Modern Chöd Practice

As society changes and evolves so do our fears and anxieties. The charnel grounds of a Tibetan vulture sky burial might be replaced by the high technology instrument room and months of drip by drip chemotherapy.

“According to Mahayana Buddhists, emptiness is the ultimate wisdom of understanding that all things lack inherent existence. Chöd combines prajñāpāramitā philosophy with specific meditation methods and tantric ritual. The chöd 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.”

“Chöd (T. gcod གཅིད་). Literally "to sever". A tantric practice developed by the Tibetan teacher Machig Labdron that focuses on cutting through ego-clinging (ātmagrāha).”

--

I think it fair to speculate that the younger generation are beset with a whole new set of fears, anxieties and standards of required conformity which were not present during my adolescence and early adulthood. They are to an extent beholden to these fears and imprisoned by them. When viewed entirely objectively many of these fears are man made and socio-political of origin. “They” made the fear and “they” propagate it.

As a species we now have the opportunity to visit the charnel grounds of the cancer wards and hospice palliative care. I am not convinced that the modern approach to death is helpful, there is a lot of wailing and drama.

The first step in working with fear is to fully acknowledge its presence and then to consciously step into that fear and let it pervade. When the fear has passed, as many do, one can see that fear can be little more than an overly dramatic storm in a teacup which fries the mind.

Given the prevalence of blood tests and corporeal imagery we have a wonderful opportunity to see our bodies as just that, bodies. We can see in high resolution that we are not just the body, the skin and bones. Alternatively we can get obsessed with cosmetics, plastic surgery and internet body illusions the compliance with which is impossible.  

Humanity can choose to stop clinging to body (and ego) and that choice is now backed up by very high quality scientific instrumentation.  

No X-ray, no CT scan or MRI can bear full witness to the essence of what it is to be human.

Science shows us that we are not just a piece of meat…no matter how Insta-ready that meat might be.