Swamiji on Class and Chod (PDF) - The Movement Center

meditated upon by the ultimate reality. It is appreciating that we are not breathing, but rather
but we are being breathed. We are nothing but the breath of God, if you will.
Within the Dzogchen tradition and in esoteric Shaivism, there are two principal training
programs at the highest level. Those two programs are Chöd, which exists in different forms in
Shaivism and in Dzogchen, and the circulation of the energy or kundalini yoga. Kundalini yoga,
as you know, is the awakening of the energy, the expansion of the chakras and the circulation of
the energy through the channels. In the Dzogchen tradition, it’s called Togyal.
These two practices, Chöd
and kundalini yoga, are the
main ways in which we
practice to bring out the best
in us and the best in
everything in our
environment. The circulation
of the energy brings about a
vibrancy and vitality in your
physical body, a
transformation of all of the
emotional garbage that we
carry. We dissolve that and become emotionally balanced and clear and mentally clear and
sharp. Ultimately, we become profoundly aware of the power of spirit that is functioning within
us as the very essence of our desires and our will, functioning as us, and also functioning as the
vibrancy in all of our experience. We come to that place where we appreciate the total
interconnectedness of our body and mind and our environment.
Chöd practice is the conscious contemplation of the transcendence of our physical body and our
mind, and our ego and all of our desires and our agendas and our trips and our attitudes and our
likes and our dislikes and our beliefs and our disbeliefs. It is the transcendence of everything to
TMC News, December 2008 Class and Chod 4