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Chöd (Tibetan:གཅོད,Wylie:gcod lit. 'to sever'[1]) is a spiritual practice found primarily in the YundrungBön tradition as well as in theNyingma andKagyu schools ofTibetan Buddhism (where it is classed asAnuttarayoga Tantra in Kagyu andAnuyoga in Nyingma).[2] Also known as "cutting through the ego,"[3] the practices are based on thePrajñāpāramitā or "Perfection of Wisdom" sutras, which expound the "emptiness" concept ofBuddhist philosophy.
According toMahayana Buddhists, emptiness is the ultimate wisdom of understanding that all things lack inherent existence. Chöd combines prajñāpāramitā philosophy with specific meditation methods andtantric ritual. The chod practitioner seeks to tap the power of fear through activities such as rituals set in graveyards, and visualisation of offering their bodies in atantric feast in order to put their understanding of emptiness to the ultimate test.[4]
Tibetan:གཅོད་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་,Wylie:gcod sgrub thabs andSanskritchedasādhanā both literally mean "cutting practice". InStandard Tibetan (the prestige dialect associated with Buddhism that is based on the speech ofLhasa), the pronunciation ofgcod is[tɕøː].
Chöd literally means "cutting through". It cuts throughhindrances and obscurations, sometimes called 'demons' or 'gods'. Examples of demons areignorance,anger and, in particular, thedualism of perceiving the self as inherently meaningful, contrary to the Buddhist doctrine ofanatta (non-self). This is done in a powerful meditative ritual which includes "a stunning array of visualizations, song, music, and prayer, it engages every aspect of one’s being and effects a powerful transformation of the interior landscape."[5]
According toJamgön Kongtrül, chöd involves "accepting willingly what is undesirable, throwing oneself defiantly into unpleasant circumstances, realising that gods and demons are one’s own mind, and ruthlessly severing self-centered arrogance through an understanding of the sameness of self and others."[6]
According toMachig Labdrön, the main goal of chöd is cutting through ego clinging:
What we call devils are not materially existing individuals . . . . A devil means anything which hinders us in our achievement of liberation. Consequently, even kind and loving friends and companions may become devils as far as liberation is concerned. In particular, there is no greater devil than this present ego-clinging, and because of this all the devils will rear their ugly heads as long as one has not severed this clinging to ego.[7]
Dzogchen forms of chöd enable the practitioner to maintainrigpa, primordial awareness free from fear. Here, the chöd ritual essentialises elements ofphowa,gaṇacakra,pāramitā,lojong,[8]pure illusory body,mandala,brahmavihāra,luminous mind, andtonglen.[9]
In most versions of thesādhanā, the mindstream precipitates into aSaṃbhogakāya simulacrum ofVajrayoginī. Insaṃbhogakāya attained through visualization, the sādhaka offers a gaṇachakra of their own physical body to the "four" guests: theThree Jewels,dakinis,dharmapalas and beings of thebhavachakra, the ever-presentlokapala and thepretas. The rite may be protracted with separate offerings to eachmaṇḍala of guests, or significantly abridged. Many versions of the chod sādhana still exist.[10]
Chöd, like all tantric systems, has outer, inner and secret aspects. They are described in anevocation sung to Nyama Paldabum byMilarepa:
External chod is to wander in fearful places where there are deities and demons. Internal chod is to offer one's own body as food to the deities and demons. Ultimate chod is to realize the true nature of the mind and cut through the fine strand of hair of subtle ignorance. I am the yogi who has these three kinds of chod practice.[8]
Vajrayogini is a key figure in the advanced practice of chöd, where she appears in her Kālikā (Wylie:khros ma nag mo) orVajravārāhī (Wylie:rdo rje phag mo) forms. The practices of Tröma Nagmo "Extremely Wrathful Black Mother" associated with the Dakini Tröma Nagmo (the black form of Vajrayogini) were also propagated by Machig Labdrön. One of the forms of this style of chöd can be found in theDudjom Tersar lineage.[citation needed]
Chöd is now a staple of the advancedsādhana of Tibetan Buddhism. It is practiced worldwide following dissemination by theTibetan diaspora.[citation needed]
A form of chöd was practiced in India by Buddhistmahāsiddhas prior to the 10th century.[11][page needed] The two practices of chöd in Buddhism and inBön are distinct lineages.[2]
There are two main chöd traditions within Buddhism, the "Mother" and "Father" lineages.Dampa Sangye is known as the "Father of Chöd" andMachig Labdrön, founder of the Mahamudra chödlineages, as the "Mother of Chöd".
Bön traces the origin of chöd to theSecret Mother Tantra, the seventh of the Nine Vehicles of Bön practice. There are four distinct styles of chöd practice.[2]
Chöd developed outside the monastic system. It was subsequently adopted by the monastic lineages. As an internalization of an outer ritual, chöd involves a form of self-sacrifice: the practitioner visualizes their own body as the offering at aganachakra. These two qualities are represented iconographically by thevictory banner and theritual knife. The banner symbolizes overcoming obstacles and the knife symbolizes cutting through the ego. The practitioner may cultivate imaginary fearful or painful situations since they help the practitioner's work of cutting through attachment to the self. Machig Labdrön said, "To consider adversity as a friend is the instruction of Chöd".[12]
Sarat Chandra Das, writing at the turn of the 20th century, equated the chöd practitioner (Tibetan:གཅོད་པ,Wylie:gcod pa) with the Indianavadhūta, or "mad saint".[13]Avadhūtas, callednyönpa in Tibetan Buddhism, are renowned for expressing their spiritual understanding through "crazy wisdom" inexplicable to ordinary people. Chöd practitioners are a particularly respected type of mad saint, feared and/or held in awe due to their roles as denizens of thecharnel ground. According totibetologist Jérôme Édou, chod practitioners were often associated with the role ofshaman andexorcist.
The Chö[d]pa's very lifestyle on the fringe of society - dwelling in the solitude of burial grounds and haunted places, added to the mad behavior and contact with the world of darkness and mystery - was enough for credulous people to view the chödpa in a role usually attributed to shamans and other exorcists, an assimilation which also happened to medieval European shepherds. Only someone who has visited one of Tibet's charnel fields and witnessed the offering of a corpse to the vultures may be able to understand the full impact of what the chöd tradition refers to as places that inspire terror.[14]
In chöd, the adept symbolically offers the flesh of their body in a form ofgaṇacakra or tantric feast.Iconographically, the skin of the practitioner's body may represent surface reality ormaya. It is cut from bones that represent the true reality of themindstream. Commentators have pointed out the similarities between the chöd ritual and the prototypicalinitiation of ashaman, although one writer identifies an essential difference between the two in that the shaman's initiation is involuntary while a chodpa chooses to undertake the ritual death of a chod ceremony.[15] Traditionally, chöd is regarded as challenging, potentially dangerous and inappropriate for some practitioners.[16]
Practitioners of the chöd ritual,chödpa, use akangling or human thighbone trumpet, achöd drum, a hand drum similar to but larger than theḍamaru commonly used in Tibetan ritual, and a bell (ghanta). In a version of the chödsādhanā ofJigme Lingpa from theLongchen Nyingthig, fiveritual knives are employed to demarcate themaṇḍala of the offering and to affix thefive wisdoms.[9]
Key to the iconography of chöd is thekartikā (Tibetan:གྲི་གུ,་སྐྱི་གྲི,Wylie:gri gu, skyi gri), a half-moon blade knife for skinning an animal and forscraping hides. The practitioner symbolically uses a kartika to separate thebodymind from themindstream in ritual.[17]
Kartika imagery in chöd rituals provides the practitioner with an opportunity to realize Buddhist doctrine:
The kartika (Skt.) or curved knife symbolizes the cutting of conventional wisdom by the ultimate insight intoemptiness. It is usually present as a pair, together with theskullcup, filled with wisdom nectar. On a more simple level, the skull is a reminder of (our)impermanence. Between the knife and the handle is amakara-head, a mythical monster.[18]
Some sources have describedMachig Labdrön as the founder of the practice of chöd.[19] This is accurate in that she is the founder of the Tibetan Buddhist Mahamudrā chödlineages. Machig Labdrön is credited with providing the name "chöd" and developing unique approaches to the practice.[8] Biographies suggest it was transmitted to her via sources of the mahāsiddha and tantric traditions.[20] She did not found theDzogchen lineages, although they do recognize her, and she does not appear at all in the Bön chöd lineages.[20] Among the formative influences on Mahamudrā chöd wasDampa Sangye'sPacification of Suffering (Wylie:zhi byed).
There are severalhagiographic accounts of how chöd came to Tibet.[20] Onenamtar (spiritual biography) asserts that shortly afterKamalaśīla won his famous debate withMoheyan as to whether Tibet should adopt the "sudden" route to enlightenment or his "gradual" route, Kamalaśīla used the technique ofphowa to transfer hismindstream to animate a corpse polluted with contagion in order to safely move the hazard it presented. As the mindstream of Kamalaśīla was otherwise engaged, a mahasiddha by the name of Dampa Sangye came across the vacantkuten ('physical basis') of Kamalaśīla.[citation needed]
Padampa Sangye, was not karmically blessed with an aesthetic corporeal form, and upon finding the very handsome and healthy empty body of Kamalaśīla, which he assumed to be a newly dead fresh corpse, used phowa to transfer his own mindstream into Kamalaśīla's body. Padampa Sangye's mindstream in Kamalaśīla's body continued the ascent to the Himalaya and thereby transmitted the Pacification of Suffering teachings and the Indian form of chöd which contributed to the Mahamudra chöd of Machig Labdrön. The mindstream of Kamalaśīla was unable to return to his own body and so was forced to enter the vacant body of Padampa Sangye.[8][21]
Chöd was a marginal and peripheral practice, and the chödpas who engaged in it were from outside traditional Tibetan Buddhist and Indian monastic institutions, with a contraindication against all but the most advanced practitioners to go to thecharnel grounds to practice. Texts concerning chöd were both exclusive and rare in the early tradition school.[22] Indeed, due to the itinerant and nomadic lifestyles of practitioners, they could carry few texts. Hence they were also known askusulu orkusulupa, that is, studying texts rarely whilst focusing on meditation andpraxis: "The nonconventional attitude of living on the fringe of society kept the chödpas aloof from the wealthy monastic institutions and printing houses. As a result, the original chöd texts and commentaries, often copied by hand, never enjoyed any wide circulation, and many have been lost forever."[22]
Rangjung Dorje, 3rd Karmapa Lama, (1284–1339) was an important systematizer of chöd teachings and significantly assisted in their promulgation within the literary and practice lineages of the Kagyu, Nyingma, and particularly Dzogchen.[citation needed] It is in this transition from the charnel grounds to the monastic institutions of Tibetan Buddhism that the rite of chöd became an inner practice; the charnel ground became an internal imaginal environment. Schaeffer conveys that the Third Karmapa was a systematizer of the chöd developed by Machig Labdrön and lists a number of his works in Tibetan on chöd.[23] Among others, the works include redactions, outlines and commentaries.
Rang byung was renowned as a systematizer of the Gcod teachings developed by Ma gcig lab sgron. His texts on Gcod include theGcod kyi khrid yig; theGcod bka' tshoms chen mo'i sa bcad which consists of a topical outline of and commentary on Ma gcig lab sgron'sShes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa zab mo gcod kyi man ngag gi gzhung bka' tshoms chen mo; theTshogs las yon tan kun'byung; the lengthyGcod kyi tshogs las rin po che'i phren ba'don bsgrigs bltas chog tu bdod pa gcod kyi lugs sor bzhag; theMa lab sgron la gsol ba'deb pa'i mgur ma; theZab mo bdud kyi gcod yil kyi khrid yig, and finally theGcod kyi nyams len.[23]
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Historicically, chöd was mostly practised outside the Tibetan monastery system by chödpas, who are usuallyngakpas (yogis) andngakmas (yogiṇīs) rather thanbhikṣus andbhikṣuṇīs. Because of this, material on chöd has been less widely available to Western readers than some other tantric Buddhist practices.
The first Western reports of chöd came fromAlexandra David-Néel, a French adventurer who lived in Tibet. Her travelogueMagic and Mystery in Tibet, published in 1932, contains an account.Walter Evans-Wentz published the first translation of a chöd liturgy in his 1935 bookTibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines.
Anila Rinchen Palmo translated several essays about chöd in the 1987 collectionCutting Through Ego-Clinging: Commentary on the Practice of Tchod. Since then, Chöd has emerged more into the mainstream of both Western scholarly and academic writings.
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