What is Chod practice? Attributed to the great Tibetan Yogini Machig Labdron

 

What is Chod practice?

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 a tantric feast in order to put their understanding of emptiness to the ultimate test.

The Tibetan word “Chod” means “to cut off” or “to slay.” The traditional practice of chod cuts off self-cherishing and grasping at a truly existent “I.” It creates the conditions under which one can develop the mind of conventional bodhichitta, which holds others as more dear than oneself, and the mind of ultimate bodhichitta, which sees reality as it truly is.

Attributed to the great Tibetan Yogini Machig Labdron, and the only practice that made its way back to India from Tibet, it is an extremely effective and quick Tantric method for attaining realizations of the path to enlightenment.

Chod is a spiritual practice found primarily in the Yundrung Bön tradition as well as in the Nyingma and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism (where it is classed as Anuttarayoga Tantra).

It's also known as "cutting through the ego, the practices are based on the Prajnaparamita or "Perfection of Wisdom" sutras, which expound the "emptiness" concept of Buddhist philosophy.

According to Mahayana Buddhists, emptiness is the ultimate wisdom of understanding that all things lack inherent existence. Chod combines Prajnaparamita philosophy with specific meditation methods and Tantric 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 a Tantric feast in order to put their understanding of emptiness to the ultimate test.

Key elements

Chod literally mean "cutting through". It cuts through hindrances and obscurations, sometimes called 'demons' or 'gods'. Examples of demons are ignorant, anger and, in particular, the dualism of perceiving the self as inherently meaningful, contrary to the Buddhist doctrine of anatta (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.

According to Machig Labdron, the main goal of chod 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.

When somebody tells you something that really hurts your mind, that is the most beneficial thing for your mind because it goes straight in your heart and touches your ego.

This is what shows you, like a mirror, like a teaching from the Buddha, one’s own mistaken thoughts, especially the ego; it shows that there is ego, and because there is ego, it hurts.

If there is no ego, then it would never hurt. When people say what your mistakes are, or say words which hurt you, that is the real Chöd practice. This is what makes you see your “I,” the emotional “I” – in Western psychological terms – the object of ignorance, the root of Samsara, which is holding this “I” as truly existent.

Normally one is not aware of this, but by doing the practice of Chöd, inviting the spirits, they create violence and it makes you see the “I,” the object of ignorance, the object to be refuted – the truly existent “I” – clearly. They show the “I” to you very clearly and then you are able to recognize that it is false, an object of ignorance; you are able to use your reasoning, logical reasoning, that the “I” doesn’t exist because it is a dependant arising, or merely imputed. 

It is merely imputed relating to the aggregates, the base, etc. There are so many other reasonings you can use. You recognize the object to be refuted at that minute. That it is what doesn’t exist at all; it is totally non-existent. 

Chod, like all Tantric systems, has outer, inner and secret aspects. They are described in an evocation sung to Nyama Paldabum by Milarepa:

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.

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* Footnote 

For those who had received the empowerment of this Tantric practice, you are reminded not intentionally or unintentionally to disclose the mantra to the public or anyone who may not have the empowerment or permission to practice, and by disclosing the mantra intentionally or unintentionally is a form of breaking your Tantric Samaya vows to the lineage masters and Dharma protectors. 

Please consult your Guru or a qualified lineage master for Vajrayana practice! Should a devotee even want to start studying and contemplating the Vajrayana practice, then it is truly necessary to first have completed the preliminaries and to be certain and sure that Bodhicitta has arisen and developed in one’s mind.

Vajrayana features countless skillful and powerful methods which, if they are practiced in the proper way, can make the process of accumulation and purification incredibly swift and direct. It is absolutely necessary to have the pure motivation and to know that Vajrayana practice is not carried out to increase one’s own ego, power and self-interests.

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

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