Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear Friends and Members,

In Japanese folklore, there is a night in mid-summer, the night parade of one thousand demons. It is a night when all the demons and spirits fill the streets marching in a loud and unruly crowd of monsters. People hide in their houses because, if one sees them, even glimpses at them, they will be abducted. It is a time when the boundary between humans and spirits becomes thinner, a liminal time when what is usually repressed comes to the surface and one needs mantras, spells, and charms to relate with the chaos safely.

We could think about that night as a tale about what happens to humans in a life, dark nights when one is haunted and or overtaken, abducted by inner forces and the currents of the past karma. The chod tradition has such a profound perspective on what one could do on such nights. Instead of hiding from it, it invites us to ask, what happens when we send love and compassion to the monsters? What happens if we invite them for dinner, to talk to them and educate them? And most importantly, what do we discover about ourselves when, through these encounters, we bring love and compassion to our innermost hidden aspects of body and mind?

In a deeply polarized world, I believe we need a different approach, one of deep listening, along with wise, boundaried care. This isn’t about pathological compassion, an idiot compassion that enables harm. Instead it is a caring, fierce wisdom that dares to enlighten and liberate.

This week I invite you to join me in these practices, a period of innate bodhichitta, extending love and compassion to ones own body mind, a period of deep personal healing and an encounter with a powerful, resilient wisdom within.

We will explore the Rinchen Trengwa Chod and Longchenpa’s chod advice on chod practice. The full Rinchen Trengwa Chod, the Jeweled Garland of Chod, is usually the longest cycle of chod and it is practiced by Nyingma and Kagyu since the fourteenth century when the third Karmapa compiled it. It contains multiple Chod cycles and feasts. When I was enthroned as a tulku, Gyaldak Rinpoche had suggested our community practice this sadhana to awaken our karmic connection with the wisdom mind of the first Pema Khandro, who was an emanation of Vajrayogini. However it is an extensive practice and we had only a little time. Recognizing that we needed something very pithy, that gets to the heart essence, I condensed the entire three day Chod cycle into a short practice of the three dakinis’ chod cycles it contained. Thus it is the essence of the Rinchen Trengwa and we practice it in short sessions.

What was stunning to me about this Chod cycle is the first two dakini practices. One is a peaceful purification and healing. It is a soft practice of receiving healing energy from the Great Mother Buddha Prajna Paramita. It addresses an issue in doing deep work on nights when there is a parade of demons, which is that one must feel resourced, centered, calm and loved to do that work.

The second chod in it is a lotus family version of chod, that cultivates magnetizing energy. In this one allows one’s body to melt into a wish fulfilling nectar. It reminds us that there are other ways, other than domination, to deal with obstacles and enemies. The text here refers to subduing by splendor, fulfilling the deepest needs of beings, remembering we have all that is needed. It is profoundly affirmative and celebratory of the deep wealth of buddha nature. It contemplates love and riches, feeding and nourishing.

And then there is also the unforgettable third feast of Troma Nagmo. Unlike the more common form of troma holding the skull and dakini knife, she holds a human skin and a thigh bone trumpet. The human skin held aloft represents the total transmutation of dualistic clinging in which one opens oneself completely to a totally connected presence.

And on the last day of the retreat, as I do every year, I will read from my translation of the Troma sang gyu, the secret troma tantra from the seventeen dzogchen tantras. This is wisdom that cuts through the root of suffering.

I welcome you to join us for this profound and liberating practice online, March 11-14.