As the Kagyu tradition tells it, mahamudra — ‘the great seal’ — points directly at the mind's own nature, aware and empty at once. Tilopa is held to have received it directly; it passed to Naropa, then through Marpa and Milarepa to Gampopa, who shaped it into a teaching for monks and yogis alike.
Why this is hard
Mahamudra names both a view and a path within Tibetan Buddhism, held most fully in the Kagyu lineage. The tradition traces it from Tilopa's direct realization, through Naropa's rigorous training, to Marpa the translator and the poet-yogi Milarepa. Gampopa, Milarepa's student, is remembered for weaving mahamudra together with monastic study, giving the Kagyu school its lasting shape.
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Tilopa is held as its first source.
Because the lineage traces mahamudra's direct transmission back to him, not to a text.
A teaching passed mouth to ear, the tradition says, before it was ever written down.
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Naropa trained under great hardship, the stories say.
Because the tradition remembers his years of trials as what prepared him to receive it.
A famous story of a student tested again and again before being taught.
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Marpa carried it from India into Tibet.
Because as a translator he's credited with bringing the transmission across the Himalayas himself.
Years of travel and study, remembered as the price of carrying a teaching home.
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Milarepa is remembered as its living proof.
Because his life is told as a hard path from wrongdoing to realization through practice.
A cave, a simple diet, and songs the tradition still teaches from today.
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Gampopa gave it a lasting form.
Because he joined mahamudra with monastic training, and from that the Kagyu school took shape.
A yogi's direct pointing, folded into a structure students could actually enter.
The practice
If mahamudra interests you, sit for a minute and simply notice the mind that's noticing — without trying to change what it finds. The tradition holds that this direct looking is the beginning of the path, though it also says the fuller instruction is given by a teacher, not read from a page.
The tradition calls it a seal because nothing more needs to be added. Whether that's so is what the practice is for.
Mahamudra lineage in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism