On Guru Rinpoche Day this month,
Lama Tsondru Sangpo continued to
teach us the Nyingma way of
performing the essential and
beautiful ceremony of Guru
Rinpoche Tsok Offering, which he
introduced us to two years ago.
The experience of participating
in the ceremony, for me, was
quite incredible, and very
interesting. At certain points I
had a clear feeling of joy and
calm. At other points during
Lama Tsondru’s teaching, I felt
overwhelmed by a sense of
urgency when my thoughts would
arise about how incredibly much
there is to learn, and how
relatively little time in this
life there is to learn even the
basics of the precious Dharma.
But the profound significance of
why we do the Tsok for the
founder of Tibetan Buddhism, the
Second Buddha, began to seep
into my mind like the sun
through thick clouds.
Lama Tsondru explained so many
things about Tsok, some of which
I will try to at least list
here. I hope those who
couldn’t be there will find my
notes helpful in anticipating
our next ceremony.
We perform the Tsok ceremony to
generate immeasurable merit.
Guru Rinpoche promised his
Sangha that whatever is offered
to him on his special day, the
10th day of the Tibetan
calendar, the merit will be
multiplied immeasurably. The
numbers and intention of
practitioners, Lamas and other
sentient beings participating in
the Tsok, the abundance of
offerings and the dedication to
all sentient beings, all
increase and multiply the
prosperity and good karma to
ourselves and to countless
others. Therefore, the vast
benefits of participation in
Guru Rinpoche Day Tsok are truly
difficult to imagine.
First, there are two kinds of
Tsok -- outer Tsok (Che-ye Tsok)
and inner Tsok (Nang-ge Tsok).
The first is accumulation Tsok:
we bring and make an abundance
of different kinds of
offerings—many kinds of food
bought and prepared specially
for Guru Rinpoche, rice and
water bowl offerings, flowers,
incense and butter lamps.
Only very advanced practitioners
can do the inner Tsok. There are
no food or material offerings of
any kind, but it is all
performed on the mind level with
intense concentration, using
mantra and visualization. Both
types of Tsok are done to
accumulate great merit. Whether
simple and short, or complex and
long, all Tsok ceremonies are
equally beneficial, and the most
important element is our purity
of intention.
The offerings on the altar
symbolize offering up the Five
Senses – Pleasurable sight,
taste, touch, fragrance, and
sound (the bell and damaru). We
also make water offerings, which
symbolize the Eight Qualities of
Enlightened Mind. Another
meaning of the water bowls are
that the first water bowl
represents a greeting, as when
you open your door to greet a
guest. The second represents
washing the hands and feet
before entering a house.
Lama Tsondru made a rice bowl
offering with a flower in the
center. We had butter lamps and
Torma (traditionally made of
butter, honey, barley flour,
yogurt and other substances).
Traditional Tsok offerings
include five types of meat, and
five types of wine. The wine and
meat offerings should not be
thought of as simply ordinary
"wine" and
"meat". Through making
these offerings to Guru
Rinpoche, saying many prayers
and mantras, receiving blessings
and dedicating the benefit and
merit to all sentient beings,
they are transformed into Amrita
or Essence.
One way that this benefit to
beings can be understood is in
the example of how we think of
the meat offerings. The chicken
that was so unfortunate to have
her life cruelly sacrificed for
human consumption was still very
fortunate to be offered in this
ceremony. As a result of the
transforming power of Guru
Rinpoche’s blessings and the
dedication of merit, she will
not be reborn as a chicken, and
may eventually be much closer to
a fortunate human rebirth. She
has now a connection to the
Dharma, to Guru Rinpoche and to
our Sangha as a result of being
"a participant" in the
ceremony.
When we share in the wonderful
and delicious feast at the end
of the ceremony, we should try
to be mindful and feel true
compassion for all those beings
who in some way had something to
do with the food we are eating,
whether the countless insects
that were killed in the growing
and harvesting of vegetables and
grains, or the persons working
in the meat industry who have
created for themselves the
extremely negative karma of
taking lives every day as their
means of livelihood. We should
develop the faith that this
powerful ceremony, through the
blessings of Guru Rinpoche, can
create miraculous positive
changes for beings with even the
worst karma imaginable.
Just a few more things I learned
from Lama Tsondru’s discussion
of merit at the end of the
ceremony: We have wealth as a
result of merit accumulated in
past lives. Therefore, we should
never be envious of another’s
wealth or material comfort. They
could not have what they have
without having accumulated merit
just as we ourselves are trying
to do in our Dharma
practice.
On the other hand, when we give
away what we have, it multiplies
our merit. That is why we should
not fear for not having enough,
clinging to what little we have.
We should try instead to develop
the faith that we can give
freely, increasing the
prosperity of others and
ourselves by doing so. If we
have very little, we should
still be satisfied, because this
is a reflection of our karma
from countless past lives. We
will probably never be able to
know why this is our karma, but
all we need to do is to practice
and live in such a way as to
increase our merit, meanwhile
being happy with our
circumstances.
Besides giving us prosperity,
the accumulation of merit gives
us power--both physical health
and strength, and the ability to
influence and lead
others--personal power. It is
how we use our prosperity and
power that determines whether we
further accumulate, or lose,
merit for the future.
Thank you, Lama Tsondru and Padma
Karma Rinpoche, for the
opportunity to learn more about
the significance of Guru
Rinpoche Tsok, and some of the
various ways the ceremony is
traditionally performed. I look
forward to future Tsok offering
ceremonies to improve my
understanding and skills, to
share with the Sangha and guests
the excellent food, and most
importantly, for the opportunity
to build merit and help sentient
beings.
---
Becca Black
