Sources

The Chod practice in Tibet has antecedents in India, though no actual Indian practice manual has yet been identified in Tibetan translation. Four currents are mentioned by Tibetan historians;54 the one associated with Dampa Sangye

(eleventh-twelfth centuries) has by far the most direct connection with Chod as it is practiced today. Pa Dampa Sangye was a great . saint from South India and is considered the founder of the tradition known as Dukngel Zhije (sdug bsngulzhi byedf “Pacification of Suffering.”” Dampa Sangye’s uncle and one of his teachers was Aryadeva the

Brahmin, the author of a poem usually cited as another main source of Machik’s Chod. Dampa and Machik made contact during his third visit to Tibet, and it is clear from the account translated here' that they held each other in the greatest esteem. Machik received some teachings from him, although it is not certain if these included the specific

teachings on Chod.” These she may have received through her main spiritual master Kyoton Sonam Lama, who in turn had received them from Dampa. With only the little-known Sonam Lama as an intermediary, Dampa is thus often credited as the originator of modern Chod, and it is often classified as an adjunct of Zhije

Although no Chod texts were known to be authored by Dampa Sangye, Aryadeva’s poem provides many hints on the terms and ideas of Chod that have come down from Indian traditions. The definition of the word Chod (severance, cutting), for instance, is quoted in The Religious History of Zhije and Chod (though attributed there to Machik herself) as follows:

To sever the root of mind itself,

And sever the five toxic emotions

And sever extreme views, disturbed meditation

And hopes and fears about results in activity— To sever all inflation—

That is the definition of “severance.”


The author of this history, Kamnyon Jigdral Chokyi Senge, has added this comment::

Thus, the inflation of both subject and object, that which is to be severed and that which does the severing, is severed by the transcendent knowledge of realizing its unreality, and therefore it is called Severance. The important points of the path according to that and the important points about the way it is enacted and practiced are taught in the sutras and tantras in general, and specifically can be found in the source texts of Chod and in the lama’s instructions.”

These are the Indian sources. The other main “source text” is Machik’s own composition, The Great Bundle of Precepts, which she insists is based upon actual precepts of the Buddha (chapter o). But there is no question that it was

Machik who developed the particular system in Tibet known as “Severance of Evil Object” [[[bdud]] kyi gcodyut) or “Chod of Mahamudra.” Numerous texts are attributed to her: ten principal texts are mentioned in this book as well as other

compositions. Her long life of active dissemination of this system caused it to flourish far and wide, such that its popularity has hardly waned for nine hundred years!

Three main currents are usually identified in Machik’s Chod: the “sutra tradition,” including the influence of the prajnaparamita and the transmissions from Dampa Sangye; the “tantra tradition” incorporated from the transmission

directly from Tara, including the teachings on creation and completion; and the “Combination Sutra Tantra”: Machik’s own synthesis.59 With these sources, then, Chod is classified as a combination of the methods and practices from both sutras and tantras, as Kongtrul affirms:

Currently famous, this unbroken tradition of ripening and liberating instructions [has] the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras as the scriptural source of its view, and the various methods which distinguish the mantra yana]. [Therefore] it is accepted as the combination of sutric and tantric realization.60

Some aspects of Chod, whether from Indian sources or Machik’s own syncretic system, obviously contain elements that can be identified with traditional shamanism. Given the adaptive nature of Buddhism, it would be surprising and '

disappointing if this were not the case. One shamanic element, for example, is that of contact with the spirit world and its connection to healing. More interestingly, the act of ritually envisioned dissection of one’s body may have

parallels in certain forms of shamanism/’ On the other hand, the offering of the body as an act of supreme generosity also has many well-known precedents in Buddhism, such as the Buddha’s gift of his body to the hungry

tigress in a previous life/o and the story of Sadaprarudita in The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines Although the practitioner is often warned not to actually attempt such bodily sacrifice, the visualized offering in Chod practice is close enough that the Tibetan sources almost always mention these Indian precedents to verify the authenticity of Chod, as does Machik herself. She asks:

Are dharma practitioners nowadays unaware of the fact that previously the Buddha Sakyamuni actually gave away without hesitation his head, limbs, appendages, and anything that anyone desired? Or are they aware but say “these days it isn’t necessary” and ignore the Buddha’s paradigm? (chapter 7)

Other elements of Chod practice can also be found both in so-called shamanic practices and in Indian Buddhist sources. These include the practice of separating mind and body in ejecting consciousness (powa), the use of the hand drum and human bones, ritual feasting, the dances, and the complex offerings. Most of all, the incorporation of a

whole set of indigenous spirits commingling with those transferred from Buddhism indicate that Chod is truly a Tibetan Buddhist system. That is to say, it is virtually impossible to separate out what might have been pre existing

elements and those of Buddhist origins, especially since all of it has been fully imbued with Buddhist intent. And for the practitioner, there is little benefit in doing so.