Repa Shiwa Ö (12th century)
Shiwa Ö was one of the "eight great heart sons" of Milarepa, the most famous yogi-saint of Tibet. The story of his meeting with Milarepa (1052-1135) is told in "The Meeting At Silver Spring", one of The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, translated by Garma C.C. Chang.
According to the Songs, Shuye Tarma Wangchuk, the person who was to become known as Shiwa Ö, was the young scion of a wealthy Tibetan family. Although aware of Buddhist practices, he was preoccupied with his life as wealthy playboy. As a rich Tibetan nobleman, he owned, inter alia, immaculately tailored clothes, expensive jewelry, a fine steed, estates, an exquisitely adorned bow and arrow, and an extraordinary knife in a jewel-encrusted sheath.
On his way on horseback one day to meet some friends at celebratory gathering, Tarma Wangchuk approached a river. There he saw Milarepa, barely clothed in his beggar's rags, laying by the riverbank. Professing feebleness due to old age, Milarepa requested Tarma Wangchuk to help him across the river, but the latter, repelled by Milarepa's appearance, declined. Tarma Wangchuk then attempted to ford the river with his horse, but as his horse floundered in the current, he was amazed to see Milarepa walk by him on the water, across the river.
A night before, in Jetsun Milarepa's dream, he saw a dark-complexioned lady bringing a young boy, about twenty years old, and said to Milarepa: "your heart has eight pieces and this is one of them," and disappeared. Milarepa then thought, she was a dakini prophesizing that I will have eight close students who are like my heart. This is beginning of the concept of the"eight heart sons" of Milarepa.
Realizing that Milarepa was an accomplished master, he petitioned Milarepa to accept numerous offerings in exchange for providing him with teachings. He offered Milarepa his various possessions, including his horse, clothes, jewelry, weaponry, and estates. Milarepa successively declined each offering, with verses such as the following:
Listen to me, ingenuous young man!
From my hut's roof in the snow mountain
Flows the quintessence of milk and nectar.
Though it is not made of gold or jewels,
I would not pour it into earthenware.
Around this waist of mine, the poor man of strong will
Is tied to a cotton belt of fanatic devotion!
The absence of pretense and hypocrisy
Is the pattern of my belt
Bright wisdom is my knife,
Its sheath, the confidence of the Three Measurements.
Faith and diligence in Dharma is my gold-and-silver cord.
The beauty of the Dharma is the glory over all.
Lest goddesses punish me,
I have never asked for wealth or money
When teaching in the past,
Nor shall I do so now.
Dear boy, you may go home;
I do not want your gifts.
In this way, Milarepa again and again pointed out that when one had accomplished the dharmic equivalent of every material possession, Tarma Wangchuk's material offerings had no value. Desperate, Tarma Wangchuk offered to indenture his sister to Milarepa as a servant, but still Milarepa declined, again telling Tarma Wangchuk to go home.
In despair, Tarma Wangchuk realized that material possessions were of no value to Milarepa, and confessed the error of his misguided attempts at offerings to Milarepa, even suggestion he would commit suicide should Milarepa refuse to instruct him in the correct path. In response to Tarma Wangchuk's sincere plea, Milarepa relented. Pursuant to a prophetic dream, Milarepa knew that Tarma Wangchuk had the capacity to become a great disciple. With his strong connection to the path, Milarepa saw that Tarma Wangchuk was capable of benefiting from the teachings. Milarepa gave him instructions to free himself from attachment.
Tarma Wangchuk practiced diligently for four months. At Milarepa's instructions, he obtained various teachings and abhishekas (empowerments) from the translator, Bari Lotsawa. Then he lived and studied with Milarepa for five years. Milarepa transmitted to him the Six Yogas of Naropa, the Mahamudra of Maitripa, and after he accomplished these, Milarepa transmitted to him the pith instructions of the whispered lineage. Milarepa renamed Tarma Wangchuk as "Repa Shiwa Ö," which means "the cotton-clad yogi of light of peace."
Repa Shiwa Ö from that time never wore leather shoes, never dressed himself in anything other than one piece of white cotton-clad as clothing, never accumulated more than two days of provisions and never returned to his homeland. He abstained from fixating merely on words and practiced continuously. Eventually, he attained the perfect enlightenment in his lifetime.
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