A timeless instruction on the heart of Buddhist practice. Lamp of Mahamudra is a meditation manual on one of the most advanced practices of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This precise text distills the instructions of the practice lineage and describes the entire path of meditation leading to the ultimate fruition. The book includes advice from Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Lamp of Mahamudra was written by Tsele Natsok Rangdrol, a seventeenth-century master of both the Kagyi and Nyingma Schools. He was renowned as one of the most learned teachers of his era. His writing is inspiring in its lucid style and profundity.
"Cut your worldly attachments completely and live companionless in secluded mountain retreats; that is the conduct of a wounded deer. Be free from fear or anxiety in the face of difficulties; that is the conduct of a lion sporting in the mountains. Be free from attachment or clinging to sense pleasures; that is the conduct of the wind in the sky. Do not become involved in the fetters accepting or rejecting the eight worldly concerns; that is the conduct of a madman." Tsele Natsok Rangdrol
"What a great blunder not recognizing the nature of things as they are!"
Covered by the web of disturbing emotions, One is then a 'sentient being'. Freed from disturbing emotions, One is called 'buddha'. Nagarjuna
Terse buddhist philosophy. The word esoteric was invented for topics such as Mahamudra. The text refers to mystical experiences that interest serious life-long buddhist practitioners.
Probably a good idea to go back to this book every once and a while. Like almost all books I've read on the subject, it's more like signpost toward a specific way of experiencing life in its entirety, than philosophy.
If you don't understand that whatever appears is meditation, what can you achieve by applying the antidote? Perceptions are not abandoned by discarding them, But are spontaneously freed when recognized as illusory. -Niguma