Editing Mahamudra (section)

===Sakya tradition===
Following the great [[Sakya (Tibetan Buddhist school)|Sakya]] exegete and philosopher [[Sakya Pandita|Sakya pandita]] (1182-1251), mahāmudrā in the Sakya school is seen as the highest [[Tantra|tantric]] realization, which means that mahāmudrā practice is only taken on after having been [[Empowerment (Vajrayana)|initiated into tantric practice]] and practicing the creation and completion stages of [[deity yoga]].{{sfnp|Berzin|2006}}{{sfnp|Stenzel|2014}} In his "A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes" (''Sdom gsum rab dbye''), Sakya Pandita criticized the non-tantric "sutra" mahamudra approaches of the Kagyu teachers such as [[Gampopa]] who taught mahāmudrā to those who had not received tantric initiations and based themselves on the [[Ratnagotravibhāga|Uttaratantrasastra]].{{sfnp|Stenzel|2014}} He argued that the term mahāmudrā does not occur in the sutras, only in the highest class of tantras and that only through tantric initiation does mahāmudrā arise: "Our own Great Seal consists of Gnosis risen from initiation."{{sfnp|Stenzel|2014}} According to Sakya Pandita, through the four empowerments or initiations given by a qualified guru, most practitioners will experience a likeness of true mahāmudrā, though a few rare individuals experience true mahāmudrā.{{sfnp|Stenzel|2014}} Through the practice of the creation and completion stages of tantra, the tantrika develops this partial understanding of bliss and emptiness into a completely non-dual gnosis, the real Mahamudra, which corresponds to the attainment of the Path of Seeing, the first Bodhisattva bhumi.{{sfnp|Stenzel|2014}}

In Sakya, this insight known as mahāmudrā is described variously as "the unity of lucidity and emptiness, the unity of awareness and emptiness, the unity of bliss and emptiness" and also "the natural reality (''chos nyid gnyug ma'') which is emptiness possessing the excellence of all aspects."{{sfnp|Stenzel|2014}}