(41) “In short, whatever appears—whether your own mind
or something else—should not be taken
to be real; you should ascertain
its mode of being and always maintain that awareness.
Knowing this, subsume all phenomena
of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa into a single nature.”

–Lobzang Chökyi Gyaltsen, “Lamp So Bright,” in Roger Jackson, Mind Seeing Mind, Wisdom, 2021 (pp 529-30)

Mahāmudrā
ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་
phyag rgya chen po

The Great Seal. The great seal of emptiness; an exalted meditation on the nature of mind, particularly associated with the Kagyud order of Tibetan Buddhism. (Tsepak Rigdzin)

Subject Guide Sections

  • Gelug Kagyu Mahamudra Lineage Prayer
  • Panchen Lobzang Chökyi Gyaltsen
  • Root Text and Autocommentary
  • Indo-Tibetan Sources
  • Biographies of Ganden-Kagyu Lineage Masters
  • Media and Other Resources

Geluk Mahamudra Lineage Prayer

“Praises and Supplication to the Gelukpa Mahamudra Lineage.” Kurukulla Center for Buddhist Studies. kurukulla.org

JABL Subject Headings

Panchen Lama Lobzang Chökyi Gyeltsen

Lobzang Chökyi Gyaltsen
བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་
blo bzang chos kyi rgyal mtshan
b.1570 – d.1662

Berzin, Alexander. n.d. “The Fourth Panchen Lama.” Study Buddhism by Berzin Archives. studybuddhism.com

Gardner, Alexander. 2009. “The Fourth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Chokyi Gyeltsen = པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༤ བློ་བཟང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་” The Treasury of Lives. October. treasuryoflives.org

Root Text and Autocommentary 

Lamp So Bright: An Extensive Explanation of the Mahāmudrā Root-Text of the Teaching Tradition of the Precious Geden Oral Transmission
Paṇchen Lobzang Chökyi Gyaltsen 
Dge-ldan bkaʼ brgyud rin po cheʼi bka’ srol phyag rgya chen po’i rtsa rgyas par bshad pa yang gsal sgron me
དགེ་ལྡན་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་བཀའསྲོལ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྩ་རྒྱས་པར་བཤད་པ་ཡང་གསལ་སགྲོན་མེ་
Tibetan

Root Text translation by Alex Berzin, Commentary by Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV

  • Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV, Alexander Berzin, and Blo-bzang-chos-kyi-rgyal-mtshan. 1997. The Gelug/Kagyü Tradition of Mahamudra. Snow Lion. JABL

Root text translation and commentary by Roger R. Jackson

  • Jackson, Roger R. 2021. Mind Seeing Mind: Mahāmudrā and the Geluk Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Wisdom Publications JABL

Root text translation and commentary by Thupten Jinpa

  • Jinpa, Thupten, Rosemary Patton, and Dagpo Rinpoche, trans. 2022. Stages of the Path and the Oral Transmission: Selected Teachings of the Geluk School. Wisdom Publications. WorldCat

Indo-Tibetan Sources

Abhayadatta, Keith Dowman and Hugh Downs, trans. 1985. Masters of Mahamudra. Marcombo. JABL

Abhayadatta, Robert Beer, and Keith Dowman, trans. 1998. Buddhist Masters of Enchantment: The Lives and Legends of the Mahasiddhas. Inner Traditions. JABL

Gtsan-Smyon He-Ru-Ka, and Lobsang Phuntshok Lhalungpa. 1984. The Life of Milarepa. Shambhala. JABL.

Jackson, Roger R, and Klaus-Dieter Mathes. 2020. Mahāmudrā in India and Tibet. Brill. JABL

Klaus-Dieter Mathes. 2021. Maitrīpa: Master of Mahāmudrā and Emptiness. Shambhala. JABL

Mi-la-ras-pa, and Garma CC Chang, trans. 1999. The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. Shambala. JABL

Mi-La-Ras-Pa, Dzogchen Ponlop and Christopher Stagg, trans. 2016. The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa: A New Translation. Shambhala. JABL

Willis, Janice Dean. 1995. Enlightened Beings. Simon and Schuster. JABL

Jackson, Roger R. 2017. “The dGe ldan-bKa’ brgyud Tradition of Mahamudra How Much dGe ldan? How Much bKa’ brgyud?” in Guy Newland, ed., Changing Minds: Contributions to the Study of Buddhism and Tibet in Honor of Jeffrey Hopkins. p. 155. JABL

Biographies of Ganden-Kagyu Lineage Masters

Willis, Janice Dean. 1995. Enlightened Beings. Simon and Schuster. JABL

Jackson, Roger R. 2017. “The dGe ldan-bKa’ brgyud Tradition of Mahamudra How Much dGe ldan? How Much bKa’ brgyud?” in Guy Newland, ed., Changing Minds: Contributions to the Study of Buddhism and Tibet in Honor of Jeffrey Hopkins. p. 155. JABL

Media and Other Resources

Bstan-‘dzin’rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV/ 2009. “His Holiness the Dalai lama talks on the ‘Nature of the Mind’ at the University of California Santa Barbara Events Center, April 24th.” YouTube

Wallace, Alan B. 2016. “Introduction to Gelug Mahamudra.” YouTube

Yangsi Rinpoche. 2019. “Commentary on ‘The Root Verses on Ganden/Kagyu Mahamudra.’” Tse Chen Ling Center, San Francisco, October 12 and 13. YouTube: Part 1Part 2 — Part 3