As you know, in Buddhism every person who teaches dharma and also every person who receives the dharma has their own responsibility. That is very simple — the pureness and the authentic future of the lineage depend totally on the people who have the lineage of transmission, and by my teaching this to you, you are going to have the transmission of this particular teaching and lineage. So this is not a public talk. This is not just a simple introductory lecture. This is very serious. I take it that way, and hope you all know that. After this teaching, you will be connected to the Mahamudra lineage just as we all have been connected to it throughout the history of the Mahamudra lineage. I wanted to let you know this, because that is the way it was taught to me.

At the beginning, it is necessary to give you the definition of Mahamudra. Mahamudra, both the term and the teaching itself, is actually derived from the essence of the teachings of Lord Buddha. The sources of the Mahamudra teachings in the Tibetan language are called gyu, gyazhung, and mengak. Gyu means tantra, and those are the direct words of Lord Buddha himself. Gyazhung refers to the texts written by the great masters of India, originally written in Sanskrit, which were subsequently translated into the Tibetan language. Mengak are direct instructions given from master to disciple, given according to the particular disciple’s maturity and level of understanding with the sole purpose of improving the wisdom, the compassion, the devotion and the realization of the disciple. These latter are usually not written. Sometimes they are hand written, but definitely not printed.

But I must tell you that some of these mengak texts have been translated into English and printed and you can buy them in bookstores these days. Maybe I can call it “blessing in disguise (laughter).

Now, gyu, the original source of the Mahamudra teachings, are actually the highest tantras, such as Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, Mahamaya, Kalachakra, etc. the essence of these teachings is Mahamudra. Another source of the Mahamudra teachings is the gyazhung, the texts written by the great Indian masters, such as Nagarjuna, and the teachings of the great Indian mahasiddhas, such as the eighty-four mahasiddhas and the thirty great female enlightened masters, etc. Those teachings and those texts are the gyazhung and are a source of the Mahamudra teachings. And mengaks are texts such as the Ninth Gyalwa Karmapa’s Ocean of Certainty, Ngedon Gyamtso. This is one perfect example of mengak. These are the sources of the Mahamudra teachings.

Now the definition of the term Mahamudra, if we make it very simple, is this; every single, relative reality, inclusive of everything and not excluding anything, is the manifestation of the ever-present, incorruptible, unchanged ultimate. That is the definition of Mahamudra in general. Now, technically, this means that if we are able to do anything properly we can attain enlightenment through that particular vehicle. And, in principle, that means anything. So, I will give you a simple example: drinking water. If I know how to drink water properly, I will get enlightened. Okay, you wait (drinks water). I’m not enlightened. (laughter) Why? I don’t know how to do it. So, in principle, by doing anything correctly, we can attain liberation.

Now that is the Mahamudra in general, according to its basic definition. But then, why did I not attain enlightenment by drinking the glass of water? Number one, I don’t know how to do it properly; and, number two, I don’t have the lineage that teaches how to attain enlightenment through drinking water. Do you see?

Therefore, the particular teachings of the lineage of transmission of Mahamudra that we do have — such as the four foundations of Mahamudra, the visualization practices of Mahamudra, the physical exercises of Mahamudra, the breathing practices of Mahamudra, the deity practices of Mahamudra, and the way of observing the nature of mind of Mahamudra — we have because we have that lineage. Therefore, through those means, which are limited in number, compared to everything else we might do, we can get enlightened. We don’t know how to attain enlightenment by eating pizza. We don’t know how to attain enlightenment by drinking Coca Cola, we don’t know how to attain enlightenment by driving a sports car or by travelling in a mobile home. We don’t know those things because we don’t have such a lineage. But in the Mahamudra tradition we do have the lineage of attaining enlightenment by praying, by meditating, by doing practices such as the four foundations (ngondro), etc. Those things are alive, because there is the living lineage of how to attain liberation through those means. So, we shouldn’t get those two things mixed up. When we see in principle what Mahamudra means, and then see in principle what kind of lineage of living teachings there is, then it becomes very clear. Yes?

Now, the very widespread, let’s say popular, concept of Mahamudra is that you don’t have to be involved in any kind of visualization, in any kind of prayer, any kind of ritual, any kind of discipline. You just somehow sit there and get enlightened. And that is very true in one particular aspect of the Mahamudra teachings. That is the heart and the essence of the Mahamudra teachings — to be absorbed in and to observe the nature of mind. To be absorbed in and observe the nature of mind, which is always nothing less than Buddha itself. If we manage to do that, then that is enlightenment. Enlightenment is nothing more, and nothing less than that. That is the essence of Mahamudra. But that happens as a result. We can’t begin there; that is the end, not the beginning. We have to get there by the accumulation of merit and the accumulation of wisdom, by purification of negative emotional defilement’s, by purification of cognitive obscurations. We have to overcome all the defilement’s and obscurations in order to get there.

So, although Mahamudra means trodrel, semche trodrel, being away from activity, or an activity-free sort of practice, a non-conceptual, non- dualistic aspect of practice, we still have to overcome the dualistic bondage in order to be nondualistic. We can’t say we are nondualistic just because we want to be nondualistic. It doesn’t work that way. We have to go slowly, step by step.

I have a kind of primitive new term for it, saying we are nondualistic just because we want to be nondualistic. You might even call it, with all due respect, slang. Okay? If we are not clear and honest about where we stand as far as our personal level of maturity is concerned, and we just want to be, and believe we already are, what we really wish to be, then it becomes a little inconvenient for everybody, especially for that person. And I call it “unidentified flying ego” (laughter). So, “unidentified flying ego” is out to lunch. Has been taken for a ride. And maybe, while that is happening, Buddha nature is temporarily out cold (laughter). I don’t mean to say inauspicious things, but sometimes in this way we get the point pretty quickly. So, that is a basic, general description of Mahamudra.

In the Prayer of Mahamudra itself, the Third Gyalwa Karmapa writes about almost every important point of dharma — not only of Mahamudra, but of whatever level of dharma that you can think of: Hinayana, Mahayana, Mahamudra, Madhyamika. Anything that you can think of about dharma is one way or another summarized in this very short prayer.

This prayer is written as a supplication. When we go through a traditional text like this, then it is very important to go through it in the strict Tibetan way. In our tradition, when we learn about a text, there is an important, basic structure that you have to follow; you have to have an outline of the entire text first. Then you know which sentence means what and where it belongs, and in that way it becomes quite easy. Otherwise, it becomes like a big hotel with many rooms and many floors with no room numbers and no floor numbers. Then it becomes very difficult to find anything — like an elevator with buttons but no numbers on them — it would be very hard to find anything! In order to avoid that, there is, in the beginning, the outlining of the entire text. And we call that, sachay. I don’t know what you call it. Maybe you call it outlining.

So then, this text has three parts. The first and last parts are very short. The first is the preliminary aspect of the monlam or prayer. The second is the actual prayer itself, which comprises the majority of the text. And the last part, which is very short, is the conclusion of the prayer. So, there is the beginning, the main body of the prayer, and the conclusion of the prayer — three parts.


© Copyright Tai Situ Rinpoche, Shenpen Osel & Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications 2002.