Jerome Edou : Machig Labdron and the Foundations of Chod

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 a founder of a unique transmission lineage known as the Chod of Mahamudra.

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.

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.

"...provides some wonderful material on the Chod lineage, Machig Labdron's biography, and the origins of Mahamudra Chod.... With its publication, we come a little bit closer to feeling the spirit and incisive wisdom of this great yogini."--Tsultrim Allione, author of Women of Wisdom

"[Jerome Edou] skillfully balances the historical and hagiographical, and deftly expounds her great teaching of the Mahamudra Chod.... Consider reading this book as a spiritual investment."--Dr. Elizabeth Benard, author of Chinnamasta, the Aweful Buddhist and Hindu Tantric Goddess

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.