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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FOUR DEMONS
The Four Demons in Chö
The Questions of Gangpa Muksang from the text Clarifying the Meaning of Chod,
a Complete Explanation of Casting Out the Body as Food (Tib. Phung po gzan skyur
gyi rnam bshad gcod kyi don gsal byed)"? list the following:
the tangible Mara (Tib. thogs bcas kyi bdud)
the intangible Mära (Tib. thogs med kyi bdud)
— the Mara of exultation (Tib. dga’ brod kyi bdud)
the Mara of conceit (Tib. snyems byed kyi bdud)
Ché (Tib. gcod, ‘cutting’) is a very special tradition that derives from a Tibetan saint
Machig Labdrôn (Ma gcig lab sgron ma, 1055-1149). She was very well educated
in the Sutra system, mainly in the Prajiaparamita literature. The literal meaning of
Chö is ‘cutting’, referring to get rid of (“cutting’’) the four kinds of attachment which
lead us to directly experience emptiness, the nature of all phenomena. According to
Machig, the strongest attachment is clinging to ego which is the root of all attach¬
ments. The method to cut the root is offering the body, the main support of ego. One
of the specialties of the Cho practice that it combines the Sutra, Tantra, Dzogchen
or Mahamudra.
The steps of offering the body are connected to the four Maras as follows:"
— giving up attachment to the body — Devaputramara
phowa and transformation into a Deity — Mrityumara
brandishing the curved knife in the right hand — Kleshamara
— cutting the top of the skull — Skandhamara.
During meditation at the times of mixing space and awareness, things and
characteristics, rejecting and accepting, fixation on referents are naturally cleared
up: abiding in the ultimate nature of phenomena without subject-object. These are the
main methods of cutting the four demons in the Chö according to Machig Labdrön.
In Taranatha’s instructions for the Cho practice, the syllable Phat is used to cut the
four levels of obscurations. 4
' Harding, Sarah: Machik’s Complete Explanation Clarifying the Meaning of Chod, A Complete Ex¬
planation of Casting Out the Body As Food. Tr. and intr. by Sarah Harding. Snow Lion Publications,
Ithaca, New York, Boulder, Colorado 2003, pp. 117-121.
From Longchen Nyingthig Néndro, explanation by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche: Chégyal
Namkhai Norbu: Chéd. Shang Shung Edizioni, 58031 Arcidosso GR, Italy 1990, p. 84.
gCod yul zab mo’i khrid yig gnad don snying po (Practice Manual of Profound Object-Severance’).
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye: Chod: The Sacred Teachings on Severance. Essential Teachings of the
Eight Practice Lineages of Tibet, Vol. 14 [The Treasury of Precious Instructions]. Tr. by Sarah Har¬
ding. Snow Lion Publications, Boulder, Colorado 2016, pp. 297-310.
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