Parchangma Chöd Commentary

From the oral teachings of: Tulku Sang-Ngag Rinpoche & Lama Tsultrim Allione

Compiled and Edited by Erik Jampa Andersson

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Table  of  Contents  

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Type  chapter  level  (level  1)   4  Type  chapter  level  (level  2)   5  Type  chapter  title  (level  3)   6  

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ཡང་གསང་འཛིན་པ་རང་གྲོལ་གྱི་རྒྱུན་གྱི་ཉམས་ལེན་སྤར་བཅང་མའི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་ས།ོ

A Commentary on the Daily Practice of Parchangma Chöd,

from the

Exceedingly Secret Dzinpa Rangdro ̈l (Self-Liberation of Clinging)

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1. Introduction The practice of Parchangma Chöd comes from the Dzinpa Rangdröl terma1 cycle revealed by Do

Khyentse Yeshe Dorje (1800-1866). Dzinpa (Wyl. ‘dzin pa) means “to grasp” or “to cling.” Rang (Wyl. Rang) means “self” or “inherent,” and Drol (Wyl. ‘Grol) means “to liberate.” So Dzinpa Rangdröl could be translated as The Self-Liberation of Clinging, though a more Dzogchen-oriented translation would be The Inherent Liberation of Grasping. Parchangma Chöd can be translated as The Portable Chöd (literally “a handful to hold”), named for its brevity and ease of use as a daily practice.

Do Khyentse was a direct reincarnation of Jigme Lingpa (?-1798), the famed tertön of the Longchen Nyingthig (Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse) cycle which is still widely practiced today. When asked about Chöd practice, Jigme Lingpa remarked that, while he would touch on the subject during his lifetime, he would really dive into Chöd during his subsequent incarnation. In this way, Do Khyentse is a continuation of Jigme Lingpa’s mindstream. Even though he didn’t focus on Chod the way that Do Khyentse did, Jigme Lingpa did reveal one of the most widely practiced Terma Chöd sadhanas in existence, called the Khandro’i Kegyang or Strong Laughter of the Dakinis. It is from this practice that most of Namkha’i Norbu Rinpoche’s Chöd sadhana is derived, which is one of our main Chöd practices at Tara Mandala.2

The Dzinpa Rangdröl has historically been kept very secret.3 Many Lamas practice the cycle but often don’t tell others, and they rarely teach it. For this reason, the cycle has almost completely disappeared into a very thin thread in terms of its lineage. If it continues to be kept so secret, it runs the risk of completely dying out. But with Tulku Sang-Ngag Rinpoche’s transmission of the cycle to Tara Mandala and 1 Terma (Wyl. gTer Ma) are rediscovered “treasures” (texts, objects, etc.) intentionally hidden by past enlightened beings to be revealed later at the appropriate time by a tertön (Wyl. gTer sTon), or “treasure-revealer.” 2 Other portions of Norbu Rinpoche’s Chöd are derived from the Kusali Tsog (The Beggar’s Feast) from the Longchen Nyingthig Ngöndro, and the Machig Guru Yoga from the Surmang Chöd. 3 According to Ayu Khandro, “[it is the] most esoteric Dzogchen gongter.” (Women of Wisdom, pg. __)

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many students in the west, he has prophesized that it will expand and become much more widely practiced. However, this transmission carries a responsibility on the part of those who are practicing the cycle to recognize how precious and rare it is.

The Parchangma Chod is connected to the “Golden Letters” döntri, or essential instructions. In the Dzinpa Rangdröl, there are a series of different letters: ruby, sapphire, gold, etc. The Parchangma comes from the Golden Letters, with the 25th chapter regarding tulzhug (wyl. brTul Zhugs). Tulzhug is a word that is in many ways synonymous with Chöd practice, usually translated as “vanquishing conduct,” though that translation is less than satisfactory. If you break it down, tul means “to conquer” or “to subdue,” and zhug means “to push through” or “enter into.” In Chöd, this is referring to a direct encounter with our fears and difficult emotions. We intentionally encounter it, but instead of moving away from the object of our fears as we usually might, we consciously move towards it. By moving towards it, for instance by staying in a charnel ground or a purportedly haunted place, we have an opportunity to zhug by pushing through our fear in to freedom. If you think about it, we spend a lot of our lives avoiding things that cause us fear or emotional upheaval. We habitually avoid fearful situations, especially encounters with death. In a conversation with my 98 year-old mother Ruth, I suggested that we discuss death, to which my mother replied, “Darling, that’s not a very cheerful subject.” This kind of avoidance is what tulzhug operates against. Instead of avoiding fearful circumstances and scary places, we move towards them and push through by means of a direct encounter.

When a tulzhug pilgrimage is traditionally undertaken, one needs certain equipment. Traditionally, a Chödpa would carry a pelt representing a flayed human skin, used as an aide in visualization for the red feast; a Chöd damaru, the specific drum used for the practice; a drilbu, the tantric bell; and a kangling, the human thighbone trumpet. One would traditionally sit on a tiger skin, but now of course it’s advised that a synthetic skin is used instead. Sometimes practitioners will use the pelt of another kind of predator, the idea being that you sit on the skin of a terrifying animal as a part of overcoming fear. You also need a single-pole tent for the pilgrimage, the support for which would traditionally be a khatvāṅga staff, and a kapala (Tib. thöpa), or human skullcup.

The Chöd pilgrimage is traditionally started on your own bed, performing the first session there then setting out on foot to 108 scary places, like cemeteries, retreat places, solitary trees, etc. The reason we do this is because Chöd serves as a kind of bogdön (Wyl. Bogs ‘Don), or “enhancement practice.” Difficult circumstances have a lot of energy tied up in them, which can ultimately strengthen or weaken us depending on our approach to them. When David Petit, Lama Tsultrim’s husband, died unexpectedly in 2010, Sang-Ngag Rinpoche remarked, “This is difficult, but you could make it a bogdön.” So instead of succumbing to the difficulty, we can harness the energy of the difficult situation and use it as an enhancement for our practice.

On the Chöd pilgrimage, we start with self-visualization as Thröma Nagmo (Wyl. Khros Ma Nag Mo, Khrodakali) and upon entering a frightening location, perform the Zilnön (Wyl. Zil gNon), which means “overwhelming with splendor.” Traditionally, there are different kinds of dances and movements that are part of this zilnön, meant to subdue the energies of the locality upon entering a charnel ground. After finishing the dance, you sit on the tiger skin and visualize a giant Mount Meru4, composed of meteoric iron, projected from your heart to the area where you are going to practice. All of the local demons and arrogant spirits are pressed under the mountain, where they begin to shake and become respectful of the practitioner. This is how one initiates entering a frightening location. You proceed into the frightening location with confidence in the view of what Tulku Sang-Ngag Rinpoche refers to as the State of Unfabricated Dharmata

4 Mount Meru is the axis mundi of Buddhist cosmology.