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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 attachments. 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 Explanation 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 Harding. Snow Lion Publications, Boulder, Colorado 2016, pp. 297-310. 387
