Tsok

General Explanation

Tsok is a branch of ritual. The whole path of the dharma, including all its ritual aspects, is oriented towards perfecting the accumulation (‘tsok’ in Tibetan) of merit and wisdom; once these two accumulations are complete, one can easily attain the priceless level of perfect buddhahood.

In the lower causal sutra vehicle, the method for gathering the two accumulations is to generate the precious mind of bodhichitta and then, with that as a basis, to cultivate the six paramitas.

There are, in fact, a vast number of methods we can use to gather the two accumulations, which ‘tsok’ refers to. But whenever we say tsok as in tsok practice, tsok offering or ganachakra feast, we are referring to a particular method for the accumulation of merit and wisdom that is practised in the vajra vehicle of secret mantra.

There are some differences in the way tsok is explained in the Sarma and Nyingma traditions but on this occasion, I will mainly follow our own particular tradition, which is the Nyingma. Whenever we gather on the tenth day of the waxing moon and the tenth day of the waning moon (the 10^th and 25^th days of the lunar calendar), we practise tsok offering according to the Nyingma tradition, so that is what I will explain here.

Whether you call this a teaching or just a talk, it is important that whatever I say is meaningful and beneficial.

To offer tsok, we practice the yoga of a particular yidam deity with all its requisite stages such as visualization, invitation of the deity, indivisible merging of the jñanasattva and samayasattva, outer, inner and secret offerings, offering of praise, as well as all the stages of familiarisation, accomplishment and activity through which the deity is accomplished. Then, in all sadhanas, to heighten the result, we increase our stock of merit and purify without trace all obstacles such as impairments of samaya, through the practice of ganachakra feast or tsok kyi khorlo, in Tibetan.

Explanation of the term, ‘tsok’

Tsok is an offering.^{[1] [1]} From here on, Rinpoche follows closely the text of Jamgon Kongtrul’s Light of Wisdom, Volume 2 (Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1998), pages 129-133.↩ Everything is accomplished through skilful means and wisdom, so all practices need these two elements. The essence of this ‘offering’ practice is to bring skilful means and wisdom together in an inseparable unity. This makes the ganachakra feast an especially skilful kind of special activity^{[2] [2]} Terms and phrases from Light of Wisdom, Volume 2 appear in italics↩ or method.

The Sanskrit word ganachakra (‘wheel of gathering’) is translated in Tibetan as, ‘the wheel that amasses a vast gathering of great bliss’. Each path has its own language. In dzogchen terminology, great bliss is equated with primordial wisdom. So offering a tsok increases primordial wakefulness, in other words, clear light primordial purity, which has the power to cut through the web of ignorance and negative emotions. Again, there are many ways to explain ignorance according to the various paths. For most of us who follow the dzogchen path, it refers to the state in which the nature of mind goes unrecognized, even though it is primordially devoid of any delusion. So the ganachakra is a path through which we can interrupt that delusion.

That is a short explanation of the Sanskrit word, ganachakra, “wheel of gathering”. The name is not without meaning—this is why I have explained it. If you think about this meaning, it will greatly help your understanding.

The Four Different Gatherings

Let’s now look at the different categories or aspects of tsok or gathering. Firstly, there is the gathering of fortunate human beings.

1. Gathering of Fortunate Human Beings

Unless you’re an especially fortunate person, you will have no opportunity to meet the path of the vajra vehicle of secret mantra. If you are such a fortunate person, however, you can enter the path by receiving empowerment and practising the yoga of the yidam deity, which consists of the development and completion phases. To follow this path, practitioners need to increase their accumulation of merit and wisdom and for this, they rely on the ganachakra feast which unites skilful means and wisdom. People who have the opportunity to perform this practice are said to be ‘fortunate’. There is no distinction made here between male and female. The term ‘gathering’, or ‘tsok’ in Tibetan, implies the coming together of many elements, in this case practitioners.

2. Gathering of Delightful Substances

Secondly, there is the gathering of delightful substances. This means whatever material substances the gathered practitioners like to enjoy—the many different substances and articles mentioned in the tantras, such as the five meats and five nectars. The Rigdzin Düpa says:

Meat and alcohol, in particular, are indispensable.

In any case, you shouldn’t offer just one thing with a stingy or miserly attitude. There should be an abundance of substances that delight the senses, most importantly the skilful means substances (foods) and wisdom substances (drinks).

3. Gathering of Deities who are the Source of Accomplishments

Thirdly, there is the gathering of the recipient of the offerings, the deities who are the source of accomplishments. Here again, just offering tormas and other offerings to a single deity does not constitute a ganachakara feast. Offerings are made to the great mandala composed of the main deity, their retinue, the consorts they unite with (since the feast is a highest yoga tantra practice), and the protectors.

4. The Great Accumulation of Merit and Wisdom

Finally, the result of the first three types of gathering is a vast increase in the accumulation of merit and wisdom.

How to Gather the Four Aspects

You might wonder how these four are put into practice.

The Gathering of Fortunate Individuals

Tsok is practised by uniting skilful means and wisdom. This is symbolized by the gathering of dakas, whose nature is skilful means, and dakinis, whose nature is wisdom. In the highest yoga tantra the whole of phenomenal existence is viewed with pure perception—purity and equality is actualized. Therefore, we should meditate on all the male practitioners as dakas and all the female practitioners as dakinis. If there’s only one practitioner, that doesn’t qualify, it’s merely a ‘tsok offering’ (tsok kyi chöpa), not a ganachakra feast (tsok kyi khorlo).

It is said in the tantras that the male practitioners should sit on the right and the females on the left, with the vajra master in the centre facing towards the assembly.

During a ganachakra feast the participants should ideally be dressed in yogic attire: naked, wearing bone ornaments and tiger skin skirts, body smeared with ash, and so forth. If this is not done, then at the very least they should wear their best clothes, as this will create the auspicious condition for the accumulation of merit.

The Gathering of Delightful Substances

The five special articles are the five meats and five nectars. In the past, these substances were collected effortlessly without committing any negative action. The substances are then blessed: the five meats are the five male buddhas in nature, the five nectars are the five consorts. Nowadays, even if we don’t arrange the five meats and five nectars separately, all the essential substances for the tsok feast are included within the mendrup pills. To go into detail about the tsok substances would, I think, be difficult for you and for me, so I won’t go into that here.

The Secret Essence Tantra mentions eleven substances. For example, bala is bread or dough, mamsa is meat, dagyé is curd and fried dough, datrol is cream cheese, phala is fruit, and kungyu is salt. So the tsok offerings are everything we can eat.

There is a general expression that says the substances must be “complete, with nothing missing”. This does not mean that you have to collect every edible thing in the entire world, because that would obviously not be possible, but rather that you should not keep anything for yourself with a miserly attitude, thinking, “This is too good to offer in the tsok, I’ll have it later myself.” You should offer everything that you have, without any stinginess, piling up a complete tsok offering, with nothing missing. It’s also important to avoid the miserly attitude of thinking something is too expensive to be offered or considering that something is too dirty or impure. We need to avoid the contamination of such dualistic concepts. Don’t only include what you like in the offering, while leaving out all the things you don’t like—there should be no thoughts of like and dislike. To put it very simply, there should be no pollution of your own grasping thoughts and ideas.

The Gathering of Deities who are the Source of Accomplishments

The Light of Wisdom says to arrange an image as the support for accomplishment whenever we offer tsok. It means that we need to have a statue or picture of the deity that we are practicing, such as Vajrasattva or a peaceful or wrathful yidam deity. Simply a photograph of one’s own root master is also fine since he gathers in his person all three root deities. In any case, we must place an image as a support for the accomplishments. The text adds together with the guardians—the dharma protectors must also be present during tsok practice. That is why we perform the complete protectors’ practice before the tsok offering; we must meditate on the protectors for a tsok, they cannot be left out.

If, when we perform the tsok offering, we are stained by impairments or breakages of samaya, this will create obstacles to receiving accomplishments from the wisdom deities and provoke the worldly protectors’ wrath, making our practice less successful. So, before we perform the tsok, we should first do confession to purify our samaya. It is like washing our body; although it started off clean, we have to wash it to make it clean again. Therefore, before we do the tsok offering, we recite a practice of confession such as Narak Kong Shak or Yeshe Kuchok.

The Gathering of Merit and Wisdom

Then for the actual tsok practice, there are the first, second and third offerings together with the remainder. At this point, whatever our experience or perception is, whatever appears to us, we should leave it as it is, without trying to accept or reject anything. If we can embrace our experience with a non-conceptual attitude, the accumulations of merit with conceptual focus and wisdom without conceptual focus will be perfected. How is this done? By allowing our experience to unfold without accepting or rejecting anything, without obstructing or solidifying, we accumulate merit with conceptual focus. And by remaining free from conceptual reference or focus, we accumulate non-conceptual wisdom. As Jamgön Kongtrul says, …to perfect the gathering of merit by enjoying the perceived unobstructedly, and to perfect the gathering of wisdom while enjoying, by embracing that with the knowledge that holds no focus.

Place and Time

The Tsok House

The explanation continues with the place of gathering where the tsok practice is held. It says that the best of all is a charnel ground. Why? Firstly, because such places are only frequented by yogins and ascetics, not by ordinary people. Also, because dakas and dakinis are naturally drawn to such places by the force of their compassion.

In order to perform the outer, inner and secret parts of the ganachakra properly, it must be done in a secluded place; even if this is not a charnel ground, it should be somewhere remote and secluded.

The kind of tsok house described in the tantras or the life stories of the mahasiddhas has three spaces: outer, inner and innermost. The outer area has four doors, as in a mandala palace. The inner area has only one door, and the innermost room has no door.

Terdak Lingpa’s biography describes a pure vision in which a woman beckoned him to come to a ganachakra feast. As he followed her, outside the four-doored area, he saw multitudes of male and female practitioners of kyerim and dzogrim with pure samaya going to the tsok feast. As he entered, he found an immense space, set out like a pure realm. He saw an unimaginably vast gathering of male and female practitioners, some of them feasting on ordinary offerings, some on human corpses, and others on various animals.

In the inner room, the single door was protected by the Protectress of Mantras. As the woman was leading him towards her, Ekazati glared at him with her huge eye. Minling Terchen’s whole body shook with fear. He went in and found a gathering of yogins and yoginis, dressed in bone ornaments and united in sexual embrace.

The innermost room had no door, so he asked how he could enter. He was told that although many great masters from India had gained entry, only a few Tibetans, including Yeshe Tsogyal and Vairotsana, had ever done so. They told him that since he was an emanation of Vairotsana, he should try and see if he could enter. So, he rested in meditation and directed his awareness. At that moment he was transported inside for a brief instant. There he saw many great vidyadharas from India presiding over the tsok which was led by Vajravarahi.

This is the type of three-stage tsok house mentioned in the tantras, where access to the different areas is based on one’s level of realization.

Even if you cannot host the tsok feast in such a palace, whatever kind of place you use for the practice, consider it is somewhere countless dakas and dakinis gather like clouds, or, in other words, the actual tsok house of Orgyen Heruka.

Some years ago, when I went to America to accompany Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, I visited Trungpa Rinpoche’s centre. One evening we saw the students on their way to a tsok practice (they don’t practice tsok during the day, but in the evening) all dressed very neatly in suits and ties and in evening dresses. This surprised some of the monks who did not know the teachings so well, but for me it confirmed that Trungpa Rinpoche really knew the tantras well.

Time

Tsok can be done every day, but is especially important on the tenth day of the waxing and waning moon, on the anniversary of the birth or passing into parinirvana of great masters, and other special occasions. It can also be offered in gratitude following signs of accomplishment in the practice, straight after the session. It is also performed for purification whenever signs or obscurations related to samaya breakage occur. This means the time for offering tsok varies, it is not fixed.

The Stages of the Practice

Entry

According to the tantras, the chöpön should stand at the door to the tsok house and make a gesture or sign corresponding to one of the five buddha families; one then has to make a sign in response. This is mentioned in the tantras, but it is not done these days. Nowadays, we only offer modest or imperfect feast offerings everyday according to our limited capacity, which amounts only to a nominal ganachakra.

Preparation

In any case, if it is not too complicated, the male practitioners should be seated on the right and the females on the left. All the offering substances, chiefly food and drink, should be arranged as beautifully as possible.

Blessing the Offerings

At the beginning, the chöpön requests the assembly to direct their practice to the purification of any impurity in the tsok offerings. The chöpön urges all the participants to direct their mind to bless all the tsok offerings that contain impurities, such that they are transformed into the pure nectar of primordial wisdom.

According to the tantras, if the practice is presided over by a vajra master whose realization is such that he is always one with the chief deity of the mandala, the vajra master needs to give his authorisation—a ganachakra cannot be performed without this, according to the tantras. Therefore, at this point the chöpön must ask permission from the vajra master to turn the wheel of the tsok feast. The vajra master, meditating that he is one with the lord of the mandala, then grants permission to perform the outer, inner or secret ganachakra according to the level of feast that is going to be performed.

For the blessing of the offering substances, they should be sprinkled with water, amrita (tsok chang) and the inner offering (nang chö). Some sources say that the chöpön should stand up and sprinkle urine from his secret place all over the offerings. Someone caught up in dualistic thoughts of good and bad would probably vomit if this happened! But in the tantras, it clearly says, “the master of vajra-activity stands up and sprinkles the nectar of urine from his vajra.” I’m sure some people still practice like this. The point is that there should be no one in the tsok gathering who has any dualistic ideas. If there were someone who thought in that way, it would not be a genuine ganachakra feast.

The way we perform the blessing of the tsok is to consider ourselves as inseparable from the central deity of the mandala and visualize a letter ram emanating from our heart centre. It has the nature of fire and burns away any impurity in the offerings. Then from the syllable yam arises a wind that scatters and disperses the impurities, and from kham there streams a great flow of water that washes away any impurities. With this, all the substances are brought into a state of emptiness beyond conceptual focus.

Then out of that emptiness appear the three syllables om, ah and hung which have the nature of the body, speech and mind of all the buddhas. From these syllables rays of light shoot out and gather the blessings of the enlightened body, speech and mind of all the buddhas, which then dissolve back into the syllables as wisdom nectar. The three syllables then melt into light that dissolves into the offering substances. The offerings are no longer ordinary and solid but transformed into pure wisdom nectar with perfect colour, aroma, taste and potency, a source of all that is desirable and an inexhaustible supply of sensual stimulants as vast as the ocean.

According to some Sarma tantras we should visualize each of the five meats and five nectars separately. But here it is sufficient simply to visualize the ocean of nectar, considering that its samaya and wisdom aspects are indivisible. The samaya aspect of nectar is the tsok offering that we have arranged. The wisdom aspect of the nectar is the nectar that we have invoked from the buddhas. And here we meditate on these two as inseparable.

Some tantras say that the outer environment is visualized as a skull cup (kapala), but this is not essential. In the Nyingma approach, it is said:

The outer environment is the torma container
Which holds the torma of phenomenal existence.

All-pervading space is the torma container within which the torma feast of the wisdom of rigpa is arranged. If this is understood there is no need to visualize the outer environment as a kapala.

Ritual Aspects

In practicing tsok, you need to respect, at least to some extent, the ritual traditions followed by present-day masters. Concerning the place where the offerings should be arranged, the instruction is:

On a human or wild animal skin…

The tsok offerings should be arranged on a human skin. If that’s not possible, you can use the skin of a wild animal like a tiger or a leopard. If that also isn’t possible, then an artificial substitute or even drawing can be used instead. And if you can’t find anything like that at all, then it’s fine simply to visualize the skin.

During the blessing of the tsok offering, the ‘liberation offering’ should be kept apart so that it is not blessed.

The tradition followed by all the masters of the present day is to begin by arranging the first-portion, confession, fulfilment, liberation and remainder offering on five separate plates.

Invitation

Once the tsok offerings are blessed, we invite the guests to whom the offering is made, the mandala of deities that one has visualized, just as we would invite our guests to come and eat as soon as we had prepared a meal for them. Here, you do not have to visualize the merging of samayasattva and jñanasattva. Simply consider that the deities fill the sky as the invited guests. When we invite someone to dinner, for example, they will just come and eat, and leave soon afterwards.

If you are highly realized, you never part from the realization of the inseparability of samayasattva and jñanasattva. Still, you need at least to say an invitation mantra such as vajra samadza as you maintain that realization and invite the deities in the sky before you.

We invite all the dakas and dakinis from the 24 or 32 sacred places, as well as masters who preside over ganachakra feasts such as Guru Rinpoche and Vimalamitra – the great beings who have attained the vidyadhara levels of realization. We also invite the peaceful and wrathful yidam deities, the wisdom dakinis headed by Vajravarahi, the worldly and activity dakinis, and the male, female and neuter protectors. They are the guests for the ganachakra feast.

One of the instructions for the ganachakra is to play music. The guests are invoked by playing all the different musical instruments. Many different types of instruments are used, but especially the thigh-bone trumpet (kangling) and the skull damaru—these two are necessary.

Consider that they gather in huge number in the sky in front of you, like large clouds.

During the tsok practice, we should not think of ourselves as being ordinary beings offering a feast to guests who are higher than us, meekly and with our palms together, as if we were inferior. Many people seem to do that. Instead, we should meditate on ourselves as being inseparable from the yidam deity who is the chief of the mandala that we have been practicing. Since all things are created by the mind, the mandala and field of merit are, like all materializations, the product of our minds—nothing comes from outside. Therefore, in effect, we are inseparable from the chief of the mandala.

Offering of the First Portion of the Tsok

Offerings are made three times—the first portion, fulfilment offering, and liberation offering—to the assembly of vidyadharas, the yidam deities, the dakinis, the dharma protectors, and so on. The offering is inconceivable and inexhaustible, and the source of all sensual stimulants.

Even though the buddhas are beyond any dualistic thoughts or desires, the offering results in the gathering of the two accumulations of merit and wisdom.

Each sadhana has its own text, which you recite. For the visualization, consider that the inconceivable ocean of nectar in the sky before you begins to boil. This creates a steam, out of which offering gods and goddesses beyond imagining emanate to offer great clouds of sensual stimulants to all the guests. As symbols of the vajra body and the sense object of visible form, they offer mirrors. For the vajra speech and sound, they offer musical instruments, such as the vina. For the vajra scent, they offer perfume. For the vajra taste, they offer fruit. For the vajra touch, they offer different kinds of clothing. For the vajra mind, they offer meditation in the form of mudras.

Fulfilment and Confession Offering

The first offering is like an offering of food, but this offering is more like the giving of gifts. From the ocean of nectar appear rays of rainbow light and an inconceivable number of offering gods and goddesses. They offer the five sense offerings of visible forms, sounds, smells, tastes and textures, as well as the eight auspicious symbols, the seven emblems of royalty, and so on. They are offered by manifesting an inexhaustible treasure that fulfils every wish and desire without anything lacking.

The offering is made to the root and lineage masters who are pleased and give us their blessings. It is made to the yidam deities and all our impairments and breakages of samaya, as well as any faults or lack of clarity in our practice of kyerim and our imperfect dzogrim, are purified. The offering is made to the wisdom dakinis who are pleased and offer us their assistance in enlightened activities and grant us the supreme and ordinary accomplishments. The worldly and flesh-eating dakinis receive their share with the result that any displeasure we may have caused them is forgiven. Finally, by offering to the dharma protectors, their wishes are fulfilled and they pledge to help us in our activity.

As we visualize this, we melodiously chant the words of the fulfilment and confession. Just as somebody is forgiven when they offer an apology by saying sorry, confessing all our errors from the depths of our hearts before the gathering of wisdom deities and worldly beings, will cause them to be purified. As it is said, the only good thing about negative actions is that they can be purified when properly confessed.

Liberation

Then comes “the final offering of ‘liberation’”. These days, lamas do not often talk about the actual practice of liberation, and so I too will not talk about it.

Concerning the way that we practise this, the physical samaya substance, i.e. the tsok, is placed before the vajra master. From his heart, rays of light and kingkaras (wrathful emissaries) shoot out. They immediately seize the samaya breakers, the ignorant dualistic mind and the ego, transferring them into the effigy. The five disturbing emotions in particular need to be liberated. They are seized and brought into the effigy. Through dzam hung bam ho and the mudras of the hook, lasso, chain and bell, they are summoned, merged with the effigy, bound, and rendered senseless.

Then the vajra master takes the phurba with the mudra of the union of the five buddha families. He sees it as the Supreme Son, visualizing it as Vajrakumara. He drives it into the heart (“at the limit between the white and black heart”) of the jungpo demon, the effigy that is the physical form now consumed by negative emotions. The negative forces’ consciousness is liberated and their life-force, merit, splendour and radiance (ziji) are picked up on the tip of the phurba and absorbed into the jñanasattva at one’s heart. Then the phurba is directed at the heart of the effigy once again. The consciousness of the negativity, visualized in the form of a white a, enters the phurba and is then sent out through the tip into the sky and transferred into the heart of Vajrasattva in the buddhafield of Akanishtha, where it becomes enlightened. This explains why you see lamas stabbing the effigy, pointing the phurba at their heart, then stabbing the effigy again and pointing the phurba into space.

The flesh and blood that remain after the liberation are transformed into the nature of nectar and offered to the yidam deities. That is the liberation.

If you want to really understand the practice of tsok and practice secret mantrayana properly, you need to know about ‘the individuals who take union as the path’ and ‘the individuals who take liberation as the path’ – they each have their own unique qualities. Each approach has extensive teachings on ganachakra on three levels – outer, inner and secret. It is a special feature of secret mantra vajrayana to be able to care for the individuals with strong desire through the path of union, and for the individuals with strong anger through the path of liberation.

Enjoying the Tsok

Having restored their commitment to the yidam deity with the fulfilment offering, purified faults through confession, and performed the liberation tsok offering, all the practitioners now enjoy the blessed substances of accomplishment. At this point, you should not be contaminated by any dualistic or grasping thought. If you are able to sustain great bliss, there will be no dualistic thought. The secret ganachakra is the most important aspect of tsok to increase the experience of great bliss.

If they have a high enough level of realization or if the vajra master gives his permission, people can offer vajra songs or vajra dances. For as Longchenpa said:

In it all movements are great bliss
The path of the vajra is unsurpassed.

Tsok Aspiration Prayer

Following this, the practitioners make aspirations to meet again in the same mandala and eventually attain enlightenment together.

Remainder Offering

The three stages of the tsok offering are complete. The blessing of the tsok substances is not included in the three offerings. The three are: the first portion, the fulfilment and confession, and the liberation.

Then the remainder offering is gathered without saving or hoarding, Jamgön Kongtrul says. This does not mean a large quantity. It means that the practitioners offer whatever they have without any stinginess. The remainder is only gathered from those who have been part of the mandala from the beginning of the practice, not from anyone who arrived late and was given some of the tsok. It is then kept at the end of the assembly. If it is dark outside, a light is placed on the remainder offering. If it is not yet dark, the light is not necessary.

Then the chöpön requests the vajra master to bless the remainder offering. If the vajra master is highly realized he takes some nectar in his mouth and spits it out on the offering. Otherwise, he blesses it through the expanse of space mudra.

The recipients of the remainder offering are specific beings who have the right to receive these offerings. The main ones are the twenty-eight ishvaris as well as the numerous male and female gings.

In your meditation they all arrive in huge number, “as a great cloud-like gathering”. In the past, when the tantras first appeared, these deities elected to remain outside the mandala; they didn’t want to be in the tsok but to receive the remainder offering. This is the samaya pledge they made in front of the Great Glorious Heruka.

The remainder must be carried seventy paces from where the tsok takes place. It should be placed in a pile and not scattered. If it is scattered, this will create the circumstances for the assembly of practitioners of the tsok to be dispersed. It should not be eaten by dogs or human beings, but according to Terdak Lingpa and Lelung Shepé Dorje, it is good if they are eaten by birds.

That concludes the practice of tsok.

Benefits

The main benefit of tsok practice mentioned in all the tantras is the accumulation of merit with conceptual focus and wisdom beyond focus. There could be no greater benefit than this.

The termas go into great details. For example, they say that Guru Rinpoche himself will come to bless the tsok practitioners, and that the place where the tsok is performed will become exactly the same as the Copper Coloured Mountain heaven of Guru Rinpoche. Moreover, merit and wisdom will be accumulated, disease, famine and warfare will be pacified, all the practitioners’ wishes will be fulfilled and they won’t have obstacles. And so on.

Conclusion

This has been a brief explanation of tsok. I could say more, but I feel this is enough, particularly since there are some newer students here. Above all, I would like to stress that tsok practice is highly meaningful and not simply an excuse to eat something.