Mahamudra
Mahāmudrā literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the notion that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable". Mahāmudrā 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."
The name also refers to a body of teachings representing 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. The practice of Mahāmudrā is also known as the teaching called "Sahajayoga" or "Co-emergence Yoga". In Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the Kagyu school, Sahaja Mahāmudrā is sometimes seen as a different Buddhist vehicle, the "Sahajayana", also known as the vehicle of self-liberation.
Jamgon Kongtrul, a Tibetan self-styled nonsectarian scholar, characterizes mahāmudrā as the path to realizing the "mind as it is" which also stands at the core of all Kagyu paths. He states, "In general, Mahāmudrā and everything below it are the ‘mind path’ " Mahāmudrā traditionally refers to the quintessence of mind itself and the practice of meditation in relation to a true understanding of it.
History
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 as emptiness, 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."According to Jamgon Kongtrul, the Indian theoretical sources of the mahāmudrā tradition are Yogacara and tathagatagarbha texts such as the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. The actual practice and lineage of mahāmudrā can be traced back to wandering mahasiddhas during the Indian Pala Dynasty, beginning with the 8th century siddha Saraha.
Saraha's Dohas are the earliest mahāmudrā literature extant, and promote some of the unique features of mahāmudrā such as the importance of pointing-out instruction by a guru, the non-dual nature of mind, and the negation of conventional means of achieving enlightenment such as samatha-vipasyana meditation, monasticism, rituals, tantric practices and doctrinal study in favor of more the direct methods of mahāmudrā 'non-meditation' and 'non-action'. These teachings also became the wellspring for the body of instructions eventually known as the mind teachings of Tibet associated with mahāmudrā of the Kagyu lineages. Later Indian and Tibetan masters such as Padmavajra, Tilopa, and Gampopa incorporated mahāmudrā into tantric, monastic and traditional meditative frameworks.
Etymology
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.The term is mentioned with increasing frequency as various Buddhist tantras developed further, particularly in the Yogatantras, where it appears in Tattvasaṁgraha and the Vajraśekhara . In these sources, "mahāmudrā" also denotes a hand gesture, now linked to three other hand mudrās—the action, pledge, 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."
In Mahāyoga tantras such as the Guhyasamāja tantra, mahāmudrā "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."
The idea of "mahāmudrā" emerges as a central Buddhist concept in the Anuttarayoga Tantras like the Hevajra, Cakrasaṁvara, and Kālacakra.
According to Roger Jackson, in these tantras, mahāmudrā has multiple referents. It can refer to completion stage practices which work with forces in the subtle body to produce a divine form and "a luminous, blissful, nonconceptual gnosis." In this context, it is seen as the highest practice which transcends and perfects all previous ones and leads to a direct realization of the nature of mind. In the context of sexual yoga, mahāmudrā can also refers to a yogi's female consort. Furthermore, the term mahāmudrā can also refer to the ultimate truth and the ultimate realization in Buddhist tantra. As such, it is the "great seal" which marks all phenomena, i.e. Suchness, emptiness, the "unchanging bliss beyond object and subject, shape, thought, or expression".
The tantric scholar Aryadeva summarises the meaning of mahāmudrā as: "the discussion of how to attain mahāmudrā entails methods for meditating on Mind itself as something having voidness as its nature".
According to Reginald Ray, the term Mudrā denotes that in an adept's experience of reality, each phenomenon appears vividly, while the term Mahā refers to the fact that it is beyond concept, imagination, and projection.
Indian sources
All of the various Tibetan mahāmudrā lineages originated with the Mahasiddhas of medieval India. The earliest figure is the tenth century poet yogi Saraha, and his student Nagarjuna. Saraha's collections of poems and songs, mostly composed in the apabhramsa language are the earliest Indian sources for mahāmudrā teachings, aside from the Buddhist tantras.Other influential Indian mahasiddhas include Tilopa, his student Naropa and Naropa's consort Niguma. Tilopa's Ganges Mahāmudrā song is a widely taught short mahāmudrā text. Niguma is an important source for the Shangpa Kagyu lineage.
Tilopa's pupil Maitripa became the principal master of mahāmudrā in India during his time and most lineages of mahāmudrā are traced from Maitripa. Maitripa was a very influential figure of the eleventh century, a scholar and tantrika who widely taught the Ratnagotravibhāga, a text which is widely seen as bridging the sutric Mahayana and Anuttarayogatantra views. He composed commentaries on the buddhist dohas, and his works include a collection of 26 texts on "non-conceptual realization", which are a key Indian source of mahāmudrā teachings that blend sutra and tantra, and teach an instantaneous approach to awakening.
One of Maitripa's students was the Kadam scholar Atisha, who taught mahāmudrā to his pupil Dromtönpa who decided not to make mahāmudrā a part of the Kadam tradition. Another pupil of Maitripa, Marpa Lotsawa, also introduced mahāmudrā to Tibet and his disciple Milarepa is also a central figure of this lineage. Another important figure in the introduction of mahāmudrā to the area is Vajrapani, yet another student of Maitripa. His student, Asu, also was a teacher of Rechungpa, one of Milarepa's pupils.
Gampopa, a key figure of the Kagyu school, refers to three important cycles of Indian texts which discuss Mahāmudrā as his main sources:
- "The Seven Siddhiḥ Texts" , which include Padmavajra's Guhyasiddhi and Indrabhuti's Jñanasiddhi.
- "The Cycle of Six Heart Texts" or "Six works on essential meaning", including Saraha's Dohakosha and Nagarjunagarbha's Caturmudraniscaya.
- Maitripa's "Cycle of Teachings on Non-Cognition".
Indian sources of mahāmudrā were later compiled by the seventh Karmapa Chödrak Gyatso into a three-volume compilation entitled The Indian Mahāmudrā Treatises. This compilation includes the above three collections, along with the Anavilatantra and texts that teach a non-tantric "instantaneous"approach to the practice by an Indian master named Śākyaśribhadra.
Tibetan traditions
Mahāmudrā is most well known as a teaching within the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. However the Gelug and Sakya schools also practice mahāmudrā. The Nyingma school and Bon practise Dzogchen, a cognate but distinct method of direct introduction to the principle of śūnyatā. 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.Kagyu tradition
Sönam Rinchen, a Kadam monk who was a student of the lay tantric yogi Milarepa, is a key figure in the Kagyu tradition. He is responsible for much of the development of Kagyu monastic institutions and for recording the teachings of the lineage in writing. He synthesized the Mahayana Kadam teachings with the tantric teachings he received from Milarepa and developed a unique system of mahāmudrā which he often taught without tantric empowerment, relying instead on guru yoga.Mahāmudrā is defined by Gampopa as "the realization of the natural state as awareness-emptiness, absolutely clear and transparent, without root". Gampopa also states that mahāmudrā is "the paramita of wisdom, beyond thought and expression." Gampopa taught mahāmudrā in a five part system to his disciples, one of his most well known disciples, Phagmo Drupa became a very successful teacher who continued to teach this five part system and eight "junior" kagyu lineages are traced to him. This "Five-Part Mahāmudrā" system became one of the main ways that Mahāmudrā was transmitted in Kagyu lineages after Gampopa.
The tradition which follows Gampopa is called Dakpo Kagyu. A key Mahāmudrā author of this tradition is Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, well known for his Mahāmudrā: The Moonlight. Karma Kagyu Karmapas like the ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje also composed important Mahāmudrā texts. A development of these later mahāmudrā writers is the integration of the common Mahayana teachings on samatha and vipasyana as preliminaries to the practice of mahāmudrā.