| This dissertation investigates Buddhist and feminist perspectives of the body as seen through the Tibetan Buddhist ritual of Chod (gcod). Chod is related to the family of body practices that express the "gift of the body" (lus sbyin). East Asian expressions of the gift of the body include practices of blood writing, body slicing, body mutilation, ritual exposure and self-immolation. In Chod, the buddha nature (de bzhin gshegs pai snying po) of the practitioner is visualized as the yi-dam (meditational deity). Through a series of visualizations, the yi-dam chops up the practitioner's dead body. The chopped-up body is transformed into ambrosia, and this is offered to the various classes of enlightened and unenlightened beings.;Despite its gory imagery, Western Tibetan Buddhist practitioners and academics have often considered Chod ritual as a positive feminist ritual for Western women. This dissertation explores how this statement is possible and contributes to this discourse by taking as its working basis two unique perspectives: Feminism and Tibetan Buddhism are considered as two equal dialogue partners; and the mystical experiences of feminist Chod practitioners are a re-statement of Chod and Tibetan Buddhism in/for the modern world.;Then, using the framework of the Three Vehicles, the dissertation surveys what Chod says about the physical body. Chod is explained as a body practice and the dissertation considers how Chod practitioners experience their body; what the relationship is between the practitioner's physical body, the yi-dam's body, and the lus sbyin. The pre-understanding of Tibetan Buddhist Chod practitioners is, next, contrasted with the pre-understanding of feminist Chod practitioners. This pre-understanding is their sociocultural, historical and spiritual context by which Chod becomes framed as a positive feminist ritual. |
