Chodpa - The incredible and the mystical, the yogi and the rebel, this has been the fringe tradition of yogic practice that has stimulated the imagination of whoever glimpses upon this ancient system of spiritual practice. Wandering nomadic yogis, dwelling in graveyards and remote places, challenging all ideas about religious or social norm. The system of Chod has its roots in the old Indian wandering sages, Mahasiddhas, and in the Buddhist teachings of 'perfection of wisdom'.
Having a deep shamanic and trantric aroma, the practices of Chod we have today took shape around the 11th century through the great female master, the great Yogini Machik Labdron. Chod literally translated means 'to cut through', it refers to cut through delusion and the confused dualistic ego-mind to reach the clear, totally-perfected ground of reality. In a profound dance of music, chant, wisdom and contemplation, and incredible methods of self-transformation, the Chod trantic ritual takes the practitioner in a journey within the depth of his own fears, negative emotions, hopes and desires, dissolving them right where they are, in the spaciousness of the uncreated mind.
The practice of Chod is the ultimate act of generosity, offering one's own self, one's own ego-mind away, and offering the body as a pure offering transformed into infinite wisdom. In particular, the Atiyoga forms of Chod, such as the 'Laughter of the Dakinis' for example, enable the practitioner to bring forth the clear view of the primordial awareness, free from hope and fear, which is itself the ultimate goal. Traditionally the Chod practitioner, known as Chodpa, would wander around from place to place, alone or in small groups, performing this liberating yogic practice everywhere that seemed suitable, from the center of towns, forests, ravines, to graveyards and cremation grounds during the night, offering his own ego-mind to all the negative forces, which are no other than our own fears, hopes, self-clinging and negative emotions. In reality, it is in the graveyard of our own conceptual mind that all these negative forces dwell, ever ready to prey on the individual, dragging the person from hope to fear one after the other. It is all these neurotic tendencies, incessant judging and thinking that sprouts from, and feeds the continuous cycle of hope and fear, that prevents the mind from recognizing its true nature.
"Thus to cut off mind itself at the root
To cut through the poisons of mental afflictions
to cut through extreme views and mental formations during meditation
as well as anxiety, hope and fear in actions
and to cut through arrogance grasping at a self
since this is all cutting through, this is the meaning of Chod."
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From Aryadeva's The Grand Poem on the Perfection of Wisdom, translated by Jerome Edou
Sitting in the graveyard of our own conceptual mind, cutting through all judgments, hope and fear, thoughts and clinging, until only primordial wisdom remains, it is the essence of Atiyoga Chod. The Chodpa cultivates an ever inner-freedom, fearlessness, going totally beyond the conceptual mind where there are no limits or boundaries. Nothing to want, nothing to fear, nothing to think about, in the ever-free space of ultimate being where things manifest just as they are, manifesting a dimension of wonder and mystery - This is the inner and outer dance of Chod.
