Part I: An Introduction to Mahamudra and Its Practical Application to Life

• 1 The Buddhist Framework

  • Initial Sketch of the Topic

  • The Four True Facts in Life

  • Taking Ourselves and Our Lives Seriously

  • Safe Direction and Buddha-Nature

  • Behavioral Cause and Effect

  • Renunciation

  • Eliminating Confusion

  • Compassion and a Dedicated Heart of Bodhichitta

• 2 The Preliminary Practices

  • Recognizing Our Mental Blocks

  • Prostration

  • Vajrasattva Practice

  • Guru-Yoga

  • The Relationship with a Spiritual Teacher

  • The Inseparability of Our Mind and Our Guru

  • Guru-Mantras

  • Investigating the Meaning of Every Teaching

• 3 Preventing Preliminary Practices from Becoming Flat

  • Reasons for Preliminaries Becoming Flat

  • Being Creative with Preliminary Practices

  • Transforming All Activities into a Spiritual Path

  • Establishing and Strengthening Two Enlightenment-Building Networks

  • Fitting Together the Dharma Teachings

  • Avoiding Becoming Infatuated with the Teachings

• 4 The Initial Level of Mahamudra Meditation

  • The Definition of Mind: General Considerations

  • The Nonduality of Subject and Object

  • Clarity – The Arising of the Contents of an Experience

  • Awareness – An Engaging with the Contents of an Experience

  • Merely

  • Summary of the Buddhist Definition of Mind

  • The Nature of Mahamudra Meditation

  • The Analogy of a Flashlight

  • The Initial Stages of Mahamudra Meditation

  • Benefits of the Initial Stage of Practice

• 5 The Deeper Levels of Mahamudra Meditation

  • Mahamudra Meditation on the Conventional Nature of Mind

  • The Necessity for Meditation on the Conventional and Deepest Natures of "Me"

  • The Conventional and Deepest Natures of "Me"

  • Applying the Understanding of the Nature of "Me" to Mahamudra Meditation

  • The Relation between Seeing the Conventional and Deepest Natures of Mind

  • Mahamudra Meditation on the Deepest Nature of Mind

  • Understanding That the Conventional "Me" Exists Like an Illusion

  • Understanding the Nature of Mind in Terms of Mental Labeling

  • Understanding the Deepest Nature of Mind To Be Like Space and Its Conventional Nature To Be Like an Illusion

  • Further Applications of the Understanding of Voidness to Mahamudra Meditation

  • Nonconceptual Meditation

  • The Relation between Ideas, Understanding and Conceptual Meditation

  • The Stages for Gaining a Nonconceptual Mahamudra Meditation

  • The Anuttarayoga Tantra Level of Mahamudra Meditation

  • Summary

Part II: The Root Text

• A Root Text for the Precious Gelug-Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra

Part III: A Discourse on A Root Text for Mahamudra

• 1 Introduction and Preliminaries

  • Introductory Remarks

  • Opening Homage, Praise and Promise To Compose

  • The Common Preliminaries

  • The Uncommon Preliminaries

• 2 The Tantra and Sutra Traditions of Mahamudra

  • The Tantra Tradition of Mahamudra

  • The Sutra Tradition of Mahamudra

• 3 Mahamudra within the Context of Various Buddhist Traditions

  • The Different Lineages of Mahamudra

  • The Harmony of the Two Correct Views of Reality

  • Confirmation from the Dzogchen System

  • Corroboration from the Chittamatra Practice of Tantra

• 4 Meditation on the Conventional Nature of Mind

  • Preliminaries for Shamata Meditation

  • Focusing on the Conventional Nature of Mind

  • Employing Mindfulness and Alertness

  • Methods to Employ When Mind Gives Rise to a Thought

  • The Attainment of Shamata Focused on the Conventional Nature of Mind

• 5 Meditation on the Deepest Nature of the Conventional "Me" and All Phenomena, Including Mind

  • Promise to Compose

  • Scrutinizing the Manner of Appearance and Manner of Existence of “Me”

  • Refutation of the “Me” To Be Refuted

  • The Conventional Existence of Phenomena That Is Not To Be Refuted

  • Total Absorption on Voidness Which Is Like Space

  • Voidness of Mind Itself

  • Understanding Voidness in Terms of Dependent Arising

  • Dedication

• 6 The Deep Awareness Subsequently Attained

  • Recognizing Anything to Which Mind Gives Rise

  • Applying Our Understanding to All Phenomena

  • Alternating Total Absorption and Subsequent Realization

  • Simultaneous Perception of the Two Truths

  • Closing Dedication and Colophon

  • Concluding Advice

Part IV: A Discourse on The Autocommentary to "A Root Text for Mahamudra"

• Session One

  • The Source of the Teachings

  • Special Features of the Teachings

  • Setting the Appropriate Motivation

  • Homage and Praise to the Gurus

  • Promise to Compose and General Presentation of the Preliminaries

  • Safe Direction and the Four True Facts in Life

  • The Wish for Happiness

  • Bodhichitta

  • Mandala Offering

  • Vajrasattva Practice

  • Guru-Yoga

  • The Qualifications of a Guru

  • Practice before Finding a Guru

• Session Two

  • Taming the Mind

  • Visualization of the Sources of Safe Direction

  • The Four Levels of Mandala Offering

  • All Appearance-Making and Appearances as Reflexive Play

  • The Relation between Appearances, Clear Light Mind, Death and Rebirth

  • The Relation between Mind, Karma and Environment

  • The Two Levels of Vajrasattva Practice

  • Guru-Yoga – External and Inner Gurus

  • Parting from the Four Forms of Clinging – The Common Preliminaries

  • The Importance of Preliminaries

  • Paying Attention to Definitions of Technical Terms

  • Confident Belief in the Guru

  • Premature Commitment to an Unsuitable Guru

  • Premature Commitment to Tantra and Daily Recitation Practices

  • Visualization of Ourselves as a Buddha-Figure

  • Establishing the Dignity of Being a Form of Buddha

  • Six-Session Yoga

• Session Three

  • Different Presentations of the Four Types of Seals

  • Penetrating Vital Points of the Vajra-Body

  • Those Who Progress through Graded Stages and Those for Whom Everything Happens at Once

  • Dzogchen in Comparison to Mahamudra

  • The Coarse and Subtle Primordial Minds

  • The Dzogchen Tradition in Bon

  • Summary of the Anuttarayoga Tantra Tradition of Mahamudra

  • The Appropriateness of This System of Mahamudra Being Called "Gelug-Kagyu"

  • Other-Voidness and Self-Voidness

• Session Four

  • The Authenticity of the Traditions of the Dohas and Dzogchen

  • Division Schemes of Maha-, Anu- and Atiyoga, and Father, Mother and Nondual Tantra

  • Unconventional Behavior of the Most Highly Realized Practitioners

  • Compassion and Wisdom within the Context of Anuttarayoga Tantra

  • How Chittamatra Practitioners of Tantra Gain a Madhyamaka View

  • All Phenomena as the Play of Primordial Clear Light Mind

  • Primordial Clear Light Mind as Buddha-Nature

  • Relying on a Sealing Partner

  • Summary of the Tantra Level of Mahamudra Practice

  • The Differences between the Sutra and Tantra Levels of Mahamudra

• Session Five

  • The Way to Listen to Teachings

  • Nonsectarianism

  • Brief Résumé of the Text

  • The Simultaneously Arising as Merged Tradition of Karma Kagyu

  • The Amulet Box Tradition of Shangpa Kagyu

  • The Possessing Five Tradition of Drigung Kagyu

  • The Drugpa Kagyu Tradition of the Six Spheres of Equal Taste

  • The Four Syllables Tradition Common to All Dagpo Kagyu Lineages

  • The Pacifier Tradition of Padampa Sanggyay

  • The Object To Be Cut Off, Dzogchen and Madhyamaka Discursive View Traditions

• Session Six

  • The Basic Prerequisites for Achieving Shamata

  • Cleaning Our Place of Practice, Preparing Our Seat and Assuming the Proper Posture

  • Generating an Initial Neutral State of Mind with the Nine Tastes of Breath

  • Generating a Constructive State of Mind

  • Focusing on Mind Itself

  • Recognizing Mere Clarity and Awareness

  • Focusing with Mindfulness and Alertness

  • Degrees and Varieties of Distraction and Dullness

  • How to Cultivate Alertness and Absorbed Concentration

  • Reducing Conceptual Thoughts

  • Loosening the Tightness of Mindfulness

  • Seeing that the Settled and Moving Minds Are Mixed Together

  • Recognizing the Nature of Conceptual Thought

  • Six Methods for Achieving Shamata

  • Bringing Our Meditation from Absorbed Concentration to a State of Shamata

• Session Seven

  • Working to Benefit Others

  • A Life of Intensive Meditation Practice Versus a Life of Service

  • Providing Ourselves with Strength to Maintain a Life of Service to Others

  • Broad Guidelines for Meditation

  • Stages of Focusing Mind on Mind

  • Boon Experiences

  • The Importance of Realizing the Devoid Nature of Mind

  • Five Traditions for Cutting Down to the Deepest Nature of Mind

• Session Eight

  • Removing the Obstacles Preventing Liberation and Enlightenment

  • General Discussion of Identitylessness

  • Avoiding the Two Extremes in Recognizing the Object To Be Refuted

  • The Three Ways of Apprehending "Me"

  • The Automatically Arising, Deluded Outlook toward a Transitory Network That Apprehends Everything in Terms of "Me"

  • Scrutinizing the Manner of Appearance and Manner of Existence of "Me"

• Session Nine

  • Approaching the Challenge of Taming the Mind

  • Searching for the "Me" To Be Refuted

  • Recognizing the Mode of Appearance-Making To Be Refuted

  • Differentiating the Mode of Appearance-Making of Conventional Reality from the Mode of Appearance-Making To Be Refuted

  • The Analogy of Dreams and Illusions

  • Refutation of the "Me" To Be Refuted

  • Total Absorption on Voidness Which Is Like Space

  • Subsequently Attained Deep Awareness That Everything Is Like Illusion

• Session Ten

  • Realizing the Voidness of Mind Itself

  • Corroboration by Great Meditation Masters of the Voidness of Mind

  • Reaffirming Conviction in Voidness by Merely Seeing the Appearances to Which Mind Dependently Gives Rise

  • Further Cultivation Of Subsequently Attained Deep Awareness

  • The Extinction of Discordant Appearance-Making

  • Reaffirmation of Conventional Truth

  • Conventional Existence by Virtue Simply of Names

  • Refutation of the Svatantrika-Madhyamaka Position

  • The Prasangika-Madhyamaka Position

  • Dependent Arising – The "King of Lines of Reasoning"

  • The Mutual Benefits of Supplementing the Understanding of Dzogchen and Tsongkhapa's Presentation of Voidness with Each Other

  • Valid Cognition of Conventional Truth

  • Applying the Understanding of Voidness to Every Appearance to Which Mind Gives Rise

  • Voidness and Dependently Arising Appearance Being Synonymous

  • The Stages to Enlightenment through Mahamudra

  • Dedication and Concluding Advice

Bibliography

• Tibetan and Sanskrit Titles of Cited Texts

Preface