Mahāmudrā (Sanskrit; Tibetan: ཕྱག་ཆེན་, Wylie: phyag chen, THL: chag-chen, contraction of Tibetan: ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་, Wylie: phyag rgya chen po, THL: chag-gya chen-po) literally means “great seal” or “great imprint” and refers to the fact that “all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable”

Mahāmudrā is a multivalent term of great importance in later Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism which “also occurs occasionally in Hindu and East Asian Buddhist esotericism

“The name also refers to a body of teachings representing the culmination of all the practices of the Sarma schools of Tibetan Buddhism, who believe it to be the quintessential message of all of their sacred texts

The mudra portion denotes that in an adept’s experience of reality, each phenomenon appears vividly, and the maha portion refers to the fact that it is beyond concept, imagination, and projection

The practice of Mahāmudrā is also known as the teaching called “Sahajayoga” or “Co-emergence Yoga”

In Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the Kagyu school, this is sometimes seen as a different Buddhist vehicle (yana), the “Sahajayana” (Tibetan: lhen chig kye pa), also known as the vehicle of self-liberation