Sarah Harding has been a Buddhist practitioner since 1974 and has been teaching and translating since completing a three year retreat in 1980 under the guidance of Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche. Her publications include Zhije and Chöd, respectively the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of The Treasury of Precious Instructions series. She was an associate professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, starting in 1992, and has been a fellow of the Tsadra Foundation since 2000.
摘要
Fear, anger, and negativity are states that each of us have to contend with. Machik’s Complete Explanation, the most famous book of the teachings of Machik Lapdrön, the great female saint and yogini of eleventh- to twelfth-century Tibet, addresses these issues in a practical, direct way.
Machik developed a system, the Mahamudra Chöd, that takes the Buddha’s teachings as a basis and applies them to the immediate experiences of negative mind states and malignant forces. Her unique feminine approach is to invoke and nurture the very “demons” that we fear and hate, transforming those reactive emotions into love. It is the tantric version of developing compassion and fearlessness, a radical method of cutting through ego-fixation.
This expanded edition includes Machik Lapdrön’s earliest known teaching, the original source text for the tradition, The Great Bundle of Precepts on Severance (Chöd). This pithy set of instructions reveals that the teachings of the perfection of wisdom are the true inspiration for Chöd. It is beautifully clarified in a short commentary by Rangjung Dorje, the Third Karmapa.
1. TRAINING 57 Previous Life in India 57 Her Birthplace, Parents ,and Birth 59 Childhood 63 Life As a Recitation Chaplain With Lama Drapa 65 First Meeting with Dampa Sangye 66 Meeting with Sönam Lama 67 Empowerment 69 Other Masters 72 Teachings from Dampa Sangye 72 Synopsis 75
2. MATURITY 77 Meeting Töpa Bhadra 77 Empowerment from Sönam Lama 81 Empowerment from Dampa 83 The Red House of Copper Mountain 84 Encounter with Tārā 86 Tönyön Samdrup 89 The Inquisition of the Indian Panditas 93 Machik's Teachings and Transmissions 98
3. THE QUETIONS OF TÖNYÖN SAMDRUP 103 How Tönyön Perceives Machik 106 How She Emanates 107 The Five Degenerations 107 The Specialness of Chöd 109 About Mahāmudrā 114
4. THE QUESTIONS OF GANGPA MUKSANG 117 The Four Devils 117 When to Sever Them 121 Six Kinds of Gods and Demons 123 Evidence of Success at Severance 133
5. TÖNYÖN QUESTIONS ON CHÖD 137 Giving Rise to the Resolve for Enlightenment and Gathering the Guests 140 Meditating on the Objects of Refuge, Training the Mind in the Four Immeasurables, and Inviting the Field of Accumulation 144 Paying Homage with the Eight Branches and Making Offerings 153 Separating Body and Mind (powa) and Offering the Mandala 156 Supplicating and Bringing Down Blessings 162 Offering the Body and Giving It in Charity 163 Concluding with the Dedication, Prayers, and Dissolution 181
6. THE QUESTIONS OF GYENEMA 185 Death and Dying 185 Divisions of the Body 189 Outer and Inner Gods and Demons 195 Characteristics of the Body 196 The Syllables Ha, Hung, and P'e 203
7. THE QUESTIONS OF CHÖKYI SENGE 205 The Ten Obligations 205 Dress Styles of Chöd 207 Identifying Local Spirits 212 Size and Quantities in the Chöd Visualizations 214 Uprisings, Apparitions, Evidence of Success, and Evidence of Severance 217 The Common and Uncommon Evidence of Success 221
8. THE QUESTION OF JETSUN ZILNÖN 231 Outer and Inner Apparitions of Spirits 231 General Apparitions 247 Special Occurrences 250
9. THE QUESTIONS OF SÖNAM GYEN 253 Future Corruption of State Law 253
10. MORE QUESTIONS OF SÖNAM GYEN 261 Future Deterioration of Religious Ethics 261 The Future of Chöd 271 Colophon 282
Abbreviations Used in Notes 283 Notes 285 Glossary 329 Bibliography 339 Index 347
