Mahamudra and Related Instructions

Core Teachings of the Kagyu Schools

Peter Alan Roberts

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780861714445
• eBook ISBN: 9780861719297
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Collections

The Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism began in the eleventh century with such renowned figures as Marpa and Milarepa, and its seminal meditative traditions are Mahamudra and the six Dharmas of Naropa. Mahamudra teachings focus on the cultivation of profound insight into the nature of the mind. The Mahamudra texts in this volume include a lucid work by the celebrated master Tsele Natsok Rangdrol and works by the twelfth-century master Shang Rinpoche, the great Third Karmapa, the Eighth Tai Situ, and Drukpa Pema Karpo. The volume also contains an inspirational work by Gampopa, the Drigung Kagyu root text, The Single Viewpoint, the Sixth Shamarpa's guide to the six Dharmas of Naropa, and finally an overview of tantric practice by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, author of the famous Moonlight of Mahamudra. The texts in this volume were selected by the preeminent scholar of the Kagyu school, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche.

1. A String of Pearls
A Collection of Dharma Lectures⁶²

GAMPOPA (1079–1153)

I pay homage to the sacred gurus.

♦1♦

THIS DHARMA TEACHING can be given to anyone.

To have genuine Dharma practice, first meditate on impermanence. Otherwise, your Dharma practice might become merely an aid to your ambitions for this life.

Why should we meditate on impermanence? To turn our minds away from this life. Meditating on impermanence makes us realize that all the phenomena of appearance and existence,⁶³ of samsara and nirvana, are impermanent. As a result, the mind does not get caught up in this life. This is the purpose of meditation on impermanence. If your mind hasn’t turned away from this life, then your meditation on impermanence has been without purpose.

First, turn your mind away from this life by meditating on impermanence. Then meditate on the faults of samsara. The purpose of meditation on the faults of samsara is to turn the mind away from the entirety of samsara.

When your mind has turned away from samsara, meditate on bodhicitta. First there is meditation on relative bodhicitta — wishing, from the depths of your heart, that all beings will have happiness, freedom from suffering, and complete buddhahood. Then view everything you do as being for the welfare of all beings. Have no concern for your own desires but develop an aspiration with the Mahayana perspective of benefiting others as your goal. That is how you meditate on relative bodhicitta.

Meditation on ultimate bodhicitta is simply remaining in the mind as it naturally is, a state in which all thoughts of perceiver and perceived, self and other, are intrinsically devoid of reality. Practicing in that way during each of the four kinds of behavior⁶⁴ is what is called meditation on ultimate bodhicitta. Practicing in that way brings the realization and attainment of ultimate bodhicitta.

There is no Dharma other than this.

♦2♦

[2] This Dharma teaching can be given to anyone.

You must engage, right now, in lengthy contemplation. Think! This life is impermanent. Consider how it is fleeting, like lightning in the sky, bubbles in water, or dewdrops on the grass, so that whatever you gain in it will be of no benefit. Keep this thought in the very center of your heart.

With this thought in the center of your heart, practice. You must follow the perfect, unmistaken path until you reach buddhahood. What is this perfect, unmistaken path? It is taught to have three parts: the preliminaries, the main part, and the conclusion.

Begin with the preliminaries. First think, “May all beings have happiness and freedom from suffering, and may they attain complete buddhahood.”

Whatever main practice you then do, make that part of the path through the six perfections. For example, if you give just one thing to a beggar, that itself is generosity. Giving it in a gentle manner is correct conduct. Not generating an affliction, even if the beggar is ungrateful, is patience. Giving it quickly is diligence. Offering the gift without being distracted from love, compassion, and bodhicitta is meditation. Knowing that the recipient, the giver, the gift, and the result are all just a dream or an illusion is wisdom. Be certain that your main practice has the six perfections.

In the conclusion, you seal [your practice] with complete objectlessness. In that way everything is taken onto the path, because everything has the same nature, which is clarity and the lack of real existence.

Thus, you practice in this way: begin with the Mahayana perspective, which is to focus your mind upon the welfare of beings. It is important to develop the Mahayana perspective because buddhahood can only be attained through the Mahayana; not even the slightest fraction of buddhahood can be attained through the lower vehicles.

The main practice is the complete and unmistaken path of the perfections.

The concluding practice is the alchemy of objectlessness, through which you understand that everything is like space. That knowledge prevents propensities (vāsana) from being established in the ālaya. When propensities are not accumulated in the ālaya, there will be no basis for karma. Free of that basis, you will not be compelled to follow good or bad karma and will therefore not be reborn. That is what is called buddhahood. That knowledge is the perfect, unmistaken path. [3]

Even when on this perfect, unmistaken path, if you don’t practice it in order to attain the accomplishment of all benefits, then merely sleeping on the least of beds, consuming minimal food — such as drops of water — and controlling the length of your breaths will not do you any good. Therefore, summon the confidence to practice diligently, starting now.

There is no Dharma other than that.

♦3♦

This Dharma teaching can be given to anyone.

We need to practice both accumulation and purification. It is important to gather the accumulations and purify the obscurations. This life is like a flash of lightning in the sky, and so on, and thus we don’t know when we will depart and vanish. Therefore, it’s important that in the depths of your heart you are free from needing anything and that you meditate on relative and ultimate bodhicitta. Meditating on impermanence is vital because that develops relative bodhicitta.

Meditate on love and compassion by [contemplating] the faults of samsara. Then disregard your own benefit and accomplish whatever benefit you can for others.

To attain buddhahood, you must first want to benefit beings. Then, during the intermediate stage, until you attain buddhahood, you must continue to benefit beings. In the end, once you have achieved buddhahood, you will do nothing but benefit beings.

Therefore, first you meditate on death and impermanence; in the middle, you meditate on the faults of samsara; and in the end, with love, compassion, and bodhicitta, you do nothing other than benefit beings.

We need to combine three things in order to meditate on ultimate bodhicitta: (1) training in previous lives, (2) our own efforts, and (3) the blessing of the guru. Had you no training in a previous life, you would not have obtained the freedoms and opportunities of a higher existence perfectly endowed with seven qualities.⁶⁵ You must have trained in previous lives, during which you continuously gathered the accumulations.

If you make no effort, you will be left behind on the path of laziness and fail to reach the path of the noble ones.

Without the blessing of the guru, you will develop no qualities; nothing will come to you. Even if something does come, it will fade away. Your merit will be like a dammed river. It is as taught in the scriptures: [4]

If you have no guru, there will be no end to existence.

If you do not have oars,

your boat will never reach the far shore.⁶⁶

Therefore, you first need to have trained [in previous lives]; then you must practice through your own effort; and, as the ultimate commitment on the path of the Mantrayāna, you must rely on a genuine guru; so keep your commitments carefully.

Merely knowing the words of teachings is of no benefit; that is like a parrot reciting. Every guru has gained their accomplishment through their practice, too. Through our devotion to the guru, we too can receive blessing, and through correct practice we can gain various signs of accomplishment.

Nāropa had devotion for his guru Tilopa and was his pupil for twelve years. [Tilopa] did not actually give him any teaching, but because [Nāropa] revered his guru and did whatever his guru told him to do, he attained various signs of accomplishment. Thus, when there is a genuine guru and a worthy pupil, all qualities can be instantaneously accomplished.

First there is peace and stability; in the middle there is clarity and nonthought; and in the end there is complete freedom from all conceptual elaboration. It is taught that you will then rest, like the continuous flow of a river, in the meaning that is like space. The scriptures also say:

Complete buddhahood in an instant;

one instant makes the difference.⁶⁷

Therefore, it’s important to simply practice and have faith. If you haven’t been doing this, keep in mind that when the time comes when you use your hand as a pillow and have no appetite for anything but water,⁶⁸ nothing will help you except the Dharma that you’ve practiced.

Therefore, it’s taught that it’s important to practice with effort, starting now.

There is no Dharma other than that.

♦4♦

This Dharma teaching can be given to anyone.

In order to practice the Dharma purely, we must be aware that there is no time for leisure in this life, and we must be totally dedicated to [the Dharma].

It is vital to meditate on love and compassion. You develop them in three ways: (1) through focusing on beings, (2) through focusing on phenomena, and (3) through objectlessness. The first of these, focusing on beings, means developing love, compassion, and bodhicitta. [5] You focus on all beings, on how they suffer from not having realized the true nature, and think that you must somehow free them from suffering and help them meet happiness and attain complete buddhahood. None of your actions should be for your own benefit but should be for the benefit of “the lords” — all beings. It is the lords, all beings, who enable you to attain complete buddhahood; therefore you must focus on beings. If your mind disregards beings, you won’t be able to attain liberation and omniscience. It is taught that we should deeply cherish the love, compassion, and bodhicitta that are focused on beings, who are of the greatest importance.

Developing bodhicitta through focusing on phenomena: All phenomena are but dreams and illusions. Therefore, see whatever action you do as a dream or as an illusion. From the scriptures:

If you have meditated that all phenomena,

which are like illusions, are like illusions,

you will attain buddhahood, which is like an illusion.⁶⁹

When you know that all p...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Message from the Dalai Lama
• Special Acknowledgments
• Publisher’s Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Foreword by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche
• General Editor’s Preface
• Translator’s Introduction
• Technical Notes
• 1. A String of Pearls: A Collection of Dharma Lectures Gampopa (1079–1153)
• 2. The Unrivaled Instructions of Shang Rinpoché: The Preliminaries and Main Practice of the Great Meditation of Mahāmudrā Shönu Lha (late thirteenth century)
• 3. The Ultimate Supreme Path of the Mahāmudrā Lama Shang (1123–93)
• 4. A Record of Mahāmudrā Instructions Drukchen Pema Karpo (1527–92)
• 5. Instructions for the Mahāmudrā Innate Union Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (1284–1339)
• 6. Prayer for the Definitive Meaning, the Mahāmudrā Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé (1284–1339)
• 7. Oral Transmission of the Supreme Siddhas: A Commentary on Prayer for the Definitive Meaning, the Mahāmudrā Situ Tenpai Nyinjé (1700–1777)
• 8. The Bright Torch: The Perfect Illumination of the True Meaning of the Mahāmudrā, the Essence of All the Dharma Tselé Natsok Rangdröl (b. 1608)
• 9. The Quintessence of Nectar: Instructions for the Practice of the Six Dharmas of Nāropa Shamarpa Chökyi Wangchuk (1584–1630)
• 10. The Single Viewpoint: A Root Text Sherap Jungné (1187–1241)
• 11. Light Rays from the Jewel of the Excellent Teaching: A General Presentation on the Points of Secret Mantra Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (1512–87)
• Table of Tibetan Transliteration
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Contributors
• The Institute of Tibetan Classics
• The Library of Tibetan Classics
• Become a Benefactor of the Library of Tibetan Classics
• About Wisdom Publications
• Copyright