Posts Tagged ‘Mahamudra’

Lama Ole Nydahl – Introduction to Mahamudra

Saturday, October 8th, 2011
Lama Ole Nydahl teaching in 2010

Lama Ole Nydahl teaching in 2010

This teaching was published in 2001 in edition 9 of the magazine “Buddhism Today”

Buddhism Today Vo.9

Buddhism Today Vol.9

Any observation of the outer and inner worlds refers one to mind. Only mind is constantly and truly present, although not as a “something.” Consciousness is like space, unchanging and timeless, while its objects are conditioned. Both the outer world and beings’ inner states appear, change, and disappear. Only the experiencer is timeless, limitless, and everywhere.

The Great Seal, Mahamudra in Sanskrit and Chag Chen in Tibetan, was taught by Buddha to fully awaken mind’s potential and to seal its enlightened nature. Whoever rests in the radiance of the mirror while enjoying its images, and recognizes the indestructibility of the ocean beneath the play of the waves, has reached this goal.

The path there is a steadily increasing experience of richness and the bliss which enlightenment makes permanent. It already begins to manifest in short and weakened forms during the moments when no habits or expectations distract mind. Also non-meditators may taste some of this power during the free fall before the parachute opens or on a fast motorcycle, and all (hopefully) know it from sexual union. It appears in a flash when sneezing, as the joyful “a-ha” at a new and striking insight, or when one shares in the goodness or joy of others. Meditation, however, is the concise and scientific way to make this state permanent. In particular, the three “old” or “red hat” schools of Tibetan Buddhism, which focus on the Diamond Way practices of view and transformation, can make such moments into a lasting experience. Even a short exchange with a holder of the Great Seal of awareness can set off this maturation process, but a close friendship with him, or one’s co-operation in his groups is always the most effective method. In meditation, as in life, one will then experience a growing and joyful oneness with phenomena until suffering and frustrations are definitely seen as something unnecessary and odd.

(more…)

Karma Kagyu Great Seal Lineage in Three Paintings

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

MilarepaMarpaGampopa

This set of three stunning 19th Century Tibetan thangka paintings (click on each to enlarge) was just posted to the Himalayan Art Resource website. The three composition painting set depicts the Karma Kagyu Great Seal (Skt. Mahamudra) Lineage ending with the 14th Gyalwa Karmapa, Thegchog Dorje (1798-1868).

(more…)

Painting of the 6th Shamarpa, Mipam Chokyi Wangchuk

Saturday, February 5th, 2011
6th Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Wangchuk

6th Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Wangchuk

The Himalayan Art Resource website recently posted a picture of this marvellous 18th century thangka painting (click to enlarge) of Mipam Chokyi Wangchuk, The 6th Shamarpa (1584-1629). The 6th Shamarpa is an exceptionally important figure in the Karma Kagyu school, holding the lineage between the 9th and 10th Karmapas. His debating skills were so extraordinary that he was known as the “Pandita of the North, the Omniscient Shamarpa in whom Manjushri delights”. Famed for his deep insight, he had memorised fifty volumes of sutras and tantras by the age of seventeen, and was later to write ten texts explaining both the sutra and tantra traditions. He was the teacher of Desi Tsangpa, who ruled central Tibet, and it was while he was travelling in east Tibet – successfully playing the mediator in a regional disturbance – that he recognised and became the teacher of the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje. Subsequent travels took him to Nepal, where he taught Buddhism in the original Sanskrit to the king, Laxman Naran Singh, and to other devotees, and where he eventually died in the Helambu mountains, near a cave in which Milarepa, Tibet’s great yogi, had once meditated.

(more…)

Books in Diamond Way Centres: Recommended reading Pt.2

Monday, April 19th, 2010

In the second of a series of entries, we present Buddhist books from the “recommended reading list” for students of Diamond Way Buddhism by various authors, together with links to a reliable UK-based supplier, Wisdom Books. This group of books includes life stories of great Buddhist practitioners.

Entering the Diamond Way – Tibetan Buddhism Meets the West

Lama Ole Nydahl

This is the genuinely compelling story, and spiritual odyssey, of Ole and Hannah Nydahl, who in 1968 became the first Western students of the great Tibetan master, His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. Their exciting travels on the worn path between the green lowlands of Europe to the peaks of the Himalayas, led them to experience the skilful teachings of numerous Tibetan lamas who helped transform their lives into “limitless clarity and joy.” From their first contact with Tibetan Buddhism in Kathmandu in the form of a lama with extraordinary psychic powers, Ole and Hannah encountered the full spectrum of the Buddhist view. Their real aim in writing this book is “to form a bridge between two worlds, and especially to share with all who are looking for their true being… an introduction to a time-proven way to Enlightenment.”

(more…)