"The separation of transcendence and cyclic existence" is a contemplative practice specific to the Seminal Heart (snying thig) tradition of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen). Presented as a preliminary practice to the core practice of "direct transcendence" (thod rgal), it involves spontaneously and wildly acting out every impulse that comes to one's mind, body, and speech. One does this until complete exhaustion, at which point one collapses into state of naturalness (rnal du dbab). Thus "transcendence" or "nirvana" signifies this state of naturalness, where ordinary thoughts and behaviors are temporarily suspended, while "cyclic existence" or "samsara" describes the frenetic acting out of impulses. The practice is thus designed to introduce a practitioner to this ability to differentiate between the two experiences. Descriptions in the twentieth century from actual communities indicate this can often be practiced as a collective with multiple people together, though at least one monastery understandably separated men and women practitioners.

Etymology

Basic Syllabic Etymology:

Literally, cyclic-transcendence-horn-division, with "horn" a political-military term for an administrative region that thus comes to mean something like "section." Hence the division of the sections of cyclic existence and transcendence from each other.

Further Details