Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod (Expanded Edition)

by Sarah Harding

Overview

Fear, anger, and negativity are states that each of us have to contend with. Machik's Complete Explanation, the most famous book of the teachings of Machik Lapdrön, the great female saint and yogini of eleventh- to twelfth-century Tibet, addresses these issues in a practical, direct way.

Machik developed a system, the Mahamudra Chöd, that takes the Buddha's teachings as a basis and applies them to the immediate experiences of negative mind states and malignant forces. Her unique feminine approach is to invoke and nurture the very "demons" that we fear and hate, transforming those reactive emotions into love. It is the tantric version of developing compassion and fearlessness, a radical method of cutting through ego-fixation.

This expanded edition includes Machik Lapdrön's earliest known teaching, the original source text for the tradition, The Great Bundle of Precepts on Severance (Chöd). This pithy set of instructions reveals that the teachings of the perfection of wisdom are the true inspiration for Chöd. It is beautifully clarified in a short commentary by Rangjung Dorje, the Third Karmapa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781559394147
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	05/14/2013
Series:	Tsadra , #11
Edition description:	Expanded
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	700,775
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Sarah Harding has been a Tibetan Buddhist translator and practitioner since 1974. She became a student of the late master Kalu Rinpoche, and in 1980, she completed the traditional three-year retreat under his guidance. Since then, she has been a teacher and translator. Her publications include Machik's Complete Explanation, The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Eight, and The Life and Revelations of Pema Lingpa. She is a fellow at the Tsadra Foundation and has been on the faculty of Naropa University for nearly twenty years.

Table of Contents

Foreword Thrangu Rinpoche 9

Acknowledgments 11

Preface 13

Introduction 21

Machik's Complete Explanation: The Translation

1 Training 57

Previous Life in India 57

Her Birthplace, Parents, and Birth 59

Childhood 63

Life as a Recitation Chaplain with Lama Drapa 65

First Meeting with Dampa Sangye 66

Meeting with Sönam Lama 67

Empowerment 69

Other Masters 72

Teachings from Dampa Sangye 72

Synopsis 75

2 Maturity 77

Meeting Töpa Bhadra 77

Empowerment from Sönam Lama 81

Empowerment from Dampa 83

The Red House of Copper Mountain 84

Encounter with Tara 86

Tönyön Samdrup 89

The Inquisition of the Indian Panditas 93

Machiks Teachings and Transmissions 98

3 The Questions of Tönyön Samdrup 103

How Tönyön Perceives Machik 106

How She Emanates 107

The Five Degenerations 107

The Specialness of Chöd 109

About Mahamudra 114

4 The Questions of Gangpa Muksang 117

The Four Devils 117

When to Sever Them 121

Six Kinds of Gods and Demons 123

Evidence of Success at Severance 133

5 Tönyön's Questions on Chöd 137

Giving Rise to the Resolve for Enlightenment and Gathering the Guests 140

Meditating on the Objects of Refuge, Training the Mind in the Four Immeasurables, and Inviting the Field of Accumulation 144

Paying Homage with the Eight Branches and Making Offerings 153

Separating Body and Mind (powa) and Offering the Mandala 156

Supplicating and Bringing Down Blessings 162

Offering the Body and Giving It in Charity 163

Concluding with the Dedication, Prayers, and Dissolution 181

6 The Questions of Gyenema 185

Death and Dying 185

Divisions of the Body 189

Outer and Inner Gods and Demons 195

Characteristics of the Body 196

The Syllables Ha, Hung, and P'e 203

7 The Questions of Chökyi Senge 205

The Ten Obligations 205

Dress Styles of Chöd 207

Identifying Local Spirits 212

Size and Quantities in the Chöd Visualizations 214

Uprisings, Apparitions, Evidence of Success, and Evidence of Severance 217

The Common and Uncommon Evidence of Success 221

8 The Question of Jetsun Zilnön 231

Outer and Inner Apparitions of Spirits 231

General Apparitions 247

Special Occurrences 250

9 The Questions of Sönam Gyen 253

Future Corruption of State Law 253

10 More Questions of Sönam Gyen 261

Future Deterioration of Religious Ethics 261

The Future of Chöd 271

Colophon 282

The Great Bundle of Precepts on Severance with Commentary

Introduction to Machik's Great Bundle of Precepts 285

The Great Bundle of Precepts: The Source Esoteric Instruction on Severance, the Profound Perfection of Wisdom 287

The Great Bundle of Precepts on Severance Outline 303

Complete Explanation of Severance 307

Abbreviations Used in Notes 327

Notes 329

Glossary 373

Bibliography 383

Index 391

What People are Saying About This

"Sarah Harding's masterful translation is a real gift to students of Chöd and this extraordinary woman teacher. It provides much new material, including intimate question-and-answer sessions between Machik and her disciples. The translation has such a fresh, living quality, you almost feel you are receiving teachings directly from Machik Labdron herself."—Tsultrim Allione, author of Women of Wisdom and founder of the Tara Mandala Retreat Center

"In this remarkable work, Sarah Harding has combined her well-honed translation skills with her own practice experience to give us the most complete, detailed, lucid, and well-contextualized study to date of the meaning and practice of Machik's Chöd."—Jan Willis, author of Dreaming Me

"An important contribution to an understanding of Tibet's most innovative female saint, revealing her vast diversity of teachings that place Chöd squarely in the mainstream of tantric Buddhist meditation. Harding's translation deftly reveals new and rare biographical, anatomical, philosophic, and meditative lore essential to understanding the tradition as a whole."—Judith Simmer-Brown, professor at Naropa University and author of Dakini's Warm Breath

"Sarah Harding's magnificent translation of this key work of Machik Labkyi Dronma, Tibet's most famous yogini, opens up for Western practitioners the startling world of Chöd practice: severing the devil of ego-fixation. This meditation manual explains how the rich symbology of tantric yoga can be used in a disturbingly effective way to transform one's life."—Stephen Batchelor, author of Buddhism without Beliefs

"It is a very welcome addition to the literature on Tibetan Buddhism in Western languages, opening up the inner world of a fascinating and significant mode of spiritual practice in a way that is respectful, humorous, and true to the tradition it presents."—The Middle Way

"To experienced practitioners, the Tsadra Foundation Series is more precious than gold dust."—Tricycle

Editorial Reviews

"Sarah Harding's masterful translation is a real gift to students of Chöd and this extraordinary woman teacher. It provides much new material, including intimate question-and-answer sessions between Machik and her disciples. The translation has such a fresh, living quality, you almost feel you are receiving teachings directly from Machik Labdron herself."—Tsultrim Allione, author of Women of Wisdom and founder of the Tara Mandala Retreat Center

"In this remarkable work, Sarah Harding has combined her well-honed translation skills with her own practice experience to give us the most complete, detailed, lucid, and well-contextualized study to date of the meaning and practice of Machik's Chöd."—Jan Willis, author of Dreaming Me

"An important contribution to an understanding of Tibet's most innovative female saint, revealing her vast diversity of teachings that place Chöd squarely in the mainstream of tantric Buddhist meditation. Harding's translation deftly reveals new and rare biographical, anatomical, philosophic, and meditative lore essential to understanding the tradition as a whole."—Judith Simmer-Brown, professor at Naropa University and author of Dakini's Warm Breath

"Sarah Harding's magnificent translation of this key work of Machik Labkyi Dronma, Tibet's most famous yogini, opens up for Western practitioners the startling world of Chöd practice: severing the devil of ego-fixation. This meditation manual explains how the rich symbology of tantric yoga can be used in a disturbingly effective way to transform one's life."—Stephen Batchelor, author of Buddhism without Beliefs

"It is a very welcome addition to the literature on Tibetan Buddhism in Western languages, opening up the inner world of a fascinating and significant mode of spiritual practice in a way that is respectful, humorous, and true to the tradition it presents."—The Middle Way


"To experienced practitioners, the Tsadra Foundation Series is more precious than gold dust."—Tricycle

From the Publisher