From magic to compassion

I watched Milarepa (the movie) last night. And it was absolutely wonderful to watch. I know Milarepa was a very big influence on Tibetan Buddhism but I was thinking I could learn much from the movie without reading about him or his works. You know, like writing a book review by watching the movie version.

From the movie, I learned about his pre-Buddhist life, as a sorcerer and a much oppressed relative of a corrupt uncle. He killed many of his villagers out of revenge, and was tormented about it afterwards. He was led by his sorcerer teacher to a hermit who could teach him about enlightenment. Then the movie ended abruptly with a promise of a part 2 sometime in 2009.

There was this part of the movie where another sorcerer ran like that cartoon Road Runner, it's supposed to be magic. But I've read about this feat among yogis before, from Blavatsky, from Paramahansa Yogananda, and from this book I'm reading now, The Way of the White Clouds. In the movie it's called kang gyok, Lama Govinda calls it lung-gom-pa, as described by Alexandra David-Neel (With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet, which is what I'm going to read next). I know what this might feel like because I think I've ran like this before on a mountain climb when I saw Death floating towards me (but I'll talk about this in another post).


(The yogi runner looks like a blur as he's about to stop. Otherwise, you can just see dust as in the mountain picture above. You've to click the photo to zoom.)

I'm fascinated with these Tibetan Yogis, ever since I came across them from reading Mdm Blavatsky and Alice Bailey from the early Theosophical Society. It seems that whatever I study, they're there. Even when reading Occult Christianity, they come up. So no wonder I find them very mysterious.

Although Tibet is an obsession for me, I really have no desire to go there and study. Imagine living all your life on a tropical island then being relocated to the highlands of Tibet?? I'd freeze, even with all those red fire yoga techniques. I'm satisfied with reading about them. Besides, who says you can't practice and master mind discipline near the beach? Does it really have to be the cold highlands? But come to think of it, I don't remember any evolved person coming from my country hahaha. Our non-violence national hero is one of those renaissance man, but certainly not spiritually evolved. No one came close to him after that.

Where am I going with this post? Nowhere. Just like my meditation this morning, where I'd peek at the clock every 5 minutes, wondering how long I would have to stay sitting there. Seems like my 5am meditation isn't going well, is it. But that's how it is, sometimes it's a feel-good experience, sometimes it's not. I'm not a stranger to meditation though, I've mastered it before, getting into the zone the moment I sit still, so I know what to go through really.

But this time, I'm doing it not to gain power, but for something bigger than me. Maybe for the benefit of all sentient beings (I'm not quite sure about that yet), so it's a little harder. Learning magic and acquiring power IS easier than just accepting the real you, and doing it for the benefit of all. That's why Tibetan Buddhism is hard for me to practice. It's really difficult to feel compassion. I'm not kidding..


[Images: from the Milarepa movie (2006)]