The single overall directive of the first two texts in this volume—the
Heart Essence of Profound Meaning root verses and their commentary,
The Big General Guide to Severance(ཟབ་དོན་གྱི་སྤྱི་ཁྲིད་ཆེན་མོ།)—is to seek out and directly confront difficult circumstances. Here, these difficulties are often anxieties related to spirits in the dark of night in haunted places. This practice acts as a means to recognize
emptiness—the lack of intrinsic existence of all phenomena—as well as a testing ground of one’s former realizations and studies of that emptiness from the Perfection of Wisdom. The texts are notable for their lack of instruction on ritualized Severance involving body sacrifice, which later works emphasize; in these texts, the heart of Severance is letting go of clinging to the self and reification of existence. And as Jamyang Gonpo was just a generation removed from Machik Labdron, the main progenitor of Severance, his methods seem to be closest to her actual teachings.
Also translated in this volume, The Seven-Day Severance Retreat Experiential Guide (བདུད་གཅོད་ཉམས་ཁྲིད་ཟབ་མོ།), is a very concise and precise instruction on putting the main intentions of the teachings into practice in the setting of a one-week retreat. The instructions are striking in that they contain no rituals, visualizations, deities, instruments, or liturgies. Jamyang Gönpo shows us how to turn our attention to the very mind of this person who is experiencing fear and the object of that fear—whether fear about demons or sickness or suffering—to see them for what they are. In doing so, we find that joys and sorrows, highs and lows, powers of gods and demons, and demonic obstacles are all mind made. (Source: Wisdom Publications)
