Milarepa: Meeting at Silver Spring | Dharmachari Seminar

23 – 30 July | Led by Paramartha + Jnanaruchi

Sangharakshita’s first meeting with Milarepa was at the age of 21 in Singapore in the final year of World War II.  Reading an abridged version of Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa, he writes: ‘It would be difficult to find a more powerful incentive to the leading of the spiritual life than this masterpiece of religious biography. As I read it my hair stood on end and tears came into my eyes. If I had any doubts about the nature of my vocation they were now dispelled, and from that time onwards I lived only for the day when I would be free to follow to its end the path that, as it seemed, had been in reality mine from the beginning.’

In realising the spiritual value of Milarepa’s 100,000 Songs, Sangharakshita went on to introduce these teachings to the Order in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. His many seminars on this masterpiece of Tibetan literature are an unfolding exploration of an enlightened mind coming into contact with an unenlightened humanity.  We are fortunate in our own tradition to have been given this introduction to Milarepa’s sublime song cycles. In some areas of the Himalayas, Milarepa’s 100,000 Songs are still regarded as ‘reserved texts’, teachings sung and discussed only amongst experienced tantric practitioners.

Join us in exploring the Meeting at Silver Spring seminar where the proud and prosperous youth Shiwa Ö, destined to be one of Milarepa’s heart-disciples, is transformed by the guru’s presence and his spontaneous songs of realisation.  Milarepa’s uncompromising yet compassionate encounter with Shiwa Ö is also an encounter with each of us – a living wisdom communicated through inspiration, imagery, and direct insight.  At the heart of the story is the personal relationship between guru and disciple. As Bhante comments: ‘every relationship must begin with a meeting’.