The Kusali's Accumulation: Destroying the Four Demons at a Single Stroke
From Words of My Perfect Teacher:
Chapter 5
(*The name of the practice discussed here is “Cho.” Its basic meaning is “to cut.” In this chapter it is used constantly with the various meanings of destroy, cut, eradicate, cut through concepts. We have translated it in its verbal form in various ways according to the context. When it appears as the name of the practice, we have left it untranslated. The reader should appreciate the range of meaning implied.)
Now comes a brief offering of one’s own body called the kusali’s accumulation. Since this practice is linked to the Guru Yoga in Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind, it is permissible to combine it with the Guru Yoga. Alternatively and without any contradiction, it can also be practised as part of the accumulation of merit along with the mandala offering. That is how it will be explained here, in accordance with an oral tradition that teaches it in that way.
I. THE BODY AS AN OFFERING
The word “kusali” means a beggar. To accumulate merit and wisdom, yogis who have renounced ordinary life hermits who live in the mountains, for instance-use visualization to make offerings of their own bodies, having no other possessions to offer. All the other material things that we gather around us with so much effort and concern are for the care of our bodies, and compared to any other possession it is without doubt our bodies that we cherish most. To sever our infatuation with our own bodies and use them as an offering* is therefore far more beneficial than offering any other possession.
(*This is the basic practice of Cho.)
It is said:
Offering your horse or elephant is worth hundreds of other offerings;
Offering your child or spouse is worth thousands;
Offering your own body is worth hundreds of thousands.
Machik Labdron says:
Not knowing that to give away my body without attachment
Was to accumulate merit and wisdom,
I have clung to this dear body of mine.*
This I confess to the nirmanakaya of the Mother.**
(*The term used here for the body is ‘phung po‘, referring also to the “aggregates”, i.e.
the psychophysical constituents which interdependently make up what one thinks of
as oneself.)
(**The Mother: the feminine, wisdom or emptiness, which is described as the mother of
all the Buddhas because when one realizes emptiness one becomes Buddha.)
II. THE PRACTICE OF OFFERING THE BODY
First, if you are used to the visualization you may choose to shoot your consciousness directly into space and visualize it there instantaneously as the Wrathful Black True Mother.* If you are not, imagine in your heart the essence of your mental consciousness in the form of the Wrathful Mother. She is dancing and swaying, brandishing a curved knife high in the air with her right hand, and with her left holding a skull-cup full of blood at her heart. The squealing head of a black sow protrudes from behind her right ear. She is wearing the apparel of a wrathful goddess.
(*Skt. Krodhakali)
As you pronounce the syllable “P’et!”* the Wrathful Mother flies up through your central channel. At the exact instant that she shoots up out of the aperture of Brahma on the top of your head, your body becomes a corpse and collapses in a heap. Here, do not think of your body as having its normal appearance. Instead, see it as fat, greasy and huge, as big as the entire cosmos of a billion worlds.
(*The syllable p’et (generally pronounced “pay” or “pet”, although there are many variations) uttered abruptly, is used to cut through the process of conceptualization.)
With a single blow of the curved knife in her right hand, the Wrathful Black Mother-the visualized form of your consciousness-instantly slices off the top of the inanimate body’s skull at the level of the eyebrows to make a skull cup. Again, meditate that the skull cup is not life-size, but as big as the entire cosmos of a billion worlds. With her left hand the Wrathful Mother picks up the skull cup and places it, with the brow facing her, on a tripod made of three human skulls, each as large as Mount Meru. Then with the hooked knife in her right hand, she lifts the whole corpse and puts it into the skull-cup.
Now visualize in space above the skull a white syllable hang with the nature of nectar, and beneath the skull the vertical stroke of a syllable A,* red, with the nature of fire:
(*”The a-stroke,” a simple line, thicker at one end and pointed, which forms part of the Tibetan letter A. In this practice it is upside down, giving it the appearance e. of a flame. In many practices the hang is upside down also, although that is not mentioned in our text.)
As you say “Om Ah Hum,” fire blazes up from the stroke of the A and heats the skull-cup until the corpse sizzles and melts into nectar, which boils up and fills the whole skull. Everything foul and impure flows off in the form of a frothing scum. Steam rises from the nectar and touches the hang, heating it up by the contact. The hang exudes streams of red and white nectar, which drip down and blend together in an inseparable unity within the skull. The hang itself dissolves into light and melts into the nectar too. Visualizing all this, recite:
Phet! Ridding myself of infatuation with the body …
and so on. Then, as you repeat “Om Ah Hum,” visualize that the om purifies the nectar of all imperfections of colour, smell, taste and so on; the ah makes it increase many times over; and the hum transforms it into everything that could be wished for. It takes on the nature of the immaculate nectar* of primal wisdom, which manifests in clouds that billow out and satisfy all possible desires.
(*Nectar: The Skt, amrita, lit. “the immortal,” the nectar which conquers the demon of death. It is a symbol of wisdom. Immaculate means “unsullied by negative emotions.”)
Visualize in the sky in front of you a throne piled with silken cushions, on which is seated your gracious root teacher in person. Above him are the lineage teachers, around him are all the yidams, and below in the space above the skull-cup are the Seventy-five Glorious Protectors* and all the hosts of other Dharma protectors, both the wisdom protectors and the protectors constrained by the effect of their past actions, along with the deities of the locality and owners of the ground.
(*Some of the most famous Dharma-protectors of Tibet. They are considered to be emanations of Mahakala.)
Below the skull, visualize all beings of the six realms and the three worlds, among whom your principal guests are the eighty thousand types of obstacle makers, the fifteen great demons that prey on children, and, in short, all those who create obstacles and to whom you owe karmic debts, teeming like the countless specks of dust in a sunbeam.
1. The white feast for the guests above
Now visualize that your root teacher, .the lineage teachers and all the assembled Buddhas and Bodhisattvas above his head all imbibe the nectar through their tongues, which have the form of hollow vajra tubes.* As a result, you complete the accumulations, you are freed of your obscurations, your violations and breaches of the samaya are purified and you attain both the common and supreme accomplishments.
(*In this practice the tongues of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have the symbolic form of a half-vajra, which represents the indestructible wisdom body, extending into a tube of light, representing their ability to accept offerings.)
The yidams and deities of the four and six classes of tantra surrounding the teacher also consume the nectar, absorbing it through hollow tongues whose shapes correspond to the symbol associated with each deity-a vajra, wheel, jewel, lotus, or crossed vajra.* As a result you complete the accumulations, clear away your obscurations, purify all violations and breaches of samaya, and attain the common and supreme accomplishments.
(*These are the symbols of the five Buddha families.)
3. The variegated feast for the guests above
Again, steam rises from the boiling nectar, giving rise to inconceivable clouds of offerings. Offer them to the guests above: fresh water to drink and for their feet, flowers, incense, lamps, perfume, foodstuffs and music, the eight auspicious symbols and seven attributes of royalty, parasols, victory-banners, canopies, golden wheels with a thousand spokes, white conches spiralling to the right, and more. As a result, you and all beings complete the accumulations and are cleansed of all obscurations.
4. The variegated feast for the guests below
Now come the guests below, namely all the beings of the six realms of existence. Whatever each of them desires, whatever each of them wishes, it pours down on them like rain, satisfying them and filling them with joy.
Think particularly of those beings to whom you have been indebted in all your lives until now in samsara without any beginning. We have all kinds of debts due to past actions: debts that shorten our lives because we have killed; debts that make us poor because we have robbed; debts that plague us with sickness because we have attacked and beaten others; debts for protection given by superiors, for services rendered by inferiors, and for friendship from equals; debts to overlords and underlings,* to loved ones, friends, subjects, children and livestock; debts for the food we have eaten and the clothes we have worn, for the money we have borrowed, for the milk we have milked, for the loads we have made others carry and for the fields we have ploughed, and for whatever else we may have used.
(*”Debts for the castle above and the fields below,” that is to say, the debts we owed the lord for his protection when we were tenants and the debts we owed to the farmers for their crops when we were lords.)
All of those karmic creditors, whether male and female, want to venge themselves on your flesh and bones, shorten your lifespan and snatch away your life-force. They gather round holding containers, running after you and demanding repayment. The offering is transformed into an inexhaustible treasury of everything desirable, which rains down upon them, bringing each of them whatever they most wish. It brings food for those who want food, clothing for those who want clothing, wealth for those who want wealth, gardens for those who want gardens, horses for those who want horses, houses to live in for those who want houses, and friends and loved ones for those who want friends and loved ones.
When each of them has enjoyed these things you are freed from your karmic obligations. Your debts are repaid. You are delivered from those deadly avengers and purified of all your harmful deeds and obscurations. Everyone is placated and satisfied.
Then imagine that for all those who may have been left behind-the lowly, the weak, the crippled, the blind, the deaf, the dumb and all beings in the six realms who are tortured and worn out by suffering-the offering becomes whatever they may need. It turns into a refuge for those with no refuge, a protector for those who have no protector, friendly assistance for those with no support, loved ones and friends for the lonely, a place in society for the deprived, medicines to cure the sick, life-restoring elixirs for the dying, miraculous legs for the crippled, eyes of wisdom for the blind, immaculate ears for the deaf, wisdom tongues for the dumb,* and so on. These beings all enjoy the gifts and are satisfied, delivered from all the effects of actions, sufferings and habitual tendencies of each of the six realms. All the males reach the level of sublime Avalokitesvara, all the females reach the level of noble Tara, and the three worlds of samsara are liberated to their very depths.
(*These last four refer to spiritual attainments.)
Continue to recite “Om Ah Hum” until you have completed this whole visualization. Then recite the passage:
P’et! The guests of the offering above…
down to the words:
… uncontrived Great Perfection. Ah!
Then rest in the state beyond any concept of an offering, an offerer or a recipient of the offerings.
In the Cho texts there are usually four great feasts: white, red, variegated and black. In this one there are the white and variegated, but no red or black feasts.
What today’s so-called Cho practitioners mean by Cho is a grisly process of destroying malignant spirits by killing, slashing, chopping, beating or chasing them. Their idea of Cho involves being constantly full of anger. Their bravado is nothing more than hatred and pride. They imagine that they have to behave like the henchmen of the Lord of Death. For example, when they practise Cho for a sick person, they work themselves into a furious display of rage, staring with hate-filled eyes as large as saucers, clenching their fists, biting their lower lips, lashing out with blows and grabbing the invalid so hard that they tear the clothes off his back. They call this subduing spirits, but to practise Dharma like that is totally mistaken. Machik Labdron says:
Since time without beginning, harmful spirits have lived in a ceaseless whirl of hallucination and suffering, brought on by their own evil actions and by inauspicious circumstances which drive them like a wind. When they die they inevitably plunge to the very depths of the lower realms. With the hook of compassion I catch those evil spirits. Offering them my warm flesh and warm blood as food, through the kindness and compassion of bodhicitta I transform the way they see everything and make them my disciples. Those malignant spirits are for me the prize that I hold with the hook of compassion-but the great adepts of Cho of the future will boast of killing them, casting them out or beating them. That will be a sign that false doctrines of Cho, the teachings of demons, are spreading.
All the various false Cho practices that she predicted, such as the Ninefold Black Cho, are only the result of thinking that one can subjugate spirits through violence, without the love and compassion of bodhicitta.
A person who uses those practices might just be able to overcome one or two puny little elemental spirits, but if he encounters any really vicious ones, they will attack his life in retaliation – as has been seen to happen on many occasions.
It is particularly difficult for practitioners to tell whether signs of success which occur on the path-the subjugation of a demon, or the experience of some kind of blessing, for instance-are authentic signs of progress, or whether they are in fact obstacles created by demonic forces.
People possessed by malicious spirits usually seem to have clairvoyance and supernatural powers. But as time goes on they get further and further from the genuine Dharma, until not even the tiniest scrap of goodness is left in them. The mountains of offerings that might be heaped upon them are just karmic debts for the future, and even in this life do them no good. In the end they find it hard to scrape together enough to eat or wear. And what they do have, they cannot bear to use up. When they die, they are sure to be reborn in an ephemera hell or some such realm, as we have already mentioned.
III. THE MEANING OF CHO
The so-called spirits to be destroyed in Cho practice are not anywhere outside. They are within us. All the hallucinations that we perceive in the form of spirits outside ourselves arise because we have not eradicated the conceit* of believing in an “I” and a “self.”
(*Arrogance, used in this chapter with the very particular meaning of believing in “I”.)
As Machik says:
The tangible demon, the intangible demon,
The demon of exultation and the demon of conceit
All of them come down to the demon of conceit.*
(*”According to the causal vehicle of characteristics, the four demons are:
1) The demon of the aggregates, referring to that which dies. (Without the five aggregates, there would be no support, or basis, for the sufferings of samsara.)
2) The demon of negative emotions, the causer of death. (These emotions, which arise from the belief in a self, give rise to negative actions. Negative actions give rise to karma and it is due to karma that we helplessly are born and die.)
3) The demon of the Lord of Death, which is death itself. (This means death as such, which inevitably follows birth. More subtly it is the natural impermanence of each moment, which is by nature painful.)
4) The demon of the sons of the gods, that which prevents us from proceeding towards the state of peace beyond death. (In practice it refers to distraction, thoughts of attachment to external objects.) “According to the Mantrayana vehicle, the four demons are:
1) The tangible demon: exterior things and beings which harm our body and mind.
2) The intangible demon: attachment, aversion and confusion and the 84,000 types of negative emotions that
give rise to all the sufferings of samsara.
3) The demon of exultation: this means the exultation that one feels when one thinks that one’s own spiritual teacher, the teachings one has received and the practices one is engaged in are different, and that one’s own vajra brothers and sisters are superior to other people’s. More particularly, it is the infatuation that one feels when one achieves the slightest ‘warmth’ or power of the practice.
4) The demon of conceit is the root of the three others: it is the belief in ‘I’ and ‘mine;’ this conceit makes us take the five aggregates as ‘me’ or ‘mine:’ if one destroys this demon, all external demons are destroyed by themselves, without doing anything to destroy them.”
This thing we call a spirit is in fact the demon of conceit, the belief in a self. Machik also says:
“The many spirits” means concepts;
“The powerful spirit” means belief in a self;
“The wild spirits” means thoughts.
To destroy these spirits is to be an adept of Cho.
Jetsun Mila’s conversation with the Ogress of the Rock included these words:
Belief in an “I” is more powerful than you are, demoness.
Concepts are more numerous than you are, demoness.
Thoughts are more spoilt by habits than you are, demoness.
He also classified the various kinds of Cho as follows:
Outer Cho is to wander in fearsome places and mountain solitudes;
Inner Cho is to cast away one’s body as food;
Absolute Cho is to sever the root once and for all.
I am a yogi who possesses these three kinds of Cho.
All Cho practices are therefore to cut through the belief in a self, which is the root of all ignorance and deluded perceptions. This is what is meant by the line “absolute Cho is to sever the root once and for all.” External demons are just deluded perceptions, and as long as you do not destroy your belief in a self, trying to kill them will not put them to death. Beating them will have no effect on them. Trampling them will not crush them. Chasing after them will not make them go away. Unless you sever the root, which is the conceit within you, you will no more be able to annihilate the illusory spirits which are its external manifestation than get rid of smoke without putting out the fire. The Ogress of the Rock told Jetsun Mila:
If you don’t know that demons come from your own mind,
There’ll be other demons besides myself!
I’m not going to leave just because you tell me to go.
and Jetsun Mila said:
Take a demon as a demon and it’ll harm you;
Know a demon’s in your mind and you’ll be free of it;
Realize a demon to be empty and you’ll annihilate it.
And again:
You who appear as harmful spirits and yaksas, male or female,
Only when one has no understanding are you demons,
Bringing all your mischief and your obstacles.
But once one understands, even you demons are deities,
And become the source of all accomplishments.
What is called Cho is to eradicate any belief in demons from within, not to kill them, thrash them, cast them out, crush and destroy them. We must understand that the thing to be destroyed is not outside; it is within us.
Generally speaking, most other religious traditions teach an aggressive approach to outer hostile forces and external creators of obstacles, using the sharpness, severity and power of violent methods, the points of arrows and spears, all directed outwards. But our tradition is as Jetsun Mila says:
My system is to eradicate the belief in a self, to cast the eight ordinary concerns to the winds, and to make the four demons feel embarrassed.
Direct all your practice inwards and mobilize all your strength, skill and powers against the belief in a self that dwells within you. To say, “Eat me! Take me away!” once is a hundred times better than crying, “Protect me! Save me!” To offer yourself as food to a hundred spirits is better than calling on a hundred protection deities for help.
We entrust the sick to the demons.
We rely on our enemies to guide us.
One “Devour me! Carry me off!”
Is better than “Protect me! Save me!” hundreds of times.
This is the venerable Mother’s* tradition.
(*”The venerable mother” means Machik Labdron, who is speaking in this quotation.)
If you cut your belief in demons at the root from within, you will perceive everything as pure, and, as the saying goes:
Demons become Dharma protectors, and those protectors’ faces become the face of the nirmanakaya.
People today who claim to be practitioners of Cho do not understand any of this, and persist in thinking of spirits as something outside themselves. They believe in demons, and keep on perceiving them all the time; in everything that happens they see some ghost or gyalgong. They have no peace of mind themselves, and are always bewildering others with their lies, delivered with much assertive blustering:
“There’s a ghost up there! And down there, too, a spirit! That’s a ghost! That’s a demon! That’s a tsen! I can see it … Ha!-I’ve got it, I’ve killed it! Watch out, there’s one lying in wait for you! I’ve chased it away! There-it looked back!”
Spirits and pretas know what such people are up to, and follow them around wherever they go. They might take possession of women who fall easily into trances, for example, and make all sorts of insistent and plausible claims: “I am a god,” “I am a ghost,” “I am the person who died,” “I am your old father,” “I am your old mother,” and so on. Sometimes they announce, “I am the deity, I am a Dharma protector. I am Damchen,” and speak of supernatural visions or make false predictions.
Demons fool the lamas and the lamas fool their patrons, or, as the saying goes, “The son fools his father while enemies fool the son.” These are manifest signs of the degenerate age, and show that the demons are taking over. As the Great Master of Oddiyana prophesied:
In the decadent age, male spirits will enter men’s hearts;
Female spirits will enter women’s hearts;
Goblins will enter children’s hearts;
Samaya-breakers will enter the clergy’s hearts.
There will be a spirit in every single Tibetan’s heart.
And:
When goblins are taken for gods, a time of suffering will come upon Tibet.
These prophecies have come to pass.
Do not be taken in by that false perception that makes gods, spirits and obstacle-makers appear outside you; that would only reinforce it. Train yourself to see everything as a dream-like display or an illusion. The phenomena of spirits on the one hand and sick people on the other, appearing momentarily as aggressor and victim, both arise from the negative actions and distorted perceptions which link them together in that way. Do not take sides, do not love the one and hate the other. Generate the love and compassion of bodhicitta towards both. Sever at the root all your self-concern and belief in an “I,” and give your body and life to the spirits as food without holding back. Pray from the depths of your heart that these beings may take an interest in the true Dharma and pacify their hatred and maliciousness, and then explain the teachings.*
(*Usually symbolically with a four-line verse of teaching.)
When you finally cut through at its very root all belief in the duality of aggressor and victim, perceiving as deity and perceiving as demon, self and others-and all the resulting dualistic concepts of hope and fear, attachment and hatred, good and bad, pleasure and pain-you will find, as it is said:
Neither deity, nor demon: the confidence of the view.
Neither distraction, nor fixation: the vital point of the meditation.
Neither acceptance, nor rejection: the vital point of the action.
Neither hope, nor fear: the vital point of the result.
When all concepts of anything to be cut and anyone to do the cutting dissolve into the expanse of absolute reality where all things are equal, the inner harmful spirit of conceit is severed at the root. That is the sign that you have realized the absolute and ultimate Cho.
I understand that there is no self, but still have gross concepts of “I.”
I have decided to renounce duality, but am beset by hopes and fears.
Bless me and all those like me who believe in a self.
That we may realize the natural state, the absence of self.
Machik Labdron (1031-1129)
(The consort of Padampa Sangye and principal holder of his Cho lineage. She holds the large double drum used in this practice to summon all the guests to the symbolic feast.)
Dudjom Rinpoche (1904- 1987)
(An outstanding scholar and master of the Great Perfection, he held all the major Nyingma transmissions, discovered numerous spiritual treasures and was a prolific author and compiler of teachings. He became the leader of the Nyingma school in exile, and taught extensively in the West and Far East as well as all over the Himalayan region. This photograph was taken in Tibet. He died at his home in the Dordogne, France, in 1987.)