Milarepa’s Vagabond Lifestyle

When I read Milarepa’s life story, it is not his miraculous displays of flying or his clairvoyance that I find astonishing. What I find amazing and truly impressive is how he continued to live as an ordinary beggar, a seeming nobody, after he had attained clairvoyance and miraculous powers. When I read that, I feel, “Wow! That’s really something!” I think, “How long before I can begin to live as he did?”

When I think of attempting to emulate him, it never occurs to me that I could emulate his attainment of miraculous abilities, but I always hope that I might one day be able to emulate his vagabond lifestyle and move to the streets.

November, 2022, Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal