While Dzogchen is commonly perceived, and presented, as pertaining principally to the reflexive ‘self-liberating’ potential of the mind, its practice is traditionally infused by physical exercises that push the body-and thereby consciousness-beyond conventional limits and constraints. The Great Perfection or Dzogchen (rdzogs chen) teachings of Tibet are upheld as revealing the ultimate unconditioned nature of human consciousness without recourse to the transforma- tional rites and practices that characterise the tantric, or Vajrayāna, form of Buddhism from which it arose. This paper examines the Mahāmudrā teachings of Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (982-1054 CE) and his early bKa’ gdams pa (hereafter, Kadampa) followers based on previously unstudied canonical documents and manuscripts recently published in Tibet. 1042), and Tibetan Buddhist figures such as Mar pa lo tså ba chos kyi blo gros (1012– 97 CE), Milarepa (mi la ras pa, 1040–1123 CE), and Gampopa (sgam po pa bsod nams rin chen, 1079–1153 CE). In these materials, Mahāmudrā is primarily associated with Indian figures such as Saraha, Tilopa (10th c.), and Nāropa (d.
Modern and traditional understanding of the history and practice of Mahāmudrā is based on Kagyu practice manuals, histories, and ritual liturgical works. In Tibet, the theory and practice of Mahāmudrā, although known to most forms of Tibetan Buddhism, came to be predominantly practiced among bKa’ brgyud (hereafter, Kagyu) affiliated lineages. The term and its associated practices gain great significance in esoteric forms of Indian Buddhism from the ninth century onward. Mahāmudrā (translated as Great Seal) is an important and polysemous concept in the history of Indian and Tibetan forms of Buddhism.
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