Mahamudra: eliminating the darkness of ignorance

The Mahamudra or the Great Seal, refers to a Mahayana Buddhist system of meditation nature of the mind and is undertaken for realising Enlightenment. Taught by Buddha manifesting in the form of Vajradhara, its lineage was passed in India from Tulip to Naropa to Marpa, and then in Tibet to Milarepa and Gampopa, author of The Jewel Ornament of liberation. The specific lineage represented here is that of the Karma Kagyu which passed from Gampopa to the first Karmapa and then through successive Gurus until the present day.

This text by the Ninth Karmapa (1556-1603) is one of the most famous expositions of this meditational system. It covers both the preliminary practices as well as the actual Mahamudra meditations of mental quiescence (samatha) and penetrative insight (vipasyana).