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Chd - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chd (Tibetan: , Wylie: gcod lit. 'to sever'[1]), is a spiritual practice found primarily inTibetan Buddhism. Also known as "Cutting Through the Ego,"[2] the practice is based on the Prajpramit or "Perfection of Wisdom" sutras which expound the "emptiness" concept of buddhist philosophy. According to Mahayanabuddhists, emptiness is the ultimate wisom of understanding that all things lack inherent existence. Chod combines prajpramit 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.[3]
Contents [hide] 1 Nomenclature, orthography and etymology 2 Indian Antecedents 2.1 Chdpa as 'Mad Saints' 3 Iconography 3.1 Ritual objects 3.2 Bone ornaments 4 Origins of the practice 4.1 The transmission of Chd to Tibet 4.2 Third Karmapa: systematizer of Chd 5 Key elements of the Practice 6 Western reports on Chd practices 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Further reading 9.1 Primary Sources 9.2 Secondary Sources 10 External links

Nomenclature, orthography and etymology

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(Tibetan: gcod sgrub thabs ; Sanskrit: cheda-sdhana; both literally "cutting practice"), pronounced ch (the d is silent).

Indian Antecedents

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...Chd was never a unique, monolithic tradition. One should really speak of Chd traditions and lineages since Chd has never constituted a school.[4]

A form of Chd was practiced in India by Buddhist mahsiddhas , prior to the 10th Century.[5]However, Chd as practiced today developed from the entwined traditions of the early Indian tantric practices transmitted to Tibet and the Bonpo[citation needed] and Tibetan BuddhistVajrayna[citation needed] lineages. Besides the Bonpo, there are two main Tibetan Buddhist Chd traditions, the "Mother" and "Father" lineages. In Tibetan tradition, Dampa Sangye is known as the Father of Chd and Machig Labdron, founder of the Mahmudra Chd lineages, as the Mother of Chd. Chd developed outside the monastic system. It was subsequently adopted by the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Chd, as an internalization of an outer ritual, involves a form of self-sacrifice: the practitioner visualizes their own body as the offering at a tantric feast. The purpose of the practice is to engender a sense of victory and fearlessness.[citation needed] These two qualities are represented iconographically by the victory banner and the ritual knife. The banner symbolizes overcoming obstacles and the knife symbolizes cutting through the ego. The
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practitioner may cultivate imaginary fearful or painful situations since they help the practitioner's work of cutting through attachment to the self. Machig Labdrn said: "To consider adversity as a friend is the instruction of Chd".[6]

Chdpa as 'Mad Saints'

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Sarat Chandra Das, writing at the turn of the 20th Century, equated the Chd practitioner (Tibetan: , Wylie: chod [7] pa) with the Indian avadhta, or 'mad saint'. Avadhtas are renowned for expressing their spiritual understanding through 'crazy wisdom', inexplicable to ordinary people. Chd practitioners are a type of Mad Saint particularly respected, feared or held in awe due to their roles as denizens of the charnel ground. According to tibetologistJerome Edou Chod practitioners were often associated with the role of shaman and exorcist: "The Ch[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 Chdpa 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 Chd tradition refers to as places that inspire terror."[8]

Iconography

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In Chd, the adept symbolically offers the flesh of their body in a form of gaacakra or tantric feast.Iconographically, the skin of the practitioner's body may represent surface reality or maya. It is cut from bones that represent the true reality of the mindstream. Commentators such as Tsultrim Allione have pointed out the similarities between the Chd ritual and the prototypical initiation of ashaman, although she identifies an essential difference between the two in that the shaman's initiation is involuntary whilst a Chodpa chooses to undertake the ritual death of a Chod ceremony.[9] Traditionally, Chd is regarded as challenging, potentially dangerous and inappropriate for some practitioners.[10]

Ritual objects

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Practitioners of the Chd ritual, Chdpa, use ak angling or human thighbone trumpet, and a Chd drum, a hand drum similar to but larger than theamaru commonly used in Tibetan ritual. In a version of the Chd sdhana of Jigme Lingpa from the Longchen Nyingthig terma, five ritual knives (phurbas ), are employed to demarcate themaala of the offering and to affix the five wisdoms.[11] Key to the iconography of Chd is the hooked knife or skin flail (k artik a). Tibetan Board Carving of Vajrayogini A flail is an agricultural tool used for threshing to separate grains from Dakini their husks. Similarly, the k artik asymbolically separates the bodymind from the mindstream.[12] The k artik a imagery in the Chd ritual 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 into emptiness. It is usually present as a pair, together with the skullcup, filled with wisdom nectar. On a more simple level, the skull is a reminder of (our) impermanence. Between the knife and the handle is a makara-head, a mythical monster.[13]

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Bone ornaments

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A recurrent theme in the iconography of the Tibetan Buddhist tantras is a group of five or six bone ornaments [14] ornamenting the bodies of various enlightened beings who appear in the texts. The Sanskrit includes the term mudr, meaning "seal".[15] The Hevajra tantraassociates the bone ornaments directly with the five wisdoms, which also appear as the Five Dhyani Buddhas. These are explained in a commentary to the Hevajra tantra by Jamgn Kongtrul:[16] the wheel-like[17] crown ornament (sometimes called "crown jewel"),[18] symbolic ofAkobhya and mirror-like pristine awareness [19] the earrings [20] representing Amitbha and the pristine awareness of discernment[21] the necklace[22] symbolizing Ratnasambhva and the pristine awareness of total sameness [23] the bracelets [24] and anklets [25] symbolic of Vairocna and the pristine awareness of the ultimate dimension of phenomena[26] the girdle[27] symbolizing Amoghasiddhi and the accomplishing pristine awareness [28] The sixth ornament sometimes referred to is ash from a cremation ground smeared on the body.[29]

Origins of the practice

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Sources such as Stephen Beyer have described Machig Labdrn as the founder of the practice of Chd.[30] This is accurate in that she is the founder of the Tibetan BuddhistMahamudr Chd lineages. Machig Labdrn is credited with providing the name "Chd" and developing unique approaches to the practice.[31] Biographies suggest it was transmitted to her via sources of the mahsiddha and Tantric traditions.[5] She did not found the Dzogchenlineages, although they do recognize her, and she does not appear at all in the Bn Chd lineages.[5] Among the formative influences on Mahamudr Chd was Dampa Sangye's 'Pacification of Suffering'.[32]

The transmission of Chd to Tibet

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There are several hagiographic accounts of how Chd came to Tibet.[5] One spiritual biography asserts that shortly after Kamalala won his famous debate with Moheyan as to whether Tibet should adopt the "sudden" route to enlightenment or his "gradual" route, Kamalala used the technique of phowa to transfer his mindstream to animate a corpse polluted with contagion in order to safely move the hazard it presented. As the mindstream of Kamalala was otherwise engaged, a mahasiddha by the name of Padampa Sangye came across the vacant "physical basis"[33] of Kamalala. Padampa Sangye, was not karmically blessed with an aesthetic corporeal form, and upon finding the very handsome and healthy empty body of Kamalala, which he assumed to be a newly dead fresh corpse, used phowa to transfer his own mindstream into Kamalala's body. Padampa Sangye's mindstream in Kamalala's body continued the ascent to the Himalaya and thereby transmitted the Pacification of Suffering teachings and the Indian form of Chd which contributed to the Mahamudra Chd of Machig Labdrn. The mindstream of Kamalala was unable to return to his own body and so was forced to enter the vacant body of Padampa Sangye.[34][35] This article/section is written like a an academic, not encyclopaedic account rather than an encyclopedic description of the subject. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (February 2010)

Third Karmapa: systematizer of Chd

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Chd was a marginal and peripheral practice, and the Chodpas 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 the cemeteries to practice Chod. Texts concerning Chod were both exclusivie and rare in the
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early tradition.school.[36] Indeed, due to the itinerant and nomadic lifestyles of practitioners, they could carry few texts. Hence they were also known as k usulu or k usulupa that is, studying texts rarely whilst focusing on meditation and praxis: The nonconventional attitude of living on the fringe of society kept the Chdpas aloof from the wealthy monastic institutions and printing houses. As a result, the original Chd texts and commentaries, often copied by hand, never enjoyed any wide circulation, and many have been lost forever.[36] Rangjung Dorje, 3rd Karmapa Lama, (12841339) was an important systematizer of Chd 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 Chd became an inner practice; the charnel ground became an internal imaginal environment. Schaeffer[37] conveys that the Third Karmapa was a systematizer of the Chd developed by Machig Labdrn and lists a number of his works in Tibetan on Chd. Amongst 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 the Gcod k yi k hrid yig; theGcod bk a' tshoms chen mo'i sa bcad which consists of a topical outline of and commentary on Ma gcig lab sgron's Shes rab k yi pha rol tu phyin pa zab mo gcod k yi man ngag gi gzhung bk a' tshoms chen mo ; the Tshogs las yon tan k un 'byung ; the lengthy Gcod k yi tshogs las rin po che'i phrenb ba 'don bsgrigs bltas chog tu bdod pa gcod k yi lugs sor bzhag; the Ma lab sgron la gsol ba 'deb pa'i mgur ma; the Zab mo bdud k yi gcod yil k yi k hrid yig, and finally the Gcod k yi nyams len.[38]

Key elements of the Practice

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Chd literally means "cutting through". It cuts through hindrances and obscurations, sometimes called 'demons' or 'gods'. Examples of demons are ignorance, anger and, in particular, the dualism of perceiving the self as inherently meaningful, contrary to the Buddhist doctrine of no-self. The practitioner is fully immersed in the ritual: "With a stunning array of visualizations, song, music, and prayer, it engages every aspect of ones being and effects a powerful transformation of the interior landscape."[39] Dzogchen forms of Chd enable the practitioner to maintain primordial awareness free from fear. Here, the Chd ritual essentialises elements of phowa, gaacak ra, pramit andlojong[40] gyulu, k yil k hor, brahmavihra, sel and tonglen.[41] Chd usually commences with phowa in which the practitioner visualises their mindstream as the five pure lights leaving the body through the aperture of the sahasrara at the top of the head. This is said to ensure psychic integrity of, and compassion for the practitioner of the rite (sdhak a).[citation needed] In most versions of the sdhana the mindstream precipitates into a tulpa simulacrum of Vajrayogin. In the body of enjoyment attained through visualization, the chodpa offers the tantric feast of their own physical body, to the 'four' guests: the three jewels, the dakinis, the protectors' beings of the bhavachak ra, the ever present genius loci and hungry ghosts . The rite may be protracted with separate offerings to each maala of guests, or significantly abridged. Many versions of the chod sdhana' still exist.[42] The chod sadhana generally includes music, song and also a dance. Chd, like all tantric systems, has outer, inner and secret aspects. They are described in anevocation sung to Nyama Paldabum by Milarepa: 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
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kinds of chod practice.[34] The Chd is now a staple of the advanced sdhana of Tibetan Buddhist traditions. It is practiced worldwide following dissemination by the Tibetan diaspora.

Western reports on Chd practices

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Chd was mostly practised outside the Tibetan monastery system by chdpas, who wereyogis , yogis and ngagpas rather than bhik us and bhik us . Because of this, material on Chd has been less widely available to Western readers than some other tantric Buddhist practices. The first Western reports of Chd came from a French adventurer who lived in Tibet, Alexandra David-Nel in her travelogue Magic and Mystery in Tibet, published in 1932.Walter Evans-Wentz published the first translation of a Chd liturgy in his 1935 book Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines . Anila Rinchen Palmo translated several essays about Chd in the 1987 collection Cutting Through Ego-Clinging: Commentary on the practice of Tchod.[citation needed] Giacomella Orofino's piece entitled "The Great Wisdom Mother" was included in Tantra in Practice in 2000 and in addition she published articles on Machig Labdrn in Italian.[43] In 2009, Tsultrim Allione, a recognised incarnation of Machig Lapdronpublished a book entitled Feeding Your Demons , describing a 5 step practice inspired by the Chod practice she has studied since the early 1970s.[44]

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