Phyag rgya chen po'i shan 'byed ces bya ba'i bstan bcos

From Buddha-Nature


ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཤན་འབྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།
phyag rgya chen po'i shan 'byed ces bya ba'i bstan bcos
A Treatise entitled Distinguishing Mahāmudrā
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The second work in Śākya Chokden's trilogy of short writings on Mahāmudra, he points out in this text a list of the five types of misinterpretation of the actual point of Mahāmudrā practice: 1. The emptiness posited through Mādhyamika reasoning. 2. The union of emptiness and bliss which fills the network of channels after tantric practice of consecration. 3. Experience of bare consciousness free from all mentation. 4. Non-apprehension of the mind either inside or outside, having colour and shape, etc. 5. The ground consciousness which is the cause of all experience.

Śākya Choden states that none of these capture the profound, precise, effective Mahāmudrā technique of Gampopa, which is compared to the Single White Remedy, and explains how they are not the same as Gampopa’s Mahāmudrā. Śākya Chokden also distinguishes the Chinese Chan practice from Gampopa’s Mahāmudrā and goes on to explain their differences. He elaborates on the practice of Mahāmudrā through the four points of single-pointedness (རྩེ་གཅིག་), non-elaboration (སྤྲོས་བྲལ་), one taste (རོ་གཅིག་), and non-meditation (སྒོམ་མེད་).

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