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Message |
| Posted By: |
Apprentice |
| Date: |
13-Jul-2003-17:05:42 |
| Subject: |
Classical stuff about a woman Chod teacher |
Re-reading W. Y. Evans-Wentz's translation of "Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines" and came across this interesting paragraph, p. xxxiii:
"The Yoga of Non-ego, or the Tchod Practice, set forth in Book V, is a very popular yoga throughout Tibet and Mongolia. In many respects it supplements the Six Yogas. It was established and propagatd by a remarkable woman philosopher and teacher of yoga, Machik-lepdron. This yogic system, based upon the Maha-Prajna-Paramita Sutra, earned her a high place among Tibetan scholars and practitioners of yoga."
All of Book V in Evans-Wentz's book is devoted to the Tchod but doesn't seem to mention her, just the the bit tossed out above...one of Zazen's Tantra CD's has a very cool song evoking the Chod energies.
I had not remembered this mention of a woman teacher and was curious if there was more out there about her as she doesn't even make it into the index of Evans-Wentz.
I did a google search and came upon some interesting titles at amazon:
"Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod"
By Machik Labdron, Sarah Harding (Snow Lion Publications, 2003)
"Machig Labdron and the Practice of Chod" by Jerome Edou, Hubert Decleer (Snow Lion Publications, 1996)
So Machik Lepdon and Tchod in Evans-Wentz appear to be updated now into Machik or Machig Labdron and Chod.
Below is from a UK website reviewing the Harding translation. I'm not shy to admit I was really very unaware of this "great female yogini," and I am happy to see more of the classic yogic texts authored by women becoming available in English. If Evans-Wentz called her "remarkable," she must have some real fwam. She was apparently contemporary with Milarepa.
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A full translation of the famous work by the great female yogini Machik Lapdron, who developed the Mahamudra Chod teachings for cutting through ego-fixation and confronting negative states of mind.
"Machik's Complete Explanation is an important contribution to an understanding of Tibet's most innovative female saint, revealing her vast diversity of teachings that place Chod squarely in the mainstream of tantric Buddhist meditation. Harding's translation deftly reveals new and rare biographical, anatomical, philosophic, and meditative lore essential to understanding the tradition as a whole." Judith Simmer-Brown.
"Sarah Harding's masterful translation is a real gift to students of Chod and this extraordinary woman teacher...the translation has such a fresh living quality you almost feel you are recieving teachings directly from Machik Lapdron herself." Tsultrim Allione.
"Sarah Harding's magnificent translation of this key work of Tibet's most famous yogini opens up for Western practitioners the startling world of Chod practice: severing the devil of ego-fixation. This meditation manual explains how the rich symbology of tantric yoga can be used in a disturbingly effective way to transform one's life." Stephen Batchelor. |
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