the Twelfth Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche - Mahamudra

T HE ZURMANG KAGYU TRADITION has its own unique and profound teachings on mahmudr, which are encapsulated in instructions that have been passed down from master to student for over six hundred years. Over the past couple of decades, I have been preparing many students to receive these extraordinary teachings and practices by guiding them in the practice of the Zurmang Kagyu preliminary practices and giving teachings on the Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind toward Dharma and many other foundational topics. Before students progress to the Zurmang Kagyu mahmudr practices, I believe it is helpful to first introduce students to the practice of mahmudr by way of a concise text that teaches the essentials of mahmudr practice. For this purpose, I chose to provide teachings on A Concise Commentary on the Ocean of Definitive Meaning , by Bokar Rinpoche (19402004), which I received the transmission for from H.E. Gyaltsab Rinpoche.

Bokar Rinpoche was well known as an accomplished meditator in the Karma Kagyu tradition. As the name of his text suggests, A Concise Commentary on the Ocean of Definitive Meaning is a commentary of another text called The Ocean of Definitive Meaning. The Ocean of Definitive Meaning was written by the ninth Gyalwa Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorj (15561603), and is one of the most profound texts ever written on the practice of mahmudr. One could spend an entire lifetime practicing the instructions found within this work. Even today, many yogis in Tibet, India, and Nepal still use this text as the main source for their mahmudr practice. It is perhaps best to think of Bokar Rinpoches text as a distillation of Wangchuk Dorjs Ocean of Definitive Meaning . The text is written in verse, which makes it suitable for memorizing, and it is also written in a way that allows for one to engage in the practices while the verses are recited. These features have made it a popular text to take into retreat. And for these same reasons, I consider it an excellent text for guiding ones daily meditation practice. For instance, with the instruction of a qualified teacher, you can choose a verse and use it to direct your practice for the week, and then the following week you might move on to the next verse, and so on. In this way the text can guide you through a broad range of mahmudr instructions, all the way from the preliminary topics on up to profound meditation instructions. The book is structured in such a way that the verses from the root text are in bold, and underneath in plain text is my commentary. Following the commentary is the complete root text in both Tibetan and English translation.

I feel it is important to emphasize that these teachings are meant for serious students of Vajrayna who have completed the preliminary practices ( ngndro ), who have faith, perseverance, and unshakable devotion, who engage tirelessly in the path to achieve enlightenment not only for themselves but for all others, and who on top of all this understand the significance of the mahmudr teachings, which are profound and vast. If you really wish to practice, then please find a qualified guru who can guide you to train correctly. As with the eighty-four thousand different teachings of the Buddha, the purpose of practicing the instructions found in this text is to leave behind forever the destructive patterns of ego-clinging. It is my hope that through your earnest practice, you will one day reach the same realization as the great gurus of the past.

The twelfth Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche