the ① direction. (A: stated explicitly in the text)

(2) Dismantling and the student: hoping for liberation is dismantled (E-10); striving is dismantled (E-13); contrivance is dismantled (E-09); delusion and words are “forgotten” (E-29, E-30); clinging to teachings of provisional meaning is dismantled (E-34). What can be deleted is hope, striving, contrivance and clinging to teachings; the songs themselves have deleted them. But the songs do not delete realization; rather, while dismantling hope, they set realization up as the condition of “the nail holding” (E-18).

(3) Ultimate completion: the songs give the same structure in many places: “appearance … for those who have not realized is saṃsāra, for the realized appears as the dharmakāya” (E-14); “all that appears appears as Mahāmudrā; by realizing that delusion is groundless, awareness, like the moon in water — the muddy water clears” (E-12); “with much reflection the nail does not hold; realizing all at once, it holds” (E-18 context passage); “because I recognized that the buddha is the mind, there is nothing more in my mind to seek or accomplish” (E-26); “my work as a yogin is done” (E-27); “that self-awareness which is clear and without grasping — if one recognizes it as spontaneously accomplished, one-pointedness reaches its end” (E-31); “when the three kāyas are complete in oneself, non-meditation reaches its end” (E-32).

Judgment and breaking point: withdraw realization and keep the ground, and the first layer is still complete: one’s own mind being the buddha is unaffected. But “appearing as the dharmakāya” loses its boundary — only the side “for those who have not realized it is saṃsāra” remains (E-14); the nail of the fruit “does not hold” (E-18); Milarepa’s statement of his own completion (nothing to seek, work done) loses its reason (E-26, E-27); the four yogas lose their criteria (E-31, E-32).

The “necessity” here is not a necessity for the ground to hold, but a necessity for “the appearing of the dharmakāya” and “the holding of the nail of the fruit” to hold. Where B breaks is the completion layer, not the ground layer.

The songs’ own answer to the deletion test — both directions are present: “without travelling one arrives at the buddha-ground, without looking one sees the dharmakāya, without striving one’s aspirations are spontaneously accomplished” (E-06) and “nirvāṇa need not be accomplished elsewhere, saṃsāra need not be abandoned elsewhere; be certain that one’s own mind is the buddha” (E-18) are the songs’ ①-direction answer to “if practice and seeking elsewhere are deleted, does the fruit still hold?”: it holds. “For the unrealized it is saṃsāra, for the realized it appears as the dharmakāya” (E-14) and “because I recognized that the buddha is the mind, there is nothing more to seek” (E-26) are the ②-direction answer to “if realization is deleted, does completion still hold?”: it does not. The two sayings coexist in the same body of songs; the sentences in the ① direction negate “travelling, looking, striving, seeking elsewhere”, not “realization” — the three lines of E-06 are said precisely after “realizing the superior insight of non-seeing”.

By the supplementary rule for “judgment B”, where the text on the one hand says the fruit is originally so and not sought elsewhere, and on the other directly ties the appearing of the dharmakāya and one’s own completion to realization and recognition, the two sayings coexist, and by the rule for ① / ② ambiguity the judgment is ②.

Independence of evidence and limits: E-04—E-35 all come from one modern anthology, but what the anthology collects are songs from the Collected Songs sung to different disciples on different occasions; the material in the ② direction is distributed across the sections on seeking the mind, direct introduction, view-meditation-conduct-fruit, measure of realization, the four yogas and the testament (E-04, E-14, E-18, E-26, E-31, E-33), while the material in the ① direction is concentrated mainly in the sections on direct introduction to Mahāmudrā and view-meditation-conduct-fruit (E-06, E-08, E-16, E-18, E-20). All the material rests only on the transcription of a single anthology, not collated against the original prints of the common edition. B does not rest on the quantity of evidence, but on “realization / recognition” appearing consistently in the position of completion across all kinds of songs.

Systematic positive evidence for the ① direction and the deletion test: the strongest version of ① is: “one’s own mind is the buddha, sentient beings and the wisdom of nirvāṇa are one in essence, and thought itself is within luminosity; so-called realization is only the nature of mind’s recognition of itself, one of the magical displays of the nature of mind; nirvāṇa need not be sought elsewhere.” This archive accepts the first half: thought and cognition are indeed placed within the nature of mind (E-08, E-16). But “recognition is a magical display of the nature of mind” and “recognition can be deleted from the account of completion” are two different questions: the songs do not say, because thought is within luminosity, that for the unrealized too it appears as the dharmakāya; what they say is “for those who have not realized it is saṃsāra” (E-14).

What has been withdrawn or de-substantialized: the hope for liberation (E-10); practice by striving (E-13); contrived ground, path and fruit (E-09); the analysis of words (E-30); clinging to teachings of provisional meaning (E-34); looking in the sense of subject and object (E-05).

Final load-bearing point: the nature of mind like the sky and one’s own mind the buddha are the songs’ strongest stipulations about the ground;

Self-reflexivity: holds, and quite thoroughly. (1) Regarding practice: hoping for liberation is bondage (E-10). (2) Regarding words and disputation: “practising the meaning beyond words, practising until the end, the analysis of words was forgotten” (E-30). (3) Regarding the Buddha’s teachings: “there is a lying perfect buddha, telling the deceptions of provisional meaning … do not cling to conventional terms” (E-34). These are subtractions from the thought’s own tools, among which the self-reflexivity of E-34 regarding “the Buddha’s teachings” themselves is especially fierce.

Positive evidence for self-inclusion: holds. The songs do not merely dismantle cognition; they state positively where cognition and speech occur: “conceptual thought itself is also within luminosity” (E-08); “conceptual thought is the magical display of mind” (E-16); the songs “arose in the yogin’s mind and were then sung” (E-19); “with great compassion as the means of signifying, I sing a song from the expanse of dharmatā” (E-28). This is exactly what v1.3 requires: “cognition and the speech of the thought itself are positively placed within a more basic structure”. The limit is that the placement of speech presupposes the singer’s realization — the singer is “a yogin who has realized the ultimate” (E-28 context passage); not just any speech issues from dharmatā. (A: stated explicitly in the text; overall judgment B)

• thought is the magical display of mind (E-16); the song is sung from the expanse of dharmatā (E-28).
• (4) Thoroughgoing self-reflexivity regarding practice and teachings: hoping for liberation is bondage (E-10); do not cling to conventional terms — even the Buddha’s teachings of provisional meaning are called “deceptions” (E-34).

These four layers together form a fairly complete candidate in the ① direction, which must be taken seriously.

Why it is still ②:

• (1) The boundary of the appearing of the dharmakāya: “for those who have not realized it is saṃsāra, for the realized it appears as the dharmakāya” (E-14). The same appearance is divided into saṃsāra and dharmakāya by realized and unrealized.
• (2) The condition for the holding of the nail of the fruit: after “nirvāṇa need not be accomplished elsewhere … be certain that one’s own mind is the buddha” follows directly “with much reflection the nail does not hold; realizing all at once, it holds” (E-18).
• (3) The statement of Milarepa’s own completion: “because I recognized that the buddha is the mind, there is nothing more in my mind to seek or accomplish” (E-26); “my work as a yogin is done” (E-27).

• Completion is an event that has occurred, with recognition as its cause.
• (4) The four yogas: the culmination of one-pointedness is “recognizing self-awareness as spontaneously accomplished” (E-31); the culmination of non-meditation is “when the three kāyas are complete in oneself” (E-32), and there is true and false non-meditation.
• (5) The final testament: each stanza names the obstacle with “no time to realize …”, and the final injunction is “cut through to the bottom of the nature of mind” (E-33).
• (6) The deletion test: delete realization and keep the ground, and “appearing as the dharmakāya” has only the side “for the unrealized it is saṃsāra”, the nail of the fruit “does not hold”, and Milarepa’s “nothing to seek” loses its reason.

Source level and terminological boundary: all the load-bearing material of this archive comes from T2 songs, and from a single modern anthology; the material in the ① direction and in the ② direction comes from the same source, and neither side depends on weaker text. “Realize” (རྟོགས) and “recognize” (ངོ་ཤེས) are the songs’ own terms, not this archive’s summary; the temporal reading of “when …” (ཙ་ན) is not settled by this archive on the basis of a single word.

The songs satisfy A of the first condition, satisfy the second (there are positive sentences of self-inclusion of cognition and speech), and supply ①-direction sentences for B; but B breaks once realization is deleted (E-14, E-18, E-26), and the third condition cannot be established — the ground is stipulated by the nature of mind and self-awareness, and “recognizing” it is stipulated as the culmination of yoga (Section 9). The burden of proof for ① is higher than for ②; this archive judges that the ①-direction evidence in the songs is enough to make the competing interpretation C, but not enough to meet the burden of proof for ①.

Why not ③: the songs do not inquire into the ground; they directly point out the nature of mind and stipulate its realization.

Why not ④: the songs have rich admonitions for life and practice, but their endpoint is the realization of the nature of mind, not an explanation of the world.

On the rule of “the person’s own primary texts”: v1.3 stipulates that the position of completion must be established by the core primary texts of the subject himself. Milarepa has no works written down by his own hand; this archive takes as its main basis the songs of the Collected Songs, whose traditional attribution is most stable, and limits its judgment of Milarepa himself to a ② candidate.

• the songs’ “unrealized it is saṃsāra, realized it is the dharmakāya” is isomorphic with Longchenpa’s “through realization one becomes a buddha again; through non-realization deluded appearance arises”. The difference is that Longchenpa wrote completion-layer ①-direction sentences such as “no one has ever been liberated” and “wishing to realize and then be liberated is the enemy of regression”, which the songs do not have; while the songs’ self-reflexivity regarding the Buddha’s teachings (E-34) is fiercer than Longchenpa’s.
• No.15 Padmasambhava (② candidate): the songs and the Garland of Views both face the problem of attribution; both take realization as the condition of completion. The self-inclusion of speech in the songs (“the song sung from the expanse of dharmatā”) is more positive than the Garland of Views’ “the blind gaining eyes”.
• No.08 Huangbo Xiyun (② [C]): Huangbo’s “mind itself is the buddha” and “no-mind” run close to the songs’ “one’s own mind is the buddha” and “resting without effort”; both dismantle cultivation-into-being and hope, and both keep the boundary of “direct sudden understanding” or “realization”.
• No.03 Huineng (②): Huineng’s “when the preceding thought is deluded one is an ordinary being;