Mahamudra

Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines · Tibet

What it is

Mahamudra (Tibetan phyag rgya chen po, rendered by Berzin and the Dalai Lama as "great sealing nature") is a family of meditation systems on the conventional and deepest natures of the mind, transmitted in the Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Karma Kagyu presentation it…

Format

• Session length. Berzin advises practising for a couple of minutes, resting, and repeating; long sessions at the start are described as discouraging and counterproductive. No overall course length is given.
• Assessment: the client's tradition, teacher, practice history and retreat plans; psychiatric and trauma history; current stability.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• retreat used to escape a crisis.
• blurring therapy with spiritual instruction.
• the client positioning the therapist as a spiritual authority.
• distress rising with every reassurance; avoidance of practice altogether.
• the therapist importing their own view of devotion, positive or negative.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.