This translation of the most famous biography of Machig Labdron, founder of the unique Mahamudra Chod tradition, is presented together with a comprehensive overview of Chod's historical and doctrinal origins in Indian Buddhism, and its subsequent transmission to Tibet.
Machig Labdron is popularly considered to be both a dakini and a deity, an emanation of Yum Chenmo or Prajnaparamita, the embodiment of the wisdom of the buddhas. Historically, this Tibetan woman, a contemporary of Milarepa, was an adept, an outstanding teacher, a mother and the founder of a unique transmission lineage known as the Chod of Mahamudra.
Chod refers to cutting through the grasping at a self and its attendant emotional afflictions. Most famous for its teaching on transforming the aggregates into an offering of food for demons as a compassionate act of self sacrifice, Chod aims to free the mind from all fear and to arouse realization of its true nature, primordially clear bliss and emptiness.

Machig Labdron and the Foundation of Chod, Jerome Edou, Snow Lion Publications, 236 Pages, 1995, Paperback, $19.95

Jerome Edou has been studying with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche since 1976. He has been an interpreter for various lamas for more than ten years, and is an author and translator of works on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. He currently lives in Kathmandu.

	Contents: Machig Labdron and the Foundation of Chod
	Preface	ix
	Introduction
1.	The Second Propagation of Buddhism in Tibet	1
2.	Machig Labdron	3
3.	The Chd Tradition	6
4.	Chd as Viewed by the West	8
	PART ONE: The Chod Tradition
I.	The Grand Poem on the Perfection of Wisdom by Aryadeva the Brahmin	15
II.	The Prajnaparamita	25
	1. The Heart Sutra	25
	2. The Mother of the Buddhas	28
	3. The Indian Tradition	29
	4. Dampa Sangy and the Tibetan Tradition	31
III.	The Chd of Machig	39
	1. The Practice of the Bodhisattvas	39
	2. The Chd of Mahamudra	42
	3. Union of Consciousness and Space	47
	4. Transforming the Aggregates into an Offering of Food	50
IV.	Gods and Demons	57
	1. The Mad Saints	57
	2. Cutting through Gods and Demons	63
	3. The Four Demons of Chd	67
	4. The Level of Final Accomplishment	72
V.	Transmission	79
	1. The Three Chd Traditions of Machig	79
	The Sutra Tradition	81
	The Tantra Tradition	85
	The Combined Sutra and Tantra Tradition	88
	2. Machig's Lineage Descendants	89
VI.	Biographies of Machig	95
	1. The Marvelous and the Imaginary	95
	2. The Dakini of Primordial Wisdom	100
	3. The Tradition of The Grand Exposition	105
	4. Comparative Study of the Tibetan Sources	110
	PART TWO: The Marvelous Life of Machig Labdron, A Translation of Chapters I and II of An Exposition of Transforming the Aggregates into an Offering of Food, Illuminating the Meaning of Chd
VII.	Machig's Previous Life, Her Birth and Early Years	119
	1. The Previous Life	119
	2. The Birth of Machig	122
	3. Labdrn	127
	4. Dampa Sangy	131
	5. The Initiation	133
VIII.	Her Achievements	141
	1. The Meeting with Thpa Bhadra	141
	2. The Return to Lat	145
	3. Zangri, the Copper Mountain	148
	4. Arya Tara	150
	5. Machig's Children	153
	6. The Indian Acaryas	158
	Machig's Last Instructions	165
	Abbreviations	171
	Notes	175
	Tibetan-English Lexicon of Chd Terminology	209
	Bibliography	219
	General Index	233
	Index of Tibetan and Sanskrit Names	239