The Great Seal is based on an essential Tibetan text written in the 14th century, Wishing Prayer for the Attainment of the Ultimate Mahamudra, by the 3rd Karmapa. The teachings in this text are designed to give deep insight into the nature of mind and fully awaken mind's vast enlightened potential. In this brilliant translation, Lama Ole provides critical insights and personal experience to make it very accessible to Western Buddhist practitioners.

Selected Quotes

"The Great Seal, or Mahamudra view is compared to painting in water. Everything fits perfectly in the moment, yet while it appears it is also dissolving. Enlightened actions work in the same way; here and now, beyond expectations or fears, without holding on or pushing away."

"Gathering momentum in trains and cars, on flights and during several short retreats, this book was on and off my clipboard over several years. It probably needed to be this way. Surpassing the level of concepts, these verses include every aspect of mind. Enriching the reader's view is much more important than teaching some new terminology. A series of enlightened expressions concerning one's motivation does not easily lend itself to a rigid formulation."

"As the fortress of ignorance should be attacked from all sides, the approach of each verse is different. Every commentary is down to earth and every statement can be directly tested. Contemporary, critical and even political statements from my side elucidate a timeless text, which points directly to mind's nature. This relevance to the world was the 'express wish' of the 16th Karmapa, whose three visits to Europe and North America during the Seventies and early Eighties—as well as the work of the students he empowered—first opened the West to his view of the Great Seal. These enlightened insights create a sequence of unchanging yet dynamic images, with the first and last verses supplying the necessary conceptual background to absorb Karmapa's experience of the Great Seal. Whoever does not manage to turn into a rainbow after their first reading should be motivated in life by the final verses and make plans for further attempts."

—Lama Ole Nydahl