Mahamudra

Mahamudra is a Tibetan Buddhist contemplative tradition that uses meditation and instruction to realize the nature of mind. It is especially associated with the Kagyu school, while also appearing in Gelug and Sakya traditions.

Pointing-out instruction: A teacher’s guidance that directs a student toward recognizing the nature of mind. In Mahamudra, this instruction can introduce recognition that meditation then stabilizes.
Mindstream: The Buddhist account of a succession of mental events continuing across time and lives. Mahamudra investigates experience without treating the mind as a permanent self.
Tilopa: An Indian Buddhist tantric master traditionally regarded as a source of the Kagyu lineage. Kagyu accounts trace Mahamudra instructions through Tilopa and his student Naropa.
Dzogchen: A Tibetan Buddhist contemplative tradition centered on recognizing primordial awareness. Dzogchen and Mahamudra share direct approaches but belong to distinct lineages and explanatory systems.
Shamatha: A meditation practice that develops attentional stability and calm. Mahamudra uses settled attention to support clear observation of mind.
Emptiness: The absence of inherent, independent existence in persons and phenomena. Mahamudra realization includes seeing that mind has no fixed essence.
Naropa: An Indian Buddhist master associated with tantric teachings transmitted to Tibet through Marpa. His instructions helped shape the Kagyu transmission in which Mahamudra became central.
Lamrim: A Tibetan Buddhist genre that presents the stages of the path to awakening. Lamrim emphasizes an ordered path presentation, unlike Mahamudra’s characteristic focus on mind’s nature.
Vipassana: A meditation practice that develops insight into experience and its characteristics. Mahamudra pairs stability with insight into the mind’s nature.
Buddha-nature: The potential or inherent capacity for awakening described in Mahayana Buddhism. Mahamudra teachings often explain awakening as uncovering qualities obscured rather than created.

Linked from 15 pages