Milarepa movie review

[Howard Wallace]

I recently discovered a movie about Milarepa while browsing around Netflix. He has always been an interesting Tibetan yogi to me, perhaps because he's depicted is being green. This is said to be because he subsisted on stinging nettles while living as a hermit in his cave. Stinging nettles happen to grow here in Washington state and are a favorite wild food of mine also.

This movie, simply titled "Milarepa," covers the first part of Milarepa's life. From his birth through his childhood and his eventual studies to become a black magician. It covers his murderous rampages to avenge injustices to his family, and also the beginnings of his understanding that revenge and violence only lead to more revenge and violence. A sequel is supposed to cover the remainder of his life including his conversion to Buddhism. However, that sequel does not seem to exist presently.

The film is shot in beautiful Himalayan locations and also gives a good idea of what life is like in the Himalayas. People expecting western cinematic conventions may be a little bit disappointed. The director was a Tibetan Buddhist lama from Bhutan. I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

The magical training scenes are nicely done. They are a bit reminiscent of Yoda's tutelage of the young Luke Skywalker. Of particular interest is a depiction of the Tibetan trance running practice of lung-gom-pa. This has been observed and described by western authors but this is the first depiction I've seen of it in cinema.I'll be looking forward to the second part when it comes out, to see Milarepa turn green, and perhaps pick up some new nettle recipes.

 

[Gehazi]

I have the hundred thousand songs of milarepa( book), very interesting they came out with a movie for him, but I guess it makes sense; I will probably need to check this out !

 

[Shavru]

I always wondered how anyone said. Geez these hurt like heck to pick up. I think I will eat a bunch

I have heard that nettles are pretty good, but never tried them. Fortunately I have never been stung by any either...coincidence?

 

[Karda]

Thank You Howard!
I watched it. Very interesting.
I wish the second part was forthcoming, but from what I've read it was supposed to be out in 2009, but plans to make it have not come to fruition.

Found it on youtube with english subtitles.

[video=youtube_share;PhtpGR_xZBg]http://youtu.be/PhtpGR_xZBg?list=UU4-0H3h7y0I5Wx8uQNzut_Q[/video]

 

[Shavru]

Awesome Karda, I will take the time to watch. It sounds very interesting but I wasn't going to get as much out of it without the subtitles. Now I should understand the whole thing.

 

[Howard Wallace]

I always wondered how anyone said. Geez these hurt like heck to pick up. I think I will eat a bunch

I have heard that nettles are pretty good, but never tried them. Fortunately I have never been stung by any either...coincidence?

And this from our tough-as-nails kendoka!

Native Americans practiced a healing technique now known as urtication which involved flogging with stinging nettles. There are modern references which indicate this technique is effective for pain relief.
See for example http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/18950450/


My searching on the uses of stinging nettles also lead to some rather unusual web posts by the fetish community. I thought it better not to link them here. Suffice it to say, they make my techniques of picking the nettles with gloved hands and cooking them (which destroys the poison) look rather tame.


I do have one special recipe I developed that is a little closer to the edge. It involves lightly cooking the nettles so that most but not all of the stinging capacity is destroyed. They are then blended up in a smoothie with other smoothie ingredients. This gives the smoothie a certain zing that is unattainable in any other manner. Something likely to be appreciated by aficionados of jalapeno peppers, etc.

 

[Shavru]

LOL Howard, I am SO glad you chose not to link those. I am definately imagining horrifying things that particular community would find interesting.

I have always wondered about things like how desperately hungry was the first person to fight a pig for a truffle? And who grabbed a duck egg, boiled it and found that it had been close to hatching, yet ate it anyways creating a demand for Balut. So the idea of "Hey these stinging nettles hurt, I think I will eat them" falls into that same category for me. I tend to eat a lot of local foods in every country I have been in but there are some I really wonder why or how did this become a delicacy?

It equates to my laughing at people who eat fugu. I mean from what people tell me it isn't even that great. It is just prized as an EVENT, not a meal, because it might kill you if the chef had a bad day LOL.

 

[Karda]

Perhaps this is the closest we're going to get to the Saga of Milarepa part II.
Pretty nicely done video story. I enjoyed this too today.

Hold the nettles for me please.
I was married to a pinai, so weird foods are not foreign to me.
I couldn't tolerate balut.
Chocolate meat (Dinuguan) with rice on the other hand, I found surprisingly delicious.

Milarepa - Murderer and Saint

[video=youtube_share;Fumc3JStt4k]http://youtu.be/Fumc3JStt4k[/video]

[video=youtube_share;_TEYjEUu6B0]http://youtu.be/_TEYjEUu6B0[/video]

[video=youtube_share;TAoCeZrskYg]http://youtu.be/TAoCeZrskYg[/video]

 

[Karda]

[video=youtube_share;HPK1fqIeB_k]http://youtu.be/HPK1fqIeB_k[/video]

[video=youtube_share;bqyMgnV7O1U]http://youtu.be/bqyMgnV7O1U[/video]

[video=youtube_share;UobKColhhtU]http://youtu.be/UobKColhhtU[/video]

 

[Karda]

[video=youtube_share;TonEY4VcBwY]http://youtu.be/TonEY4VcBwY[/video]

 

[Bookie]

Been watching the flick--thank you for the link, Howard. Will finish it up tonight.

 

[Howard Wallace]

Many thanks to Karda (aka Paul Harvey) for the rest of the story. I remember now there were a couple of other reasons besides being green that I liked Milarepa.

 

[Gehazi]

and for those that might like the book

I actually bought an old copy of this a few years ago, which is how I found out about milarepa

 

[Howard Wallace]

Thanks for the reference to the Chang translation, Gehazi.

For those interested who want a taste, part of that translation is available in free pdf at this link. http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh095.pdf

 

[Gehazi]

I gotta say if you enjoy philosophy, definitely a good read, also very much an epic as the movie points out pretty clearly, never expected this to come up on the forums, but really happy that it did , you never disappoint mr wallace!

 

[ndoghouse]

And this from our tough-as-nails kendoka!

Native Americans practiced a healing technique now known as urtication which involved flogging with stinging nettles. There are modern references which indicate this technique is effective for pain relief.
See for example http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/18950450/


My searching on the uses of stinging nettles also lead to some rather unusual web posts by the fetish community. I thought it better not to link them here. Suffice it to say, they make my techniques of picking the nettles with gloved hands and cooking them (which destroys the poison) look rather tame.


I do have one special recipe I developed that is a little closer to the edge. It involves lightly cooking the nettles so that most but not all of the stinging capacity is destroyed. They are then blended up in a smoothie with other smoothie ingredients. This gives the smoothie a certain zing that is unattainable in any other manner. Something likely to be appreciated by aficionados of jalapeno peppers, etc.

I use a propane torch to burn the nettle spines from the nuts before harvesting. Then roll them around on the driveway and burn them on all sides. Kind of dries out the husk a bit too. The nuts are great! Not much too them and a lot of trouble but once you get the technique down they are well worth it. They make great pesto! I do it bare handed. I dont mind getting lightly bit in fact I kinda enjoy it in a sick way maybe? Forget the flogging tho. Overindulgence is misery.

Heres what they look like after burning the spines off. Put them in the oven and roast them if you like but they are good raw too. They pop all over the place so be ready to collect them from the bottom of the oven.

 

[Howard Wallace]

Those look mighty good. I'm sure Milarepa would have appreciated them if he had the chance, but I doubt he did. This appears to be Cnidoscolus texanus or Bull Nettle, another stinging plant with a much narrower distribution than the Urtica dioica that Milarepa was so fond of. Urtica dioica does not have seed pods like that.

I've never had the bull nettle. Now I'll have to watch for the opportunity to try them out if I get into their range.

We should get these nettle recipes, both bull and common, into the Cantina cookbook.

 

[Karda]

Here we have a sort of documentary of visits to the places in Jetsun Milarepas life.


[video=youtube_share;_OwT9UCvG14]http://youtu.be/_OwT9UCvG14[/video]

[video=youtube_share;RUrLYVcloMQ]http://youtu.be/RUrLYVcloMQ[/video]

[video=youtube_share;ht1oKR_lvE8]http://youtu.be/ht1oKR_lvE8[/video]

 

[Howard Wallace]

is a master really necessary when there are books and you can read though? can we not teach ourselves almost anything and through practice become better? or is a teacher necessary to guide that practice? thoughts?-- because I love to read but I hate people tell me I am doing right!

Gehazi, I hope you don't mind my moving the very interesting discussion point you made in the martial arts thread over here. Milarepa's life serves to illustrate some of the issues, and some thorny issues can be addressed a thousand years and half a world from any forumite's currently beloved teacher.

Milarepa's teacher/guru was Marpa the Translator. He made his name in Tibet by translating Indian Buddhist texts into Tibetan. I've walked through the crumbling foundations of the ancient Nalanda University ruins in northern India where Marpa learned from Naropa. The bricks and stones have mostly turned to dust, but many of the texts they studied and translated still endure.

Even in Asia where the tradition of personal transmission from guru to chela is strong, there is an ancient appreciation of the power of written texts.

However, texts are not the method Marpa used to teach Milarepa. After accepting Milarepa as a disciple, Marpa set him to building towers. He would build them, then have to tear them down. Sometimes Marpa would tell that he was sure about this one, and it would not be torn down, and then had him tear it down anyways. Other times he would repudiate his instructions months later, telling Milarepa he was drunk when he said that and to to tear it down. This treatment from Marpa only stopped when Milarepa was on the verge of killing himself. Then Marpa explained that his technique was to purify Milarepa's bad karma, and had he built and destroyed one more tower he would have been completely purified. As it was, he said Milarepa would have to finish his life with a slight remaining stain of impurity. He then transmitted the teachings that Milarepa had been wanting.

I don't have the patience of Milarepa, or the desire to have such patience. Back in the early '80s, in the jungles of Sri Lanka, I was seeking instruction on the meditative practices of Theravada Buddhism. I was turned away from the jungle monastery where I had been directed for the teaching, with instructions to come back in a week. Showing up a week later, I was again told to go away. I went away and did not return. I don't feel like I have time on this earth to struggle with figuring out if people are being straight with me or not, and I'm not much interested in passing bizarre tests of persistence. I later found much of the knowledge I was seeking about that tradition from written texts, and I did also find instructors from that tradition willing to share instruction after I returned to the US.

Whatever the spiritual benefits, there are dangers associated with the unquestioning acceptance of a guru or master. We've all heard accounts of various cult leaders and the ways they have exploited their followers, financially and sexually, supposedly "for their own good." Then there is also the problem that if you accept teachings unquestioningly, you are likely to blind yourself to whatever flaws those teachings might have.

Milarepa gained his fame as a great yogi and person of understanding, not completely from the grief Marpa put him through, but largely from the understandings he developed during his long periods of solitary meditations, and through his songs, by which he shared his understandings with the common people. He felt he owed a great debt to Marpa, as can be seen in the introductory words of many of his songs. It may well be, as Milarepa believed, that the insights Marpa passed along were crucial in his realizations. However, In the final analysis, Milarepa put in the work, much of it solitary, that was required to get to where he wanted to go.

 

[Bookie]

I have watched the films, found them quite good in my book, and most interesting. Even though Milarepa was an actual person, his labors, trials, and tribulations are somewhat reminiscent parallels of the Hercules & Odessyeus stories in Greek & Roman mythology. Glad I was introduced to this person. Thanks!