Emotional Release · “Die to Be Reborn”
Khordé Rushen
To exhaust deep saṃsāric tendencies — and the habitual grip of body, speech, and mind — by deliberately, fully expressing them in a solitary place, so that ordinary mind ‘runs out’ and a gap opens to natural awareness.
Khordé rushen: In a solitary place, fully act out the moods of ordinary mind — the six-realm patterns of anger, craving, dullness, desire, rivalry, pride — running, shouting, moving, until each impulse exhausts itself. Resolve the three doors: vigorous movement then stillness (body); a long, melodious HŪṂ on each out-breath until the voice is spent (speech); thoughts expressed and then let go (mind). Arrive at a used-up physical/vocal/mental quiet — and notice the contrast between churning saṃsāric mind and the natural stillness left behind. Retreat practice, under a teacher.
What it is
Khordé rushen (‘khor ‘das ru shan, “making the gap / distinction between saṃsāra and nirvāṇa”) is a vivid preliminary to the Dzogchen breakthrough. Rather than calming the mind, it does the opposite first: in a solitary place the practitioner deliberately and fully acts out the mental and emotional patterns of ordinary, saṃsāric mind — the moods of the “six realms” — and exhausts the three doors of body, speech, and mind through intense movement, prolonged vocalisation, and unleashed expression, until ordinary mind quite literally runs out of fuel.
In that spent, emptied gap, the difference between churning saṃsāric mind and open awareness becomes self-evident — hence “separating saṃsāra from nirvāṇa.” Longchenpa places this in the enhancement phase of his Dzogchen path; it integrates ordinary actions into the path “just as they are.”
The Method
A faithful outline of the publicly described practice. (Khordé rushen is traditionally done in retreat under a teacher; this is an honest summary, not a substitute for transmission.) A. Separating saṃsāra from nirvāṇa (acting out the six realms).
- Go to a solitary spot where you cannot be seen or heard, so there is no self-censoring.
- Act out whatever arises — fully and without restraint. Imitate and physically express the characteristic states of the six realms (e.g. the rage of the hells, the craving of hungry ghosts, the dullness of animals, the desire of humans, the rivalry of demigods, the pride of gods). Run, shout, weep, laugh, gesture — let each pattern play to its limit instead of half-feeling it.
- Drive each to exhaustion. The aim is to use up the accumulated charge in the deeper layers of mind, not to indulge it for its own sake. You continue until the impulse genuinely spends itself. B. Training the three doors (resolving body, speech, mind).
- Body: assume the sevenfold posture of Vairocana (legs crossed, spine straight, hands in equipoise, shoulders level, chin slightly in, eyes and tongue settled), then move and prostrate vigorously, and finally let the body fall utterly still — exhausting and then resolving physical restlessness.
- Speech — the long HŪṂ: in the same posture, lips and teeth barely touching, merge breath, mind, and the syllable into one and sing a single long, melodious “HŪṂ” on the out-breath, again and again, until the voice and the breath-energy are spent and speech falls silent.
- Mind: let thoughts and emotions arise and express to exhaustion in the same way, then rest in the quiet that follows.
- Arrive at threefold exhaustion. The signpost is a felt physical, vocal, and mental “used-up” stillness — the churn has stopped on its own, and a natural, undistracted clarity is left in its place. That contrast is the whole teaching. (Sourcing note: the “solitary place / act out the six realms / long HŪṂ / threefold exhaustion” structure is the documented Nyingtik form Longchenpa systematises and Jigme Lingpa’s Longchen Nyingtik preliminaries elaborate. Faithful paraphrase; no long quotation.)
Source & Lineage
Rushen belongs to the Nyingma Dzogchen preliminaries traced to Padmasambhava and carried in the Heart-Essence (Nyingtik). Longchenpa (1308–1364) places it in the enhancement (bogs ‘byung) section of his Dzogchen system → (also ).
Jigme Lingpa’s Longchen Nyingtik makes it a formal preliminary; Patrul Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khenpo wrote influential instructions on it. It precedes and prepares for trekchö.
The Traditions' versions
Trekchö (Dzogchen) — the recognition rushen clears the ground for.
- Cathartic / abreaction methods (modern psychotherapy) — full expression of suppressed affect to discharge it; structurally parallel, minus the metaphysics.
- Dynamic / active meditations (e.g. Osho’s) — deliberate exhaustion of agitation before stillness — a direct echo.
- Vocal toning / mantra to exhaustion — the long HŪṂ as breath-voice practice; compare toning entries and.
- Somatic trauma release (e.g. TRE) — letting the body shake/move to discharge stored activation.
Common refinements
Half-doing it. Tentative, self-conscious expression doesn’t exhaust the charge — privacy and full commitment are the point.
- Indulgence instead of exhaustion. The aim is to use up a pattern, not to wallow in or rehearse it; you continue through it to the spent point.
- Forcing the HŪṂ harshly. It is a long, melodious tone on a relaxed exhale, not a strained shout; straining the throat or hyperventilating defeats it.
- Skipping the rest. The discharge is only half — the stillness that follows is where the contrast (and the actual instruction) lands.
- Doing it without a teacher or container. Strong material can surface; rushen is meant for retreat under guidance.