Pointing Out the Great Way: The Stages of Meditation in the Mahamudra Tradition

by Daniel P. Brown, Robert A.F. Thurman

This spiritual manual describes mahamudra meditation from the perspective of the "gradual path," a progressive process of training that is often contrasted to sudden realization. The book contains a step-by-step description of the ways to practice, precise descriptions of the various stages and their intended realizations, and the typical problems that arise along with their remedies. Drawn from a variety of sources, Pointing Out the Great Way distills the experiences of many great masters who have traversed the path of meditation to the point of perfect mastery.

Genres: Buddhism, Meditation, Spirituality, Nonfiction

858 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2006

About the author

Daniel P. Brown was the director of the Center for Integrative Psychotherapy in Newton, Massachusetts, and an associate clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. Trained in Buddhist philosophy and languages at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he did his dissertation on mahamudra meditation texts, he maintained close relations with Tibetan teachers of the Gelug, Kagyu, and Nyingma lineages for more than thirty-five years as well as exploring the Theravada mindfulness traditions in Burma and Thailand. Dan was the author of fourteen books, including Transformations of Consciousness and he lived in San Francisco, California with his wife, Grethen Nelson.

source: publisher's site

Reviews

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic.

For anyone interested in Mahamudra.

This is a MUST READ.

This text essentially aggregates various texts from the Mahamudra tradition, and synthesizes them into one, clearly translated, well organized manual that lays out the path, beginning with provisional practices, and ending in post awakening practices.

I’m stunned.

I’m grateful to Daniel P. Brown for his exquisitely thoughtful and well executed scholarship.

This is a treasure.

5/5 stars ⭐️

[Mark Derderian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been working on this book for over a year. It is one of the most detailed and complete descriptions and analysis of the stages of meditation available in English. It is written by Daniel P. Brown who is a psychologist teaching at Harvard Medical School and is extremely rigorous. it is a difficult and slow moving text, not for people who want an easy approach to the practice of meditation, but if you are a serious practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and are interested in the historical intellectual background of your practice I can't imagine a better book for the complete background of Mahamudra meditation. Not only is it difficult but it is a large book, over pages.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is dense and technical; I recommend it to people who are already very, very interested in meditation.

I got a massive transmission from it, and took my time savoring it slowly over four years. But it's like reading a textbook or technical manual, so just keep that in mind if you're planning on diving it.

There's probably a lot more I could or should say about this...

[Eugene Pustoshkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Содержит подробное описание восходящих этапов медитативно-созерцательной практики махамудры. Предназначена для практикующих, имеющих опыт устных наставлений, однако может быть полезна для любых серьёзных исследователей-практиков.

[Benno Blaschke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on Tibetan Buddhist Mahamudra that exists (to my knowledge).