The Five-fold Profound Path of Mahamudra

Of the Glorious Drikung Kagyu Lineage

Adapted from the website of the Wogmin Thypten Shedrup Ling, Drikung
Kagyu Buddhist Monastery
Pictures by Ani chime

Mahamudra Teaching is a system of practices and techniques that contains

the culmination of all the practices of the so called new translation
schools of Tibetan Buddhism, who believe it to be the quintessential
message of all of their sacred texts.

Mahamudra is regarded by the Tibetan Kagyu lineage to be the heart

essence of all of the teachings of the Buddha. Mahamudra stands for the
essence of mind-itself. The true nature of the mind is called the ground of
our existence or ground Mahamudra. Path Mahamudra begins with
recognition (experience) of this essence and continues as progress is made
at stabilizing this recognition (condition). When the recognition of mind-as-
it-is becomes completely part of our condition, without wavering, and we
bring forth effective means of freeing sentient beings from ignorance and Drikung Kagyu Refuge Tree
suffering, then this is referred to as fruition Mahamudra, which is said to be
free of emotional or experiential bewilderment and is untouched by duality of subject and object or
the three spheres of subject, object, and action.

The Drikung Kagyu Mahamudra lineage can be traced according to the “far-lineage”
as well as the “near-lineage.” The “far-lineage” is traced from the current holders of
this profound lineage back all the way to the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. The
“near-lineage” on the other hand is traced from the current holders back to the Indian
Mahasiddhas such as Saraha, Maitripa, Tilopa and Naropa
who received Mahamudra teachings directly from Buddha
Marpa
Vajradhara. However, it should be pointed out that although
these Indian Mahasiddhas received Mahamudra teachings directly from
Buddha Vajradhara (and hence is part of the “near-lineage”) they are also
holders of the “far-lineage” as they also received Mahamudra teachings from
human teachers who were holders of this “far-lineage.” Hence, the Mahamudra
lineages that are currently held by the various Kagyu lineages are both of the
“far” as well as “near” lineages. It should be pointed out that Mahamudra
lineages are also found in the Gelug tradition as several past masters of this Milarepa
tradition also received Mahamudra instructions from holders of the Mahamudra in the Kagyu
tradition.
Most of Kagyu Mahamudra lineages stem from the Mahamudra teachings that were given by Gampopa
(1079-1153) to his students. Gampopa himself received Mahamudra from his root-teacher Milarepa
(1052-1135) who in turn received it from his root-teacher Marpa (1012-1096). Marpa was a Tibetan
who traveled to India and Nepal and received many teachings from the Indian Mahasiddhas – the most
important being Naropa and Maitripa who transmitted to Marpa the complete Mahamudra ground, path
and fruition. Gampopa himself combined the profound teachings of Mahamudra with the graduated
approach of practice as taught by the Kadam tradition. The Indian pandit Atisha founded the Kadam
tradition in Tibet. Gampopa was a monk in the Kadam tradition before he became Milarepa’s disciple.
Although there are many scholarly debates in Tibetan Buddhist history over the status and types of
Mahamudra, Gampopa seemed to have mainly advocated two possible approaches to Mahamudra.
According to Gampopa, Mahamudra can be approached via the way of sutra as well as via the way of
tantra. Hence, there is sutra-Mahamudra and tantra-Mahamudra. Sometimes it is said that Gampopa
also taught a third approach to Mahamudra which is neither sutra-based nor tantra-based.

The Kagyu Lineage Masters – Tilopa, Naropa and Marpa

From Gampopa onwards, many different

Mahamudra lineages began to crystallize
according to the different styles of
Mahamudra taught by Gampopa and his
spiritual descendents. Some of the
Mahamudra traditions that can be traced
Tilopa Naropa Marpa back to Gampopa or his descendents are
the tradition of “Simultaneous Production and Union,” the “Six Equal Tastes,” the “Four Letters” and
the “Fivefold Profound Path.” These traditions are still upheld by the four surviving Kagyu lineages
(Karma, Taglung, Drukpa and Drigung Kagyu).

In the Drigung Kagyu, the main Mahamudra system is that known as the “Fivefold Profound Path of
Mahamudra” or also known as the “Possessing Five.” Although Gampopa himself also taught this
particular approach of Mahamudra, its name was given by his successor Phagmo Drupa (1110-1170)
who was the root-teacher of the founder of the Drigung Kagyu, Kyobpa Jigten Sumgon. Although this
system of the Five-fold Profound Path is chiefly held by Drigung Kagyupas, Phagmo Drupa himself
also authored a text on this system known as “Verses on the Fivefold Path.” Masters of Trophu Kagyu
(this particular Kagyu lineage no longer survive as an independent lineage) and Taglung Kagyu have
also written on this particular system. Gyalwa Yang Gonpa, a teacher of the Drukpa Kagyu wrote the
“Drop of Nectar: the Fivefold Path.” The Omniscient Pema Garpo of the Drukpa Kagyu also wrote
about this system in his “Kernel of Mind.” Situ Chokyi Jungne also wrote extensive commentaries on
the Fivefold Profound Path. In his “Preface” to Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche’s book “The
Garland of Mahamudra Practices,” (a translation of Gyalwang Kunga Rinchen’s [1475-1527]
“Clarifying the Jewel Rosary of the Fivefold Profound Path.”) His Holiness Drigung Kyabgon
Chetsang Rinpoche points out that these days those who rely on this system mostly follow the
commentaries given by Drigung Dharmakirti. Many other Drigung Kagyu teachers of the past also
wrote extensive commentaries on this system of the Mahamudra. It goes without saying that Kyobpa
Rinpoche himself also wrote several texts and many songs on this subject.

Dharma Lord Gampopa

According to this system then, the five “folds” of this profound path of
Mahamudra are:

1) bodhicitta – the altruistic intention of liberating all sentient beings from

samsara,
2) yidam – practice of visualizing oneself as a supremely enlightened being,
3) guru-yoga – seeking union with the wisdom-mind of the Teacher or
Guru,
4) mahamudra – actual engagement of Mahamudra (shamatha and
viphasyana), and finally,
5) dedication – perfect dedication of one’s virtues.

Gampopa Before one can begin to engage in the practices laid out in this system, one
first needs to focus on the foundational practices. Practice of the first “fold”
assumes the prior completion of what is known as the “foundational practices” (Tib. ngondro). These
foundational practices are divided into the outer and inner. The outer foundational practices refer to the
“Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind” taught by Gampopa. These are establishing in one’s mental-
continuum the four realizations of

1) the good fortune of obtaining a precious human birth,

2) the universality of impermanence,
3) the infallible workings of cause and effect and
4) the nature of samsara as unsatisfactory.

After a firm foundation on these four thoughts has been established in one’s
mental-continuum, one can begin to engage in the inner foundational practices. These are:

1) going for refuge which confirms and establishes one’s commitment to the Triple Jewel,
2) Vajrasattva purification practice for the eradication of one’s negative karma and karmic imprints,
3) mandala-offering for the profound accumulation of merit necessary for attainment of complete
Buddhahood and
4) guru-yoga for the inspiration-blessings of the root and lineage teachers.

Only after these practices have been “completed” (100,000 practices of each of the four) does one
properly begin the first fold of the Five-fold Profound Path – bodhicitta.

Regarding bodhicitta, Kyobpa Rinpoche sang in one of his many vajra-songs,

“If the steed of love and compassion
Does not run for the benefit of others,
It will not be rewarded in the assembly of gods and humans.
Attend therefore to the preliminaries.”

Drigung Kyobpa Rinpoche

Bodhicitta is briefly defined as the “altruistic intention to free all sentient beings from samsara.” Very
often bodhicitta is confused with compassion. Although compassion is one of the most important
factors in the generation of bodhicitta, it is not in itself bodhicitta. The arousal of bodhicitta begins by
first attending to the generation of loving-kindness for all sentient beings.

It is said that loving-kindness is the feeling that one gets when one
sees a newborn child. When we see a small child, we often
automatically think kind and friendly thoughts towards the child.
We spontaneously wish that the child be safe, happy and protected
from all harm. There is nothing as soothing as the sight of a soundly
sleeping child. It is that warmth and unconditional love that we are
trying to generate for all sentient beings. We try to regard all
sentient beings as our own children whom we love unconditionally.
We pray for their well-being, safety and protection and are willing
to give up our own lives for their sakes. When we are able to feel
this way towards all sentient beings, we will naturally be able to
generate compassion. Compassion is the feeling of wanting to free
others from suffering and the causes of suffering. It is the feeling
that we get when we encounter someone suffering from a terrible
disease or undergoing intense physical and emotional pain. We want
to be able to help and to ease that pain; that suffering. Having thus
Kyobpa Jigten Sumgön
generated and cultivated both loving-kindness and compassion, we
can then arrive at the point when we are ready to truly generate
bodhicitta.

As defined earlier, bodhicitta is the “altruistic intention to free all sentient beings from samsara.”
Realizing that sentient beings are completely under the power of samsaric suffering, we come home to
the powerful recognition that only by arriving at the state of complete Buddhahood can samsaric
suffering be conquered once and for all. Although there are many ways to ease the suffering of
sentient beings, they are all temporary and non-final. Only by completely uprooting the cause of
suffering are we then thoroughly free from suffering. And this is the state of ultimate liberation; of
complete Buddhahood. This knowledge – the knowledge of the faults, cause, end of and path to the
end of samsara is wisdom. Hence, bodhicitta is the resolve that arises from loving-kindness and
compassion on the one hand and wisdom on the other hand. When these two aspects come together,
bodhicitta is generated.

The second section of the Five-fold Profound Path is the practice of Yidam. Yidam practice refers to
the generation and completion practices of the highest yoga tantra and in this particular case in the
highest yoga tantra system of the Chakrasamvara cycle of teachings. Although the principal yidam of
Marpa was Hevajra, his teacher Naropa predicted that Marpa’s lineage would eventually rely on
Chakrasamvara as their main yidam. Hence, it was the practice of Chakrasamvara that Marpa
transmitted to his main disciple, Milarepa.
 Chakrasamvara
There are many different forms of Chakrasamvara appearing with
different number of faces, hands, and number of surrounding retinues. In
the Drigung Kagyu lineage, the most popular and common Chakrasamvara
deity practice is in the form of the Five-deity Chakrasamvara. The Five-
deity Chakrasamvara includes the central deity of the two-armed, single-
faced male Chakrasamvara deity in union with the female Vajravarahi
deity (these two in union are taken as a single deity) and four surrounding
dakinis in the four directions.

Yidam practice is a very special tantric practice in which one transforms

one’s normal, samsaric experience of reality into an extraordinary
experience of the true state of all phenomena. While the teachings of the
sutra-level consider ignorance as the root cause of samsaric existence, the
Chakrasamvara
tantric teachings identify the ordinary appearances as the root cause of
samsara. The practice of Yidam is a special and profound method to quickly transform ordinary
appearances into enlightened appearances. To be more accurate, this practice uncovers the actual state
of appearances and reveal them to be pure and empty unceasingly. Yidam practice does not make
ordinary appearances into something they are not – pure and empty of inherent existence. Rather, it
uncovers the purity and emptiness that have always been there but obscured and unseen. Due to the
tantric nature of these teachings, it is best that one receive the details of these teachings directly from
an authentic teacher of the lineage. It is hoped that this brief description of Yidam practice as the
second section of the Five-fold Profound Path of Mahamudra will
encourage the reader to seek out these profound teachings from a valid and
reliable teacher of the lineage when the time and conditions are right.
Kyobpa Rinpoche sang,

“If one's body, the King of Deities

is not stabilized on this Unchanging Ground,
The retinue of dakinis will not assemble.
Be sure, therefore, of your body as the yidam.”

The third section of the Five-fold Path is the practice of Guru-yoga or the
practice of attaining union with the wisdom mind of the Teacher (guru).
There are many types of teachers – our parents as our first teachers, our
grade school teachers who taught us to read and write, teachers in the
secular arts and sciences, spiritual teachers who gave us the Refuge vows, those who gave us the lay or
monastic vows, the Bodhisattva-vow preceptors, Vajra-teachers who conferred tantric empowerments
on us and finally those teachers who introduced to us the nature of our mind. In a sense, the Teacher
referred to here in the practice of guru-yoga is all of them; all of these teachers. However, it is not so
much a practice directed at a particular individual or person whom we call our “Teacher” but the basic
wisdom-mind within all these teachers who have taught us. By having confidence in and relying on
this basic wisdom-mind that we locate within our teachers (and in particular in the teacher(s) who
introduced to us the nature of our mind), we strive to recognize this same wisdom-mind that is
inherent in us. In particular, we need to rely on an authentic and experienced teacher who has him/
herself recognized his/her own nature of mind and can help us recognize ours as well. The practice of
Guru-yoga is extolled in the tradition as the most direct and profound method to the quick recognition
of the nature of mind. Many Kagyu teachers have taught that the quickest and surest way to recognize
the nature of mind is a mind filled with devotion. When devotion is present, recognition of the nature
of mind is not far. Kyobpa Rinpoche sang,

If on the Guru, the Snow Mountain of the Four Kayas,

The Sun of Devotion fails to shine,
The Stream of Blessings will not flow.
Attend, therefore, to this mind of devotion.

The Guru-yoga practiced as the third section of the Fivefold Profound Path is slightly more involved
and detailed than the Guru-yoga practice found in the set of practices found in the inner foundational
practices (ngondro). Specifically, the Four-kayas Guru-yoga” is practiced here. These four kayas or
“bodies” refer to the Emanational body (Skt. nirmanakaya, Tib. trul-ku), Enjoyment body (Skt.
sambhogakaya, Tib. long-ku), Reality body (Skt. dharmakaya, Tib. cho-ku) and Nature body (Skt.
svabhavikakaya, Tib. ngowo nyi-ku) which is the inseparability of the first three bodies. Within this
context, the first three bodies are considered relative truth and the fourth body is ultimate truth. A
practitioner will first practice the Emanational body Guru-yoga practice where the Teacher is visualized
in the form of Shakyamuni Buddha (herself in her ordinary form). She then meditates on the Teacher
on the Enjoyment body level as Vairochana (and herself as the yidam) Buddha and for the Reality body
in the form of Vajradhara Buddha. Finally, when she arrives at the Nature body level of guru yoga
practice, the Teacher meditated on without any form, color, name or shape.

The current Drigung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche writes:

“Externally are the three bodies of the
Teacher, the relative truth (On the level of)
absolute truth the self-arising luminosity of
the teacher is the nature of one’s own
mind.
The Teacher, one’s own mind and the
Buddha are inseparable. Appearing as the
manifestation of the Nature body.”

When the mind has become ripened

through Guru-yoga practice, one finally
arrives at the heart of the Five-fold
Profound Path – the actual practice of
Mahamudra itself.

Regarding the Mahamudra, again, the

present Drigung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche writes:
“Sustain the fresh, non-arising mind without delusion.
In this uncontrived, natural state
Completely avoid the fabrication of meditation and meditator
The non-meditating, undisturbed, ordinary mind
Remains non-attached and non-separated
Free from hope and fear, grasping and letting-go
Rejection and acceptance, meditation and post-meditation.”
 We will not be discussing this topic any further as Mahamudra is best
learnt directly from a living teacher. However, there is a link to a
simple but yet profound teaching on Mahamudra given spontaneously
by one of the most important Drigung Kagyu lineage masters alive
today – His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche who is the main Drigung
Kagyu Rinpoche in Eastern Tibet (now living in the US), says: “So to
see the nature of Mahamudra, the nature of the mind that dispels the
duality of the conceptual thoughts, Lord Jigten Sumgon said, “If we
have not dispelled the cloud of the conceptual thoughts, the stars and
planets of the wisdom will not rise.” So therefore to make sure that we
see the all-pervading space of the wisdom mind, dispel the cloud of the
Garchen Rinpoche conceptual thoughts. So when we can do that, when the clouds of the
duality of the conceptual thoughts are fully dispelled, then that is called Buddha, that which is
within us.” [ http://www.dharma-media.org/media/kagyu/drigung/garchen/mamamudra-
trans_khenchen/mahamudra.pdf ]

Finally, there is the section on Dedication as the fifth section of the Fivefold Profound Path.
Dedication is one of the most distinctive features of Buddhist practice – a practice that is done
at the end of all practices be it of the hinayana or mahayana (both sutra and tantra levels). By
dedicating the merit of one’s practice for the welfare of all sentient beings’ complete liberation
from all suffering and the causes of suffering one ensures that one’s practice remains pure and
beneficial. As with most practices, there are relative and ultimate aspects (and it is important to
remember that one does not privilege one aspect over the other but rather perfectly practice on
both levels as they are in reality inseparable). On the ultimate level of Dedication – Dedication
in the context of Mahamudra – one dedicates the merit with the understanding of the emptiness
of oneself, the merit dedicated and the dedication itself; the threefold emptiness.

The Five-fold Profound Path of Mahamudra is a complete path to the attainment of perfect
enlightenment within one lifetime. Many practitioners in the past have taken this Path and
arrived at the other shore of complete peace. At the present, there are also many sincere
practitioners of this Path practicing under the expert and compassionate guidance of the lineage
teachers of the Drigung Kagyu lineage. There are also many other sincere practitioners of
Mahamudra tradition of Gampopa following the different Mahamudra traditions that have
developed out of Gampopa’s basic Mahamudra system. Furthermore, aside from the purely
Kagyu Mahamudra lineages, there is also the Mahamudra practice lineage within the Gelug
lineage. Mention should also be made of the “union” of Mahamudra and Dzogchen practices
derived from some lineage masters of the Kagyu and Nyingma.

“In order that all beings who have been my mothers

May quickly be liberated from samsara and
May attain perfect enlightenment,
I dedicate all merit accumulated by
Myself, and all ordinary and enlightened beings in the three times
As well as the merit of the innately pure Buddha-nature.”

This Mahamudra is sometimes compared to Dzogchen (“Great Completeness,” another system

of techniques and teachings within the Drikung Kagyu and other lineages) – the essence of the
Buddhas’ teachings according to the Nyingma lineage. Not surprisingly, there have been a
number of figures in the history of Tibetan Buddhism who taught the synthesis or union of
Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Others mastered both but taught them separately to different
students as they saw fit. There are yet others – in the majority – who focused on mastering
either Dzogchen or Mahamudra.

Recommended Reading:

“The Practice of Mahamudra” by Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, great little manual

“Mahamudra and Related Instructions: Core Teachings of the Kagyu Schools (Library of
Tibetan Classics,” translated by Alan Roberts

Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eightyour Buddhist Siddhas (Suny
Series in Buddhist Studies) by Keith Dowman and Abhayadatta

Links:

Garchen Rinpoche on Mahamudra: http://www.dharma-media.org/media/kagyu/drigung/garchen/

mamamudra-trans_khenchen/mahamudra.pdf

Online Dirkung Mahamudra Manual: http://www.chagchen.com/index.htm

Many Teachings: http://www.rinpoche.com/teachings.html

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamudra

The Berzin Archives: http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/nav/n.html_94726721.html online book

on Mahamudra

A guide to Shamatha Meditation: http://www.rinpoche.com/shamatha.html

The Ganges Mahamudra: http://www.naturalawareness.net/ganges.html