Mahāmudrā

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Key Term	Mahāmudrā
Hover Popup Choices	Mahāmudrā; mahāmudrā; ཕྱག་ཆེན།
In Tibetan Script	ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	phyag rgya chen po
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	महामुद्रा
Romanized Sanskrit	mahāmudrā
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	Chagya chenpo
English Standard	Great Seal
Richard Barron's English Term	supreme seal
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	great seal
Ives Waldo's English Term	great seal
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism focussed on the realisation of the empty and luminous nature of the mind, and also to the resultant state of Buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā and karmamudrā.
Has the Sense of	It has a sense of being the binding force and refers to the reality of all things. Just as a seal makes a document binding, reality binds all things and also our understanding of the true nature of things. It also refers to a symbolic gesture.
Related Terms	mudrā;Kagyu
Related Topic Pages	https://kuenselonline.com/chagchen-the-great-seal-2/
Definitions
Tshig mdzod Chen mo	༡) འབྲས་བུ་མཐར་ཐུག་གམ་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་སྟེ་མཆོག་ཏུ་མི་འགྱུར་བའི་བདེ་བ་དང་། དེ་ལ་རྒྱས་འདེབས་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་པའི་གཟུགས་སྐད་ཅིག་དང་པོར་ཐོབ་པ་དེ་ལས་བྲི་བ་དང་གང་བ་མེད་པར་ཡེ་ཇི་བཞིན་པའི་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ནམ་མཁའི་ཇི་སྲིད་པ་དེ་སྲིད་དུ་རྟག་ཏུ་གནས་ཤིང་གཞར་ཡང་དེ་ལས་འདར་མི་སྤྱོད་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཡིན་ལ། སྤོང་བ་དང་རྟོགས་པ་དང་སེམས་ཏེ་ཆེན་པོ་གསུམ་དང་ལྡན་པས་ན་ཆེན་པོ་སྟེ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱའོ།། ༢) སྐུ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཏེ། ཀུན་གཞིའི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའི་འཁྲུལ་བ་གློ་བུར་བ་བསལ་ནས་རང་བཞིན་མེ་ལོང་ལྟ་བུའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་མངོན་དུ་བྱ་བ་སྟེ།་རྣལ་བྱོར་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཞིའི་ཡ་གྱལ་ཞིག

Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā.

Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā.

Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā.

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa.