The Teaching of Maha Mudra or Non-Dual Bliss in Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism has a rich tradition of the teaching of non-duality called maha mudra or dzog chen.

Maha mudra or dzog chen are not really spiritual practices in the traditional use of the term but describe more a state of being. It is our natural state – our innermost being that is free of all social conditioning, personal history or of any idea of who and what we usually feel we are.

When we rest in our true nature we feel intensely blissful. It is a joy that often becomes so intense that it can be difficult to bear. The sweetness, rapture or ecstasy is more beautiful and satisfying than even the most intense emotional, sexual or even drug-induced experience can possibly be. At other times the experience feels deeply peaceful and unconditionally loving. It is exactly this intense bliss that accounts for the disappearance of our self-image that we usually hold on to at any price.

As our self-image disappears, we become aware that everything we usually take as our identity has no solid foundation at all. For example, most people believe that their personal ego ends where their body boundary ends. During the experience of non-dual bliss we realise that our mind reaches throughout the universe – that it has no boundary at all. What is even more fascinating, we realise that we have no core, either. The place where we normally feel a sense of solid self has now become empty, blissful space and no amount of searching reveals any sense of personal ego. All we find is glittering space that is intensely joyful.

This joyful, empty space is our true nature

It is the same in every being and everything that exists has arisen from this space like rainbows arise from ‘nothing’. Someone who is deeply stabilised in the experience of non-duality does not deny that they themselves and other beings exist. But they recognise these appearances for what they are:  illusory and temporary appearances that arise from our true blissful nature and invariably disappear into it again. When this insight deepens, often ‘super-natural’ powers arise spontaneously like clairvoyance, spiritual healing or even levitation.

Even though non-duality or maha mudra is not a spiritual practice like prayer or meditation, it is still a path. It is a path in the sense that it takes time and determination to stabilise the experience of non-duality and let go over and over again from all illusions. It is these illusions that keep us locked within our conditioned sense of self that is vulnerable to deprivation and domination.

In fact, the practitioner will be confronted with an enormous amount of inner challenges because, once the bliss is flowing, our unconscious mind opens its flood gates and confronts us with layer after layer of previously unconscious material that must be dealt with skilfully. It is this opening of our unconscious mind that accounts for the fact that so many spiritual practitioners ‘go off the rails’ at this point and become either megalomaniac or abuse their budding spiritual powers for their own selfish ends. These problems are usually referred to as kundalini symptoms. It is therefore paramount that we are well-grounded in loving kindness meditation before we engage with non-dual bliss.

How can we attain non-dual bliss?

The fastest way to access non-dual spiritual bliss is by having a relationship to a spiritual teacher who has already attained this state of mind in her or himself. Through devotion, the same spiritual bliss will be awakened in the student who has then the task to ‘remember’ this experience and, over time, stabilise it in their own mind-stream.

The spiritual teacher will also make sure that the student is able to manage any subconscious material that may come to the surface during this process.

Tara Springett is a fully authorised Buddhist teacher of the maha mudra approach.