June 18, 2025 • 24 mins
A crucial text for the mahamudra tradition of, in particular, the Kagyu traditions descended from Marpa the Translator
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Hello and welcome back!
It's series two.
Who'd have thought we'd ever get that far?
First episode of the Double Dorje podcast.
I'm Alex Wilding, and today I am going to talk about - and even read - the Ganges Upadesha.
We'll get to what that is in a minute.
I have to say that I didn't expect it, but I have been away.
(00:34):
Can you guess where?
Yes, it was North India.
I was in Dharamshala with my teacher and he told me that he had listened to some of Series 1,
and that was partly in order to improve his English.
His English is in fact very good, and he does a lot of his teaching of western students in English,
(00:59):
but it undoubtedly has the occasional quirky thing in it, and his idea of improving it is certainly a good one.
As we were talking about that he said that I should read this text on the podcast.
Now that's not something that I expected, and while the way he put it wasn't explicitly a command, it is
(01:22):
a case of “teacher say, student do”.
Now there is a bit of a backstory to this.
Bratislava a couple of years ago, and
(01:44):
My teacher was giving the lung that is the reading transmission for this text.
Because of the fact that most of the other students don't have English as a first language - in fact, come
to think of it, none of them do - and though I say it myself I speak reasonably correct and clear
(02:05):
standard English, he decided that the way to do this would be for him to read the Tibetan text, and
for me to read out the English translation.
He presumably listened to whatever I was saying as we went along to kind of keep step so we had
a simultaneous Tibetan that nobody could understand and English that nearly everybody could understand transmission being given.
(02:33):
To be honest I found that was quite a thrill.
And again recently, in Serkong House, which is a hotel in McLeod Ganj - as I say I've been in North India.
It used to be the residence of Serkong Rinpoche, who is acknowledged as the visual inspiration for Yoda.
This time he went through a similar process, although it wasn't interleaved in the same way.
(02:58):
Now while I do tend to speak too quietly - my fault it's a problem with me -
but when I'm “on”, so to speak, I can be clear.
After all one of the chequered squares of my chequered history is as a schoolteacher, a job at which I
did not shine, but I did at least learn to speak out loud when necessary.
(03:22):
I wasn't so bad with the kids who were willing to learn, but I never got the hang of those who weren't.
Sorry about that!
Anyway, what is this Ganges Mahamudra Upadesha in any case?
What we have is a text, actually only a few pages long.
(03:44):
It records instructions given by Tilopa to Naropa on the banks of the Ganges a little
over a thousand years ago.
Who then, you might be asking, were Tilopa and Naropa?
I hear that question coming from the back!
(04:05):
Each of these characters in fact has long life stories written and those are not today's topic.
So to put it very briefly Tilopa was born a brahmin, that is in the upper crust of Indian society.
He became a monk and a scholar.
He travelled collecting teachings, but under the influence of the wilder side of spiritual practise in those days he went
(04:32):
to work in a brothel as well as grinding sesame seeds by day which is where his name comes from.
These are both very low status jobs and presumably did indeed have an effect on his personality.
He then received mahamudra transmission in a vision.
Oh, here we go again - another word (04:53):
mahamudra.
What's that?
Well it's the flagship teaching of, in particular, the Kagyu school.
It is found in other schools, but it's very special for the Kagyu.
Mahamudra relates, in particular, to a direct appreciation of the nature of the mind itself.
(05:16):
Although of course it must be supported by study, ethics, meditation on tantric deities, and all the rest of the stuff.
It's got a significant overlap with dzogchen, although they do have different flavours.
In Pashupatinath, in Nepal, where there are burning ghats for the disposal of corpses rather famous and much photographed,
(05:42):
there are a couple of small caves where it is said that Naropa and Tilopa both meditated.
I have had the privilege to spend a little time in both of those caves pretending to meditate and saying a few mantras.
So, Naropa - who was he?
(06:03):
He was also born a brahmin.
He was persuaded to marry, but after some time there was an apparently amicable separation and both
he and Niguma, his partner - some say sister, some say consort, who knows? - both took to the spiritual path.
(06:27):
Naropa again became a monk and scholar, in fact becoming a much admired and important scholar.
Somehow though he became disillusioned, and set out to find a real teacher - which turned out to be Tilopa.
He did receive many tantric teachings from Tilopa and he passed many of those on to Marpa, who was the
(06:52):
first Tibetan in the Kagyu lineage the father figure of most of the Kagyu lineages that exist today.
Looking at those teachings, we see there are two particularly bright stars.
One of these is the famous six yogas of Naropa.
These start with tummo, the fierce blissful inner heat, and continue through practises that involve the manipulation of our energies.
(07:21):
I was going to say bodily energies but really they operate in that space where body and mind work together.
Usually these six are regarded as very profound and very secret, and are only taught, if at all, in the
context of three-year retreats.
All the same the techniques are found in many, many versions and across a wide swathe of Tibetan Buddhist practise.
(07:49):
the other bright star in the Kagyu sky is mahamudra.
Once again this is something generally taught in the context of, and for that matter after, things like the preliminary
practices, which were mentioned in Series 1, of prostrations, purification, mandala offering, and a lot of guru yoga.
(08:15):
All the same, its essence is extremely simple and that is what the Ganges upadesha or the Ganges instructions are about.
As I read this, you will note that near the end the text changes gear for a few lines and
speaks for a verse or so about tantric methods, moving psychosexual energy around the body rather than focussing on the
(08:42):
simplicity of practising on mind essence.
There are some scholars who feel that this is a later interpolation which does actually seem to be a rather
plausible point of view.
Now as to texts available to us, I will mention two.
One is entitled Tilopa’s Mahamudra Upadesha, with a subtitle of The Gangama Instructions With Commentary.
(09:11):
Sanje Nyenpa would have been responsible for the commentary and is given the main credit, but it also mentions that it's
translated by David Molk.
Now I know that this is a particularly good one and there is a lot of detailed explanation about
mahamudra – highly, highly recommended.
However, what I'm going to read from is also well recommended - no problem with this one at all.
(09:34):
It's known as the Life of Tilopa and the Ganges Mahamudra.
It's credited to the late Thrangu Rinpoche, and the reason I'm going to read from this one is that it
Is, I do believe, the translation that was used when I had the honour of reading it out in McCleod Ganj.
(09:58):
If it wasn't this actual translation it was something very, very close.
So here goes (10:18):
The Root Text of the Ganges Mahamudra.
Homage to the Vajra Dakini.
Although mahamudra cannot be taught, intelligent and patient Naropa, tolerant of suffering, who is engaged in austerity and is
devoted to the guru, fortunate one, do this with your mind.
(10:42):
For example, in space, what is resting on what?
In one's mind, mahamudra, there is nothing to be shown.
Rest relaxed in the natural state without attempting to alter anything.
If this fetter or bondage of thought is loosened, there is no doubt that you will be liberated.
(11:03):
For example, it is like looking in the middle of the sky and not seeing anything.
In the same way, when your mind looks at your mind, thoughts stop and you attain unsurpassable awakening.
For example, just as the vapour that arising from the earth becomes clouds and dissolves into the expanse of space,
(11:25):
not going anywhere else and yet not continuing to abide anywhere, in the same way the agitation of the thoughts
that arise from the mind and within the mind is calmed the instant you see the mind's nature.
For example, just as the nature of space transcends colour and shape, and just as space is therefore unaffected or
(11:46):
unchanged and unobscured by the various colours and shapes that occur within it, in the same way the essence of
your mind transcends colour and shape and therefore is never obscured or affected by the various colours and shapes of
virtue and wrongdoing.
For example, it is like the luminous heart of the sun, which could never be obscured even by the darkness
(12:11):
of a thousand aeons.
In that way, that luminous clarity that is the essence of the mind is never obscured by the samsara of
innumerable kalpas.
For example, just as we apply the term empty to space, in fact there is nothing within space that we
are accurately describing by that term.
(12:34):
In the same way, although we call the mind clear light or luminosity, simply calling it so does not make
it true that there is actually anything within the mind that is a true basis for that designation.
In that way, the nature of the mind has, from the beginning, been like space, and there are no dharmas
(12:56):
that are not included within that.
Abandoning all physical actions, the practitioner should rest at ease.
without any verbal utterance. Your speech becomes like an echo, sound inseparable from emptiness.
Think of nothing whatsoever with the mind, and look at the dharmas of the leap.
(13:17):
The body is without meaning, empty like a bamboo stalk.
The mind is like the midst of space.
It is inconceivable.
Rest relaxed within that, without letting it go, or placing it.
Rest relaxed in that state, without sending it out, or placing it in, letting it go, or attempting to place it.
(13:38):
If mind has no direction, it is mahamudra.
With this, you will obtain unsurpassable awakening.
Those who follow tantra, and the vehicle of the paramitas, the vinaya, the sutras, and the various teachings of the
buddha, with an attachment for their individual textual traditions and their individual philosophy, will not come to see luminous mahamudra.
(14:04):
Because the seeing of that luminosity, or clear light, is obscured by their intention and attitude.
The conceptualised maintenance of vows actually causes you to impair the meaning of samaya.
Without mental directedness, or mental activity, be free of all intentionality.
Thoughts are self-arisen and self-pacified, like designs on the surface of water.
(14:29):
If you do not pass beyond the meaning, which is not abiding, and not conceptualising, or focussing, then, through not
passing beyond that, you do not pass beyond, or transgress samaya.
This is the torch which dispels all obscurity or darkness.
If, free of all intention, you do not abide in extremes, you will see without exception the meaning of all
(14:54):
the buddha's teachings, or of all the sections of the buddha's teachings.
If you rest in this, you will be liberated from the prison of samsara.
If you rest evenly within this, all of your wrongdoing and obscurations will be burned.
This is called, for those reasons, the torch of the doctrine.
(15:15):
Foolish people, who have no interest in this, will only be continually carried off by the river of samsara.
Those foolish people, experiencing intolerable sufferings in lower states of existence, are worthy of compassion.
Wishing to attain liberation from intolerable suffering, rely upon a wise guru.
(15:38):
When the guru's blessings enter your heart, your mind will be liberated.
These things of samsara are meaningless or pointless, the causes of suffering.
And since all of these things that have been done, or made, are pointless, look at that which is meaningful.
If you are beyond all grasping at an object and grasping at a subject, that is the monarch of all views.
(16:03):
If there is no distraction, it is the monarch among all meditations.
If there is no effort, that is the monarch among all conducts.
When there is no hope and no fear, that is the final result, and the fruition has been attained or revealed.
It is beyond being an object of conceptual focus, and the mind's nature is lucidity.
(16:27):
There is no path to be traversed, and yet, in that way, you enter the path to buddhahood.
There is no object of meditation, but if you become accustomed to this, you will obtain unsurpassable awakening.
Thoroughly examine mundane things, or the things of the world.
If you do, you will see that none of them persist.
(16:49):
None of them are capable of permanence, and in that sense they are like dreams and magical illusions.
dreams and magical illusions are meaningless, therefore generate renunciation and abandon mundane concerns.
cut through the bonds of attachment and aversion towards those around you and your surroundings.
(17:11):
Meditate in isolated retreats, forests, and so forth, living alone.
Remain in that state without meditation.
When you attain that which is without attainment, you have attained mahamudra.
For example, if the single root of a tree with a trunk and many branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit is
(17:31):
cut, the 10,000 or 100,000 branches will automatically die.
In the same way, if the root of mind is cut through, the branches and leaves of samsara will dry up.
For example, just as the darkness that has accumulated over a thousand aeons is dispelled by the illumination of one
(17:53):
lamp or one torch, in the same way, one instant of the wisdom of the clear light of one's mind
dispels all of the ignorance, wrongdoing, and obscurations accumulated through numerous aeons.
Kye ho! The intellect cannot see that which is beyond conceptual mind.
(18:14):
You will never realise that which is uncreated through created dharmas.
If you wish to attain or realise that which is beyond the intellect and is uncreated, then scrutinise your mind
and strip awareness naked.
Allow the cloudy water of thought to clarify itself or to clear itself.
(18:34):
Do not attempt to stop or create appearances.
Leave them as they are.
If you are without acceptance and rejection of external appearances, all that appears and exists will be liberated as mudra.
The all-basis is unborn, and without that unborn all-basis, abandon or relinquish habits, wrongdoing, and obscurations.
(18:58):
Therefore, do not fixate or reckon.
Rest in the essence of the unborn or in the unborn nature.
In that state, appearances are fully apparent, but within that experience of vivid appearances, allow concepts to be exhausted
or to dissolve.
Complete liberation from all conceptual extremes is the supreme monarch of views.
(19:23):
Boundless vastness is the supreme monarch of meditations.
Being directionless and utterly impartial is the supreme monarch of conduct.
Self-liberation beyond expectation or hope is the supreme result or fruition.
For a beginner, it is like a fast current running through a narrow bed or a narrow defile.
(19:48):
In the middle, or after that, it becomes like the gentle current of the river Ganges.
In the end, it is like the flowing of all rivers into the mother ocean, or it is like the
meeting of the mother and child of all the rivers.
Those of little intelligence, if they find they cannot remain in that state, may apply or hold the technique of
(20:11):
the breathing and emphasise the essence of awareness.
Through many techniques or branches, such as gaze and holding the mind, tighten awareness until it stays put, exerting tension
or effort until awareness comes to rest in that state or in its nature.
If you rely upon karma mudra, the wisdom of bliss and emptiness will appear .
(20:35):
Enter into the union, having consecrated the upaya or method and the prajna or knowledge.
Slowly let it fall or send it down.
Coil it, turn it back, and lead it to its proper place.
Finally, spread it or cause it to pervade your whole body.
If there is no attachment or craving, the wisdom of bliss and emptiness will arise.
(20:59):
You will possess longevity, without white hair, and you will be as healthy as the waxing moon.
Your complexion will be lustrous, and you will be as powerful as a lion.
You will quickly attain the common siddhis or attainments, and you will come to alight in or attain the supreme
siddhi as well.
(21:20):
These instructions of the essential point of mahamudra, may they abide in the hearts of worthy or fortunate beings.
Then there's a colophon.
This was bestowed on the banks of the River Ganges by the great and glorious Siddha Tilopa, who had realised
mahamudra, upon the Kashmiri pandit, who was both learned and realised, Naropa, after Naropa had engaged in 12
(21:47):
hardships or austerities.
This was translated and written down at Pullahari in the north by the great Naropa, and the great Tibetan translator,
the king among translators, Marpa Chökyi Lodro.
This English is a translation of the root text by Lama Yeshe Gyatso, made during the course of teaching by Thrangu Rinpoche.
(22:12):
Okay, now as I read that, simple as its essence is, I realised there were a fair number of technical terms in it.
It should be obvious that, simple as it is, if you seriously wanted to engage in it, you'd have to
do quite a lot of work to make sure, on the one hand, that you had understood it properly, that
your teacher had given you full enough explanations, that you had prepared yourself.
(22:38):
Usually that would mean the preliminary practises that I mentioned earlier, and so forth.
It's not something that you'd be likely to get the hang of within a week.
I should mention that I haven't been able to find out accurate information about whoever might hold the copyright to this text.
(23:00):
I hope that they don't mind that it's been used.
If they do, they'll have to let me know.
I have made an attempt to identify it, but it hasn't been successful.
With a bit of luck, it's not going to be a problem.
If anybody does know, perhaps they would let me know.
So that's it.
Series 2 is launched.
The other day I saw a video talking about how to keep your coffee machine clean, and instead of saying
(23:26):
that this will leave it ready for your next nice cup of coffee, it was described as being the next
step on your coffee adventure.
So now I wish you all happiness and progress on your spiritual adventure.
Bye!
Don’t forget to like, follow and subscribe!
Hello and welcome back!
It's series two.
Who'd have thought we'd ever get that far?
First episode of the Double Dorje podcast.
I'm Alex Wilding, and today I am going to talk about - and even read - the Ganges Upadesha.
We'll get to what that is in a minute.
I have to say that I didn't expect it, but I have been away.
(00:34):
Can you guess where?
Yes, it was North India.
I was in Dharamshala with my teacher and he told me that he had listened to some of Series 1,
and that was partly in order to improve his English.
His English is in fact very good, and he does a lot of his teaching of western students in English,
(00:59):
but it undoubtedly has the occasional quirky thing in it, and his idea of improving it is certainly a good one.
As we were talking about that he said that I should read this text on the podcast.
Now that's not something that I expected, and while the way he put it wasn't explicitly a command, it is
(01:22):
a case of “teacher say, student do”.
Now there is a bit of a backstory to this.
Bratislava a couple of years ago, and
(01:44):
My teacher was giving the lung that is the reading transmission for this text.
Because of the fact that most of the other students don't have English as a first language - in fact, come
to think of it, none of them do - and though I say it myself I speak reasonably correct and clear
(02:05):
standard English, he decided that the way to do this would be for him to read the Tibetan text, and
for me to read out the English translation.
He presumably listened to whatever I was saying as we went along to kind of keep step so we had
a simultaneous Tibetan that nobody could understand and English that nearly everybody could understand transmission being given.
(02:33):
To be honest I found that was quite a thrill.
And again recently, in Serkong House, which is a hotel in McLeod Ganj - as I say I've been in North India.
It used to be the residence of Serkong Rinpoche, who is acknowledged as the visual inspiration for Yoda.
This time he went through a similar process, although it wasn't interleaved in the same way.
(02:58):
Now while I do tend to speak too quietly - my fault it's a problem with me -
but when I'm “on”, so to speak, I can be clear.
After all one of the chequered squares of my chequered history is as a schoolteacher, a job at which I
did not shine, but I did at least learn to speak out loud when necessary.
(03:22):
I wasn't so bad with the kids who were willing to learn, but I never got the hang of those who weren't.
Sorry about that!
Anyway, what is this Ganges Mahamudra Upadesha in any case?
What we have is a text, actually only a few pages long.
(03:44):
It records instructions given by Tilopa to Naropa on the banks of the Ganges a little
over a thousand years ago.
Who then, you might be asking, were Tilopa and Naropa?
I hear that question coming from the back!
(04:05):
Each of these characters in fact has long life stories written and those are not today's topic.
So to put it very briefly Tilopa was born a brahmin, that is in the upper crust of Indian society.
He became a monk and a scholar.
He travelled collecting teachings, but under the influence of the wilder side of spiritual practise in those days he went
(04:32):
to work in a brothel as well as grinding sesame seeds by day which is where his name comes from.
These are both very low status jobs and presumably did indeed have an effect on his personality.
He then received mahamudra transmission in a vision.
Oh, here we go again - another word (04:53):
mahamudra.
What's that?
Well it's the flagship teaching of, in particular, the Kagyu school.
It is found in other schools, but it's very special for the Kagyu.
Mahamudra relates, in particular, to a direct appreciation of the nature of the mind itself.
(05:16):
Although of course it must be supported by study, ethics, meditation on tantric deities, and all the rest of the stuff.
It's got a significant overlap with dzogchen, although they do have different flavours.
In Pashupatinath, in Nepal, where there are burning ghats for the disposal of corpses rather famous and much photographed,
(05:42):
there are a couple of small caves where it is said that Naropa and Tilopa both meditated.
I have had the privilege to spend a little time in both of those caves pretending to meditate and saying a few mantras.
So, Naropa - who was he?
(06:03):
He was also born a brahmin.
He was persuaded to marry, but after some time there was an apparently amicable separation and both
he and Niguma, his partner - some say sister, some say consort, who knows? - both took to the spiritual path.
(06:27):
Naropa again became a monk and scholar, in fact becoming a much admired and important scholar.
Somehow though he became disillusioned, and set out to find a real teacher - which turned out to be Tilopa.
He did receive many tantric teachings from Tilopa and he passed many of those on to Marpa, who was the
(06:52):
first Tibetan in the Kagyu lineage the father figure of most of the Kagyu lineages that exist today.
Looking at those teachings, we see there are two particularly bright stars.
One of these is the famous six yogas of Naropa.
These start with tummo, the fierce blissful inner heat, and continue through practises that involve the manipulation of our energies.
(07:21):
I was going to say bodily energies but really they operate in that space where body and mind work together.
Usually these six are regarded as very profound and very secret, and are only taught, if at all, in the
context of three-year retreats.
All the same the techniques are found in many, many versions and across a wide swathe of Tibetan Buddhist practise.
(07:49):
the other bright star in the Kagyu sky is mahamudra.
Once again this is something generally taught in the context of, and for that matter after, things like the preliminary
practices, which were mentioned in Series 1, of prostrations, purification, mandala offering, and a lot of guru yoga.
(08:15):
All the same, its essence is extremely simple and that is what the Ganges upadesha or the Ganges instructions are about.
As I read this, you will note that near the end the text changes gear for a few lines and
speaks for a verse or so about tantric methods, moving psychosexual energy around the body rather than focussing on the
(08:42):
simplicity of practising on mind essence.
There are some scholars who feel that this is a later interpolation which does actually seem to be a rather
plausible point of view.
Now as to texts available to us, I will mention two.
One is entitled Tilopa’s Mahamudra Upadesha, with a subtitle of The Gangama Instructions With Commentary.
(09:11):
Sanje Nyenpa would have been responsible for the commentary and is given the main credit, but it also mentions that it's
translated by David Molk.
Now I know that this is a particularly good one and there is a lot of detailed explanation about
mahamudra – highly, highly recommended.
However, what I'm going to read from is also well recommended - no problem with this one at all.
(09:34):
It's known as the Life of Tilopa and the Ganges Mahamudra.
It's credited to the late Thrangu Rinpoche, and the reason I'm going to read from this one is that it
Is, I do believe, the translation that was used when I had the honour of reading it out in McCleod Ganj.
(09:58):
If it wasn't this actual translation it was something very, very close.
So here goes (10:18):
The Root Text of the Ganges Mahamudra.
Homage to the Vajra Dakini.
Although mahamudra cannot be taught, intelligent and patient Naropa, tolerant of suffering, who is engaged in austerity and is
devoted to the guru, fortunate one, do this with your mind.
(10:42):
For example, in space, what is resting on what?
In one's mind, mahamudra, there is nothing to be shown.
Rest relaxed in the natural state without attempting to alter anything.
If this fetter or bondage of thought is loosened, there is no doubt that you will be liberated.
(11:03):
For example, it is like looking in the middle of the sky and not seeing anything.
In the same way, when your mind looks at your mind, thoughts stop and you attain unsurpassable awakening.
For example, just as the vapour that arising from the earth becomes clouds and dissolves into the expanse of space,
(11:25):
not going anywhere else and yet not continuing to abide anywhere, in the same way the agitation of the thoughts
that arise from the mind and within the mind is calmed the instant you see the mind's nature.
For example, just as the nature of space transcends colour and shape, and just as space is therefore unaffected or
(11:46):
unchanged and unobscured by the various colours and shapes that occur within it, in the same way the essence of
your mind transcends colour and shape and therefore is never obscured or affected by the various colours and shapes of
virtue and wrongdoing.
For example, it is like the luminous heart of the sun, which could never be obscured even by the darkness
(12:11):
of a thousand aeons.
In that way, that luminous clarity that is the essence of the mind is never obscured by the samsara of
innumerable kalpas.
For example, just as we apply the term empty to space, in fact there is nothing within space that we
are accurately describing by that term.
(12:34):
In the same way, although we call the mind clear light or luminosity, simply calling it so does not make
it true that there is actually anything within the mind that is a true basis for that designation.
In that way, the nature of the mind has, from the beginning, been like space, and there are no dharmas
(12:56):
that are not included within that.
Abandoning all physical actions, the practitioner should rest at ease.
without any verbal utterance. Your speech becomes like an echo, sound inseparable from emptiness.
Think of nothing whatsoever with the mind, and look at the dharmas of the leap.
(13:17):
The body is without meaning, empty like a bamboo stalk.
The mind is like the midst of space.
It is inconceivable.
Rest relaxed within that, without letting it go, or placing it.
Rest relaxed in that state, without sending it out, or placing it in, letting it go, or attempting to place it.
(13:38):
If mind has no direction, it is mahamudra.
With this, you will obtain unsurpassable awakening.
Those who follow tantra, and the vehicle of the paramitas, the vinaya, the sutras, and the various teachings of the
buddha, with an attachment for their individual textual traditions and their individual philosophy, will not come to see luminous mahamudra.
(14:04):
Because the seeing of that luminosity, or clear light, is obscured by their intention and attitude.
The conceptualised maintenance of vows actually causes you to impair the meaning of samaya.
Without mental directedness, or mental activity, be free of all intentionality.
Thoughts are self-arisen and self-pacified, like designs on the surface of water.
(14:29):
If you do not pass beyond the meaning, which is not abiding, and not conceptualising, or focussing, then, through not
passing beyond that, you do not pass beyond, or transgress samaya.
This is the torch which dispels all obscurity or darkness.
If, free of all intention, you do not abide in extremes, you will see without exception the meaning of all
(14:54):
the buddha's teachings, or of all the sections of the buddha's teachings.
If you rest in this, you will be liberated from the prison of samsara.
If you rest evenly within this, all of your wrongdoing and obscurations will be burned.
This is called, for those reasons, the torch of the doctrine.
(15:15):
Foolish people, who have no interest in this, will only be continually carried off by the river of samsara.
Those foolish people, experiencing intolerable sufferings in lower states of existence, are worthy of compassion.
Wishing to attain liberation from intolerable suffering, rely upon a wise guru.
(15:38):
When the guru's blessings enter your heart, your mind will be liberated.
These things of samsara are meaningless or pointless, the causes of suffering.
And since all of these things that have been done, or made, are pointless, look at that which is meaningful.
If you are beyond all grasping at an object and grasping at a subject, that is the monarch of all views.
(16:03):
If there is no distraction, it is the monarch among all meditations.
If there is no effort, that is the monarch among all conducts.
When there is no hope and no fear, that is the final result, and the fruition has been attained or revealed.
It is beyond being an object of conceptual focus, and the mind's nature is lucidity.
(16:27):
There is no path to be traversed, and yet, in that way, you enter the path to buddhahood.
There is no object of meditation, but if you become accustomed to this, you will obtain unsurpassable awakening.
Thoroughly examine mundane things, or the things of the world.
If you do, you will see that none of them persist.
(16:49):
None of them are capable of permanence, and in that sense they are like dreams and magical illusions.
dreams and magical illusions are meaningless, therefore generate renunciation and abandon mundane concerns.
cut through the bonds of attachment and aversion towards those around you and your surroundings.
(17:11):
Meditate in isolated retreats, forests, and so forth, living alone.
Remain in that state without meditation.
When you attain that which is without attainment, you have attained mahamudra.
For example, if the single root of a tree with a trunk and many branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit is
(17:31):
cut, the 10,000 or 100,000 branches will automatically die.
In the same way, if the root of mind is cut through, the branches and leaves of samsara will dry up.
For example, just as the darkness that has accumulated over a thousand aeons is dispelled by the illumination of one
(17:53):
lamp or one torch, in the same way, one instant of the wisdom of the clear light of one's mind
dispels all of the ignorance, wrongdoing, and obscurations accumulated through numerous aeons.
Kye ho! The intellect cannot see that which is beyond conceptual mind.
(18:14):
You will never realise that which is uncreated through created dharmas.
If you wish to attain or realise that which is beyond the intellect and is uncreated, then scrutinise your mind
and strip awareness naked.
Allow the cloudy water of thought to clarify itself or to clear itself.
(18:34):
Do not attempt to stop or create appearances.
Leave them as they are.
If you are without acceptance and rejection of external appearances, all that appears and exists will be liberated as mudra.
The all-basis is unborn, and without that unborn all-basis, abandon or relinquish habits, wrongdoing, and obscurations.
(18:58):
Therefore, do not fixate or reckon.
Rest in the essence of the unborn or in the unborn nature.
In that state, appearances are fully apparent, but within that experience of vivid appearances, allow concepts to be exhausted
or to dissolve.
Complete liberation from all conceptual extremes is the supreme monarch of views.
(19:23):
Boundless vastness is the supreme monarch of meditations.
Being directionless and utterly impartial is the supreme monarch of conduct.
Self-liberation beyond expectation or hope is the supreme result or fruition.
For a beginner, it is like a fast current running through a narrow bed or a narrow defile.
(19:48):
In the middle, or after that, it becomes like the gentle current of the river Ganges.
In the end, it is like the flowing of all rivers into the mother ocean, or it is like the
meeting of the mother and child of all the rivers.
Those of little intelligence, if they find they cannot remain in that state, may apply or hold the technique of
(20:11):
the breathing and emphasise the essence of awareness.
Through many techniques or branches, such as gaze and holding the mind, tighten awareness until it stays put, exerting tension
or effort until awareness comes to rest in that state or in its nature.
If you rely upon karma mudra, the wisdom of bliss and emptiness will appear .
(20:35):
Enter into the union, having consecrated the upaya or method and the prajna or knowledge.
Slowly let it fall or send it down.
Coil it, turn it back, and lead it to its proper place.
Finally, spread it or cause it to pervade your whole body.
If there is no attachment or craving, the wisdom of bliss and emptiness will arise.
(20:59):
You will possess longevity, without white hair, and you will be as healthy as the waxing moon.
Your complexion will be lustrous, and you will be as powerful as a lion.
You will quickly attain the common siddhis or attainments, and you will come to alight in or attain the supreme
siddhi as well.
(21:20):
These instructions of the essential point of mahamudra, may they abide in the hearts of worthy or fortunate beings.
Then there's a colophon.
This was bestowed on the banks of the River Ganges by the great and glorious Siddha Tilopa, who had realised
mahamudra, upon the Kashmiri pandit, who was both learned and realised, Naropa, after Naropa had engaged in 12
(21:47):
hardships or austerities.
This was translated and written down at Pullahari in the north by the great Naropa, and the great Tibetan translator,
the king among translators, Marpa Chökyi Lodro.
This English is a translation of the root text by Lama Yeshe Gyatso, made during the course of teaching by Thrangu Rinpoche.
(22:12):
Okay, now as I read that, simple as its essence is, I realised there were a fair number of technical terms in it.
It should be obvious that, simple as it is, if you seriously wanted to engage in it, you'd have to
do quite a lot of work to make sure, on the one hand, that you had understood it properly, that
your teacher had given you full enough explanations, that you had prepared yourself.
(22:38):
Usually that would mean the preliminary practises that I mentioned earlier, and so forth.
It's not something that you'd be likely to get the hang of within a week.
I should mention that I haven't been able to find out accurate information about whoever might hold the copyright to this text.
(23:00):
I hope that they don't mind that it's been used.
If they do, they'll have to let me know.
I have made an attempt to identify it, but it hasn't been successful.
With a bit of luck, it's not going to be a problem.
If anybody does know, perhaps they would let me know.
So that's it.
Series 2 is launched.
The other day I saw a video talking about how to keep your coffee machine clean, and instead of saying
(23:26):
that this will leave it ready for your next nice cup of coffee, it was described as being the next
step on your coffee adventure.
So now I wish you all happiness and progress on your spiritual adventure.
Bye!
Don’t forget to like, follow and subscribe!
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