Mahayoga

Mahayoga (Skt. mahāyoga; T. rnal 'byor chen po རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོ་) — the first of the three inner tantras according to the nine yana classification of the Nyingma school.

Mahayoga focuses mainly on the development stage of deity yoga, and emphasizes the clarity and precision of visualization as skillful means.

Cortland Dahl states:

This approach to practice is intended for those whose dominant emotional pattern is anger and who are inclined to a more elaborate form of meditation practice. In terms of view, this vehicle stresses the inseparability of the two superior truths. The superior ultimate truth is the sphere of reality itself, along with the various forms of wisdom and embodiment that constitute the state of buddhahood. The superior relative truth consists of the universe and its inhabitants, which are manifestations of the ultimate.

... Mahayoga stresses the visualizations and mantra recitations of the development stage. The meditative liturgies of this approach, moreover, are extremely elaborate, with detailed visualizations that may involve hundreds of figures. The three absorptions, or three samadhis, form the framework for Mahayoga meditation. With these three steps, the meditator immerses the mind in emptiness, compassion, and then the union of these two—expressed as a seed syllable—before moving on to the complex visualizations and mantra recitations of development stage proper.

Like all tantric practice, the ethical component of Mahayoga revolves around the various tantric pledges, or samaya, that one commits to when receiving an empowerment. There are a vast number of samaya vows, but the simplified approach stipulates that the tantric practitioner must view all experiences as expressions of deity, mantra, and wisdom: all appearances are to be seen as divine forms, all sounds as mantra, and all thoughts and mental events as wisdom.

The vehicle of Mahayoga

Alak Zenkar Rinpoche explains vehicle of Mahayoga according to the system of nine yanas as follows:

The vehicle of mahāyoga, or ‘great yoga,’ is so-called because it is superior to ordinary yoga tantra since all phenomena are realized to be a magical display in which appearance and emptiness are indivisible.

Once again, I will briefly describe its point of entry, view, meditation, action and results.

i. Entry Point

Once one’s mind has been matured through receiving the ten outer benefiting empowerments, the five inner enabling empowerments and the three secret profound empowerments, one keeps the samayas as they are described in the texts.

ii. View

By means of extraordinary lines of reasoning, one establishes and then realizes the indivisibility of the [two] higher levels of reality, according to which the cause for the appearance of the essential nature, the seven riches of the absolute, is spontaneously present within the pure awareness that is beyond conceptual elaboration, and all relative phenomena naturally appear as the mandala of deities of the three seats.

iii. Meditation

When it comes to the path and the practice of meditation, the main emphasis is on the development stage. In the practice of development stage yoga, one sets up the practice through the three samādhis, ensures that the three of purifying, perfecting and ripening are complete within the visualization, and, once the visualization is complete, seals it with the instruction on the four nails securing the life-force. In the practice of the completion stage yoga, one activates the vital points of the vajra body, its subtle energies, essences, luminosity and so on.

iv. Conduct

One maintains elaborate, unelaborate and extremely unelaborate conduct.

v. Results

In the short term one reaches the four vidyādhara levels, which are the results belonging to the path, and finally one gains the ultimate fruition, and reaches the level of the Vajradhara of unity.

Subdivisions

The teachings and practices of the Mahayoga belong either to:

• the tantra class (Nyingma Gyübum Vols. 14-19) or
• the sadhana class ( consists of sadhanas or means of accomplishment)

The sadhana class itself is further subdivided into:

• kama section and
• terma section.

Mahayoga can also be divided into three classes:

• Maha of Maha (Wyl. maha'i maha)
• Anu of Maha
• Ati of Maha

Texts of the Mahayoga

Texts of the Mahayoga:

• The tantra class contains eighteen tantras, of which the Guhyagarbha Tantra is the root tantra. (Nyingma Gyübum Dergé ed. vols. 9-14, Tingkyé ed. vols. 14-19)
• The sadhana class contains the Eight Great Sadhana Teachings, which has five main sections, corresponding to the five wisdom deities of the Kagyé, to which three sections corresponding to the three semi-worldly or worldly deities of the Kagyé are added. (Dergé ed. vols. 15-24, Tingkyé ed. vols. 20-33)
• In addition, for the sadhana class, volumes 31 and 32 of the Tingkyé edition of the Nyingma Gyübum respectively contain the general tantras (Wyl. spyi rgyud) and the particular tantras (Wyl. sgos rgyud) associated with the original Indian terma recension of the Tantra of the Gathering of the Sugatas of the Kagyé (Wyl. sgrub chen bka' brgyad dbe 'dus kyi rgyud), from which the later Tibetan terma cycles of the Kagyé derive.

See also

• Inner Tantras
• Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism

Sources

• Dahl, Cortland (2009), Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen Preliminary Practices, Shambhala 

Further reading

• Jamgön Kongtrul, The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Four: Systems of Buddhist Tantra, translated by Elio Guarisco and Ingrid McLeod (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2005), Ch. 18 Mahayoga.
• Tulku Thondup, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, edited by Harold Talbott (Boston: Shambhala, 1999), pages 23-28.