Yes.

The innermost dharma of Severance is ( either ) Atiyoga, the Great Perfection or Mahamudra, the Great Seal. I do both.

My first distinct Chod empowerment is Kagyu Vajrayogini Chod from HH Kalu Rinbochay back in the eighties. In terms of Mahamudra, I also received a Milarepa Chod from HH Chetsang Tulku in the early nineties in Hawaii. ( And four full Milarepa empowerrments in all. )

What I learned is that any full New School Vajrayogini or Milarepa empowerment includes a full Mahamudra Chod on the outer, inner, and secret levels.

As far as Old School Severance, there are several ways of connecting with this practice, and different kinds of lineage and practice texts.
I have received comprehensive Troma from Khenpo Chagdud Tulku, and also short but complete Troma on numerous occasions from HH Kusum Lingpa, both lineages descending from the Dudjom Tersar. This is really important because it has the Four Feasts and so forth in the TibetanTreasures.com Troma text.

The Jigme Lingpa Chod is quite remarkable. And very accessible, too. All you need is a full guruyoga in the Longchen Nyingtik to do this. The Dechen Gyalmo / Yeshe Tsogyel is really the core of this transmission in Longchen Nyingtik, as Machig Labdron is held to be an emanation of Yeshe Tsogelma.

In addition, there is a separate treasure text and transmission for Chokling Tersar Severance, based on the Blue Vajrayogini / Troma of Terton Chogyur Lingpa. I received that last summer, and will be taking more teachings for this shortly, from HE Phakchok Tulku, who is quite young and quite powerful. It is extremely rare. I use a lot of practice texts in the Chokling Tersar, and so wanted to make a direct connection with this transmission.

The Severance of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu is actually a hybrid, and a lot of people don't understand this. They mistakenly think this is the Longchen Nyingtik. Of course, on an innermost formless level, it is the same Great Perfection.

As far as the teachers mentioned, HE Khamtrul Rinbochay and HE Gochen Tulku Sang Ngak, they are both wonderful. Although HEKR gave this Chod in Seattle, I missed it, and have only his Longchen Nyingtik Padmasambhava and Dzogchen White Tara.

Gochen Tulku Sang-Ngak is a major teacher for me, and I have received repeated empowerments from him. He has however gone off on his own and hangs out mostly in a very rural area so I haven't seen him since 2001. Since I won't be traveling to Montana or Mt. Shasta, I cannot expect to see him again in the future.

In 1992 I gave a Chod blessing based on the Dudjom Tersar. It worked as a psychic healing for a guy who was in real continuing distress. This worked when my Big Time protector empowerment practices did not, so that shows how Chod is independently important and how you have to approach karmic issues in very different ways.

BTW, there is a Sakya school Chod text ( and many wonderful Vajrayogini texts ) at
www.vajrayogini.com
for those who can demonstrate they have full New School Vajrayogini.

A very very good text on Chod for all practitioners of *all* schools is
"Chod in the Ganden Tradition: The Oral Instructions of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche"
# Paperback: 216 pages
# Publisher: Snow Lion Publications (November 25, 2006)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1559392614
# ISBN-13: 978-1559392617

You can get this from Amazon or Snow Lion. Quite indispensible. Fortunately, HH Kyabje Zong Rinbochay was *nonsectarian* Gelugpa. What a relief!

Sarva mangalam! Siddhi rastu!

Best,

K T