Chod Practice in the Bon Tradition [Paperback]

The dramatic practice of chöd, in which the yogin visualizes giving his or her own sacrificed body to the gods and demons as a way to cut the attachment to self and ordinary reality, offers an intense and direct confrontation with the central issues of the spiritual path. The chöd practices of the Bön tradition, a tradition that claims pre-Buddhist origins in the mysterious western lands of Zhang-zhung Tazig and Olmolungrig, are still almost entirely unknown. Alejandro Chaoul provides a scholarly, well-informed, and illuminating introduction to chöd in the Bön tradition, telling us much along the way of other aspects of Bön tantra and spiritual life, and of the wider context of the chöd practices within Tibet. His work is an important contribution to our knowledge of these fascinating and attractive modes of spiritual practice. —Geoffrey Samuel, author ofThe Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth CenturyandCivilized Shamans

Drawing on both Tibetan primary texts and the living oral tradition, Chaoul provides us with the most complete picture yet of the history and practice of Bön chöd to appear in a Western language. . . . A major contribution to the literature of both Bön and chöd. —José Ignacio Cabezón, XIV Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

In the last few years, the interest in chöd has suddenly re-emerged, and a few books have been written about it from the Buddhist perspective. Chaoul's work on chöd from the Bön's perspective could not be more timely. His thorough analysis of this syncretic and fascinating religious practice and the use of the metaphor of cutting as a way to go beyond assumed boundaries provides a broader picture of chöd and sheds light on the interrelation of Buddhism and Bön. —Giacomella Orofino, Professor of Indol#A