SACRED MOUNTAINS AND TALKING DRUMS

The Tibetan Chöd Practice

By Verónica Rivas

“No gods, no demons, no buddhas and beings,

No self, no objects, no harmers, nothing to be harmed.”1

In some dank mountain, where you are exposed to external dangers that can end
your life without warning... the sound of a drum and a rhythmic melody can bring out
the weaknesses that you did not known and your deepest fears. The dance of life and
death, in a constant dialogue, appear in a calm and threatening way. There are no
differences in status, no fame or prestige. We are alone and everything that we were, we
are, and we will be is present at the same moment. And impermanence, from which we
constantly try to flee, comes in the form of a deity or a devil... or both. Suddenly,
impermanence is transformed into a strong invocation that is rooted in the entrails,
which is externalized disintegrating everything that was our truth and where the spirit
truly nourishes, rejoices and takes control. We become part of the death that happens
again and again in a tedious and constant cycle. And from the darkest moment, from
some deep place: a clarity.
The words above do not exactly define a Chöd practice, but they do describe, in a
general way, an experience that could result from its practice. As we will see, for many,
the focus of Chöd rituals is enlightenment, but for others it is a way of dealing with
different spiritual realities as well as the spirits of the dead. Superficially we could say
that both purposes are irreconcilable, but in fact if we investigate about the origins of
Chöd's practice as well as the philosophical conception that impregnates it, we will see
that Chöd in its own essence contains these two purposes and much more.
During my research for this article I found myself reading several academic works
and articles on the subject as well as sadhanas (liturgies), and I must confess that for
several days I found myself lost among all of it. Most of the material available on this
subject is of Buddhist origin and this, in certain way, constitutes a problem to be
addressed, because if we were limited to this material we would be considering just only
one aspect or interpretation of what constitute a Chöd ritual. So, my task was to focus
on finding other sources, other visions. When I found them they were very few and not
very deep, but even so they gave me elements that I could try to read between the lines,
about the possibility of the existence of the practice outside the Buddhist or the Bön-po2
conceptions.

1 Troma Sadhana. Translated by Sarah Harding.

2 We will talk briefly about Bon-po later.
 All the discussions about the Chöd practice have as starting point its geographical
origin and the development of its lineage. In fact, these elements are essential to define
what is a Chöd ritual and its purpose. From my point of view, the practice of Chöd is a
powerful technique of meditation and trance, composed of several elements that could
be considered shamanic and whose purpose is to cause a transformation in the reactive
quality of the mind. That purpose is achieved through a kind of journey to other realities
that coexist with us and where all kinds of spiritual entities, including the spirits of the
deceased, are fed with our own body.

Origins

The word Chöd, or Gcod, means "cutting through", but also means "to serve".
According to this we see that it covers the two basic effects that describe the ritual. The
researcher Janet Gyatso, in her excellent work "The Development of the Gcod
Tradition" talks about the intrinsic shamanic elements of the practice but, at the same
time, warns that cannot be underestimate the great importance that the Buddhist
doctrines, especially the Mahayana3 and Vajrayana4 doctrines, had in the development
and evolution of the practice. Until now, almost all scholars believe that the Buddhist
Chöd practice originated in India.
The practice of Chöd introduce itself as a very old method that went through an
important evolution throughout its history, that made it adapt to different times, cultures
and ways of living, constituting in the process an uninterrupted lineage up to nowadays.
It is also important to consider here that this evolution is in a certain way guided and
marked by a strong feminine presence, which begins with the pro-eminent figure of
Machig Labdron, about whom we will talk about later.
When we look for sources to trace the origin and the roots of the practice of Chöd,
we find the problem of whether it is a practice essentially derived from the sutras, from
the tantras, or from both. Also there are the questions about if Chöd is an eminently
Buddhist practice, if it is strongly influenced by Bön-po doctrines or, maybe, if it is an
essentially shamanic practice. The oldest source that places the practice of Chöd in
Hindu lands is a poem composed by Aryadeva the Brahmin5 called The Grand Poem,

3 Mahayana means “great vehicule”. It is a branch of Buddhism. The Mahayana tradition

emphasizes that any can aspire to achieve awakening and become a bodhisattva (someone that
wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings). Non-Mayahana teachings
believes that only the Buddha can be called a bodhisattva. According to the Mahayana,
awakening means to understand the true nature of reality. Among the most important text of
the Mahayana tradition we find the Prajnaparamita Sutra and the Lotus Sutra.
4 Vajrayana means “thunderbolt vehicle” or “diamond vehicle” and it is a form of Tantric Buddhism.

It is seem to have flourished between the 6 th and the 11th century. It also known as Mantrayana
because of the importance of the use of mantras to prevent the mind from following the illusory
display of dualistic reality.
5 According to the scholar Janet Gyatso, Aryadeva the Brahmin was Pa Dampa Sangye´s uncle

and not the famous philosopher and thinker knowns as Aryadeva.

which seems to be a consistent proof that by the tenth century this ritual was already a
well-established practice in India.
It seems that this Chöd practice was taken to Tibetan lands by Pa Dampa
Samgye6. Dampa called his method "The Pacification of Suffering" and it constitutes
the so-called "way of the Sutras". According to Jerome Edou, Dampa transmitted it to
Sonam Lama7 and it seems that the latter would be the one who would have finally
passed it to Machig Labdron. On this topic there are discrepancies between the experts
since the Labdron’s texts feeds those doubts.
But who was Machig Labdron and why is she considered as the great
systematizing of Chöd practice? Machig was born in Tibet and lived between the last
half of the 11th century and the first half of the 12th century. In her biography we find
elements that often lead us to ask if we are talking about a woman or a deity. Machig,
because of her practice, realization and her inheritance is currently considered a Dakini8.
Curiously, she was not the consort of a Lama or an important spiritual master, she was
neither a nun nor a hermit, but she was a common woman, a mother, in who arose an
enormous desire to dedicate herself to spiritual practices for the liberation of all sentient
beings.
In some stories, where Machig appears in a more deified way, we can read
elements that match her story with that of Tara9. It is said that Tara was a princess
completely dedicated to her spiritual practices demonstrating great progress. Because of
this, some monks recommended her to use the siddhis (accomplishments) that she had
achieved as well as her merit to achieve a rebirth in a man's body to reach
enlightenment. To this Tara replied that there was no intrinsic reality in the body of a
man or a woman, that it was only ignorant minds who insisted on that, and for this
reason, she made the vow to return one and countless times in the body of a woman, as
a bodhisatva until there was no being subject to samsaric suffering10. In a similar way,
they say that Machig was in his previous life a male practitioner who vowed to return in
a female body to give a new perspective to the Chöd practice.
What we really know is that Machig, at some point, left the life she had as a
woman who took care of her family and began to travel to different places, to practice in

6 Pa Dampa Sangye was a great yogi, considered a mahasiddha (somebody who embodied great
perfection) who was born in India and transmitted in Tibet many teachings based on the
Tantras and Sutra, approximately in the 11th century.
7 Kyoton Sonam Lama was, according to Judith Simmer-Brown, a wandering yogi of great

realization. He seems to have lived in the 12th century.

8 Dakini, in Tibetan Mkha’gro’ma, in Japanese Buddhism Dakiniten; they are spirits who
represents primordial wisdom who have a very important role in the Tantric Buddhism. There
are many categories of dakinis, but we can distinguish among the fully enlightened dakini and
the worldly dakini. They are of wrathful or peaceful appearances. It is also considered that a
woman of great knowledge, that has achieved in her life great accomplishments, or who are an
inspiration for other practitioners, can be considered a dakini,
9 Tara is a protective and saviour goddess. She was introduced in the Buddhist pantheon and

she is worshiped as the “great saviour” who dissipate all fears and clean the obstacles on the
path to enlightenment. She assumed several aspects and many sadhanas (liturgies) praise to
what they called “The 21 Taras”.
10 According to Buddhist teachings, the term “samsaric suffering” refers to the endless cycles of

death and rebirth.

caverns and inhospitable places. She received initiations from several teachers and in
several lines. It seems that she also knew some Bön-Po practices very well because of
her family origin.
So, we have that the lineages of the Chöd practice can be grouped into three
categories: the lineages of the Sutra, those of Tantra and those who combine Sutra and
Tantra. The Chöd system taught and disseminated by Machig combines the lineage of
the tantra together with the Prajnaparamita Sutras11 and the cultivation of the Six
Paramitas which are: Dana Paramita (generosity), Sila Paramita (virtue, proper
conduct, discipline); Ksanti Paramita (patiente, tolerance, endurance); Vyria Paramita
(diligence, effort); Dhyana Paramita (concentration, contemplation, Prajna Paramita
(wisdom). Thus Machig systematized the practice of Chöd, being the initiator of a
lineage that it is well known today, which combines the teachings of the Sutras and
Tantras and is called "Mahamudra Chöd." Some scholars believe that the lineages of the
Tantra also derive from Machig and correspond to some teachigs she gave to some
adepts. The lineage of the Sutra derives from Pa Dampa Samgye.
Considering this we can ask ourselves if the Chöd practice refers only to its Hindu
origins or if it also existed among the Bön-Po. Before dealing with this issue it is
important to mention that when we refer to Bön-Po, we are not thinking of a unified and
homogeneous movement, but instead, we can distinguish phases, which probably
coexist simultaneously until the present. So we have the Primitive Bön which comprises
the folk traditions of Tibet and which some authors call "the nameless religion". Then
we have the Yungdrung or Eternal Bön, which was founded by the Buddha Tonpa
Shenrab12. This line shares many similarities with Buddhism but its followers strive to
show that it is something completely separate and different from Buddhism. And finally
we have the new Bön, which appears approximately between the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries and which is a kind of amalgam between the Yungdrung and the
Nyigma School, which is the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism; its followers say
that it was founded by Padmasambhava13.
Many of the sources I consulted, especially the researcher Alejandro Chaoul,
affirm that Bön-po had a strong and ingrained tradition of Chöd practice and that they
were used to it. For them the practices of Chöd are divided into three groups, namely:
Peaceful Chöd, Extending Chöd and Powerful Chöd; and the new Bön adds to them the
so-called Wrathful Chöd. Many sadhanas of Chöd already existed in the Bön tradition
and the same Chaoul says that, by the fourteenth century, the sadhana known as Chöd of
the Skygoers, one of the most popular Chöd sadhanas, was very well known among the
Bön-pos. While there are several practical ritual texts and liturgies of Chöd among the

11 Prajnaparamita means “perfection of wisdom”, but the word also refers to a particular body of
Sutras (teachings or religious discourse, they could be written in an aphorism style and they can
be long or short; they take part of the doctrinal corpus of Hinduism, Buddhism, etc). According
to the scholar Edward Conze the erliest sutras are Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita and Vajracchedika
Prajnaparamita.
12 Tonpa Shenrab, also known as Guru Shenrab. According to Iñaki Preciado, Tonpa means “great

master” and Shenrab, “supreme shaman”. He is the founder of the Yungdrung Bön.
13 Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, Padma Jugne, “The Lotus Born”, was a great

magician, yogi and tantric practitioner. He introduced the Tantric Buddhism in Tibet. He was a
great mystic and philosopher.
Bön-po tradition, it seems that the source of these rituals would be the Mother Tantra14,
which is considered as the source of the first three Chöd groups mentioned above.
Regarding to what was said above, we quote Gyatso who states:

Finally, the Bön-po have a number of Gcod cycles which seem to stem
largely from visionary transmission, and which have been classified into
four types corresponding to the four tantric activities: peaceful, extending,
powerful, and wrathful.15

Chöd as a shamanic necromantic practice

Among various traditions, mountains are considered to be the dwelling of hostile

spirits, and are also related to death. For example, the Mayan and the Nahuatl, - two of
the most important cultures that flourished in the Mesoamerican land -, considered
mountains to be the abode of the gods of the Underworld and their messengers. In
several rituals, when the priests wanted to invoke their ancestors, they used to cover
their bodies with a kind of black ointment made of a mixture of herbs, ashes and animal
blood. The ritual could be performed in temples or in places of difficult access like
mountains or forests and they bled their own bodies in specific places (especially in the
sexual organs or the tongue) as an offering to the spirits that lived there, as well as to
feed their own ancestors. Along with this they used songs and invocations.
In Tibet, mountains were linked with death as well and they were considered the
dwelling of wrathful spirits. At certain times, it was the custom to carry the bodies of
people who died and left them in the mountains, where certain birds and animals fed.
Concerning this it would be interesting to add that the dakinis, - who were considered
female flesh-eaters and blood drinkers demons at the service of Kali16 -, were to be
found in mountainous places where there were bodies in all states of decomposition.
When these spirits were incorporated into Buddhist practices, especially in the Tantric
Buddhism, they began to have the function of being manifestations of primordial
wisdom, the guides of practitioners and the ones responsible for giving the most
important initiations. But, if we look closely at their iconography and representation, we
will see that they did not lose their previous characteristics and ferocity, the difference
being that now all this is directed to a different purpose: enlightenment. The practice of
Chöd is chaired by the Dakini Troma Nagmo. Troma Nagmo is represented and
visualized with her body in black or in a very dark blue, with an angry and ferocious
aspect and standing in a dancing position over a corpse. Some sources consider her the
Tibetan syncretization of the goddess Kali.

14 Mother Tantra is a compound of various tantras also called the Yogini Tantra. They focus on
the idea that the enlightened mind can be achieved through the cultivation of a pure mind, and
that desire is also a path to enlightenment. So, the tantric practitioner should cultivate devotion
in his daily practice. All life circumstances could be transformed into a source of devotion.
15 Gyatso, Janet. Soundings in Tibetan Civilization. "The Development of the Gcod Tradition", pp, 340.
16 Kali is a Hindu goddess. She embodies the principle of destruction but also of generation.

Over time she started to be conceived as Mother Goddess, but she never lost her previous
attributes. She is worshiped by lots of tantric practitioners.
 Thus, Chöd was traditionally practiced in charnel grounds or cremation places, in
mountains and places of difficult access or in the middle of the forests and, according to
Alexandra David-Neel17, also in haunted places linked to tragic stories that had
happened recently. The reason for this was the energy of the spirits and all types of
beings that inhabit there. In these places, the practitioner (Chöd-pa) finds himself in the
middle of everything that may disturb and terrified him. He faces the visible effects of
impermanence: decadence and death. But also, through this ritual, he can perceive life
in all its extension and the impermanence of death itself.
Namkhai Norbu describes the Chöd practitioners as follows:

Practitioners of Chöd are traditionally nomadic, travelling continually from

place to place with a minimum of possesions, as medicants, often carrying
nothing more than the ritual instruments of a damaru or two-sided drum, a
bell and a thigh Böne trumpet, and living in a small tent set up using a ritual
trident (katvanga) as its tent pole, and four ritual daggers (phurba) as its tent
pegs. The practice is principally undertaken in lonely and desolate places,
such as caves and mountain peaks, but particularly in graveyards and
charnel grounds at night, when the terrifying energy of such places, serves
to intensify the sensations of the practitioner who, seated alone in the dark,
summons all those to whom he owes a karmic debt to come and receive
payment in the form of the offering of his body. Among the invited are
Buddhas and illuminated beings, for whom the practitioner mentally
transforms the offering into nectar, and all the beings of the six states of
conditioned cyclic existence (samsara), for whom the offering is multiplied
and transformed into whatever will be of most benefit and most pleasing,
but also summoned are demons and evil spirits to whom the body itself is
offered as a feast just as it is.18

As we see, according to Namkhai Norbu, the practice of Chöd was performed by

people of wandering lifestyle, by yogis, mystics and travelers. The same Dampa Sangye
and Machig Labdron were no exceptions. They never were attached to a place and they
established a lineage, but never a school. But progressively, the practice of Chöd was
confined to the monasteries, usually practiced by lamas who do not look kindly on those
errant hermits or those who work with spirits and use these rituals to perform exorcisms
or to communicate with the spirits of the dead.
It would be interesting to read the description that Alexandra David-Neel, as she
was one of the first chroniclers and was fascinated by the Magic of the Tibetan
mountains, gave about the practice of Chöd:

The reason of this preference is that the effect of chöd, or kindred rites, does
not depend solely on the feelings aroused in the mind of the celebrant by the
stern words of the liturgy, nor upon the awe-inspiring surroundings. It is

17Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969). She was an explorer and spiritualist born in France.
18Norbu, Chogyal Namkhai. The Cristal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen, pp, 51-
52.
 also designed to stir up the occult forces, or the conscious beings which –
according to Tibetans – may exist in such places, having been enervated
either by actual deeds or by the concentration of many people's thoughts on
imaginary events.19

It is interesting to consider David-Neel's appreciation, not only for the elements

she describes but also because it is the observation of a Western explorer in a time when
it was very difficult that Tibetan people allowed a foreign to witness their rituals and
customs. She strongly points out that apparently this ritual not only causes effects in
those who practice it, but also in the environment because the energies present in the
places find a way of manifestation. On the other hand, the scholar Giussepe Tucci
concentrates on describing the elements necessary for a Chöd practice:

The following implements are required for the performance of these rituals:
a trumpet made of a human tibia (rkang gling), which renders lha and ’dre
submissive; a damaru (the shaman’s drum); a small bell; hair woven into a
tuft and a piece of Persian cloth (stag gzig gi ras ma), human skin or skin of
a wild animal with the claws intact: this serves to subdue the demons
(dregs).20

In some rituals the phurba (ritualistic dagger) is also used for directing energy or
subjugating. We see that the elements used in the ritual are basically those capable of
producing a certain specific type of sound, since it is said that the sound of the bell and
of the damaru for example, can reach and penetrate all realms. They also have a
function of invocation, guidance and prayer at the same time. We also observed that not
only it is enough to perform the ritual in a place that in some way has a link with death,
but also many of the ritual instruments represent death for themselves. In a certain way,
if we were not in a place linked to the deceased, the presence of these instruments
would already be enough for the ritual to be effective.
Next, this same author describes the phases that take place in the ritual. The first
phase is called "White sharing". In this phase, the physical body of the practitioner is
conceived as transformed into nectar that is offered to the so-called "Three Jewels"
(Buddha, Dharma and Sanga). The next phase is called "multi-colored sharing", here the
body is transformed into elements such as food, clothes, jewelry or all kinds of objects
that are desirable to the so-called Protectors21.
Then there is a third phase called "red sharing". Here the flesh and blood of the
practitioner are conceived as dispersing through space to serve as food for demonic
beings of all kinds. Thus, after this stage is over, the next is known as "black sharing".
In this phase we imagine that all our faults, everything that is considered wrong or an

19 David-Neel, Alexandra. Magic and Mystery in Tibet, pp, 92.

20 Tucci, Giuseppe. The Religions of Tibet, pp, 91-92.
21 The Protectors are spirits, most of them of wrathful appearance that guard the practitioner

during a ritual or in daily life. Among Tibetan beliefs there are protectors of the four directions,
of the Elements and every natural place has a protector spirit. All of them should to be greeted
or served to assure the well performance of a ritual.
obstacle to enlightenment and that of all beings, are absorbed by our own body and thus,
our body is offered to all those beings that are passing through intense suffering and to
fully enlightened beings.22 It is important to clarify here that Tucci is basically
describing the ritual of the lineages founded by Machig Labdron, which is the Buddhist
Chöd.
But when we refer that the practice of Chöd is directed to make a kind of cut, we
are referring to a cut or break with what? It is breaking with the influence of the Four
Maras. These Four Maras are called: Substantial Mara, Insubstantial Mara, Mara of
Intoxicating Joy and the Mara which is the root of three Maras mentioned before,
known as the Mara of Grasping to the Self. These Four Maras are what Machig
Labdron refers to when she talks about the Four Demons. For her, a demon is
everything that could mean an obstacle in our spiritual path. So, not only terrifying
circumstances could be demons, but also a friend, says Machig, can become one in
certain circumstances. The existence of these demons, according to her, depends
exclusively on how our mind experiences and understands them.
Whenever our mind is only reacting to the circumstances, facing the environment
with attachment or aversion, we will be in a situation in which we want to hold on to
what we like or we are constantly running away from what we do not want. In both
cases the resulting feeling is fear and we are constantly creating different kinds of
demons. So, says Labdron, these demons take shape in our daily lives through diseases,
unpleasant events, depression, and anxiety, among others. Then we can say that the
practice of Chöd is directed to "cut" with the reactive habit of our mind.
The Substantial Mara refers to how we perceive and how we relate to external
objects. It is our cognitive perception. When we perceive an object for example, we
immediately have an experience of pleasure or rejection. Whether we experience
pleasure or affliction this makes us link to the emotions that result from the experience.
On the other hand, the insubstantial Mara occurs independently of the presence or
absence of a given external condition. It does not refer to a reaction we have to
something, but refers to the so-called kleshas (attachment, aversion, bewilderment, pride
and jealously). They arise in the mind spontaneously and they are always present, latent,
to a greater or lesser extent. From these kleshas come the accumulation of karma23 and
they are therefore the source of all suffering.
But on the other hand, if we live a relaxed life, feeling that we have absolutely
everything, having the illusion that nothing can be better, or if as spiritual practitioners
we achieve siddhis as clairvoyance, for example, or a high recognition for what we do,
and we stay fixed in that, we will not have a true inspiration for continuing our practice,
and we will have the illusion that we have already achieved everything. Those things
are just proving that our practices are giving results, but we are probably far of attaining
the supreme siddhi (enlightenment or the Vajra state of mind). This mara is called the
Mara of Intoxicating Joy. Here the problem is not that we have fame or wealth and a life
full of pleasures, but in the way our mind perceives and experiences them. Finally, the

22Ibidem.
23Karma is the principle of cause and effect. It means “action”. Good or bad actions determine
the existential condition of one´s life. It is a key concept in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism,
among others.
Mara of Grasping is presented in these teachings as the root of the three previous
maras. When we cling to our own being, to our own experience of life, we link to
experiences such as abilities that we possess, or a certain physical aspect or a way of
being and we live only devoted to this, we are generating a great source of suffering
since we will irretrievably lose all this.
Now, let’s pay attention to the Chöd definition that follows:

Chöd is a practice that combines Buddhist meditation with ancient Tibeto-

Siberian shamanic ritual. The "liturgy" of Chöd is sung to the
accompaniment of drum, bell and a thigh-Böne horn.24

This definition basically mentions all the elements that we have been talking
about until now, but it adds something important: the fact that Chöd is a practice that
combines Buddhist elements with Tibeto-Siberian shamanic rituals. In a certain way
and as we saw, this definition would leave out the Chöd practices of Bön-po, since until
now there is no clear evidence of a cross between Bön-po and Buddhist techniques
regarding the Chöd rituals.
But what interests us in this definition is the shamanic component mentioned and
it would be interesting to make an observation: we are not referring to whether Chöd
practitioners are shamans, or if it was shamans who created the practice of Chöd, we are
referring whether or not the Chöd practice is a shamanic experience. On this subject, if
we have in mind what the anthropologist Brian Morris says about: "the shaman is seen
as existing in two worlds: in the ordinary world of daily life and in the hidden world of
the spirits into which he or she enters during a trance state. "25, - we can consider that
Chöd is an essentially shamanic and necromantic experience. He then clarifies that these
two worlds or "two realities" are the material reality, which would be our experience of
material and physical life, and the spiritual reality, which would be where spirits dwells,
the souls of the dead as well as other beings and deities.
Morris says that a shamanic ritual includes singing, drumming, visionary
experiences and activities that induce ecstasy. But he quickly points out that the use of
psychedelic plants or substances is not a determining factor in a shamanic ritual and
may or may not be present. Although the fact of reaching an altered state of
consciousness would be a determining factor for a shamanic experience, these do not
depend exclusively on psychedelic substances. In this way, circumstances such as
isolation in remote places such as mountains or forests, fasting, a frantic dance, even the
presence of external elements that intensify the feelings of the practitioner or certain
meditative states can lead to deep trance states26.
To conclude, as we have seen, the practice of Chöd has undergone an important
evolution from its origins until today. We should strip ourselves of the reductionist
approach of thinking that the authentic practice of Chöd is that performed by the
initiates in a monastery or a temple, without considering the solitary practitioner. It is

24 Dharma Fellowship. Member Essay: “Chöd: An Advanced Type of Shamanism”, pp, 1.

25 Morris, Brian. Religion and Anthropology. A Critical Introduction, pp, 18.
26 Ibidem.
also an error to believe that having enlightenment as our goal must be opposed to the
animistic or to the shamanic interpretation of the reality and of our spiritual path.
The practice of Chöd, whether of Buddhist origins or of Bön influence, is the
result of the experiences and dedication of hermits, yogis, mystics and monks. It was
used to appease the spirits of nature, the fury of the elements, family misfortunes, to
revere and serve the dead, to obtain guidance and advice, for protection and many other
reasons. For all this, its purpose cannot be other than the full understanding of what is
the truly essence of the mind.
If we affirm with the scholars Mageo and Howard that: "When the change
radically alters to society's formal structures, traditional gods may disappear or take on
spirit like attributes, while spirits linger and reflect the changing qualities of personal
experience”27, we can say that the practice of Chöd reflects, not only in its history, but
also in its components the social and cultural evolution of all the aspects that compose
it. The tantric point of view basically expresses that all circumstances are sources or
ways to obtain enlightenment, thus, it is the tantric element which makes the practice of
Chöd so permeable and able to fit almost all needs and situations.
In the play of the damaru of whom today is engaged in the practice of meditation
for the purpose of obtaining self-liberation and the liberation for all sentient-beings,
there is also the play of the ancient hermit for whom the dead were not dead and who
offered his body for the benefit of the departed spirit and for their transcendence.

27 Mageo, Jeannette and Howard, Alan. Spirits in Culture, History, and Mind, pp, 5.
Dakini Troma Nagmo
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