Lama. In what historians have termed the “second dif-
fusion of the teaching” in Tibet, the Buddhist masters em-
phasized the necessity of an authoritative tradition of teach-
ing, the validity of which was assured by direct transmission
from master to disciple. The first two schools of Buddhism
to appear in Tibet were the Bka’rgyudpa (Kagyüpa) and
Bka’gdamspa (kadampa), founded by Marpa (d. 1096 or
1097) and At ̄ı ́sa (d. 1054) respectively. With regard to the
esoteric tradition of initiation and oral transmission, both
schools recognize the same Indian teachers. It is also clear
that the first objective of both Marpa and At ̄ı ́sa was to gather
around them tested disciples who would be capable of trans-
mitting the tradition. When asked by a disciple whether
scripture or one’s teacher’s instructions were more impor-
tant, At ̄ı ́sa replied that direct instruction from one’s teacher
was more important; if the chain of instruction and transmis-
sion is broken, the text becomes like a corpse, and no power
can bring it new life. Marpa’s Indian teacher, Na ̄ropa
(d. 1100), gave him similar instruction when he declared:
Before any guru existed
Even the name of Buddha was not heard.
All the buddhas of a thousand kalpas
Only came about because of the guru.
(Nalanda Translation Committee, 1982, p. 92)
There is, perhaps, nowhere in world literature a more
dramatic and haunting portrayal of the kind of guidance pro-
vided by a great master than is found in the Life of Milarepa,
an account of Marpa’s most famous disciple, Milaraspa
(d. 1123). Milaraspa came to Marpa filled with remorse for
the evil he had done by sorcery in his youth; he sought in-
struction that could free him from the karmic consequences
in his future lives. But, as Lobsang P. Lhalungpa has pointed
out, Marpa clearly perceived that, as a result of his previous
actions, Milaraspa could not gain the desired transformation
by means of any normal training. “Thus, as the condition
of receiving the Dharma, Mila was required to fulfill a series
of bitterly demanding and dispiriting tasks. In enforcing the
great ordeals, Marpa used shifting tactics and seemingly de-
ceitful ways” (Lhalungpa, 1977, p. x). During the so-called
ordeal of the towers Milaraspa was commanded by Marpa
to build single-handedly a tower. But each time Milaraspa
had completed a tower, Marpa ordered him to tear it down,
claiming he had not paid enough attention to the plans or
that he had been drunk when he gave the “Great Magician”
directions. Finally, having constructed a ten-story tower
(which is still said to exist today) and at the brink of suicide,
Milaraspa at last received from Marpa the secret teaching.
Not just Milaraspa but Marpa’s wife and several of his disci-
ples were baffled by the apparent cruelty and irrationality of
the lama Marpa, of the verbal and physical abuse he show-
ered on Milaraspa and his seeming lack of compassion.
Marpa countered the doubts of the uninitiated by saying that
he merely tested Milaraspa in order to purify him of his sins.
After these trials, Marpa led his disciple through initia-
tions and offered instruction and consultation on medita-
tion. It is said that Milaraspa became “even greater than his
teacher” and he is today remembered in Tibet as the greatest
of Buddhist “saints.” Later, when Milaraspa took on his own
pupils, one disciple suggested that he must have been the in-
carnation of a Buddha or great bodhisattva owing to the ex-
tent of the trials and ascetic practises he had undergone and
based on his great devotion to his lama. Milaraspa replied
tersely that he had never heard whose incarnation he was.
Zen patriarchs and Zen masters. It has been observed
that every tradition emphasizes the importance of an oral tra-
dition of instruction for the guidance of adepts. The founda-
tion of Chan (Jpn., Zen) Buddhism is based squarely upon
this premise, as is indicated in the following verses attributed
to the “founder” and first Chan patriarch in China, Bodhid-
harma (d. before 534):
A special tradition outside the scriptures;
No dependence upon words or letters;
Direct pointing at the soul of man;
Seeing into one’s own nature, and the attainment of
Buddhahood.
(Dumoulin, 1963)
Hui-neng, the sixth patriarch, was said to have been illiterate,
and it is reported in a story that is most probably apocryphal
that he ordered all of the su ̄tras of his monastery thrown into
a heap and burned in order to teach his disciples not to rely
on word and texts but direct experience only.
The golden age of Chan in China (the period from Hui-
neng’s death until the persecution of Buddhism in the ninth
century) was a time in which Chan masters of the most re-
markable originality won the day. These were vigorous and
effusive men who sought to bring their disciples to new levels
of insight by demonstrating their own inexpressible experi-
ences of enlightenment by shocking and often violent meth-
ods.
One such figure was Mazu (d. 786). A robust and un-
flinching presence, Mazu is described in a Chan chronicle of
the period as a man of remarkable appearance: “He strode
along like a bull and glared about him like a tiger.” He was
the first to use shouting (especially the famous cry “ho!”
[Jpn., “katsu”]) as a means to shock the disciple out of his
habitually duality-conscious mind. In one famous story it is
related that after a typically paradoxical dialogue with one
of his disciples, Mazu grabbed him by the nose and twisted
it so violently that the pupil cried out in pain—and attained
enlightenment.
For Mazu the important thing was not a deluded attach-
ment to quiet sitting in meditation but enlightenment,
which could express itself in everything. This was impressed
upon Mazu by his own master, Huairang (d. 744). While
still a student, Mazu was “continuously absorbed in media-
tion.” On one occasion Huairang came across Mazu while
the disciple was engaged in meditation and asked, “For what
purpose are you sitting in meditation?” Mazu answered, “I
want to become a Buddha.” Thereupon the master pickedSPIRITUAL GUIDE 8713