Traleg Kyabgon - Mind at ease: Milwaukee, August 2004

Traleg Kyabgon is exceptionally learned and has undergone extensive training in both Buddhist studies and contemporary mind sciences. His work will bring tremendous benefit to all spiritual seekers in the West.

Khenchen Thrangu, author of An Ocean of the Ultimate Meaning and tutor to Karmapa XVII

ABOUT THE BOOK

In this uniquely insightful overview and practice guide, Traleg Kyabgon presents a thorough introduction to the Kagyu lineages Mahamudra tradition. The authors approach is straightforwardhe presents the Mahamudra teachings as a means of seeing things in, as he says, a positive and open light. Even things we might normally regard as bad and undesirable can be interpreted in a more uplifting way due to the expansiveness of the Mahamudra vision. Mahamudrawhich means great seal or great symbol, referring to the symbol or mark of ultimate reality, or emptinesspoints to the true nature of mind as well as the ultimate insubstantiality of all things.

The book includes an exploration of Mahamudra fundamentals and thorough explanations of Ground, Path, and Fruition Mahamudra, including meditation techniques for investigating, experiencing, and contemplating these teachings.

TRALEG KYABGON (19552012) was born in Eastern Tibet and educated by many great masters of all four major lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the founder of the Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute, which is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, with a major practice center in upstate New York and a practice community in New York City. He taught extensively at universities and Buddhist centers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia beginning in 1980, and is the author of numerous books that present Buddhist teachings to Western readers, including The Essence of Buddhism and The Practice of Lojong.

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MIND AT EASE

SELF-LIBERATION THROUGH MAHAMUDRA MEDITATION

TRALEG KYABGON

Foreword by Khenchen Thrangu

SHAMBHALA
Boston & London
2014

Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

2003 by Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche

Cover photograph by Mary Lang

Published by arrangement with Lothian Books, Australia.

Excerpts from The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa by Garma C.C. Chang, 1962 by the Oriental Studies Foundation. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Citadel Press/Kensington Publishing Corp. www.kensingtonbooks.com. Excerpts from Cloudless Sky: The Mahamudra Path of the Tibetan Buddhist Kagyu School by the Third Jamgon Kongtrul, 1992 by Rigpe Dorje Foundation, and from The Rain of Wisdom, translated by the Nalanda Translation Committee, 1980 by Chgyam Trungpa, reprinted by arrrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston, www.shambhala.com. Quotations from Mahamudra: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation (Shambhala, 1986), second edition, Mahamudra: The Moonlight, The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation, Manjushri Publications, Santa Fe, 2004, ISBN: 0-9725613-0-7, are used with the permission of the translator, Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, and Manjushri Publications, P.O. Box 32403, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594-2403.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kyabgon, Traleg, 1955

Mind at ease: self-liberation through Mahamudra meditation/Traleg Kyabgon.1st Shambhala Ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN 978-0-8348-2485-0
ISBN 978-1-59030-156-2 (Pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Mahmudr (Tantric rite) 2. Spiritual lifeBka-rgyud-pa
(Sect) I. Title
BQ7699.M34 K93 2004
294.34435dc22

2003026572

I would like to dedicate this book to the continuity and the propagation of the great Dagpo Kagyu lineage.

CONTENTS

This book contains diacritics and special characters. If you encounter difficulty displaying these characters, please set your e-reader device to publisher defaults (if available) or to an alternate font.

In this book the author explains spiritual cultivation from the Vajrayana perspective on the common preliminaries, the four immeasurables, tranquillity meditation, and insight meditation. In particular, he elucidates the need to develop the correct view.

The author of this text is Kyabje Traleg Rinpoche, the emanation of Saltong Shogam, one of the three principal disciples of the physician Gampopa, who is the common lineage forefather of the Kagyu tradition. This line of tulkus successively reincarnated, with each bearing the name Nyima. The ninth one, whose name is Karma Tenpa Rabgye Thinley Nyima Gocha Pal Zangpo, was recognized by the glorious sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. Through his vision and faculty of foreknowledge, one year prior to conception, in the year of the Snake, a prediction letter was given with the instruction that this letter should remained sealed for a period of one year and opened only on the tenth day of the first month of the Wood Sheep year. From the central part of Tibet a search was launched to eastern Tibet, where the Traleg tulkus had their seat at Thrangu Monastery. Upon opening the letter at the appointed time, the search party was led to the home of his parents: his father, Gyurme Lodr, and his mother, Pema Zung. The house was located west of Thrangu Monastery, three days journey by horse, where Traleg Rinpoche had just taken birth in the year of the Sheep, thus confirming the prediction letter to the amazement of all.

Rinpoche is exceptionally learned and demonstrates marked and genuine spiritual activity. He has undergone extensive study and experience in the traditional Buddhist training as well as having studied the contemporary mind sciences. His book is bound to generate both certainty and ease of understanding and will, with its many outstanding qualities, bring tremendous benefit to all spiritual seekers in the West. Please, students of the Dharma, take this to heart.

KHENCHEN THRANGU RINPOCHE,
tutor to His Holiness the seventeenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Thinley Dorje, at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, Woodstock, New York, 2 August 2003.

Although this book is aimed at a general readership, and I have done my best to keep it as simple and accessible as possible, it necessarily employs some basic Buddhist concepts, particularly concepts belonging to the Mahamudra tradition. This was required in order to provide the reader with a real introduction to Mahamudra and to properly flesh out the context of this practice. Meditation is best practiced within a particular spiritual frameworkbe it Buddhism or any other traditionif one is to gain the maximum benefit.