I have had strong reservations, for a number of reasons, about writing at any length on Mahāmudrā as it is understood in The Seven Siddhi Texts. In general, I am far more interested in allowing these texts to speak for themselves, to the degree that this is possible when we are dealing with any text in translation, particularly when that translation is based on Sanskrit and Tibetan witnesses that exhibit a wide range of variant readings and various degrees of textual corruption. The infrequency and, at times, the complete lack of any explicit use of the term mahāmudrā in these works also makes it difficult to hide behind any claims that I am simply presenting the Mahāmudrā instructions from The Seven Siddhi Texts in the words of the authors themselves. Then there is the fact that The Seven Siddhi Texts remain an integral part of the Mahāmudrā curricula for several contemporary living traditions, all of which are undoubtedly far more qualified than I to address the question “What is Mahāmudrā in the Seven Siddhi Texts?” On the other hand, having spent so much time with this material, it also seems somewhat irresponsible to remain entirely silent about the Mahāmudrā doctrine, as I understand it, that emerges from a close reading of The Seven Siddhi Texts. So, consider this a disclaimer: I make no claims to any kind of authoritative position on the Mahāmudrā instructions in The Seven Siddhi Texts. I am also not interested in engaging in the kind of exegetical exercise that any such claim to authority might support by providing an in-depth commentary on how the content of each of The Seven Siddhi Texts might be understood as a Mahāmudrā instruction. Instead, I will keep my remarks on this matter brief, and begin here with a suggestion as to how readers might go about seeing for themselves how The Seven Siddhi Texts can be understood as a foundational corpus of Indian Mahāmudrā instructions.
The first, and most important, step in this process is to abandon any kind of rigid adherence to nominalism. The fact that The Seven Siddhi Texts neither employ the term mahāmudrā in their titles nor, in most cases, refer to this term at all does not mean that they cannot be understood to contain instructions for the practice of Mahāmudrā. Before rejecting this statement, consider that the opposite is also true—there are many Indic sources that do contain the term mahāmudrā yet do not do so in any way that can be justifiably related to the doctrine and practice of Mahāmudrā proper. In a situation such as this, our understanding of why The Seven Siddhi Texts are considered a corpus of Mahāmudrā instructions cannot proceed based solely on any method that relies on nominalist genealogical analyses. This point simply reaffirms what readers who are familiar with Buddhist theories of language should already know—the term mahāmudrā does not itself possess any fundamental nature that might directly express anything about Mahāmudrā. We can, of course, gain some sense of Padmavajra’s and Indrabhūti’s understanding of Mahāmudrā by looking at the way these authors discuss the term. But the fact that Tibetan traditions universally accept that Mahāmudrā is the primary topic of instruction across all of The Seven Siddhi Texts, regardless of whether or not that text even mentions the term, invites us to go beyond a strict (and restrictive) nominalism. My suggestion, then, is that readers examine The Seven Siddhi Texts for themselves with this in mind. Simply looking for those references to the the term mahāmudrā in these texts reveals very little about the Mahāmudrā instructions they contain. These instructions can only be understood by attending very closely to the each of The Seven Siddhi Texts in their entirety.
To aid in this process, I will offer a very concise statement on what I perceive to be the unifying doctrinal thread throughout these texts that supports the Tibetan traditions’ identification of The Seven Siddhi Texts as a corpus of Indian Mahāmudrā works. Mahāmudrā in The Seven Siddhi Texts should be understood as the spontaneous union of an advanced practitioner’s entire psycho-physical person as a deity mandala. This union is “spontaneous” in the sense that it arises on its own, and is not the result of any process that might involve the physical or conceptual construction of a deity mandala. It can be cultivated through the yogic retraction of the senses and the realization of the nature of self-reflexive awareness, through the performance of consecration rites, and through the visualization practices and sexual yogas of the generation stage—but all of these practices are, in the end, methods that are meant to bring about the practitioner’s spontaneous arising as the deity mandala. All of the terms the authors of The Seven Siddhi Texts use to describe this spontaneous union as the deity mandala—and to describe what one perceives upon attaining that state— can be understood as synonyms for mahāmudrā. With the exception of Ḍombīheruka’s Innate Siddhi, which is concerned with the Hevajratantra system, completion stage practices such as chaṇḍalī (gtum mo) that are frequently associated with Mahāmudrā in later Indic and Tibetan traditions are not addressed in The Seven Siddhi Texts in any great detail. Instead, we hear of a completion stage practice that primarily involves the adoption of ascetic modes of conduct, described as various forms of caryā and vrata practices, that are intended to demonstrate a practitioner’s proof (siddhi) of attainment (siddhi) of this spontaneous union as a deity mandala.
"Padmavajra describes a system of three joys in his generation stage instructions."
It is easy to see why Padmavajra’s Secret Siddhi appears at the beginning of this corpus. True to the author’s own intention to render explicit what is otherwise concealed in The Secret Assembly Tantra (Guhyasamājatantra), Padmavajra’s text is both comprehensive and candid in its presentation of topics that many authors might otherwise shy away from or intentionally obscure in coded language. Here we find very clear instructions on what, for Padmavajra, constitutes the proper performance of the generation stage yogas, including (but not limited to) the performance of sexual yogas employing an actual mudrā, the point at which one relies upon a gnosis mudrā, and the superiority of the spontaneously generated Mahāmudrā. We also see Padmavajra describe a system of three joys in his generation stage instructions. This material is presented without any lengthy excurses or discussions of doctrinal disputes concerning the true superiority of one mudrā practice over another and without any overly pedantic presentations of such topics as the proper ordering of the moments of joy that arise during the performance of sexual yogas. The Secret Siddhi also describes a completion stage, for those who are able to leave householder life, that consists primarily of the adoption of the kind of public, socially transgressive ascetic practices that came to define the Buddhist mahāsiddha movement and contributed to the elevation of the Buddhist mahāsiddhas to the status of cultural heroes throughout in India, Nepal, Tibet, and beyond. He provides details for performing ascetic practices such as the “madman’s observance” (unmattavrata), in which the advanced practitioner courts social censure, ostracization, and demonic possession. Padmavajra also discusses the performance of consort practices during the completion stage, both in public and private. His instructions for practicing the two-stage yoga of The Secret Assembly Tantra in The Secret Siddhi are uncharacteristically clear and direct, and, as a result, fill in some of the the social and historical context for understanding how tantric Buddhist communities may have interacted with their non-Buddhist counterparts, and how Mahāmudrā came to be associated with the kind of socially transgressive rituals and ascetic practices that defined the Buddhist mahāsiddha movement.
Anaṅgavajra’s Siddhi of the Exegesis of Wisdom and Method is also comprehensive in scope. This text was clearly composed as a complete set of instructions, even if it does not contain the same kind of detailed instructions on the practices of the generation and completion stages that we find in The Secret Siddhi. With the exception of his important chapter on performing the consecration rite, Anaṅgavajra focuses primarily on the proper understanding of “ultimate reality” (tattva). This is where, particularly in the first and fourth chapters of his text, we find Anaṅgavajra composing verses that might just as easily be found in some of the much later, Tibetan works on Mahāmudrā.
Indrabhūti’s Gnosis Siddhi is by far one of the most complex of The Seven Siddhi Texts, both in terms of the content of the text itself and in terms of the transmission of its Sanskrit and Tibetan witnesses. The Gnosis Siddhi is composed in a more formal, scholastic style than any of the other works in this corpus. It opens by outlining some of the primary arguments and topics addressed in the work before launching into six chapters refuting a series of misunderstandings of the nature of ultimate reality (tattva) and the way that one comes to realize that ultimate reality through meditation practice. Chapters two through four of Indrabhūti’s Gnosis Siddhi contain critical information on precisely why the ultimate reality of union as a deity mandala must arise spontaneously, and why it is neither acceptable to argue that gnosis possesses or does not possess mental images (ākāra). Indrabhūti then provides four more chapters discussing and refuting various misconceptions about cultivating realization of ultimate reality before providing a definitive statement on the nature of ultimate reality in chapter twelve of The Gnosis Siddhi. Perhaps one of the most important features of Indrabhūti’s text is his insistence on providing scriptural references to support his arguments for the proper understanding of gnosis and ultimate reality. Chapter fifteen of The Gnosis Siddhi thus contains a wealth of data on the scriptures that formed part of Indrabhūti’s own practical canon. Foremost among these scriptural sources is undoubtedly The Higher Tantra of Shaṃvara, the Illusory Net of Ḍākinīs in Union with All the Buddhas (Sarvabuddhasamāy ogaḍākinījālaśaṃvarottaratantra) from which Indrabhūti borrows several passages in their entirety, and which provides the basis for his own assertion of an enlightened epistemology of mutual pervasion that characterizes the way that enlightened beings understand and perceive reality.
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The first English-language translation (with rich historical introduction and extensive annotation) of a key group of Indian Buddhist tantric texts that have had profound influence on the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The Seven Siddhi Texts is a key collection of Indian Buddhist tantric exegetical treatises that have shaped the interpretation of unexcelled yoga tantra and Mahāmudrā (Great Seal) practice in Tibet from the eighth century ce to the present. The scholar-yogi authors of these seven texts—drawing upon their scriptural knowledge and personal insight—clarify the intended meanings underlying cryptic, seemingly antinomian passages in root tantras such as the Esoteric Community Tantra (Guhyasamāja-tantra) pertaining to sex, violence, and magical powers, which have proved controversial for many traditional and modern scholars.
