Dear all, I may have shared these and more too from Guru on Mahamudra in this blog previously.
I picked up Guru's book No. 51, 2 days back and started reading it over.
link to book 51: http://www.tbsn.org/chinese2/articlelist.php?classid=51&keyword=&backpage=160
Guru wrote this one sometime in 1984 and the authors' note was dated May 1984.
Please read over the general version and I will slowly share Guru's take on Mahamudra from my viewpoint.
Hahaha! True Buddha School's translation team has translated this one & I have also posted their version in this blog.
However, I sincerly invite all to join me in Rediscovering Mahamudra as per our Root Guru, Living Buddha Lian Sheng.
For those that are game to join me, hop on now!
Om Guru Lian Sheng Siddhi Hom!
Our Journey begins......[For bigger fonts to aid you in reading, press Ctrl and + together]
I picked up Guru's book No. 51, 2 days back and started reading it over.
link to book 51: http://www.tbsn.org/chinese2/articlelist.php?classid=51&keyword=&backpage=160
Guru wrote this one sometime in 1984 and the authors' note was dated May 1984.
Please read over the general version and I will slowly share Guru's take on Mahamudra from my viewpoint.
Hahaha! True Buddha School's translation team has translated this one & I have also posted their version in this blog.
However, I sincerly invite all to join me in Rediscovering Mahamudra as per our Root Guru, Living Buddha Lian Sheng.
For those that are game to join me, hop on now!
Om Guru Lian Sheng Siddhi Hom!
Our Journey begins......[For bigger fonts to aid you in reading, press Ctrl and + together]
Mahāmudrā (Sanskrit; Tibetan: Chagchen, Wylie: phyag
chen, contraction of Chagya Chenpo, Wylie: phyag rgya chen po)
literally means "great seal" or "great symbol." It "is
a multivalent term of great importance in later Indian
Buddhism and Tibetan
Buddhism" which "also occurs occasionally in Hindu and East Asian
Buddhist esotericism."[1]
The name refers to the way one who has realized mahāmudrā
(that is, one who has succeeded in the practices of mahāmudrā) experiences
reality: mudra refers to the fact that each phenomenon appears
vividly, and maha refers to the fact that it is beyond concept,
imagination, and projection.[2]
Mahāmudrā is a body of teachings that represents the
culmination of all the practices of the new translation schools of Tibetan
Buddhism, who believe it to be the quintessential message of all of their
sacred texts.[2]
History and semantic field
The usage and meaning of the term mahāmudrā evolved
over the course of hundreds of years of Indian and Tibetan history,
and as a result, the term may refer variously to "a ritual hand-gesture,
one of a sequence of 'seals' in Tantric practice,
the nature of reality asemptiness, a meditation procedure
focusing on the nature of mind, an innate blissful gnosis cognizing
emptiness nondually, or the supreme attainment of buddhahood at
the culmination of the Tantric path."[1]
Etymology in the tantras
It has been speculated that the first use of the term was in
the c. 7th century Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, in which it refers to a hand gesture.[1]The
term is mentioned with increasing frequency as Buddhist tantra developed
further, particularly in the Yogatantras,
where it appears in Tattvasaṁgraha and
the Vajraśekhara-tantra. Here it also denotes a hand gesture, now linked
to three other hand mudrās—the action (karma), pledge (samaya), and dharma mudrās—but
also involves "mantra recitations and visualizations that symbolize and
help to effect one’s complete identification with a deity’s divine form or
awakening mind (bodhicitta)."[1] In Mahāyoga tantras such as theGuhyasamāja tantra, it "has multiple
meanings, including a contemplation-recitation conducive to the adamantine
body, speech, and mind of the tathāgatas; and the object-—emptiness-—through
realization of which 'all is accomplished,'" and it is also used as a synonym
for awakened mind, which is said to be "primordially unborn, empty,
unarisen, nonexistent, devoid of self, naturally luminous, and immaculate like
the sky."[1]
In the yoginī or Anuttarayoga tantras, mahāmudrā "emerges
as a major Buddhist concept."[1]>
As scholar Roger Jackson explains,
Though still connected there to creation-stage maṇḍala practice, it is more often related to
completion-stage meditations involving the manipulation of mental and physical
forces in the subtle body so as to produce a divine form and a luminous,
blissful, nonconceptual gnosis. In the completion-stage discussions in such
Tantric systems as the Hevajra, Cakrasaṁvara,
and Kālacakra, mahāmudrā has three especially important meanings. First, it may
refer to a practitioner’s female consort in sexual yoga practices. Second, as
before, it is one of a sequence of mudrās corresponding to various Buddhist
concepts, experiences, and path-stages. Here, though, it usually is the
culmination of the series, a direct realization of the nature of mind and reality
that transcends and perfects other, more conventional seals, including those
involving actual or visualized sexual yoga. Third, Mahāmudrā by itself connotes
the ultimate truth, realization, or achievement of yoginī Tantra practice: the
great seal that marks all phenomena and experiences; a synonym for suchness,
sameness, emptiness, space, and the goddess Nairātmyā (no-self); unchanging
bliss beyond object and subject, shape, thought, or expression; and the
ultimate gnostic attainment, mahāmudrā-siddhī.
—[1]
Thubten Yeshe explains: "Mahāmudrā means
absolute seal, totality, unchangeability. Sealing something implies that you
cannot destroy it. Mahāmudrā was not created or invented by anybody; therefore
it cannot be destroyed. It is absolute reality".[3]
Aryadeva summarises: "The discussion of how to
attain mahāmudrā entails methods for meditating on mind itself as something
havingvoidness as
its nature".[4]
Lineages of mahāmudrā
Mahāmudrā is most well known as a teaching within the Kagyu (w. Bka´
brgyud) lineages of Tibetan
Buddhism. However the Tibetan Buddhist Gelug and Sakya schools
also practice mahāmudrā, as does Shingon
Buddhism, the other major sub-school of theVajrayana.[citation needed] The Nyingma and Bön traditions
practise Dzogchen,
a cognate but distinct method of direct introduction to the empty nature
of mind. Nyingma students may also receive supplemental training in mahāmudrā,
and the Palyul Nyingma
lineage preserves a lineage of the "Union of Mahāmudrā and Ati Yoga"
originated by Karma Chagme.
All of the various Tibetan mahāmudrā lineages originated
with the tantric Mahasiddhas of
the Pala
Empire India
in the 8th to 12th Centuries. The 'Profound Action' lineage originated with Maitreya and Asanga and was
introduced to Tibet
by Marpa and Atisha. Marpa
introduced the lineage to the Kagyu school and Atisha to the Kadam school,
which later produced the Gelug school. Gampopa later
received both the Kagyu and Kadam transmissions of the lineage and passed them
through to the present day Kagyu. The 'Profound View' lineage of mahāmudrā,
which originated with Nagarjuna, also was introduced to Tibet
by Atisha. Marpa introduced to Tibet
the 'Profound Blessing Meditation Experience' lineage that is believed to have
originated with the primordial Buddha Vajradhara and
was passed to Tilopa and Naropa. Marpa also
introduced a mahāmudrā lineage that traced back through Saraha and Maitripa.
The Kagyu tradition
The Kagyu lineage divides the mahāmudrā teachings into three
types, "sutra mahāmudrā," "tantra mahāmudrā," and
"essence mahāmudrā," in a formulation that appears to originate with Jamgon
Kongtrul.[5] Sutra
mahāmudrā, as the name suggests, draws its philosophical view and meditation
techniques from the sutrayana tradition. Tantric mahāmudrā employs such tantric techniques astummo, dream yoga,
and clear
light yoga, three of the six yogas of Naropa. Essence mahāmudrā is based
on the direct instruction of a qualified lama, known as pointing-out instruction.
There have been many prominent practitioners and scholars of
mahāmudrā in the Kagyu tradition. The Third
Karmapa wrote 'Aspiration Prayer of Mahāmudrā'.[6] The Ninth
Karmapa wrote 'Pointing Out the Dharmakaya' (Tibetan: Chos sku
mdzub tshugs); 'An Ocean of the Definite Meaning' (Tibetan:Nges don rGya mtsho)
and 'Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance'. Tsele Natsok Rangdrol wrote the 'Lamp of
Mahāmudrā' and Dakpo Tashi Namgyal wrote 'Clarifying the Natural
State
The particular Kagyu propensity to blend sutric and tantric
traditions of mahāmudrā was a point of controversy in Tibet ,
with Sakya Pandita one of the most prominent critics thereof. As scholar
Klaus-Dieter Mathes notes
Certain aspects of the Bka´ brgyud teachings on mahāmudrā,
such as the possibility of a sudden liberating realization or the possibility
that a beginner may attain mahāmudrā even without Tantric initiation, became a
highly controversial issue in the 13th century. For Sa skya Paṇḍita (1182–1251), such teachings represented a new
development stemming from a Sino-Tibetan influence on Sgam po pa Bsod nams
rin chen (1079–1153). Later Bka´ brgyud pas defended their not specifically
Tantric or sūtra mahāmudrā tradition by adducing Indian sources such as the
Tattvadaśakaṭīkā or the Tattvāvatāra. These
belong to a genre of literature which the Seventh Karmapa Chos grags rgya mtsho
(1454–1506) called “Indian mahāmudrā-Works” (phyag chen rgya gzhung). . . . Dr.
Mathes investigated the practice described in these mahāmudrā works and found
that it is not necessarily Tantric. In Saraha´s dohās it is simply the
realization of mind´s co-emergent nature with the help of a genuine guru.
Maitrīpa (ca. 1007– ca. 1085) uses the term mahāmudrā for precisely such an
approach, thus employing an originally Tantric term for something that is not a
specifically Tantric practice. It is thus legitimate for later Bka´ brgyud pas
to speak of Saraha´s mahāmudrā tradition as being originally independent of the
Sūtras and the Tantras. For Maitrīpa, the direct realization of emptiness (or
the co-emergent) is the bridging link between the Sūtras and the Tantras, and
it is thanks to this bridge that mahāmudrā can be linked to the Sūtras and the
Tantras. In the Sūtras it takes the form of the practice of non-abiding and
becoming mentally disengaged, while in the Tantras it occupies a special
position among the four mudrās.
—[7]
The First Panchen Lama identified a number
of mahāmudrā lineages, according to their main practices for achieving
mahāmudrā:
From the point of view of individually ascribed names, there
are numerous traditions, such as those of the simultaneously arising as merged,
the amulet box, possessing five, the six spheres of equal taste, the four
syllables, the pacifier, the object to be cut off, dzogchen, the discursive
madhyamaka view, and so on.
—[4]
In his teachings on the First Panchen Lama's root text and
auto-commentary the Dalai Lama XIV delineated the Kagyu practice
lineages as follows:[8]
The Karma Kagyu "Simultaneously Arising as
Merged" tradition - This is the tradition introduced by Gampopa with
a main practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa.
The Shangpa Kagyu "Amulet Box" tradition -
This tradition came from Khyungpo Naljor and its
main practice is the Six Yogas of Niguma.
The Drigung Kagyu "Possessing Five"
tradition - Jigten Gonpo founded the
school and mahāmudrā lineage whose main practice is devotion via Guru Yoga and
purification and merit collection practices.
The Drukpa Kagyu "Six Spheres of Equal
Taste" tradition - Tsangpa
Gyare founded this tradition which encompasses a range of practices,
including the Six Yogas of Naropa.
The Dagpo Kagyu "Four Syllables" tradition -
This is the tradition that derives from Matripa. The four syllables are a-ma-na-si which
comprise the Sanskrit word meaning 'not to take to mind' and passed through the Dagpo Kagyu branches, i.e. any
that descend from the teachings of Tilopa rather
than those of Niguma,
which in practice means all but the Shangpa
Kagyu.
The Gelug tradition
The First and Second Panchen
Lamas wrote important discourses about mahāmudrā from the Gelug perspective.
The main text of theFirst Panchen Lama is 'A root text for
the precious Gelug/Kagyu tradition of mahāmudrā: The Main Road of the
Triumphant Ones' (Tibetan:dGe ldan bka' brgyud rin po che'i phyag chen rtsa ba
rgyal ba'i gzhung lam zhes bya ba) .
Sakya mahāmudrā
According to Alexander Berzin:
The Kagyu and Gelug/Kagyu traditions have both sutra and
anuttarayoga tantra levels of the practice, while Sakya only an anuttarayoga
one. In other words, Sakya mahāmudrā focuses only on the nature of clear light
mental activity, while the other two traditions include focus on the nature of
the other levels of mental activity as well.
—[9]
The practice of mahāmudrā meditation
The advice and guidance of a qualified teacher is
considered to be very important in learning and practicing mahāmudrā
meditation. Most often mahāmudrā (particularly essence mahāmudrā) is preceded
by pointing-out instruction.
Before the 1955 invasion of Tibet ,
many of the texts and information that are now available would have been
esoteric and restricted. The Dalai Lama has been influential in making public
some of these formerly esoteric Tibetan teachings, while still some remain
entirely esoteric, available to a student only through a private guru-student
relationship.
Some parts of the transmission are done verbally and through empowerments and "reading
transmissions". A student typically goes through various tantric practices
before undertaking the "formless" practices described below; the
latter are classified as part of "essence mahāmudrā".[10] Ngondro is
the preliminary practice common to both mahāmudrā and dzogchen traditions.
According to one scholar, most people have difficulty beginning directly with
formless practices and lose enthusiasm doing so, so the tantric practices work
as a complement to the formless ones.[11]
Mahāmudrā śamatha and vipaśyanā
As in most Buddhist schools of meditation, the basic
meditative practice of mahāmudrā is divided into two approaches: śamatha("tranquility","calm
abiding") and vipaśyanā ("special insight"). This division
is contained in the instructions given by Wangchuk Dorje, the ninth Karmapa, in a
series of texts he composed; these epitomize teachings given on mahāmudrā
practice.[12]
Mahāmudrā śamatha
Mahāmudrā śamatha contains instructions on ways to sit with
proper posture. The mahāmudrā shamatha teachings also include instructions on
how to work with a mind that is beset with various impediments to focusing,[13] such
as raising the gaze when one feels dull or sleepy, and lowering it again when
one feels overly excited. Two types of mahāmudrā śamatha are generally taught
śamatha with support and śamatha without support.
With support
Mahāmudrā śamatha with support involves the use of an object
of attention to which the meditator continually returns his or her attention.
One of the main techniques involved in Mahāmudrā śamatha with support is mindfulness
of breathing (S. ānāpānasmṛti).
Mindfulness of breathing practice is considered to be quite profound means of
calming the mind to prepare it for the stages that follow. For the Kagyupa, in
the context of mahāmudrā, mindfulness of breathing is thought to be the ideal
way for the meditator to transition into taking the mind itself as the object
of meditation and generating vipaśyanā on that basis.[14] The
prominent contemporary Kagyu/Nyingma master Chogyam
Trungpa, expressing the Kagyu Mahāmudrā view, wrote, "your breathing
is the closest you can come to a picture of your mind. It is the portrait of
your mind in some sense. . .The traditional recommendation in the lineage of
meditators that developed in the Kagyu-Nyingma tradition is based on the idea
of mixing mind and breath."[15]
Without support
In objectless meditation, one rests the mind without the use
of a specific focal point.
Mahāmudrā vipaśyanā
The detailed instructions for the insight practices are what
make mahāmudrā (and dzogchen) unique in Tibetan Buddhism. In Mahāmudrā
vipaśyanā, Wangchuck Dorje gives ten separate contemplations that are used to
disclose the essential mind within; five practices of "looking at"
and five of "pointing out" the nature of mind.
They all presume some level of stillness cultivated by mahāmudrā shamatha. In
retreat, each contemplation would typically be assigned specific time periods.[16]
The five practices for "looking at" the nature of
the mind are as follows:[17]
Looking at the settled mind. One repeatedly looks at
the mind's still state, possibly posing questions to arouse awareness, such as
"what is its nature? It is perfectly still?"
Looking at the moving or thinking mind. One tries to
closely examine the arising, existence, and ceasing of thoughts, possibly
posing oneself questions so as to better understand this process, such as
"how does it arise? What is its nature?"
Looking at the mind reflecting appearances. One looks
at the way in which phenomena of the external senses occur in experience.
Usually, a visual object is taken as the subject. One repeatedly looks at the
object, trying to see just how that appearance arises in the mind, and
understand the nature of this process. One possibly asks questions such as
"what is their nature? How do they arise, dwell, and disappear? Is their
initial appearance different from how they eventually understood?"
Looking at the mind in relation to the body. One
investigates questions such as "what is the mind? What is the body? Is the
body our sensations? What is the relation of our sensations to our mental image
of our body?"
Looking at the settled and moving minds together. When
the mind is still, one looks at that, and when the mind is in motion, one looks
at that. One investigates whether these two stages are the same or different,
asking questions such as "if they are the same, what is the commonality?
If different, what is the difference?"
The practices for "pointing out the nature of
mind" build on these. One now looks again at each of the five, but this
time repeatedly asks oneself "What is it?" In these practices, one attempts
to recognize and realize the exact nature of, respectively:
The settled mind,
The moving or thinking mind,
The mind reflecting appearances,
The relation of mind and body,
The settled and thinking mind together.
The above practices do not have specific
"answers"; they serve to provoke one to scrutinize experience more
and more closely over time, seeking to understand what is really there.[18]
Four yogas of mahāmudrā
Mahāmudrā is sometimes divided into four distinct phases
known as the four yogas of mahāmudrā (S. catvāri mahāmudrā yoga, Wylie:phyag rgya chen po'i rnal 'byor bzhi).
They are as follows:[19]
one-pointedness (S. ekāgra, T. rtse gcig)
simplicity (S. niṣprapāncha,
T. spros bral) "free from complexity" or "not
elaborate."
one taste (S. samarasa, T. ro gcig)
non-meditation (S. abhāvanā, sgom med) The state
of not holding to either an object of meditation nor to a meditator. Nothing
further needs to be 'meditated upon' or 'cultivated at this stage.
These stages parallel the four
yogas of dzogchen semde.
The four yogas of mahāmudrā have been correlated with the
Mahāyāna five paths (S. pañcamārga) as follows:
According to Tsele Natsok Rangdrol (Lamp of Mahāmudrā ):
Outer and inner preliminary practices: path of accumulation
One-pointedness: path of application
Simplicity: paths of seeing and most of the path of
meditation (bhūmis one through six)
One taste: last part of the path of meditation, most of the
path of no-more-learning (bhūmis seven through nine)
Nonmeditation: last part of the path of no-more learning
(tenth bhūmi) and buddhahood (bhūmis eleven through thirteen)
According Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (Moonlight of Mahāmudrā)
Outer and inner preliminary practices and one-pointedness:
path of accumulation
Simplicity: path of application
One taste: paths of meditation & no-more-leanining
Nonmeditation: path of no more learning & buddhahood
According Je Gyare as reported by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal
(Moonlight of Mahāmudrā)
One-pointedness: paths of accummulation and application
Simplicity: path of seeing (first bhūmi)
One taste: paths of meditation and part of the path
no-more-learning (bhūmis two through eight)
Nonmeditation: rest of path of no-more-learning, buddhahood
(bhūmis nine through thirteen)
According Drelpa Dönsal as reported by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal
(Moonlight of Mahāmudrā)
One-pointedness: paths of accummulation and application
Simplicity: path of seeing (first bhūmi)
One taste: paths of meditation and no-more-learning (bhūmis
two through ten)
Nonmeditation: buddhahood (bhūmis eleven through thirteen)
Six Words of Advice
Main article: Tilopa #Six_Words_of_Advice
Tilopa was
a Bengali mahasiddha who developed the mahāmudrā method around
1,000 C.E. Tilopa gave Naropa, his successor, a teaching on mahāmudrā meditation
called the Six Words of Advice.
In the following chart a translation is given of the
Tilopa's Six Words of Advice.[20]
Six Words of Advice
|
|||
First short, literal translation
|
Later long, explanatory translation
|
Tibetan (Wylie transliteration)
|
|
1
|
Don’t recall
|
Let go of what has passed
|
mi mno
|
2
|
Don’t imagine
|
Let go of what may come
|
mi bsam
|
3
|
Don’t think
|
Let go of what is happening now
|
mi shes
|
4
|
Don’t examine
|
Don’t try to figure anything out
|
mi dpyod
|
5
|
Don’t control
|
Don’t try to make anything happen
|
mi sgom
|
6
|
Rest
|
Relax, right now, and rest
|
rang sar bzhag
|
Contrast with Dzogchen
Both Mahamudra and trekchö work
with the nature of the mind, which is inseparable clarity and emptiness i.e.
mirror-like clarity which conversely cannot be found. Although this is indeed
profound, Dzogchen ultimately does not use it as its path. Uniquely, Dzogchen
makes a distinction between the nature of the mind and the basis (gzhi). Dzogchen has special methods to work
with its unique definition of gzhi, methods which have nothing to do with the
mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment