The Biographies of Rechungpa: The Evolution of a Tibetan ...

Rechungpa’s strange illness and cure 111
Changchub Zangpo’s
The biography in Changchub Zangpo’s text 57 is a crude summary related to Gyadangpa,
The Lhorong Dharma History, Möntsepa, and The Wish-fulfilling Jewel (Yid-bzhin Norbu),
though the latter does not have this part of the Rechungpa story.
As in Möntsepa, the day after Rechungpa’s first meeting with Milarepa, he brings him
a leg of meat, but here the uncle comes searching for it and beats both Rechungpa and
Milarepa. This peculiar addition appears to be the mutation of the Möntsepa phrase
‘[Rechungpa] brought it to the venerable one so that they both ate it (rje btsun la drangs
pas/gnyis kas gsol lo)’, 58 which in Changchub Zangpo becomes ‘[Rechungpa] brought it
to the lama so that [the uncle] beat the lama and both’ (bla ma la drangs pas/bla ma dang
gnyis ka brdungs), 59 where the second ‘lama’ appears as an addition causing poor
grammar.
It is not until this point in Changchub Zangpo that Rechungpa tells Milarepa his story
and Milarepa says that their childhood is the same (and not a little worse, as in
Möntsepa). Rechungpa learns ‘the path of method’ (a phrase that covers all deity
visualisation and yoga practices) from Milarepa, and is then taken by the mother and
uncle to plough. When he becomes ill, without the mother and uncle telling him to go to
Milarepa, there is an abrupt transition to Milarepa declaring that he cannot help
Rechungpa. 60
Rechungpa then learns the wrathful from an unspecified lama (which in
Möntsepa he received from Milarepa). Thus, the Changchub Zangpo version retains the
other master found in Gyadangpa but omitted by Möntsepa, though as in Möntsepa he
receives the practice before going to India. The practised by
Rechungpa is said to be with wings (gshog), rather than Möntsepa’s ‘
supplement’ (gsham). In umay script gsham could easily be misread as gshog. This
variation will also appear in Tsangnyön and Götsang Repa, although otherwise there
seems to be no other influence. Changchub Zangpo, though using the same phrasing as
Möntsepa, adds that the practice did not help, while The Lhorong Dharma History had
said that it did. 61
Rechungpa’s mother and uncle send him a small final provision with the message,
‘There is nothing else. Go to your yogin’ (khyod rang gi rnal ‘byor pa’i sar song zer). 62
This is transposed to an illogical place from its earlier position in the other narratives.
Three yogins (as in Gyadangpa, The Lhorong Dharma History, Möntsepa and The
Blue Annals) appear and their leader says, ‘Tsitsi dzola (Tsi-tsi dzo-la)!’ 63 in which tsi-ti
has been corrupted to tsi-tsi (the Tibetan for mouse!) and dzwa-la, as in The Lhorong
Dharma History and the Demchog Nyengyu Biographies, corrupted to dzo-la. There
follows a unique variation: the leading yogin’s statement that they are on the way to Wut’ai-shan
is slightly changed so that they are coming back from there, so that
Rechungpa’s troubles do not interrupt their pilgrimage. Rechungpa’s journey to India and
his practice under Varacandra are mentioned briefly; simply stating that
Rechungpa was cured in twenty-five days (as in Möntsepa and The Lhorong Dharma
History).