THE MAHAMUDRA EXPERIENCE
MAHAMUDRA
STILL IN CONSTRUCTION
The Western world is plagued by exotic terms and phrases of the East that serve more to seduce the mind than to open any Dharma doors of liberation. Mahamudra is one of those terms and, in order to take the romance and mystery out of it, the best thing to do is to unmask that deception and put that term where it belongs, in the vocabulary of human creatures making a sincere search for the truth whatever that may be and wherever that may lead them.
“Maha” signifies “Great”, which is an empty adjective that is not at all useful as a description, except as a “selling” factor, if one has no idea why “Mudra”, this specific Mudra, has a dimension of greatness.
What then is a “Mudra”?
Mudras are explained generally in terms of certain symbolic positions of the hands which help in the development of mind de-conditioning, but its more ample sense it is used to also mean an attitude of the “full body/mind complex”, which can develop a de-conditioning of the impediments of the mind.
It is said that mudras can connect the apparent individual's interior world with Universal energy or an open door to the spiritual aspects of the human creature. It is more correct and fitting, however, to simply declare that this Mudra, this body/mind attitude, can eliminate the human creature's learned dependence upon the dual mind and can restore his true nature so that the mind, once purified, can resume its natural and correct role in human behaviour as a tool not a master.
Where did it start?
Inducing mystery for thousnds of years, the Brahmin masters of India developed and transmitted a knowledege of mudras and initiated their disciples in secret ceremonies.
Later these Mudras came to be known as part of the Yogic systems and students were able to use their hands or their whole body to form ideograms. Correctly performed, these whole body-and-hand mudras could lead individuals into a higher state of consciousness.
One could say then that these Mudras could lead one to a perception of one's own divine state, but one's most divine state is clearly the restoration of the true nature which the human creature has lost over the last ten thousand years or so. The recovery of that true nature then could certainly be considered as a noteworthy event and so this particular Mudra in which we are interested may well be considered the GREAT MUDRA, the great symbol. In fact, it is the GREAT SYMBOL that leads to AWAKENING to the TRUTH of human existence.
Alright then, what is this great symbol? How does one perform it, make it, or whatever else one can do with it?
Ah, there's the rub.
Mahamudra? No one can do anything at all with it. It is not useful for anything. In fact, nobody can actually use it or perform it.
That seems like we are saying that one can only recover one’s true nature, obtaining our apparent individual Awakening, by not doing anything at all, and that the True Nature, whatever that may be, is then useful for nothing at all.
What did Buddha have to say about this True Awakening?
Diamond Sutra, Section XXII
Then Subhuti asked Buddha: "World-honored One, in the attainment of the Consummation of Incomparable Awakening did Buddha make no acquisition whatsoever?"
Buddha replied: "Just so, Subhuti. Through the Consummation of Incomparable Awakening I acquired not even the least thing; therefore it is called 'Consummation of Incomparable Awakening.'"
What can one do? Is there a teaching?
Diamond Sutra, Section XXI
"Subhuti, do not say that the Tathagata conceives the idea: 'I must set forth a Teaching. For if anyone says that the Tathagata sets forth a Teaching he really slanders Buddha and is unable to explain what I teach. As to any Truth-declaring system, Truth is undeclarable; so 'an enunciation of Truth' is just the name given to it."
So this Truth of Human existence is not even that. It cannot exist. Perhaps the grains of this may begin to show?
Can anyone then get this Awakening this essence of Mahamudra?
Diamond Sutra, Section XXI
Thereupon, Subhuti spoke these words to Buddha: "World-honored One, in the ages of the future will there be men coming to hear a declaration of this Teaching who will be inspired with belief?"
And Buddha answered: "Subhuti, those to whom you refer are neither living beings nor not-living beings. Wherefore? Because 'living beings,' Subhuti, these 'living beings' are not really such; they are just called by that name."
Indeed then the “Buddha Nature,” the true nature is also then just a name for something intangible and unperceivable. Since there is no real Human being then clearly Identity is just an idea of the mind.
Can we say then that Mahamudra is an objective?
Clearly not, since for an objective to exist there must be an agent for the attainment of that objective. So Mahamudra cannot be an objective.
Alright then, can Mahamudra be a path, with no one upon it?
At first it appears out of the question because a path must have an initial starting point and an end, which is out of the question. But can we imagine that the path is circular without beginning or end? If Mahamudra is such a path it must then lead back to Samsara. In one sense that may be correct, for if one departs from Samsara to “attain” (non-existing) Mahamudra, “one”(non-existing) must return in that state to Samsara and apparently walk in Samsara with the constant “presence” of the Awakened State (which does not exist).
Can Mahamudra be the Mind/Body itself?
A good question. Can the Mind /Body exist independent of the Identity that perceives it? Yes, for when there is no Identity there is no Name or Form, which is Discrimination, but at a certain level of apparent processing there is PERCEPTION with Differenciation. In other words, the system can differentiate without naming, giving real form or developing those ideas in volition or consciousness.
But the Mind/Body complex without an agent for action can do nothing, so the idea of Mind/Body as Mahamudra in that case is redundant.
Can Mahamudra then be Consciousness of Awakening?
We have here the same problem, because Consciousness is only a process in which Mind sees itself and is conscious only of what the Mind/Body complex produces. The Mind/Body can produce the concept of Mahamudra in Consciousness and it can also produce the mental state to look for that Idea which it has created. But how can the non-existent person seek and expect to find a concept that has been created without a foundation? This can only be accomplished if the mind continues to generate ideas and concepts which bring that search to a conclusion. This appears to be nothing more than a great illusion. We must reject it.
Can Mahamudra be Mind-Moments?
Buddha spoke of the presence of Mind-Moments, which were simply the momentary reception of perceptions that had passed before, chained together to give an appearance of continuity by the mind. In other words, Mahamudra is simply an expression for a series of perceptions in consciousness corresponding to a series of external or internal phenomena that are differentiated.
If we say then that simply thinking of Mahamudra is Mahamudra, that leaves nothing to seek.
Where does that leave us? If we eliminate Identity and call all an illusion we can posit and destroy all ideas that Mahamudra is:
1. The Buddha Nature
2. A System
3. Mind itself
4. Consciousness
5. Moving Mind-Moments
6. Attainment
Where can we go from here?
In the noble art of Archery, Chan has fine teaching an how to aquire the skills necessary for Mastery. We can say that There appears to be:
1. An Archer
2. A Method which includes technique and aiming
3. The Bow
4. and of course the Arrow
5. The Flight of the Arrow
6. The Target
The task before one can begin is to eliminate all concept of Identity. There is no Archer. Then one must see that there is no real target and that all the various parts are one process of the state of “Archery”. One can only achieve mastery if one reduces all the parts to absurdity and combines all the six elements in one single process.
Can Mahamudra then simply be a state of being like Archery, which is independent of the individual components? We can see that each of the six componets has an equivalent in Archery.
The truth is YES. That is precisely what Mahamudra is.
But can Mahamudra initiate itself, because it is clear that the state of Archery must hava an anticedent condition? In Archery that state is the Prospective Archer.
Good, we have a corollary. In Mahamudra, the antecedental condition is the Potential Buddha Nature. But in the state of Archery, the Archer returns to being a Non-Archer, or does he? No. Because the state transcends the doing. An Archer can apparently exist without there being ongoing Archery.
Likewise the Buddha Nature can replace the antecedent Identity and continue in the state of Mahamudra in which all the components continue intact applied. Thus Mahamudra is applied to all events just as the Archer's new state affects every component of his life.
The effects of Mahamudra are limitless and it asserts itself in every aspect of apparent existence. Yet Mahamudra itself does nothing and is useful for nothing. It is nothing.
Why do we say that it is none of the things on the list? Why do we say that it is nothing? It is because those things are just words... The Buddha Nature is just an idea... just words. What is real behind those words is a total experience that words cannot even express, which is capable of running the whole show without separating the parts.
Yet Mahamudra is like the emptiness of a cart. The space does nothing in itself. The space must be filled to perform the function for which the space was created.
Mahamudra is not the cart. Mahamudra is not the usable function “fill-able”. It is the state of “emptiness which can be filled with the experience.” Just as the various six components which make up Mahamudra, the space of a cart is made up by the various components of the cart. Typically we say that the cart is then usable, and that lets the mind fix upon the cart as an object of clinging and craving. But really it is the function which is usable. That function is “fill-ability”. But the emptiness itself is and remains empty unless that state is changed. Unlike the cart which has tangible limits, Mahamudra has no limits. All in all a good reason, is it not, to call this Mudra Great.
If one can pass through the cognitive gyrations and capture an intuitive understanding of the essence of Mahamudra the question then is how does the Potential Archer become transformed into an Archer?
What is the important key?
La analogía del Arquero continúa aplicando. Si tu Identidad mundana, impulsada por la fuerza de vida, dice “Que demonios pasa aquí” entonces uno debe primero buscar las herramientas para hacer el trabajo. Para el arquero potencial estas herramientas son el arco y la flecha. Para la Revelación de la Potencial Naturaleza de Buddha las herramientas son la Mente y la Conciencia.
Así, entender completamente y profundamente la mente y la conciencia es el primer paso.
Este paso debe ser seguido en el caso del Arquero potencial por el entendimiento del método, que es la técnica y el apuntar.
Esto naturalmente incluye uno de los componentes principales que une Arco y Flecha: el cuerpo. Así el cuerpo es el vehículo para la unión del Arco y la Flecha.
El segundo paso en nuestro trabajo es entender el Sistema de preparación de Mahamudra y aplicar ese sistema.
No debería ser una sorpresa por tanto encontrar que la Mente y la Conciencia están enlazadas juntas como una sola cosa en el Mahamudra por el Cuerpo. Tú sin duda recordarás ahora lo que dijimos antes acerca de los Mudras en la Lección 1.
"Los Mudras son explicados generalmente en términos de ciertas posiciones simbólicas de las manos, las cuales ayudan en el desarrollo del de-condicionamiento de la mente, pero en su sentido más amplio son usados para significar una actitud del “complejo mente-cuerpo completo”, el cual puede desarrollar un des-condicionamiento de los impedimentos de la mente".
El tercer paso se vuelve entonces de vital importancia. Es la disolución de las varias capas de la Identidad.
¿A qué capas nos estamos refiriendo?
Nos referimos a las capas de identidad que interfieren con la operación natural del sistema humano. Son:
1. El complejo de Atención/Conciencia.
2. El complejo de Sensación
3. El complejo de Discriminación
4. El complejo de Percepción
5. El complejo de Volición
Tú puedes reconocer estos como los cinco Skandhas de los que se hablan en los textos de Buddha Dharma. Ellos y la interferencia de la identidad en sus operaciones naturales deben ser entendidos profundamente y las meditaciones relacionadas se deben realizar con diligencia, calma, paciencia, determinación, perseverancia e introspección crítica.
Nosotros conocemos estos niveles mejor bajo otra forma:
1. Conciencia Agitada
2. Confusión
3. Deseo y Ansia
4. Aversión
5. Pensamiento Dual
Hay varias formas de trabajar en esta disolución de la identidad.
Claramente, sin embargo, no estamos hablando aquí de la eliminación de la identidad en este momento, sino solo de disolver la intensidad de su poder debilitante.
En el cuarto paso entramos en el área sutil del uso de los momentos de la mente, el vuelo de la flecha.
¿Qué son estos momentos de la mente?
La clara luz pura en un momento de tu mente –
esa es el Cuerpo Esencial de Buddha en ti.
It is nothing more than the experience of constant well-being.
La indiferenciada luz en un momento de tu mente –
ese es el Cuerpo de Gozo de Buddha en ti.
It is nothing more than the incredible experience of bliss.
La indiscriminada luz en un momento de tu mente –
eso es el Cuerpo de Transformación de Buddha en ti.
It is nothing more than the incredible experience of Ecstasy.
Estos tres tipos de cuerpos eres tú.
And when the arrow reaches and blends with the target
and all becomes truly one then there is an incredible experience of awe.