Fear, anger, and negativity are states that each of us have to contend with. Machik's Complete Explanation, the most famous book of the teachings of Machik Labdron, the great female saint and yogini of 11th-12th century Tibet, addresses these issues in a practical, direct way. This valuable text is now finally translated in its entirety into English.
Machik developed a system, the Mahamudra Chod, that takes the Buddha's teachings as a basis and applies them to the immediate experiences of negative mind states and malignant forces. Her unique female approach is to invoke and nurture the very "demons" that we fear and hate, transforming those reactive emotions into love. It is the tantric version of developing compassion and fearlessness, a radical method of cutting through ego-fixation.


Machik's Complete Explanation, Sarah Harding, Snow Lion Publications, Hardcover, 365 pages, $34.95

Sarah Harding has been a Tibetan Buddhist translator and practitioner since 1974 and her publications include Creation and Completion and the forthcoming The Life and Revelations of Pema Lingpa. She has served for ten years as a faculty member at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod is her first translation in the Tsadra Foundation Series published by Snow Lion Publications.

	Contents: Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod
	Foreword by Thrangu Rinpoche	9
	Acknowledgments	11
	Preface	13
	Introduction	21
1.	Training	57
	Previous Life in India	57
	Her Birthplace, Parents, and Birth	59
	Childhood	63
	Life as a Recitation Chaplain with Lama Drapa	65
	First Meeting with Dampa Sangye	66
	Meeting with Sonam Lama	67
	Empowerment	69
	Other Masters	72
	Teachings from Dampa Sangye	72
	Synopsis	75
2.	Maturity	77
	Meeting Topa Bhadra	77
	Empowerment from Sonam Lama	81
	Empowerment from Dampa	83
	The Red House of Copper Mountain	84
	Encounter with Tara	86
	Tonyon Samdrup	89
	The Inquisition of the Indian Panditas	93
	Manchik's Teachings and Transmissions	98
3.	The Questions of Tonyon Samdrup	103
	How Tonyon Perceives Machik	106
	How She Emanates	107
	The Five Degenerations	107
	The Specialness of Chod	109
	About Mahamudra	114
4.	The Questions of Gangpa Muksang	117
	The Four Devils	117
	When to Sever Them	121
	Six Kinds of Gods and Demons	123
	Evidence of Success at Severance	133
5.	Tonyon's Questions on Chod	137
	Giving Rise to the Resolve for Enlightenment and Gathering the Guests	140
	Meditating on the Objects of Refuge, Training the Mind in the Four Immeasurables, and Inviting the Field of Accumulation	144
	Paying Homage with the Eight Branches and Making Offerings	153
	Separating Body and Mind (powa) and Offering the Mandala	156
	Supplicating and Bringing Down Blessings	162
	Offering the Body and Giving It in Charity	163
	Concluding with the Dedication, Prayers, and Dissolution	181
6.	The Questions of Gyenema	185
	Death and Dying	185
	Divisions of the Body	189
	Outer and Inner Gods and Demons	195
	Characteristics of the Body	196
	The Syllables Ha, Hung, and P'e	203
7.	The Questions of Chokyi Senge	205
	The Ten Obligations	205
	Dress Styles of Chod	207
	Identifying Local Spirits	212
	Size and Quantities in the Chod Visualizations	214
	Uprisings, Apparitions, Evidence of Success and Evidence of Severance	217
	The Common and Uncommon Evidence of Success	221
8.	The Question of Jetsun Zilnon	231
	Outer and Inner Apparitions of Spirits	231
	General Apparitions	247
	Special Occurrences	250
9.	The Questions of Sonam Gyen	253
	Future Corruption of State Law	253
10.	More Questions of Sonam Gyen	261
	Future Deterioration of Religious Ethics	261
	The Future of Chod	271
	Colophon	282
	Abbreviations Used in Notes	283
	Notes	285
	Glossary	329
	Bibliography	339
	Index	347