..续本文上一页ikes the most as well as to those who have been helpful and kind in the past.
Nyama Paldabum, one of Jetsun Milarepa”s very close disciples, approached him and asked, “You have received good instructions. But when one has received instructions, one needs to go into the mountains to practice. What kind of Dharma practice have you done
” In reply, Milarepa sang of outer, inner and secret chod, in which one cuts through one”s attachment to the self more efficiently each time. He sang: “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 kinds of chod practice.” The instructions that Milarepa offered Nyama Paldabum are recounted in the 100,000 Songs of Milarepa.
Jetsun Milarepa taught that chod is entwined with the syllable PHET, the Sanskrit metaphor for “cutting through.” Machig Labdron did not translate the mantra into Tibetan, because it embodies the essence of all teachings. Jetsun Milarepa went into great detail and explained that there are three ways to cut through clinging to a self. The practice of (1) outer PHET enables a practitioner to gather and bind the mind, allowing him or her to hold the mind steadily and stop it from going astray. (2) Inner PETH allows a practitioner to dispel delusions and drowsiness. (3) And secret PHET enables a sincere practitioner to fathom the depths of everything that can be apprehended so that most subtle levels of clinging to a self are cut.
Many thoughts of hatred, lust, pride, jealousy, etc. arise in the mind, sometimes so overwhelmingly strong that it is impossible to hold or focus one”s mind during meditation, becoming lost in distractions instead. Anger, for instance, arises very often and is usually directed towards someone who threatens one”s physical existence. When situations like this occur, imagining that one is giving one”s own body as a meal to those who are angry and threaten one”s life severs attachment to a self. Then the mind is collected. Therefore, outer PHET is the practice of maintaining a steady mind so that thoughts do not carry one away.
Inner PHET serves to dispel dull states of mind. Heavy and wild thoughts distract more obviously than subtle thoughts, but drowsiness and dullness also lead astray. Mental dullness, even unconsciousness (which are based upon attachment to a truly existing self that purports to possess a truly existing body) can reliably be overcome through the practice of chod. So the
inner mantra is the practice of eradicating mental dullness.
Secret or true PHET is the practice that opens the door to realization of mind”s true nature through wisdom-awareness. It is not utterly hard or impossible to learn that all outer and inner appearances lack inherent existence, i.e., are empty of a self-entity. It is easy to logically deduce that forms, sounds, etc. lack independent existence, are mere appearances that arise in dependence upon other things and are therefore fit to be designated by a mind that apprehends them. It is much more difficult to actually realize emptiness of appearances, though. Practicing the true mantra enables a practitioner to realize that an independently existing self is not established through its own right or of its own accord and therefore does not really exist, the connotation of the term “emptiness.” Furthermore, true mantra enables a fervent disciple to experience that - due to emptiness (i.e., lack of impediments for spatial existents to arise when conditions prevail) - it is not the case that nothing is present when appearances do arise and things happen. So, r…
《Chod – The Introduction & A Few Practices》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…