Last Updated on November 25, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org
We have mentioned several stars of the Meditation scene Switzerand:
https://petergamma.org/category/meditation
But which one of those is a guiding star who has a school and followers who follow him for the next generation of teachers?
Different is the situation in Tibetan Buddhism. Children which cannot be fed by their families are sent to Buddhist monasteries. There where over 6 000 monasteries in Tibet. And Tibetan Buddhism is part of the Tibetan Culture.
But we do not have these monasteries in Switzerland.
But even Milarepa (1052 – 1135) had problems making a living from what he did
“The stunning lesson in impermanence gave Milarepa the final push he needed to follow Marpa’s command to meditate in mountain retreat. He stayed there for many years, until his clothes turned to rags, his bones protruded, and the nettles he ate turned his skin green. Hunters and thieves who came upon him thought he was a ghost. When he went begging for food, his uncle, aunt, and neighbors attacked him, and he barely escaped. His sister, who had also become a beggar, wept in misery at his apparently even sorrier state.”
https://www.lionsroar.com/the-life-of-milarepa
But all the same Milarepa became the most famous poet of Tibet. And he became the founder of the Kagyü school of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Kagyu school is one of the Sarma or “New Translation” schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Drukpa lineage was founded in the Tsang region of Tibet by Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211), and later became influential in Ladakh and Bhutan. It is one of several lineages known as “Red Hat sects”.