Reddit mentions of Moonbeams of Mahamudra: The Classic Meditation Manual

Dzogchen and Mahamudra are two different sets of practices that aim at something quite similar. Dzogchen is seen to be the pinnacle of the Nyingma (old school) and Mahamudra of the Sarma schools (Kagyu, Gelug, etc.). Open presence does play a role in such practices, depending on what you mean by "open presence" and which practice you are referring to.

There are a number of different practices in each school. Probably the best technical instructions on Mahamudra are now available in a book titled Moonbeams on Mahamudra.

Clear Dzogchen instructions are harder to find, but I like the book Perfect Clarity which has a selection of Dzogchen and Mahamudra pith instructions, at least for trekchod. Finding clear togal practice instructions is very difficult, but the main practices seem to be sky gazing, dark retreat where you see light in the darkness, seeing rainbow halos (tigles) around light sources such as the sun or a light bulb (NEVER STARE DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN, OK?), and similar things like that. But you shouldn't be practicing togal anyway until stabilizing trekchod, according to the classic instructions at least.

Now some people will tell you "you need a teacher/guru" and even "you have to complete the preliminary practices (ngondro) first." No doubt having a qualified teacher who has experienced the territory they are teaching can be useful, and some preliminary practices may benefit some people.

That said, most Dzogchen teachers are highly inaccessible. Good luck ever getting a single 1-on-1 session with one, let alone ongoing personalized support for the idiosyncrasies of your practice. So "having a teacher" in practical terms often means going to a retreat or two, never interacting with them personally, and reading their books, with them never even knowing your name. And some teachers have strange views or run cults (see Sogyal Rinpoche as an example), so you might even get messed up from following a teacher if you're not careful.

In terms of preliminaries, personally I think traditional ngondro is highly inappropriate for Westerners, and my teachers (Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Anam Thubten, etc.) agree, so I disagree that traditional preliminary practices (such as doing 100,000 prostrations and 1 million vajrasattva recitations) are necessary or even good for Westerners, with our already busy minds and achievement orientations.

There can be a practical reason for preliminaries however, which is that many people cannot simply rest their mind in an open, spacious, unwavering presence, vivid and clear and luminous, even with pointing out instructions, because their mind is too agitated or dull, or because they lack sufficient insight into emptiness. This was certainly the case for me before doing a bunch of S.N. Goenka style vipassana and some other practices that allowed me to develop sufficient concentration, clarity, and insight. Moonbeams on Mahamudra touches on the need for "common" concentration and insight before practicing "uncommon" mahamudra, and I think this is indeed important for most people.

If you want a taste of what the instructions are like, there are many pith instructions published freely on the internet. For instance, here are mahamudra instructions from the 9th Karmapa. Or here are some classic mahamudra instructions from Tilopa. The Song of Mahamudra from Saraha is great too. Here are some Dzogchen trekchod pith instructions. The Bön tradition also has Dzogchen instructions which can be found in this book.

Good luck!

I'll start with one of the best books Moonbeams of Mahamudra. There is also an excellent commentary on that book by Ven. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche.

There is another real treasure available (atm, anyway): The Shenpen Ösel Magazine (From the web page:) "
Between the years of 1997 and 2003, Kagyu Shenpen Ösel Chöling published transcripted Buddhist teachings in the tri-annual magazine Shenpen Ösel.

The magazine sought to present the teachings of recognized and fully qualified lamas and teachers, with an emphasis on the Karma Kagyu and the Shangpa Kagyu lineages. The contents were derived from transcripts of teachings hosted by Kagyu Shenpen Ösel Chöling and other Kagyu Centers in North America." Just an great, great resource for teachings by Kagyu masters.

Another great Kagyu resource: The Mahamudra Meditation Center, also, not too surprisingly, created by a student of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Peter Barth. That site has a great Mahamudra Meditation Manual, which used to be available for free but now cost $5 on Amazon. Monks need to eat, too.

So, onto personal experience, which is all I can speak from. Buddhist teachers are definitely there for spiritual meditation questions. Your are correct that most answers on this forum are not even close to helpful. (There are some good ones and they are usually from the same people.) The best thing you can do is talk to meditation teachers. They will expect you to have read up on the material and be looking for clarifications or be asking about the correct direction to go, so to speak. Even with meditation teachers (monastics, non-monastics, etc.), quality of help can vary wildly. And the really good ones seem to get surrounded with people like us. :) So, one day at a time.

My experience has been that meditation is like learning to swim. There is no substitute for doing it. That $5 manual above is great for your practice. Also, as I also like the Gelukpa approach, the Intro to Meditation by FPMT (fpmt.org) is a great into to their meditation program. That course is free (after you register online), and the rest of that Discovering Buddhism course is not very expensive. As a "graduate" of that program, I can whole-heartedly recommend that program. (Lots of good guided meditation there.)

Hope that helps. Please do write or DM me if I can be of any more help. Good Luck!

There are lots and lots of resources out there, where you could have a read and see if the language of the system appeals to you, makes sense etc. But really, if you want to practice Mahamudra, you're really going to need a teacher with a lot of experience. This is sure in any style of meditation, but I wouldn't underestimate how well you can practice without a teacher, but also how far off piste you can deviate if you practice for a long time without proper guidance.

My number one practice text recommendation is 'Moonbeams of Mahamudra', it is Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche's translation of Tashi Namgyal's masterwork. Amazing book. - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moonbeams-Mahamudra-Traleg-Kyabgon/dp/0980502233

Mahamudra is interesting in that it is at once presented as the ultimate teaching within certain lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, but I have also found it the clearest and most pragmatic. It really suits the western mind because it relies on much less prior theory, cultural praxis, philosophy etc than other Vajrayana systems of practice. Whilst 'Mahamudra' as a term refers to a very high view, the system of meditation could really be taught to a person who had never sat in their life. It begins with very basic shamatha training - cultivating a stability of attention - which is what most people learn at their local mindfulness class or whatever.

So don't let traditionalists put you off by telling you that Mahamudra is for people who have done decades of study, ngondro, generation/completion stage, etc etc etc. It's just not true. It is true that the traditional path provides a wonderful foundation if practice well, but it's also true that some people get lost in that traditional path and really waste years of their life doing stuff that really doesn't do much to help them or others.

If you want pragmatic, down to earth advice on Mahamudra, then Ken McLeod is probably my number one reccomention. He doesn't teach anymore, but his website has a lot of resources. He did two, three year retreats under Kalu Rinpoche, and has been through all the worst things that can happen to a meditator, and is very very open about his experience. He is clear, accurate, and stays very close to the traditional presentation without being dogmatic. Ken has been an enormous help to my own practice.

[I have to run, but I'll come back and edit this later if I remember]