Chod is an ancient and powerful practice of the Tibetan Bön tradition. Chod means to cut through. This practice helps us develop the wisdom that ultimately cuts through the four fears or demons that afflict individuals and cause suffering:
- Our grasping of the ego;
- Our attachment to our physical body and the five aggregates of form, feelings, perception, mental formations, and consciousness;
- Our afflicted emotions and habits; and
- Our fear of our mortality and attachment to our continuation as a permanent and independently existing entity.
Laughter of the Khandroma was composed by the great Bön Dzogchen Master Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen who achieved the rainbow body in 1934.
In this book, Tempa Dukte Lama offers an introductory teaching on Chod practice and a detailed explanation of the Laughter of the Khandroma practice and visualization. The practice text is provided in Tibetan and English together with the closing prayers of longevity, confession, and dedication, music notation, and guidance on how to play the accompanying drum, bell, and trumpet. This is followed by instructions and the Tibetan and English liturgy of the Chang Bu Gyatsa Chod ritual, which can be integrated with Chod Practice. The final part of the book offers the Tibetan and English liturgy of the fierce Bön Chod practice Zab Chod.
The substantially revised and expanded second edition offers a more detailed explanation of Bon Chod practice and how we can use it to transform fear and attachments. The Chang Bu Gyatsa ritual and torma instructions and the ritual text in Tibetan and English together with the ritual text of the Zab Chod practice are also new to this second edition.
Tempa Dukte Lama, born in Humla, Nepal, is an ordained Tibetan Bön lama. He trained in Menri Monastery, India, under the close guidance of His Holiness the late 33rd Menri Trizin, worldwide spiritual leader of the Tibetan Bön tradition, from a young age. Tempa Lama is a widely known Bön teacher, artist, and author of Origin of the Medicine Buddha, Thrul Khor Ancient Tibetan Bon Yoga, Heart Drop of the Loving Mother, Journey into Buddhahood,Inexhaustible Miracles, Jang Chok the Ancient Bon Ritual, and The Intimate Mind. He is the founder and spiritual director of Olmo Ling Bön Center and Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, founder of the Bon Cultural Society of Humla, and The Humla Project. Tempa Lama has lived in the United States since 2000 and teaches throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Europe.
Second revision and expanded edition
Olmo Ling Publications, 2024
Paperback, 71 pp, 8.5 x 11 inches
