Professor Lin Chong-an: The Meditation Methods of Mahamudra in the Tibetan White Sect

The Meditation Methods of Mahamudra in the Tibetan White Sect

Lin Chong-an

I. Lineage

Tibetan Buddhism has four major schools: the Nyingma (Red Sect), Kagyu (White Sect), Sakya (Multicolored Sect), and Gelug (Yellow Sect). The White Sect has two main lineages. One was established by Marpa (1012), a Tibetan who traveled to India to study Mahamudra and other teachings under Naropa, Maitripa, and others. It was later spread by his disciple Milarepa (1040) and Milarepa's own student Gampopa (1079). This lineage is known as the Dagpo Kagyu, which divided into four branches: (1) the Phagdru Kagyu, (2) the Karma Kagyu, (3) the Tsalpa Kagyu, and (4) the Barom Kagyu. The other lineage was founded by Khyungpo Naljor (1026), also a Tibetan, who journeyed to India to study under Niguma and others. It is known as the Shangpa Kagyu.

The White Sect's Mahamudra lineage has produced many great masters, among them Düsum Khyenpa (1110) of the Karma Kagyu and Kunga Rinchen (1475) of the Phagdru Kagyu.

II. The Meaning of "Mahamudra"

The various schools within the White Sect offer several interpretations of the term Mahamudra, for example:

1. "Great" means transcending extremes; "hand" means the wisdom of emptiness; "seal" means without partiality.

2. "Great" means supreme; "hand" means unarisen; "seal" means beginningless.

3. "Great" means innate great bliss; "seal" means emptiness. Mahamudra means the union of bliss and emptiness.

4. "Great" means having no peer; "hand" means transcending conceptual mind, pointing to emptiness. "Seal" means that emptiness pervades all things without exception.

So the essence of Mahamudra lies in directly realizing that the ultimate nature of mind is empty, unarisen, and devoid of intrinsic existence. This mind is a subtle mind of luminous great bliss — a self-knowing wisdom.

III. The Stages of Mahamudra Meditation

What follows is an explanation of the White Sect's Mahamudra meditation stages, based on the outline of The Mahamudra of the Path of Nirvana by the Venerable White Lotus (Pema Karpo), who lived around 1590 CE and was a great Mahamudra practitioner. The text is divided into three parts: preliminaries, main practice, and a concluding section. The detailed outline runs as follows:

Part One: Preliminaries (two sections)

1. Common Preliminaries (e.g., the preciousness and rarity of human rebirth, contemplation on death and impermanence)

2. Uncommon Preliminaries (e.g., taking refuge and generating bodhichitta, guru yoga)

Part Two: Main Practice (two sections)

1. Common Practices (two sections)

(1) One-Pointedness Yoga: Resting in Shamatha (two sections)

a. With the Support of Objects (two sections)

(i) Not Relying on the Breath (relying on a stone, an image of the Buddha, etc.)

(ii) Relying on the Breath (vajra recitation, vase breathing)

b. Without the Support of Objects (three sections)

(i) Cutting Off Thoughts as They Arise (initially tight)

First abiding: like a mountain waterfall

(ii) Letting Thoughts Arise Without Restraining Them (later relaxed)

Intermediate abiding: like a slow-flowing river

(iii) Essential Points of Abiding

1. Like spinning a Brahmin thread (neither too tight nor too loose)
2. Like a severed grass rope (mind free from effort)
3. Like a child gazing at a temple hall (perceiving signs such as smoke-like appearances; experiencing pliancy without grasping or rejecting)
4. Like an elephant treading on thorns (neither suppressing wandering thoughts nor being moved by them)

Final abiding: like a waveless ocean

(2) Non-Elaboration Yoga: Cultivating Vipashyana (three sections)

a. Examining the Mind Across the Three Times

b. Examining Whether the Mind Truly Exists or Not

c. Examining Whether the Mind Is One or Many

2. Uncommon Practices (two sections)

(1) One-Taste Yoga (three sections)

a. Using the Dream Analogy to Confirm That Appearances Are Mind

b. Using the Water-and-Ice Analogy to Confirm the Union of Appearance and Emptiness

c. Using the Water-and-Wave Analogy to Determine That All Phenomena Are of One Taste

(2) Non-Meditation Yoga

The afflictions to be abandoned have been extinguished; the antidotes that abandoned them have also subsided. One reaches the stage beyond training, abides in non-abiding nirvana, and attains the supreme accomplishment of Mahamudra.

Part Three: Concluding Section (three sections)

1. Establishing Mahamudra (three sections)

a. Determining the Ground

b. Practicing the Path: Discernment and the Stages of Warmth

c. Direct Realization of the Fruit

2. Examining Obstacles and Wrong Paths

3. Distinguishing Intellectual Understanding, Meditative Experience, and Genuine Realization

IV. Conclusion

The explanation above, drawn from The Mahamudra of the Path of Nirvana, gives a sense of the stages of Mahamudra meditation as practiced in the Tibetan White Sect — and reveals just how finely detailed this path is.

---

Key Points of Mahamudra

Mahamudra is the highest meditative method of the Kagyu (White Sect) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan master Bokar Rinpoche wrote in Illuminating the Pure Mind:

1. To remain undistracted, resting the mind in the present moment — this is the meditation of Mahamudra.

2. When thoughts arise, we neither try to block them nor follow them. We simply continue to rest in a state of pure awareness.

3. The essential point isn't whether thoughts appear, but rather maintaining undistracted alertness — neither judging nor clinging to thoughts as good or bad.

4. During meditation, the mind should be relaxed, at ease, and expansive, free from any expectation or worry.

From this we can see that meditating with a relaxed and open heart, letting the awareness of the present moment flow unbroken — this is the very heart of Mahamudra.