Mahāyoga

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Key Term	Mahāyoga
Hover Popup Choices	Mahāyoga; rnal 'byor chen po
In Tibetan Script	མཧཱ་ཡོ་ག; རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོ།
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	rnal 'byor chen po
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	महायोग
Romanized Sanskrit	Mahāyoga
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	naljor chenpo
Sanskrit Phonetic Rendering	Mahāyoga
English Standard	Mahāyoga; Great Yoga
Richard Barron's English Term	supreme immersion
Term Type	School
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	This is first one of the inner tantric schools according to the Nyingma tradition. Mahāyoga includes two sub-sections of the tantras which includes eighteen tantras and the sādhanās that includes the eight sādhanā practices. Mahāyoga focuses on the Development Stage and espouses the view of equality and purity in which equality refers to equal nature of phenomena in being empty and purity refers to all appearances being inherently enlightened energies. The Mahāyoga path leads to four stages of vidyadharas.
Has the Sense of	Mahāyoga is great or supreme with respect to outer tantras and focuses on the skill-in-means, thus mainly refers to what are known as male tantras.
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism	In Sanskrit great yoga”; the seventh of the nine vehicles according to the Rnying ma sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Here, the system of practice described elsewhere as anuttarayogatantra is divided into three: mahäyoga, anuyoga, and atiyoga, with mahäyoga corresponding roughly to practices of the “stage of generation” (utpaitikrama), in which one visualizes oneself as a deity and one’s environment as a maņdala. Its root text is the Guhyagarbhatantra.
Rangjung Yeshe's English Term	The first of the 'Three Inner Tantras.' Mahayoga as scripture is divided into two parts: Tantra Section and Sadhana Section. The Tantra Section consists of the Eighteen Mahayoga Tantras while the Sadhana Section is comprised of the Eight Sadhana Teachings. Jamgön Kongtrül says in his Treasury of Knowledge: "Mahayoga emphasizes means (upaya), the development stage, and the view that liberation is attained through growing accustomed to the insight into the nature of the indivisibility of the superior two truths." The superior two truths in Mahayoga are purity and equality – the pure natures of the aggregates, elements and sense factors are the male and female buddhas and bodhisattvas. At the same time, everything that appears and exists is of the equal nature of emptiness.
RigpaWiki	rigpa:Mahayoga

This is first one of the inner tantric schools according to the Nyingma tradition. Mahāyoga includes two sub-sections of the tantras which includes eighteen tantras and the sādhanās that includes the eight sādhanā practices. Mahāyoga focuses on the Development Stage and espouses the view of equality and purity in which equality refers to equal nature of phenomena in being empty and purity refers to all appearances being inherently enlightened energies. The Mahāyoga path leads to four stages of vidyadharas.

This is first one of the inner tantric schools according to the Nyingma tradition. Mahāyoga includes two sub-sections of the tantras which includes eighteen tantras and the sādhanās that includes the eight sādhanā practices. Mahāyoga focuses on the Development Stage and espouses the view of equality and purity in which equality refers to equal nature of phenomena in being empty and purity refers to all appearances being inherently enlightened energies. The Mahāyoga path leads to four stages of vidyadharas.

The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century.

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.