# **Answer Key, Class Three: Mahamudra, the Great Seal** **1) Describe the general method of performing the physical practice of the Great Seal, or Mahamudra, as found in our text.  Comment on a very practical instruction here about bodily balance.  Also give the Sanskrit and Tibetan terms for the perineum here, with Sanskrit root and cognates, and comment upon this choice of terms.** **The text says that first we sit and press our left foot firmly into our perineum, and then extend the right leg out and grasp the right foot tightly with both hands.  Then we hold a throat lock, holding the inner winds of the upper part of our body.  After this retention we exhale very slowly and gradually, without any force.  (It should be noted that, in our immediate lineage, this is a retention _after_ exhalation.)** **We then repeat this to the other side.  The entire process can be repeated, but Master Svatmarama insists that the count must be equal on both sides.  This is important not just for muscular balance but for a balance in the opening of the channels on the two sides of the body.** **The Sanskrit term for _perineum_ here is _yoni (yoni),_ which can mean either _womb_ or _female organ._  It is thought to derive from a Sanskrit root √_yu (yu),_ which means _to unite,_ perhaps because this is the location of union with the male partner.  This root is ultimately related to the root √_yuj (yuj),_ also meaning _to unite,_ from which we see the words _yoga, yoke,_ and _jugular._**  **The corresponding Tibetan here can be either _mo-tsen_, referring specifically to the _female organ;_ or also _ngel_, which means _womb._** **The use of the word for the female organ to refer to the perineum in yogic texts that were almost exclusively meant for male yogis seems significant: as a yogi we are seeking to balance the male and female energies, and the selection of the term seems to be intended to remind the yogi of this fact.** **2) ==Speculate on what is happening with the inner body during the Great Seal that might help bring on the direct experience of emptiness.==** **It seems that keeping one foot extended during the practice of the asana of the Great Seal would keep the central channel itself extended and more open to the entry of inner wind, particularly if we are careful to keep our back straight and not rounded.  Remember that the central channel continues down to the perineum and splits, extending down either leg.  In this asana physically we are stretching the whole muscular complex running from the shoulders and neck all the way down to the heels, and the central channel is being equally stretched.** **Having the opposite leg up in a half-lotus position, with the heel pressed into the abdominal region, is working on the area (ne du nunpa, as we spoke about in the last class) where the side channels run into the lower opening of the central channel, just below the navel.  We are stimulating the area of inner fire.** **Doing the two legs individually rather than doing both at once, as we do for example in Paschimottana asana (Western Stretch), has the additional effect of isolating one of the side channels, forcing it straighter, allowing the wind of that side channel to flow more freely towards the middle channel.** **Retaining the breath has two effects.  Given the connection between the breath and the inner winds, stopping the breath even for just a short time would have the initial effect of suppressing our gross distracted thoughts.** **On a deeper level it would slow down the circulation of the inner winds which carry our inborn mental tendency to see things as coming from their own side.  This then would make it more likely that we would go into the direct perception of emptiness.  The throat lock forces this effect to a higher level, pushing the upward-moving wind and downward-clearing winds towards each other to increase inner fire.** **Add to all this the mental focus that we'll describe later on in this reading, and we're really ready to see emptiness with this particular asana.** **3) In describing how we breathe during the Great Seal, Master Svatmarama says that we should exhale “ever slowly.”  Describe a “right way” and a “wrong way” of doing the breath side of this asana, based on this clue.** **What the Master is trying to communicate to us is a whole way of doing the breath side of this asana.  It would be possible to take a huge gulp of air, take the chin lock, and hold our breath for as long as we can, getting red in the face, as we perform this asana.** **This though might just get us "tighter," with the overly conscious effort bringing up even more miscellaneous and distracting thoughts, and thus stirring up winds that we are hoping to bring to a state of pacification.** **A better approach might be to consciously slow the breath down as far as we can, trying to stay physically as absolutely quiet as possible.  When the breath is as far down as we can take it, then we do one last exhale and start the retention.  The goal, after all, is to go under the conscious, conceptual thoughts into a non-conceptual, direct perception of emptiness.** **4) Master Svatmarama says of the practice of the Great Seal that—if we are successful—then “the Lady of Power will straighten…and Her two-sided support will come to a state of death.”  Explain, including how it is that we become successful, along with the metaphor of the Dark Planet in your description.** **The "Lady of Power" here is of course kundalini: the female energy lying at the base of the central channel.  That She has "straightened" means that the power of inner fire has been released up into the central channel, opening the knots in this channel.** **The knots around the central channel, as we have seen, are created by the two side channels—the milky channel and the brick-red channel—as they twist around the middle channel at the points of the chakras.  Within these side channels run our negative emotions, riding upon prana or inner winds.** **If we are successful in opening the central channel, then all the prana enters this channel, flowing out of the two side channels at the juncture of the three below the navel.  These two side channels—which are here called "her two-sided support"—then collapse completely into the middle one, or "come to a state of death."** **This state for these two channels is highly desirable, since there are no longer any winds for our negative thoughts to ride upon, and we can reach and stay in the clear light, which then leads us straight on to an Angel's deathless body.** **This description is comparable to the one where the two side channels are referred to as the "channels of the sun and the moon."  The central channel in this case is referred to as "Rahula," or the Dark Planet.  It was believed in olden days in India that eclipses of the sun and moon were caused by this planet "eating" the sun and moon for some period of time.  The central channel then is sometimes called Rahula because when it is filled with the inner wind it destroys the two side channels.** **Now it is not enough to simply put ourselves in this position on our yoga mats and hope for a miracle.  We must also be working to quiet the mind, by watching our behavior towards others at all times during the day.  We must work to be kind, generous, patient, and compassionate, which makes our mind calm and still, and that will trigger in us an ability to feel the subtle movements within our inner body.** **5) ==What are three benefits that Master Svatmarama mentions as resulting from the practice of the Great Seal?  Expand especially on the first of these.==** **We hear first that the practice of the Great Seal "destroys the great negative thoughts."  This refers to three broad categories of negative emotions that are easily remembered in their traditional representation as a snake, a rooster, and a pig.** **The snake represents our tendency to get angry, or dislike an experience or person in an ignorant way.  That is, for example, we get angry at someone who says something unkind to us, because we forget that they are actually coming from our own past anger.  This mental tendency flows in the right one of the two side channels.** **The tendency of ignorant desire then flows in the left-hand channel.  We want something and we forget the fact that we get things from sharing them—and so we take it away from someone else instead.  This tendency is represented by the rooster, or cock, a traditionally lustful creature.** **Ignorance itself, represented by the pig, infects both of these channels and attitudes.  The central channel though is one of wisdom, and so when we kill the two side channels and bring the winds into the center we automatically kill all our "great negative emotions."** **The second advantage of the Great Seal is to bring a balance to the bodily humors, meaning that physically we are no longer subject to disease.  In practical terms, we almost never catch colds or have problems like indigestion—much less any more serious problems.** **Finally we overcome death itself: which is a statement on the role of our negative emotions in creating even the condition of death.** **6) ==We often see in Indian spiritual literature the term _eka rasa,_ which can be translated as "one taste"; and Master Svatmarama lists it as one of the benefits of performing the Great Seal.  Comment upon four different meanings of this term, and continue to explain the other parts of the metaphor of the verse.==** **(1) In one sense, "one taste" can mean—as it might seem to in our verse here—that a yogi who has truly mastered the Great Seal experiences all foods as being equally delicious.  This is in fact a quality of a person who has collected enough good seeds to do so, and is reflected in the Tibetan expression _ro chok nang:_ all things taste equally delicious to an Enlightened Being.** **(2) In a broader sense, a high yogi is already experiencing all the things of their life as being a "single taste": they have gotten enough wind into the central channel to be seeing all their experiences and meetings with a kind of equanimity.**  **(3) And then they go further to see them all as equally blissful.** **(4) In the highest sense, the yogi who truly masters the Great Seal sees that all things are equal in the sense of being equally _empty of any self-existence,_ and therefore of "one taste" or a "single song."** **Following this metaphor to Master Svatamarama's mention of poison, a yogi who has developed equanimity can undergo very difficult or "poisonous" experiences without feeling any _ignorant_ dislike or liking.  They are able to do so because they have overcome the more serious poison of seeing things as coming from somewhere other than themselves: they see all things as equally empty.** **What results from this is our experience of the "milk of the gods": of the state of deathless nectar, the body of the Angel.** **7) Master Svatmarama says that the practice of the Great Seal can put a stop to even very serious diseases such as tuberculosis or leprosy, by putting a stop to the subtle imbalances of the humors which precipitate these conditions.  Talk a bit about this approach of attacking disease by attacking its causes.** **Attacking a problem by attacking its real causes is a high principle of the entire yogic path.  Master Svatmarama is directly saying that we can avoid or even stop even very serious, pre-existing medical conditions by addressing imbalances of the bodily humors of wind, bile, and phlegm.  These imbalances are themselves brought on by erratic movement of the inner winds.  The practice of yoga asanas in general, and more specifically of this tight "seal" of the Mahamudra, helps prevent this kind of movement of the winds, balancing them out and thereby bringing the humors into balance.** **As true yogis though we need to keep in mind the onion-skin principle of yoga, looking for even deeper causes of causes.  The erratic movement of the winds is brought on by erratic movements of the thought, which are themselves brought on by nothing other than seeds.** **This underscores the need during our asana practice to keep up a pure intention, of hoping that our daily practice brings us to the ultimate goal of the clear light and the diamond body, a person who is able to travel to all worlds to help all beings.  This intention is the ultimate form of seeds that will ripen as pure thoughts within our own mind; thoughts which through the link between them make the winds more pure; which itself balances the humors in an ultimate way; which in turn actually transforms the body.** **8) ==Give a general description of the traditional mental practice of the Great Seal, or Mahamudra.  Include a statement of some of the advantages of this approach.  Then list two dangers to watch out for when focusing on your own mind.==** **The mental or meditative practice of Mahamudra is an attempt to see emptiness directly by focusing upon a very special object: our own mind, and the thoughts moving within it.  This is very powerful in dealing with thoughts that would interrupt our meditation, since we are actually using these thoughts as our object: a little like riding a tiger.** **This has a number of advantages, according to the traditional sources.  First of all, it is very easy even for beginners to get the object of the meditation to appear in their own mind: after all, we are hearing our own thoughts all day long.** **For this very fact, it is easier to avoid one of the single greatest obstacles to meditation: subtle dullness.  This is a dullness of mind unlike gross mental dullness, where we may for example be in danger of getting very drowsy or even nodding off because we are meditating after too much food or not enough sleep.** **Subtle dullness is more pernicious; it is a subtle "spacing out" during meditation where we have not lost the object but we are not really bright and attentive.  Using our own thoughts as the object of our meditation automatically prevents this kind of spacing out and being misled into thinking that we are in some kind of deep meditation.** **A traditional distinction is made between distraction (actually thinking of something else) and agitation (the tendency below this of a restlessness of the mind).  The agitation in this case is prevented automatically, since we are focused so clearly on stopping distraction in our minds.** **Finally, the more general form of the Great Seal where we are focusing on the emptiness of our mind serves, it is said, as a powerful factor in ripening our mind for the more secret practices of this seal.** **There are two dangers that we must watch out for, however.  The first one has to do with keeping our focus.  As we watch our thoughts, there could be a temptation to “follow” the thought—to immerse ourselves in a tangent, in which case we would be no longer watching, but simply wandering off.  The second great danger is to do this meditation without applying an understanding of emptiness, in which case it is not a meditation that acts to liberates you, but rather just an exercise to get to meditative stillness.  We must actively watch out for both of these in our practice of Mahamudra.** **9) ==Summarize in a very brief and uncomplicated way the six flavors of emptiness used in the mental practice of the Great Seal, and how we might apply them for example in preventing anger towards a person who has said something negative to us.  After that say a bit about combining the physical and mental practices of Mahamudra.==** **Here are six ways to do a Mahamudra meditation on a person who is bothering us—** **(1) At the moment it looks like this situation will last forever, but it won't: this too will pass.** **(2) I want to say or do something to convince them to stop, but this is a ripening which is out of my current control.  Not to get upset.** **(3) It looks like they have just walked up to me, but in actuality I have set in motion this event through my own actions: I have created them to come up to me, and I have created me to have them come up to, and I have created the coming itself.** **(4) This person certainly looks unpleasant to me now, but I'm sure they have a loved one who thinks they are wonderful.** **(5) This incident looks like a pure disaster, but I'm sure if I were a really good person I could see something of benefit going on here, for myself and others.** **(6) It looks like this person is coming from their own side, but I know they are 100% coming from myself getting angry at someone else in the past.  Therefore I won't get angry at them.  This sixth one is the real Great Seal, the one which opens the central channel and removes all negative thoughts forever.  I have no wish to repeat the pain I am experiencing now: I will not get angry.** **We saw earlier how the physical practices of Mahamudra might open up the central channel and prepare it for the direct perception of emptiness.  If we add to this the mental focus of trying to see the emptiness of our own mind, then we are truly working from the inside and the outside, as expressed in the Tibetan injunction, Chinang tabla tsowor be: A yogi must learn to work from both the inside and the outside at the same time.** **10) Explain the steps for how we would start to watch our own mind as we do the physical practice of mahamudra.  Then describe why realizing that our mind too is empty of any nature of its own is actually a great comfort.** **The foundation of the practice for watching our own mind is getting to a point where we ourselves become not the thinker of our thoughts, but rather, the watcher.  The first step in doing this is simply learning how to watch our breath without any need to control it, just letting the body breathe itself as you observe.  Then the next step is to switch to our thoughts, while keeping this same watcher state of mind.  We relax and let the thoughts rise on their own, just like the breath, and we simply sit in the back seat and observe them.  The final step is to apply our understanding of emptiness to this process—to see that the thoughts which arise in the mind are really nothing more than ripenings of our past seeds, not in our present control.  If we can do this as we go through our asana practice, then the practice will become loaded with power to get us to enlightenment very quickly, even in this lifetime.** **It can be a little disorienting or even frightening at first to realize that the mind too is just another projection.  But once we think about it, we realize that this itself is the very thing that will free us.  For, if our mind was not empty of any nature of its own, then it could never transform into the totally compassionate, totally omniscient mind of a holy Angel.**