This chapter focuses on the conclusion of the practice manual, specifically addressing how to enhance and refine one’s Mahamudra meditation practice. The teaching covers several critical areas:

Places of Loss and Deviation The text identifies potential pitfalls that can derail practice. The most significant “places of loss” are:

• Confusing intellectual understanding with direct experience – problematic but not dangerous
• Developing a nihilistic view of emptiness – extremely dangerous, where one concludes that nothing matters because everything is empty (called “carrying emptiness around in your mouth”)

“Places of deviation” occur when practitioners become attached to meditation experiences like bliss, clarity, or no-thought states, which can sidetrack progress.

Balanced Integration The chapter emphasizes the importance of integrating complementary aspects of practice:

• Compassion and Emptiness: Neither should be cultivated in isolation
• Method (Upaya) and Wisdom (Prajna): Accumulating merit must be balanced with direct insight
• Tranquility and Insight: Stability and investigation must support each other

Practical Guidance The text stresses that meditation experiences, including visions, are neither special nor dangerous – they’re simply byproducts of working directly with mind. The primary goals are stability and lucidity, not extraordinary experiences.

The chapter concludes with instructions for using this text as a practical guide, comparing one’s actual experience stage-by-stage with the book’s prescriptions, while suggesting additional study of Dakpo Tashi Namgyal’s “Moonbeams of Mahamudra” for theoretical background.

This represents sophisticated guidance for avoiding common meditation pitfalls while maintaining balanced, integrated practice.