Machig Labdron

Machig Labdrön sometimes referred to as Adrön Chödron was a renowned 11th century Tibetan tantricBuddhist practitioner, teacher and yogini who originated several Tibetan lineages of the Vajrayana practice of Chöd (Wylie: gcod). Machig Labdrön's Chöd, also known as Mahamudra Chöd, has been widespread in Tibet since Machig's lifetime. It is also called "The Beggars' Offering" or "The Cutting-Off-Ritual." Chöd is a visionary Buddhist practice of cutting attachment to one’s corporeal form (in terms of the dualistic proclivity to relate to one's corporeal form as a reference-point that proves one's existence). This means that a practitioner offers the mandala of their own body in a ganachakra rite. The practitioner works entirely with their own mind, visualizing the offering, and—by practicing in lonely and dreaded places, like cemeteries—works to overcome all fear. This is also why Chöd was often used to overcome sickness in order to heal oneself and others. In some lineages of the Chöd practice, chodpas and chodmas (practitioners of Chöd) use a ritual bell, a specialized Chöd drum called a damaru, and a human thigh-bone trumpet (often obtained from the charnel ground of sky burials).