A personal account from a tantric practitioner--a Mahamudra master describing the paths and stages involved in this form of meditation

While on the one hand, it is said that Mahamudra is a very advanced form of meditation, on the other, if one were already advanced one would not need any instructions. Mahamudra manuals often tend to explain everything step by step as if the reader does not know anything. Obviously then, they are meant for people like us. In the King Doha, Saraha gives a step by step account of the pitfalls a meditation practitioner can fall into and how to avoid them. With a background of practicing extensively in the tantric tradition, he gives his reasons for considering the Mahamudra approach an appropriate path. Based on a commentary by Karma Trinleypa, Traleg Rinpoche gives a straightforward and clear explanation of Saraha's message to us as practitioners of Mahamudra.
King Doha Saraha's Advice to a King, Traleg Rinpoche, Shogam Publications, Paperback, 120 pp, $21.95

Traleg Kyabgon (1955-2012) was the founder of the Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute, which is headquartered in Melbourne, with a major practice center in upstate New York and a practice community in New York City. He taught extensively at universities and Buddhist centers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, and is the author of such books as Essence of Buddhism and Karma: What It Is, What It Isn't, Why It Matters.

CONTENTS: King Doha: Saraha's Advice to a King
Foreword by Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche			x
Biography of the Author			xiii
Acknowledgements			xvii
Editor's Introduction			xviii
Editor's Biography			xxiii
Introductory Remarks			xxiv
OVERVIEW OF MAHAMUDRA
Buddhism: More Than One Approach			1
	Renunciation		2
	Purification		3
	Transformation		4
	Self-liberation		6
	Contrasting the path of liberation with the path of the method		9
Establishing the View			10
	Combining paying attention with remembrance		10
	Understanding the mind		11
	Adopting an uncontrived approach		11
	Learning how to simply be		12
	Having confidence that buddha is no other		13
	Being in the state of authenticity		14
	Understanding the different aspects of the mind		14
	Appreciating what meditation is about		15
	Working with the three aspects of the mind: nature, essence, and characteristic		18
	Appreciating mind's creative energy		19
	Not battling thoughts		20
	Being skillful		22
	Realizing the ground is the fruit		23
The Path: Shamatha and Vipashyana			24
	Letting go of the running commentary		25
	Maintaining awareness whether the mind is stable or in movement		26
	Strengthening awareness		28
	The insights of vipashyana		30
	(i)	Seeing all appearances as mind	30
	(ii)	Seeing mind's nature as emptiness	33
	(iii)	Seeing emptiness as spontaneously-established phenomena	34
	(iv)	Seeing spontaneously-established phenomena as self-liberated	35
	The non-separability of appearance and reality		36
	Shamatha and vipashyana combined		39
Maintaining the Mahamudra Attitude			40
	Correcting mistaken ideas about objects		40
	Correcting mistaken ideas about time		41
	Correcting mistaken ideas about the essence		42
	Correcting mistaken ideas about the nature		44
	Correcting mistaken ideas about knowledge		45
	Maintaining our sense of basic confidence		46
Experiences and Realization			48
	The three different kinds of meditative experiences		49
	Understanding bliss		49
	Understanding clarity		51
	Understanding non-conceptuality		52
	Straying		53
	The four stages of realization in Mahamudra		55
SARAHA'S KING DOHA
Part 1		How We Have Gone Astray Verses 1-3	63
Part 2		How We Can Rectify the Situation Verses 4-6	68
Part 3		Preparing to Restore Our Natural State--Overcoming Fixation Verses 7-10	73
Part 4		Determining the Significance of the Path Verses 11-20	79
Part 5		Discarding Attachments to Mistaken Paths Verses 21-28	98
Part 6		Explaining the Mahamudra Method Verses 29-36	111
Part 7		Result Verses 37-40	119
Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche's Concluding Remarks			123
Notes			124
Bibliography			132
Index			134