Mystical Death Among the Tibetans - (687)

Alexandra David-Neel

Below is an excerpt from a book written by Alexandra David-Neel. Alexandra David-Neel was one fo the first Europeans to penetrate into Tibetan esotericism. She was also the first European woman to be initiated into some of the Tibetan rites. She was French and travelled to Tibet in 1916, and later returned for a longer stay in 1924. Master Samael mentioned her in a few of his books.

Introduction to the Excerpt

I thought to post this excerpt just to give ourselves some insight into the way that the Tibetans practiced or practice the death of the “I”. The excerpt is Alexandra David-Neel’s account of the practice that is called Chod.

Preliminary Comments

To the Gnostics the practice of Chod is a mystical death practice, which targets the ego as a whole – the myself. It is a very radical and powerful practice. Master Samael said, in relation to the Tibetans that they are very radical, sometimes so radical that they can appear to be black. He also said that us here in the West are not so radical but we still work on the "I" though in a less radical way, but we still get results. The practice of Chod is the Tibetan’s particular way of working on the "I".

Please note, they also use the Divine Mother, see the excerpt below.

The Excerpt – Mytical Death Among the Tibetans

Excerpt from ‘Magic and Mystery in Tibet’ by Alexandra David-Neel.

“Lack of place prevents me from giving a translation of the text of chöd (sacrificial rite), in extenso. It includes long mystic preliminaries during which the celebrant naljorpa (practitioner) " tramples down " all passions and crucifies his selfishness. However, the essential part of the rite consists in a banquet which may be briefly described as follows. The celebrant blows his bone trumpet, calling the hungry demons to the feast he intends to lay before them. He imagines that a feminine deity, which esoterically personifies his own will, springs from the top of his head and stands before him, sword in hand. With one stroke she cuts off the head of the naljorpa. Then, while troops of ghouls crowd round for the feast, the goddess severs his limbs, skins him and rips open his belly. The bowels fall out, the blood flows like a river, and the hideous guests bite here and there, masticate noisily, while the celebrant excites and urges them with the liturgic words of unreserved surrender: "For ages, in the course of renewed births I have borrowed from countless living beings — at the cost of their welfare and life — food, clothing, all kinds of services to sustain my body, to keep it joyful in comfort and to defend it against death. To-day, I pay my debt, offering for destruction this body which I have held so dear.”

"I give my flesh to the hungry, my blood to the thirsty, my skin to clothe those who are naked, my bones as fuel to those who suffer from cold. I give my happiness to the unhappy ones. I give my breath to bring back the dying to life. " Shame on me if I shrink from giving my self ! Shame on you, wretched and demoniac beings, (Buddhists extend their compassion and brotherly love to all beings, demons included. One must note that according to them, and especially according to lamaists, a demon does not necessarily dwell in the purgatories. The inhabitants of these sorrowful worlds are beings who have been led there by their cruelty or other evil deeds. They may, while in their present sad condition, reject their former bad feelings, and be animated by good will toward others, or with a desire for enlightenment. etc. As for so-called "demons," they are beings who habitually harbour hatred and ill will, who rejoice in unrighteousness and cruelty. And these may — as a result of former deeds — have been born as men, demi-gods or any other kind of beings.) if you do not dare to prey upon it…"This act of the "Mystery" is called the "red meal." It is followed by the " black meal," whose mystic signification is disclosed only to those disciples who have received an initiation of high degree. The vision of the demoniacal banquet vanishes, to laughter and cries of the ghouls die away. Utter loneliness in a gloomy landscape succeeds the weird orgy, and the exaltation aroused in the naljorpa by his dramatic sacrifice gradually subsides. Now he must imagine that he has become a small heap of charred human bones that emerges from a lake of black mud — the mud of misery, of moral defilement, and of harmful deeds to which he has co-operated during the course of numberless lives, whose origin is lost in the night of time. He must realize that the very idea of sacrifice is but an illusion, an offshoot of blind, groundless pride. In fact, he has nothing to give away, because he is nothing. These useless bones, symbolizing the destruction of his phantom "I," may sink into the muddy lake, it will not matter. That silent renunciation of the ascetic who realizes that he holds nothing that he can renounce, and who utterly relinquishes the elation springing from the idea of sacrifice, closes the rite” (p.141-142).

Conclusion

Pretty radical! If you one feels strong enough one can try and do the chod practice, but alone. I think that no Gnostic missionary or instructor would lead such a practice in a group setting because people would freak out. Rightly so, we are westerners and we have our way of working that gives results, why not stick to that? Though, it is good though to know about these other practices of mystical death for our own knowledge and esoteric culture.

End (687).