Pointing Out the Great Way : The Stages of Meditation in the Mahamudra Tradition

by Brown, Daniel; Thurman, Robert A.F.

• ISBN13: 9780861713042
• ISBN10: 0861713044
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-09-28
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications

Summary

This spiritual manual describes mahamudra meditation from the perspective of the "gradual path," a progressive process of training that is often contrasted to sudden realisation. The book contains a step-by-step description of the ways to practice, precise descriptions of the various stages and their intended realisations, and the typical problems that arise along with their remedies. Drawn from a variety of sources, Pointing Out the Great Way distills the experiences of many great masters who have traversed the path of meditation to the point of perfect mastery and freedom from suffering.

Author Biography

Daniel P. Brown is the director of the Center for Integrative Psychotherapy in Newton, Massachusetts, and an associate clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. Trained in Buddhist philosophy and languages at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he did his dissertation on mahamudra meditation texts, he has maintained close relations with Tibetan teachers of the Gelug, Kagyu, and Nyingma lineages for more than thirty-five years as well as exploring the Theravada mindfulness traditions in Burma and Thailand. The author of fourteen books, including Transformations of Consciousness, he lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

Robert Thurman holds the Jey Tsong Khapa Chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. After education at Philips Exeter and Harvard, he studied Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism for almost thirty years as a personal student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He has written both scholarly and popular books, and has lectured widely all over the world. As President of the American Institute for Buddhist Studies, he convened the First Inner Science Conference with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Amherst College in 1984. He is also a founding trustee of Tibet House New York.
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Table of Contents

LIST OF TABLES	xi
FOREWORD	xiii
PREFACE	xv
INTRODUCTION	1	(1)
PUTTING MEDITATIVE EXPERIENCE INTO WORDS	2	(1)
Intellectual Understanding Versus Actual Experience	3	(1)
The Technical Language of Spiritual Development	4	(1)
HOW THIS BOOK IS STRUCTURED	5	(1)
MAHAMUDRA IN CONTEXT	5	(1)
The Aim of Spiritual Development in Buddhism	5	(2)
Indian Antecedents to Mahamudra	7	(1)
Sutra, Tantra, and Essence	8	(2)
Gradual or Instantaneous	10	(1)
The Virtues of the Gradual Path	11	(2)
Tibetan Developments	13	(1)
Key Terms in Mahamudra	13	(2)
The Early Mahamudra Source Tradition	15	(2)
Tantric Mandmudrd	17	(1)
The Source Translation Lineage	18	(1)
The Subsidiary Lineage	19	(2)
Gampopa and Monastic Mahamudra	21	(1)
Mahamudra Schools and Lineages of the Kagyü Tradition	22	(3)
Mahamudra in the Nyingma and Gelug Traditions	25	(2)
NAVIGATING THIS BOOK	27	(1)
Types of Texts	27	(1)
An Integrated Synthetic Text	28	(2)
Semantic Field Analysis	30	(1)
The Selection of Texts	31	(2)
Technical Notes	33	(2)
SOURCE TEXT ABBREVIATIONS	35	(2)
1. CULTIVATING THE MOTIVATION	37	(1)
I. GENERATING INTEREST	37	(1)
A. Interest	37	(9)
B. Admiration	46	(7)
C. Respect	53	(5)
II. CAUSING FAITH TO ARISE: THE DECISION TO TRY SPIRITUAL PRACTICE	58	(1)
A. Generating Faith	58	(7)
B. Faithful Recognition	65	(6)
2. PRELIMINARY PRACTICE	71	(1)
I. THE ORDINARY PRELIMINARIES	71	(3)
A. The Four Notions	74	(1)
1. Opportunity	74	(3)
2. Impermanence	77	(2)
3. The Cause and Effect of Karmic Action	79	(3)
4. The Sufferings of Samsara	82	(4)
5. Concluding the Four Notions	86	(2)
II. THE EXTRAORDINARY PRELIMINARIES	88	(3)
A. Taking Refuge	91	(5)
B. The Enlightened Attitude	96	(10)
C. Eradicating Harmful Factors and Cultivating Factors That Potentiate Spiritual Development	106	(1)
1. Removing Obstacles: Sin and Obscuration	107	(6)
a. The Nontantric Background	107	(4)
b. The Tantric Vajrasattva Meditation	111	(2)
2. Cultivating Virtue: Factors That Potentiate Spiritual Development	113	(19)
a. The Satric Background	113	(4)
b. The Tantric Mandala Offering	117	(3)
c. Guru Yoga	120	(12)
III. THE ADVANCED PRELIMINARIES	132	(1)
A. Virtue Practice	133	(1)
B. The Behavioral Training: Ethical Training and Binding the Senses	134	(2)
C. The Mental Training: Mindfulness and Full Awareness	136	(9)
D. Protecting	145	(1)
1. Ordinary Protecting Practice: The Conditions That Bring Forth Certainty	146	(3)
2. Extraordinary Protecting Practice: The Devotional Prayer	149	(2)
3. CONTEMPLATION	151	(1)
I. THE NATURE OF THE ORDINARY MENTAL CONTINUUM	151	(1)
II. CONTEMPLATION: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MIND-CULTIVATING THE SKILLS FOR STAYING	152	(1)
A. Basic Skills for Contemplation and Meditation	153	(4)
III. CONTEMPLATION: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MENTAL EVENTS-ISOLATING ATTENTIONAL FOCUS FROM MENTAL ELABORATIONS AND ENHANCING ORGANIZATION OF THE MENTAL CONTINUUM	157	(1)
A. The Isolations and Points	157	(2)
1. The Isolation of the Body	159	(11)
2. The Isolation of Speech	170	(3)
3. The Isolation of Mind	173	(8)
4. FORMAL MEDITATION: CONCENTRATION WITH SUPPORT	181	(5)
I. CONCENTRATION-IN-FRONT: PARTIAL STAYING	186	(11)
II. CONCENTRATION-INSIDE: GREAT VIRTUE	197	(8)
III. SKILL IN VISUALIZING THE EMANATING SEED	205	(10)
IV. BEING-DONE-WITH THE ABSORBED SEED	215	(6)
A. The Diamond Recitation	221	(5)
B. Vase Breathing	226	(5)
C. Space Yoga	231	(4)
5. CONCENTRATION WITHOUT SUPPORT	235	(5)
I. INTENSIFYING	240	(9)
II. EASING UP	249	(3)
A. The Representation of Letting Go	252	(3)
B. Not Reacting to Whatever Has Arisen	255	(2)
III. BALANCING: THE MEANS TO SET UP	257	(5)
A. Brahman's Thread	262	(2)
B. Straw Rope	264	(1)
C. Child Viewing a Temple	265	(6)
D. The Elephant Pricked with Thorns	271	(6)
IV. THE STAGES OF CONCENTRATION	277	(6)
6. SPECIAL INSIGHT	283	(4)
I. PUTTING IN ORDER THE VIEW	287	(1)
A. Attaining the View by Stages	287	(5)
1. Emptiness of the Person	292	(17)
a. Examination Meditation	292	(2)
b. Samadhi Meditation	294	(15)
(1) Putting in Order the Entityness of the Mind	294	(6)
(2) Bringing Forth Special Insight in the Samadhi Meditation by Searching	300	(4)
(3) The Outcome: Putting in Order Emptiness	304	(5)
2. Emptiness of Phenomena	309	(9)
a. Examination Meditation	309	(4)
b. Samadhi Meditation	313	(62)
(1) Putting in Order the Entityness of Phenomena	313	(2)
(2) Bringing Forth Special Insight in the Samadhi Meditation by Being Assured	315	(2)
(3) The Outcome: Putting in Order Clarity	317	(1)
B. Attaining the View by a Condensed Form of Instruction	318	(7)
II. THE SKILL OF RECOGNITION	325	(17)
III. THE YOGA OF UNELABORATION	342	(3)
A. The Dialectic on the Three Times	345	(9)
B. The Middle Path Without Extremes	354	(2)
C. Nondissolution	356	(5)
7. EXTRAORDINARY PRACTICE	361	(1)
I. THE YOGA OF ONE TASTE	361	(5)
A. The View	366	(1)
1. Simultaneous Mind	366	(3)
2. The Return of Conventional Appearance	369	(2)
3. Mistakes Become Wisdom	371	(1)
4. Pointing Out	372	(3)
B. The Way to Practice	375	(1)
1. The Way to Practice by Stages	375	(22)
a. Examination Meditation: Appearance as Mind	375	(4)
b. Samadhi Meditation on the Simultaneous	379	(37)
(1) Setting Up the Simultaneous Mind	379	(3)
(2) Bringing Forth Awakened Wisdom by Cognition- and Perception-Simultaneousness	382	(15)
(a) Cognition-Simultaneousness	382	(4)
(b) Perception-Simultaneousness	386	(2)
(c) Removing Faults and Recognizing Flawless Meditation: Knowledge of the Ordinary	388	(9)
1. Removing Faults	388	(1)
a. The Fundamental Faults of Samddhi	388	(1)
b. The Faults of Pointing Out	390	(1)
c. Biased or Partial Extraordinary Samddhi	390	(2)
2. Recognizing Knowledge of the Ordinary: Initial Awakened Wisdom	392	(5)
2. The Condensed Way to Practice the Yoga of One Taste	397	(4)
II. THE YOGA OF NONMEDITATION: CROSSING OVER TO ENLIGHTENMENT	401	(4)
A. The Stages Way to Practice Nonmeditation Yoga	405	(1)
1. Protecting the Realization about the Simultaneous Mind	405	(1)
2. Virtue Practice: Maintaining the Realization	406	(10)
3. Setting Up the Conditions for Enlightenment	416	(16)
a. Recognizing Wisdom	416	(3)
b. Setting Up Enlightenment	419	(13)
4. The Postsamadhi State	432	(5)
5. Crossing Over	437	(3)
B. The Outcome: The Nature of Enlightenment	440	(1)
1. The Stages of Enlightenment	441	(5)
a. Basis Enlightenment	441	(1)
b. Path Enlightenment	442	(2)
c. Fruition Enlightenment	444	(2)
C. The Condensed Style of Pointing-Out Practice	446	(2)
D. Protecting Practices for Correcting Mistakes That Prevent Enlightenment or Cause the Practitioner to Lose It	448	(1)
1. Missing It	449	(5)
2. Errors in the State	454	(4)
3. Obstacles to the Continuance of Enlightenment	458	(5)
8. PRACTICE AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT	463	(1)
I. PATH WALKING: ENHANCING THE REALIZATION	463	(4)
II. WALKING THE PATH OF PASSION: THE ORAL TRANSMISSION OF "SAME TASTE" by Pema Karpo	467	(6)
III. PATH WALKING USING THE CONDITIONS OF THE EVERYDAY PERCEPTUAL WORLD	473	(3)
IV. PATH WALKING WITH COMPASSION: The Mahamudra Devotional Prayer by Rangjung Dorjé	476	(5)
NOTES	481	(38)
GLOSSARY	519	(18)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	537	(10)
INDEX	547