By Victor M Fontane
Mahamudra is a body of teachings found in the many of the Tibetan Buddhist schools, which includes methods for truly understanding the very nature of our own minds, leading us to enlightenment. Different schools might propose slightly different approaches for achieving this goal, but regardless of which one is followed, working on knowing the actual nature of our minds is a way of making our lives incredibly meaningful.
Mahamudra, a Sanskrit word meaning “great seal,” refers to an advanced and sophisticated system of meditation on the nature of the mind, and the realizations gained through it. Just like wax seals are stamped on legal documents to authenticate their signature, similarly the great seal of mahamudra is stamped on authentic practices that bring enlightenment for the benefit of all.
Mind is the individual, subjective mental activity of experiencing something.
This activity continues unbroken throughout all our lifetimes, with no beginning or end. The mind itself is extremely difficult to recognize, and so success in the practice is only possible on the basis of extensive positive force and the purification of negative potentials through repeated preliminary practices.
Gelug mahamudra meditation focuses on the relation between mind and conventional appearances from the point of view that mind makes all conventionally existent objects appear and be known and does this because it does not exist by the power of some findable self-nature. Both mind and conventional appearances can only be accounted for as what the concepts and words for them refer to on the basis of moment-to-moment mere appearance-making and awareness.
Karma Kagyu mahamudra meditation focuses on the relation between mind and appearances from the point of view of their non-duality – neither can be established as existing on its own, separately from the other. Both exist beyond words and concepts in the sense that neither of them exist as findable objects inside the box-like categories that correspond to words or concepts.
Regardless of which method we use, we come to the same conclusion: we can only know the nature of appearances in terms of their relation with mind. When we understand mind and the world of conventional appearances, and have as our firm foundation the lam-rim graded path trainings and extensive preliminary practices, then with sustained mahamudra meditation we will be able to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all.
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