Sat, 13 Jun 2009
Mahamudra and the Intellect
So here's a point that vexes some people: the relationship between mahamudra and intellectual study, or more generally the relationship between enlightenment and intellectual study. Sometimes the two are contrasted, the "mere scholar" versus the "authentic practitioner." This is not entirely wrong, as one of the eight faults of mahamudra (yes, another one of those Buddhist lists) is to mistake intellectual understanding for realization. But the distinction ignores the very real help that intellectual understanding provides to the practice of meditation. It's like picking up someone at the airport that you've never met before, a good description of the person is helpful even though no description is the same as seeing the person. Buddhism talks about the three prajnas of hearing, contemplating, and meditating. Realization only comes from the last, but it builds upon the previous two. Lama Phurbu Tashi mentioned that there were two groups of monks in his three year retreat. The first had attended shedra and studied Buddhist philosophy and the second had memorized the sadhanas and all the points of Buddhist rituals. The first group had some trouble learning how to perform the sadhanas, but the second group had more trouble during the mahamudra section of the retreat. They had a hard time comprehending the instruction on mahamudra, because it was explained in terms of emptiness and the middle way philosophy.
