Editing Mahamudra (section)

{{Short description|Union of wisdom and emptiness}}
{{for|the practice in medieval hatha yoga|Mahamudra (Hatha Yoga)}}
[[File:Mahamudra seal red.svg|thumb|270px|Seal design with the word Mahāmudrā ("great seal") in Mongolian [['Phags-pa script]]]]
{{Tibetan Buddhism}}

'''Mahāmudrā''' ([[Sanskrit]]: महामुद्रा, {{bo|t=ཕྱག་ཆེན་|s=chag-chen|w=phyag chen}}, contraction of {{bo|t=ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་|s=chag-gya chen-po|w=phyag rgya chen po}}) literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of [[Prajnaparamita|wisdom]] and [[Śūnyatā|emptiness]] inseparable".{{sfnp|Duff|2008|pp=vii, ix}} Mahāmudrā is a multivalent term of great importance in later [[Indian Buddhism]] and [[Tibetan Buddhism]] which "also occurs occasionally in [[Hinduism|Hindu]] and [[Tangmi|East Asian Buddhist esotericism]]."{{sfnp|Jackson|2005}}

The name also refers to a body of teachings representing the culmination of all the practices of the [[Sarma (Tibetan Buddhism)|New Translation]] schools of Tibetan Buddhism, who believe it to be the quintessential message of all of their sacred texts. The practice of Mahāmudrā is also known as the teaching called "[[Sahaja]]yoga" or "Co-emergence Yoga".{{sfnp|Duff|2008|p=x}} In Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the [[Kagyu]] school, Sahaja Mahāmudrā is sometimes seen as a different Buddhist vehicle ([[Yana (Buddhism)|yana]]), the "Sahajayana" (Tibetan: ''lhen chig kye pa''), also known as the vehicle of self-liberation.{{sfn|Traleg Kyabgon|2003|pp=7-11}}

[[Jamgon Kongtrul]], a Tibetan [[Rimé movement|nonsectarian]] (THL: ri-mé) scholar, characterizes mahāmudrā as the path to realizing the "mind as it is"  (Wylie: ''sems nyid'') which also stands at the core of all Kagyu paths. He states, "In general, Mahāmudrā and everything below it are the ‘mind path’ " (Wylie: ''sems lam'') Mahāmudrā traditionally refers to the quintessence of mind itself and the practice of meditation in relation to a true understanding of it.{{sfnp|Namgyal|Lhalungpa|2006|p=xxii}}