Ground Mahamudra, by definition, is that all sentient beings have Buddha potential. The destination of every single sentient being is absolute freedom with no limitation, and absolute freedom with no limitation is described by the word “buddhahood” (i.e. free with no limitation whatsoever, and that can only be for the purpose of no limitation.) Ground mahamudra is present within the mind-stream of all sentient beings. It is the inseparability of appearances and emptiness, awareness and emptiness, and bliss and emptiness. Nevertheless, through the force of one's own connate ignorance, one does not recognize this, as when one is shown an object in a dark room. One is motivated by desire, aversion, and delusion; karma accumulates and matures; one wanders in samsara. What needs to happen in order to develop this experience of Mahamudra? There are two fundamental elements in one's spiritual transformation: one's own efforts in the purification of one's negativity and mental and emotional obscurations and one's own efforts to develop positive qualities such as merit and awareness, and one's devotion to one's guru, one's spiritual teacher, which also plays an essential part in bringing about this transformation. Once the transformation happens, one may have the following mind of thoughts:-

◆  Every sentient being has the same potential as Buddha Shakyamuni, and is      equal to Buddha Shakyamuni in essence or in potential

◆  May I become Buddha” and “For the benefit of all sentient beings”

◆  In the entire universe, the sentient beings who attain buddhahood are              countless.

As Ground Mahamudra means potential; hence Path Mahamudara means how to materialise, purify or develop our potential. Once that happens then the Path, Mahamudra is the accumulation of merit and wisdom in union. The accumulation of wisdom occurs as a result of letting one’s inner potential or inner Buddha manifest and the accumulation of merit is through activity: physical, mental and verbal activity. Thus, the Path Mahamudra which is free of assertion and denial is the union of the accumulation of merit and wisdom. There are three preliminaries in the stage of Path Mahamudra, namely:-

Four Common Preliminaries (or Ngondro Practice), which are common in the sense of being shared by all traditions of Buddhism, include the teachings on precious human birth, death and impermanence, karmic cause and effect, and the unsatisfactory or vicious nature of samsara. The four common preliminaries are necessary from the very start, because they are how we can discover a genuine inspiration for the practice of dharma to begin with and will continue to help one’s cultivation of mahamudra meditation.

The Four Uncommon Preliminaries include going for refuge and engendering bodhicitta, using prostrations as a support; the purification practice of Vajrasattva; the gathering of the two accumulations of merit and wisdom through the practice of Mandala offerings; and the receipt of the blessings of the lama’s lineage of mahamudra through guru yoga. The uncommon preliminaries are important because they are the most effective way to cultivate the two accumulations (wisdom and merits) and purify or remove the various obscurations in preparation for mahamudra practice.

Shinay (Tranquility) and Lhathang (Insight) Meditation

The Shinay practice is to overcome the influence of those defilements, by overcoming the hindrances of thoughts, perceptions and those things. So then one becomes calm, and one’s true clearness is somehow allowed to function. The practice of tranquility meditation is said to have two aspects: the physical technique and the mental technique. The physical technique is the meditation posture, which here is explained as the seven dharmas of Vairochana. Since tranquility meditation is a process of bringing the sixth consciousness (i.e. the eye, the ear, the tongue, the nose, the body and the mental consciousness) to a state of stability, it is, therefore, the sixth consciousness that performs tranquility meditation and that is primarily affected by it. Through the growing stability of tranquility meditation the mental afflictions are somewhat weakened and pacified.

Fruition Mahamudra

There are four stages of Fruition Mahamudra progress, which are one-pointedness, simplicity, one taste and non-meditation yoga respectively.

The first yoga, called one-pointedness, one realises that to remain calm, relaxed and aware of mind's true, void nature is the one medicine which cures all mental ills. While cultivating experiences of bliss, non-thought and crystal clarity, one continuously lengthens the time that can be spent in deep meditation. The effects of the latter become more and more widespread, changing the quality of waking life and dreams.

The second yoga, called simplicity, involves establishing the rootless, baseless nature of all things the mind experiences. This resolves clinging to any thing or to any intellectual reference point and reveals the true value of the Buddha's teaching.

The third yoga, called one taste, destroys the habit of feeling one's mind as something other than the external universe it experiences. The subjective and objective feelings both dissolve into the one ocean in which everything manifests through interdependence and hence no thing has own nature.

The fourth yoga is called non-meditation. This is the final stage of the journey to total enlightenment, in which all effort to meditate and become a buddha has to cease, in the total acceptance of a buddhahood which already exists, spontaneously. It is the final transcendence of the conceptual mind, with its mania for interpreting events and defining the person and the person's world.