“You will meet a “bitch [female dog]” who will grab you by the leg……“The downfalls of the learned are the heaviest” refers to people like you.”” –Je Milarepa to Rechungpa
“The huge turquoise the old couple gave me, I gave it to that beggar who has leprosy, so I do not have it anymore. That other huge turquoise in the pouch, there were some beggars who wanted it and asked me for it, so I gave it to them and I do not have it. So, you are too late to ask for it. I do not want to go to the beauty contest show. If you want to look at the show/entertainment then go, looking at the entertainment of one’s mind, that is the greatest spectacle.” –Rechungpa to his Princess consort, Lha-chig Demba
“How hateful this murdering beings ‘custom’!
How hugely regrettable this self-deception ‘custom’!
How heavy a weight this killing parents ‘custom’!
How much wrong is done for these stacks of meat ‘custom’!
What is done with the masses of blood in this ‘custom’
However hungry, this eating meat ‘tradition’!”
–excerpt from Milarepa’s song to Rechungpa
“In particular, in the Fifty Verses on the Guru it says the guru and student bear the same mutually dependent violation of samaya. Just as disciples break their samaya, the guru also breaks their samaya. So, it is very important for both of the guru and student to mutually be very careful….Many of the great Vajrayana masters said secret mantra is like a like an iron pipe. If a snake gets into it, either it is going to go up, or it is going to go down, there is no other way to go. Similarly, with the Vajrayana, if it goes well, it will bring you up to Buddhahood, if it does not go well, it will bring you down to hell. There is no other place to go.” –17th Karmapa (Day 10, Fifty Verses on the Guru)
INTRODUCTION
Today, is New Moon Day (30th of 3rd Lunar month) and also the anniversary of the great yogi, Rechungpa (ras chung rdo rje grags pa རས་ཆུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲགས་པ་) (1083/5-1161) ‘s passing away.
As my offering, I am re-sharing Milarepa’s heartbreaking song to Rechungpa on the “evil custom” of killing and purchasing animals for food, here.
As well as my report and transcript on the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s (May 2025) teaching on Rechungpa’s non-attachment that provoked rage and violence in his Princess consort, and how he patiently endured it. The story also tells the disastrous consequences for Rechungpa of disobeying his guru, Milarepa’s commands.
Rechungpa Dorje Dragpa ( a layperson yogi). was one of the main disciples of Jetsün Milarepa. In later biographies, he is mentioned as the second most important of Milarepa’s students, the ‘moon-like’ disciple, with Gampopa being the foremost, and compared to the sun. Rechungpa, as his name suggests, was a cotton-clad yogin, unlike Gampopa who was a monk.
“If we think about Kagyu forefathers among such masters, there are innumerable ones who have given up meat. For example, among the three Kagyu forefathers, Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa, there is an example in Milarepa’s Collected Works about when he was in Nyanang Belly Cave.
At that time, he was staying with Rechungpa who often didn’t listen to him that much. It’s often said that he was criticized three times by his guru for that. Milarepa told him out must give up the eight worldly dharmas. So Rechungpa though ‘well I have given up my homeland so how can I have any issues with the eight worldly Dharmas?’. So Rechungpa told Mila that in the Dharma texts it says giving up the homeland is having done half the Dharma practice. Milas said these are just words, which is not actually that much benefit. This did not really benefit Rechungpa that much though.
On one occasion, they went to a town in Nynanang, where there were lots of butchers who sold meat there and they went there to beg for food. There were stacks of flesh, animal heads and blood all around in the market. There were many animals line up waiting to be slaughtered. In the centre of it all was a butcher. There are many different ways to slaughter sheep, one is suffocating them with a muzzle. Another way is to cut their stomach and reach inside and rip out their heart and arteries. The butcher made the cut and wound to do that, but before he could rip their heart out, the sheep suddenly escaped and was not tied down, so the sheep’s intestines were all hanging out, dragging behind it while it was bleeding to death. The sheep was shaking and came to Milarepa and Rechungpa for protection and he died right in front of them. Then, Milarepa sobbed uncontrollably with great compassion and did prayers and transference of consciousness for the sheep onto the Bodhisattva path. Then he wrote a song about it. For me personally, this song was really helpful[i].”
The 17th Karmapa briefly explained the song:
“Mila is saying look at how we are fooling ourselves when we see parents being murdered and we don’t what to do about all this blood and stacks of flesh. We just eat this meat without any feeling at all. Rechungpa had many instructions before, which had not been so helpful but when he saw this sheep dying like that, he said to the guru that he would give up the eight worldly activities, give up wicked food and stay in the mountains. So he asked Mila where they should go, who replied that they should go to Lachi. Many people at the market gave them offerings, but as there were lots of butchers there it was mainly meat, so they didn’t accept the offerings and went to Lachi.
Also, if we think about the forefathers of Dagpo Gampopa and his student Je Pagmo Drupa and his disciples and so on, many of the Kagyu forefathers practiced vegetarianism. These students were called the students of the ‘vegetarian broth’ teachings (sdog dkar). This broth (sdog) here is a stock that you put in the broth, which was vegetarian instead of meat-based stock.
If we think about the Karma Kamtsang tradition, as I said before, from 4th Karmapa onwards until 10th Karmapa, there were strict rules against eating meat in the Great Encampment. Also, in the supplications of Kagyu, vegetarians were considered highly and praised.”
Rechungpa’s disastrous consequences of disobeying his Guru’s commands and the angry, violent female consort
In relation to the story about Rechungpa and his Princess consort, and the consequences of disobeying a guru, the 17th Karmapa explained how any breach of samaya is mutual, regardless of who breaches it. So if a student breaches the samaya, the guru also will go down to the lower realms with them:
“In particular, in the “Fifty Verses on the Guru” it says the guru and student bear the same mutually dependent violation of samaya. Just as disciples break their samaya, the guru also breaks their samaya. So, it is very important for both of the guru and student to mutually be very careful….Many of the great Vajrayana masters said secret mantra is like a like an iron pipe. If a snake gets into it, either it is going to go up, or it is going to go down, there is no other way to go. Similarly, with the Vajrayana, if it goes well, it will bring you up to Buddhahood, if it does not go well, it will bring you down to hell. There is no other place to go.” –17th Karmapa (Day 10, Fifty Verses on the Guru)
Here are is a video clip I created in original Tibetan (with my translated English subtitles) here of that teaching: https://youtu.be/leRjulAB9gs.
One-sided, misogynist reading of Rechungpa’s consort
As I detailed in my 2025 article, this slightly one-sided and misogynist reading of Rechungpa’s consort, needs to be addressed:
“The 17th Karmapa (who has often spoken about improving the lower status and sexist discrimination against Buddhist women/nuns) in his account of the woman, Lhachik Dembu, focuses only on her life as told in an anonymous 14th Century text, The Life and Songs of Zhepai Dorje (bzhad pa’i rdo rje’i rnam thar mgur mchings dang bcas pa) as a greedy, vain and aggressive woman.
However, as scholar-translator Joe McLellan points out in his Treasury of Lives biography of Lhachik (which thankfully avoids McLellan’s prior going along with sexist narratives and language as he did in “malevolent” Tibetan Queen, Margyelma’s biography, see here), according to the thirteenth-century Kagyu historian Gyeltangpa Dechen Dorje ( 1258–1266), in the first year or so of her relationship with Rechungpa, Lhachig was actually a very supportive spiritual partner not just as a consort but as an important lineage-holder compiler and preserver: “who was not only educated and capable, but committed to cultivating a religious life with her guru who was also now her companion.”
Moreover:
“Lhachik Dembu contributed the important clerical work of memorizing and recording the history of Asu’s Mahāmudrā lineage; without a clear and credible history, no lineage could hope to gain acceptance in Tibet. Not only did Lhachik contribute to the group intellectually, but according to Gyeltangpa, when the famously temperamental Rechungpa grew discouraged about having to absorb so much difficult material, Lhachik encouraged him to keep going and even used her connections in Yarlung to collect a large amount of barley from the people to cover his tuition.”[1]
Mclellan asserts that: “This less nuanced and more misogynistic version of the story seems to enjoy significant currency, being repeated in Thrangu Rinpoche’s (khra ‘gu rin po che, 1933–2023) commentary on Rechungpa’s biography.”
Indeed and perhaps that source is where the 17th Karmapa also took his lead? It certainly is a one-sided account of her, and all such biographical accounts composed by men about women, need to have the big question mark over them as to if that was how it actually was for the women.
For example, perhaps the reason that Lhachig had attacked Rechungpa that way (if true) might have been from a sense of her feeling unappreciated for her major efforts in the previous year? Who knows. In any case, as a kind of contemporary academic-translator adviser, I would have suggested the 17th Karmapa also speak (even if briefly) about the positive aspects of Lhachig’s life and contribution to ensure it remained balanced and not be accused of a one-sided sexist/misogynist biography. I could not find any image of Lhachik Dembu to use with this article, which again demonstrates my point of the invisibility of important women’s lives and voices.
In any case, along with other events that happened to Rechungpa on the road to central Tibet, it was a fascinating tale of how things can go horribly wrong when one disobeys the instructions of a highly realised and extraordinary guru like Milarepa.” –Adele Tomlin (2025)
Music? For the beggars and the Princess, “Give Me Money (That’s What I Want)” by the Beatles , for the people who have not seen any improvement (or resolution/repair of samaya since the “mistreatment” by a teacher/s) “Cry” by Godfrey and Creme, and “I’m A Bitch” by Meredith Brooks.
Originally written, transcribed and compiled by Adele Tomlin, on 19th March 2021, and 2nd May 2025.