This book is the first to trace the history of Chod practice in Tibet's indigenous Bon tradition. Chod ("cutting through") is a meditative practice in which the practitioner imagines offering his or her body in sacrifice through elaborate contemplative visualization. Although a meditative practice, Chod is not done sitting comfortably on a cushion in a shrine room, but instead is often practiced in terrifying places like cemeteries or charnal grounds. The feelings of fear that result are used by the Chod practitioner to "cut through" his or her own ego. Chod contains elements of early shamanism, of sutric and tantric teachings also found in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, and of the Tibetan highest school of Dzogchen.

Chod Practice in the Bon Tradition, Alejandro Chaoul, Snow Lion Publications, Paperback, 2009, 118 Pages, $24.95

Alejandro Chaoul received a PH.D. focusing on Tibetan religions from Rice University and has been teaching Tibetan meditation and mind-body techniques under the auspices of the Ligmincha Institute in various parts of the United States, Mexico, and Poland since 1995. He is now an Assistant Professor at the John P. McGovern, M.D. Center for Health, Humanities, and the Human Spirit in the University of Texas Medial School at Houston, with an adjunct position at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he researches the use of Tibetan mind-body techniques for cancer patients.

CONTENTS: Chod Practice in the Bon Tradition
Foreword by Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak	xi
Foreword by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
Technical Note	xvii
Introduction: Enchanted by the Melody	1
Chod: Offering One's Body	5
Chod in the Bon Religion	21
Conclusion	57
Epilogue	61
Appendix I: The Laughter of the Skygoers	63
Appendix II: Secret Mother Tantra Index (dkar chags)	77
Appendix III: Annotated Bibliography of the Chod Texts from the Bon Tradition	79
Selected Bibliography	85
Notes	89