2012 Mahamudra Retreat Recordings Available: Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa

Thanks to the hard work of a volunteer at Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa’s center, DNKL, the recordings from his inspiring mahamudra teaching given in August 2012 in NYC are now available online for free.

Please consider making a donation to DNKL as an expression of thanks to Rinpoche for these unique instructions on how to practice mahamudra.

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Emptiness of the Self

The self exists in dependence on a basis of ascription, but it’s not identical to the basis of ascription. It exists only in a provisional manner. The self does have a conventional nature. It comes into being based on the six elements (earth, water, fire, air, space, etc). On the basis of the six elements, we formulate the idea that a self exists.

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa
Translator: Art Engle
Mahamudra Commentary Retreat, NYC, August 15, 2012

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: How Does the Self Appear

In order to understand emptiness we need to begin by analyzing how the sense of self appears to us in daily life. Khensur Rinpoche gave a few examples of how we typically describe finding our self:

• as something solid inside of us like a stick
• as something in the core of our being like at the heart
• as the body itself
• as a kind of darkness inside
• as a space-like expanse

The Buddha taught that although the self might appear to exist in these ways, it does not.

Mahamudra Commentary Retreat, NYC, August 14, 2012

Translator: Art Engle

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Dissolving the Guru at Your Heart

One of the practices common to the sutrayana and tantrayana traditions is visualizing your lama dissolving at your heart. Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa described the feeling:

“When you dissolve the lama at your heart, this experience should be palpable, even overwhelming, like when you suddenly acquire something very valuable. Or, like when a son is re-united with his mother after a very long time.”

Mahamudra Retreat, NYC, August 12, 2012
Translator: Art Engle

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Meditation on the Breath

During his Mahamudra commentary, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa explained the 8 point Vairochana posture. The first seven points describe the physical body posture. The 8th point is the meditation on counting the breath. After describing how to do the meditation, he said that we should not underestimate the effectiveness of this practice. Done correctly, it can lead to the generation of calm abiding.

Rinpoche advised us to do the practice in the morning. By counting 1,000 cycles of breath (one cycle being an inhalation and exhalation) for ten days in a row, we will definitely experience a cumulative effect — it will prevent illness, extend our life span and cause joy and a sense of ease.

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: On Helping Others

During a teaching about how to develop bodhicitta, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa said,

“There’s no such thing as a virtue that is too small to be worth pursuing. Instead, if you only want to do the higher, esoteric spiritual practices which you are incapable of doing, then you’ll end up ignoring the basic practices which are within your reach. The question you should ask yourself is what are you capable of doing now so that you can develop the ability to help others.”

August 11, 2012 Mahamudra Retreat, New York City

Translator: Art Engle

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Mahamudra Retreat 2009 Photos Available

Here are some photos from the Mahamudra retreat. The photos of Rinpoche and the khatas are a little blurry, but I kind of like them because they seem so illusion-like and dreamy (that’s just my excuse for not being a good photographer!).

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2009 Mahamudra Retreat Recordings Available

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche’s beautiful and very clearly presented teachings on Mahamudra are available for download as mp3 files on our website (near the bottom of the page). Rinpoche started from the beginning of the root text and completed his entire commentary. His teachings on emptiness — a topic that can be confusing due to its subtlety — were so direct and to the point. The question and answer sessions were lively and very helpful. Enjoy!

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Mahamudra Resources

Just a few of the many teachings available to us on mahamudra. Feel free to share your favorites.

Mahamudra Teachings and Medicine Buddha Teachings (Audio and Unedited Transcript) by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, 2008. These teachings were given in June of 2008 at White Eagle Conference Center in Crestone, Colorado. Included is the oral transmission of the First Panchen Lama’s Root Text for the Precious Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra.

FPMT’s shop has several CDS and publications about Mahamudra.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra. Snow Lion Publications, 1997 Alexander Berzin translator.

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa’s 2008 Mahamudra Retreat teachings (audio).

MAHAMUDRA: Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance
by the Ninth Kar-ma-pa Wang-chu’g Dor-je, comm. by Beru Khyentze Rinpoche and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey, trans. and ed. by Alexander Berzin

Essentials of Mahamudra: Looking Directly at the Mind by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche Wisdom Publications (March 2004)

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Mahamudra Meditation

When you look at the nature of any thought that arises, it automatically disappears by itself and a bare absence dawns. Likewise, when you inspect mind’s nature when it is settled, a non-obstructive bare absence and clarity is vivid. You see that the settled and moving minds are mixed together. Thus, no matter what thought arises, when you recognize that it is a movement of mind and, without blocking it, have settled on its nature, [you find] it is like the example of a bird confined on a boat. As is said, “Just as a crow having flown from a ship after circling the directions must re-alight on it….”

From cultivating such methods as these, you experience the nature of the totally absorbed mind to be a non-obstructive lucidity and clarity. Not established as any form of physical phenomenon, it is a bare absence which, like space, allows anything to dawn and be vivid. Such nature of mind must in fact be seen straightforwardly with exceptional perception and cannot be verbally indicated or apprehended as a “this”. Therefore, without such apprehension, settle in a fluid and flowing manner on whatever cognitive dawning arises.

The First Panchen Lama, “A Root Text for the Precious Geluk/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra” as published in The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra Snow Lion Publications 1997

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