Zhitro

In Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Zhitro (Standard Tibetan: ཞི་ཁྲོ) is the name referring to a cycle or mandala of 100 peaceful (zhi) and wrathful (khro) tantric deities and of a genre of scriptures and associated tantric practices which focus on those deities which represent the purified elements of the body and mind. These hundred peaceful and wrathful deities are believed to manifest to a deceased person following the dissolution of the body and consciousness in the intermediate state, or bardo, between death and rebirth. The best-known, though by no means only, example of this genre of texts and practices is commonly known as the Kar-ling Zhitro cycle after Karma Lingpa, the tertön who (re)discovered or revealed this collection of texts. The text which is well known in the west as "Tibetan Book of the Dead" (though more properly called "The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate State") forms one section of Karma Lingpa's Zhitro cycle.

A prominent sadhana, or practice text, is part of a group of bardo teachings which are held in the Nyingma tradition to have originated with Padmasambhava in the 8th century and were rediscovered as terma, or 'treasure teachings' in the 14th Century by the tertön Karma Lingpa. The Zhitro mandala teachings were found in the same terma collection as the Bardo Thodol, a text well known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The Dzogchen practice of Zhitro involves viewing the body as a mandala of both peaceful and wrathful deities, the inclusivity promoting awareness in the practitioner of the universality of Buddha-nature. As a subtle body practice using yogic practices to manipulate the lung, or subtle-winds, of the body, this is a completion stage practice of the Inner Tantras. The Lion's Roar Tantric Glossary describes the Zhitro mandala practice:

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