Mahāmudrā Explorations
The One Seal of Great Truth
Meditate and connect with the vast unified field of ALOHA.
Take warrior posture and recite the following:
PRAISE
I pay homage to all true teachers of awakenment.
Steeped in your attainment of authentic being, you manifest the Great Seal.
All-victorious embodiments who received the command of ultimate Ashe,
With blazing all-knowing-spaciousness, you manifest great Ziji.
With humbleness, I bow.
Please grant your blessings.
Bow Deeply
Repeat 3 times:
RAISING SUN & MOON LUNGTA
In the absolute expression of self-confidence, I take the vow of self-awareness.
In the relative expression of self-confidence, I take the vow of living as an example.
Repeat 3 times:
REFUGE & BODHICHITTA
In the great Open Sky of ALOHA,
The expression of awakened mind has always existed.
In this primordial confidence, I take refuge.
On the ground of fathomless compassion,
I take the warrior’s vow of bodhi.
TRANSMISSION
As a warrior of goodness and brilliance, I now release the past, present, and future, relaxing into freshness and simplicity. Pause
Within this great space, I raise Windhorse, the four-legged miracle:
KI KI – Aware of Sky energy, I feel it radiating down through me. Pause
SO SO – Aware of Earth energy, I feel it radiating up through me. Pause
ASHE – Aware of both energies, I feel them combine at my Heart Centre. Pause
LHA – I hold as the energies accumulate and intensify. Pause
GYALO – I relax in complete confidence as the combined energy radiates out in all directions to infinity. Pause
Now, this confidence reveals my mind to me, opening the doors of self-liberation on the path of warrior dignity. On this journey, Awareness protects me, guides me, and reveals my own true nature.
Resume normal meditation posture.
THE GREAT SEAL GUARDED BY THE TIGER
KI KI SO SO TAK
The world of appearances – sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch –
is but arising from the mind.
Now the Tiger, ever mindful, never fooled,
Content in its own being,
Shows me the constant array of appearing sense perceptions.
Senses are only expressions of mind.
In this first great truth I meditate.
TAK
As a warrior of Tiger, now I meditate,
Knowing that all appearances are mind.
Umdze rings gong.
All appearances are mind, all appearances are mind, all appearances are mind…
Umdze: All appearances are mind.
Benefit
Having meditated that all appearances are mind, I am released from following every sense faculty, no longer seduced by every sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Knowing appearances to be projections, day and night, I am no longer lured and fooled.
When the Tiger reveals this realization, I am content. My mind is free from discursiveness and constant distraction, free from being scattered and over-whelmed. My body is free of sickness, discomfort, and stagnation. Increasing my life-force energy, this brings good health. Clearing head, heart, and channels, I now rejoice in the benefit of the expression of Humility.
THE GREAT SEAL GUARDED BY THE SNOW LION
KI KI SO SO SENG
With the confidence of ALOHA firmly in my heart,
Now I journey to the great land of the Snow Lion,
Who instructs me in looking for this powerful mind itself.
Now I meditate, seeking this mind and reflecting that mind
Cannot be found, cannot be traced, and is ultimately empty.
SENG
As a warrior of Snow Lion, now I meditate,
Knowing that mind is unfindable and empty.
Umdze rings gong.
Mind is unfindable and empty, mind is unfindable and empty, mind is unfindable and empty…
Umdze: Mind is unfindable and empty.
Benefit
Meditating with the confidence of Awareness in my heart, I contemplate the Tiger’s discovery – that all appearances arise from mind. Now, as a Warrior of Snow Lion, with delight and thoroughness I look for mind itself. Knowing the mind not to be found and to be spacious is the source of the Snow Lion’s joy.
Conventionally, when I assume that the mind exists, that creates duality and makes me aggressive, leading to depression and endless other mental states. Because mind itself is inevitably free, confining it is unnatural. However, without looking for mind and its origin, I will inevitably assume that it does exist. This concept of existence brings stress, an existence full of suffering.
The Snow Lion shows me the inherent non-solidity of the mind, which is known as emptiness. Emptiness should not be understood as losing identity. Rather, it should be seen as release and freedom. Because this liberation takes time and patience, I avoid lapsing into speed or disillusionment. Riding on the Snow Lion’s back, eventually I ascend to the peak of existence, and witness Open Sky itself. Accomplishing this, my mind becomes healthy.
This Snow Lion meditation brings harmony, vitality, and balance. By doing it, I am no longer deluded. I have a greater wish to follow the path of mind’s natural virtues. Coarse and strong emotions have less power over me. Because now the mind is unfettered, it accomplishes things more easily. Since there is less anxiety, love and compassion expand. This brings the mind levity and delight.
THE GREAT SEAL GUARDED BY THE GARUDA
KI KI SO SO KHYUNG
Now as a Warrior of Garuda,
I fly in mind’s fathomless space,
knowing this emptiness to be infused
with the brilliance of Awareness.
Thus, I experience emptiness as luminosity.
KHYUNG
As the Warrior of Garuda, now I meditate,
Knowing that emptiness is luminosity,
Umdze rings gong.
Emptiness is luminosity, Emptiness is luminosity, Emptiness is luminosity…
Umdze: Emptiness is luminosity.
Benefit
I, the warrior, meditate with the Ashe in my heart, which engenders primordial confidence. Thus I am able to travel where others have not gone – to experience inherent brilliance and celebrate the knowing aspect of mind.
In the dark ages, nihilism and destruction tend to occur. Through luminosity, I am freed from that trap, attaining cheerfulness and delight. Such luminosity is the vision of ALOHA, which allows me to celebrate human wisdom and knowledge. Freed by emptiness, this wisdom does not need to be bound by permanence.
Therefore, luminosity is the experience of not being able to find something while simultaneously having a mind that is here, experiencing a moment of not-finding. Thus, we experience luminosity constantly, for it is a feeling of knowing. Ultimately, it is wisdom. Once we are on the path of luminosity, insight assists us, instantly seduced by the cry of the Garuda.
Now, as a warrior of Garuda, I experience the natural luminosity of mind, which is none other than my inherent confidence.
THE GREAT SEAL GUARDED BY THE DRAGON
KI KI SO SO DRUK
With the confidence of inscrutability,
Now I meditate like the Dragon,
Who spontaneously arises in a play of emptiness and luminosity.
Thus, as the warrior of Dragon,
I realize that luminosity is spontaneously present.
DRUK
As the warrior of Dragon, now I meditate,
Realizing that luminosity is spontaneously present.
Umdze rings gong.
Luminosity is spontaneously present, Luminosity is spontaneously present, Luminosity is spontaneously present…
Umdze: Luminosity is spontaneously present.
Benefit
By meditating in the way of the Dragon, I am relieved from fear. Because fear arises from causes and conditions, it manifests as concepts. Even though these concepts can be tamed or reduced, they disappear only when the warrior has complete confidence in the mind’s inherent wakefulness.
Spontaneous presence means that enlightenment is now, the moment one realizes that there is no path or stages toward enlightenment. The fact that it is complete dawns immediately and suddenly. This awesome understanding shows concepts for what they are: unilluminated ground, like shadows. Similarly, due to mind’s inherent confidence, fear that arises one moment can dissolve into nothing in the next. What is a problem today is no longer a problem tomorrow, due purely to our understanding.
The Warrior of Dragon realizes that samsara, with its fear and doubt, is none other than a shadow that needs to be illuminated. When I understand this, I am no longer living in a dualistic world. I no longer strive for enlightenment, nor fear not achieving it. I see the inseparability of samsara and ALOHA.
Such complete confidence allows the Warrior to appear anywhere. The Dragon has the confidence to go up into the highest heavens or down into the lowest hells, because the confidence in its heart never wavers. Thus, my mind is inscrutable and incomprehensible like the elements free and untamable. Always rejoicing in my own wakefulness naturally arises as cheerfulness, delight, and humor. This is the smile of the werma.
THE GREAT SEAL GUARDED BY ZIJI
KI KI SO SO TAK SENG KHYUNG DRUK DI YAR KYE
Now that I have journeyed through these four investigations,
I meditate with primordial confidence in my heart
Knowing all experiences and perceptions
to be the great cosmic mirror: presence.
ZIJI
Now, as the Warrior of Ziji,
I meditate with primordial confidence.
Umdze rings gong.
Rest.
Benefit
Now that I have journeyed the way of the Tiger, Lion, Garuda, and Dragon, I meditate with primordial confidence in my heart, knowing that all I experience and perceive is the great cosmic mirror. Since there is nothing to strive for and nothing to abandon, I can just be. I need neither to create experiences nor to correct misunderstanding; thus there is nothing to be done. At this very depth of the mind’s mirror, I experience the beginningless beginning of my inherent confidence, the one Great Seal of truth known as Ashe.
DEDICATION
By the Tiger Lion Garuda Dragon Ashe,
I dedicate all the confidence discovered here
To the welfare of beings in the three realms.
May they be free from following their projections,
Be liberated from extreme views,
And rest in the natural state of freedom.
May they discover the great confidence
Possessed by all beings.
DEDICATION OF MERIT
In anjali:
By this merit may all obtain omniscience. May it defeat the enemy: wrong-doing. From the stormy waves of birth, old-age, sickness and death, From the ocean of samsara may I free all beings.
In warrior posture:
By the confidence of the Golden Sun of the Great East, May the lotus garden of the Rigden’s wisdom bloom. May the dark ignorance of sentient beings be dispelled. May all beings enjoy profound brilliant glory.
