Ebook: Gampopa Teaches Essence Mahamudra

Th is book began as a translation of the "Interviews" section of Gampopa's Collected
Works. Interviews or Question and Answer Sessions as they are literally called
in Tibetan are records of the personal interviews of a great teacher with those
who come to see him. Th ese are amongst the most interesting writings to be
found in Tibetan literature because of the very personal quality found in them.
Th e interviews section of Gampopa's Collected Works consists of interviews with
four of his greatest yogin disciples-the fi rst Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa, source of
most of all the lesser Kagyu lineages Phagmo Drupa, Lord Gomtshul, and Yogin
Choyung.
Th e outstanding feature of these interviews is the private teachings on Essence
Mahamudra, the ultimate transmission of Mahamudra within the Kagyu lineage.
In one session after another, Gampopa reveals all the teachings of Essence
Mahamudra to his foremost disciples in a thoroughly personal, pointed, and
practical manner. Another feature is that these interviews give a very clear picture
of how ultimate Mahamudra was taught in the early days of the Kagyu lineage.
Yet another feature of these interviews is that the majority of them are notes that
were taken on the spot or written out just after the interviews. As such, they are
historical records which give us a very personal sense of Gampopa and these great
disciples and what they went through on their personal journeys to enlightenment.
More than that though, the reader gets a distinct impression of the personalities
involved through their own, hand-written records.
Because the interviews are so focussed on Gampopa's presentation of Mahamudra,
two more texts from his Collected Works were added to give a further sense of his
way of teaching it: fi rst, a short text which is the root of his famous "Four Dharmas
of Gampopa" teaching, and second, a medium-length text which records an oral
teaching he gave on the entire path of Mahamudra.