The Practice of Mahamudra

What does mahamudra mean?

Maha is the Sanskrit word for great. It often signifies that the word it modifies should be understood mystically. Mudra is the Sanskrit word for gesture or seal. Thus, mahamudra means The Great Seal — a metaphor for mystical understanding. 

The metaphor explained

In ancient times, when you travelled on official business, you carried a letter that bore a seal from one authority or another. The letter explained who you were, under whose authority you were traveling, and where you intended to go. The seal on the letter could be applied only by the author of the letter. As such, it ensured your safe passage to the towns, cities, or provinces specified in the letter. When the letter bore the king’s seal, The Great Seal, you travelled under the protection of the king himself and you could go anywhere safely. 

In the mahamudra tradition, the mystical significance of The Great Seal is emptiness. Emptiness is the passport, as it were, to knowing the groundlessness of all experience. When you know emptiness directly, you are able to navigate all the realms of samsara and nirvana safely — whatever arises in mind is experienced as present and empty, and you are free from the tyranny of emotional reactivity and the prisons of conceptual confusion. In this sense, the attainment of mahamudra is synonymous with buddhahood.

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