Within Tibetan Buddhism, practices such as tsa-lung, phowa, and chöd are regarded as specialized methods that work very directly with body, mind, and the subtle energies that bind them. Tsa-lung is performed in a stable meditative posture and combines physical positions, specific breathing patterns, and focused visualization. The practitioner contemplates the network of subtle channels and energy centers, guiding the winds or prāṇa through these channels—especially into the central channel—often in coordination with mantra recitation and seed-syllable imagery. This process is said to purify the channels, clear energetic blockages, and balance disturbed winds, thereby supporting clarity, vitality, and deeper meditative absorption. In the broader tantric context, tsa-lung serves as a preparation for advanced completion-stage practices and stabilizes recognition of the mind’s nature through experiences of bliss, luminosity, and nonconceptual awareness.

Phowa, by contrast, is oriented toward the critical transition of death and what follows it. It is rehearsed during life under the guidance of a qualified teacher, using posture, breath, mantra, and vivid visualization. The practitioner focuses on the heart center and central channel, imagining consciousness as a luminous drop or form that rises upward and exits through the crown aperture. This consciousness is then visualized as dissolving into a Buddha, a yidam, or a pure land, most often associated with Amitābha’s realm. The purpose is to cultivate the capacity to transfer consciousness at the moment of death, thereby ensuring a favorable rebirth or direct entry into a pure land, rather than wandering in confusion through the intermediate state. In some lineages, the same method is also directed on behalf of the recently deceased, as a compassionate aid to their transition.

Chöd represents a more radical engagement with fear, attachment, and ego-clinging. Traditionally practiced in charnel grounds, wilderness, or other evocative settings, it is structured around a liturgy accompanied by ritual instruments such as the damaru drum, bell, and sometimes a thighbone trumpet, as well as distinctive melodies and chants. The practitioner first takes refuge and arouses bodhicitta, then visualizes consciousness separating from the ordinary body. The body is imagined as being cut up and transformed into a vast, pure offering—flesh, blood, and nectar—freely given to deities, demons, obstructing spirits, karmic creditors, and all sentient beings. This offering is made without self-protection or aversion, while maintaining the view of emptiness and suffusing the visualization with fierce compassion. Through this, chöd cuts through self-cherishing and deep-rooted fear, purifies karmic debts, pacifies obstructing forces, and unites the realization of emptiness with boundless generosity and compassion.