On the 21st and 22nd lunar days of the 1st month, Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India perform a feast offering to the deities of the Mother Tantra according to the Shen tradition. In 2026, these dates are March 9th and 10th on the Western calendar. This kind of feast offering, known as tsok [Tibetan: tshogs] literally means “collection, accumulation, assembly.”
The source of the Mother Tantra within the Yungdrung Bön religious tradition is the primordial Buddha Küntu Zangpo. It has three cycles: external, internal and secret. Each cycle has a root text and commentary that was written by the sage Milu Samlek. The main yidam of the Mother Tantra is Sangchok Tartuk and his consort Khandro Chema Ötso. Of the two general types of either peaceful or wrathful tsok, the tsok of the Mother Tantra is categorized as wrathful.
For those who have vows with a yidam deity, performing a tsok is an opportunity to repair broken vows or commitments related to the yidam practice and to increase merit and accomplishment associated with that particular yidam cycle. Having offered to the enlightened beings, we gain more power and energy. Additionally, past negative actions and the obstacles and imbalances of daily life are purified. Qualities such as health, longevity, prosperity, confidence, and stability are strengthened and increased. When undergoing a deity retreat, a tsok is performed each day in order to generate merit and remove obstacles for a successful retreat.
When performing a tsok, the ritual can be done in its condensed, medium-length, or extensive forms. This is determined by the purpose of the tsok, the sponsor, the circumstance, and the umdzé or ritual director of the feast offering. However, every tsok has stages that are essential and a similar structure consisting of preparation, preliminary practices such as setting a boundary, refuge, generating the mind of enlightenment and admission of wrongdoing and purification, the main practice consisting of prayers related to the specific deity or deities, and the concluding prayers of dedication and auspiciousness. In general, once the length of the tsok is determined, then the necessary substances, torma, and food offerings are prepared. Everything must be clean, prepared according to the specific text, and placed in its proper position in the shrine area.
To begin, the tsok offerings are ritually cleansed with water, incense, together with the corresponding mantras and visualization. Then, through mantric syllables and visualization, all of the offerings become a vast array that fills the three thousand-fold universe with wondrous offerings that delight each of the five senses including delicious foods that contains the eight qualities of nutrition, as well as limitless auspiciousness and positive qualities. The principal deity and retinue are formally invited to the tsok and asked to reside in the objects of support such as the yidam support torma or deity vase that has been properly prepared and placed in the center of the mandala.
Now that the enlightened deity is present, prostrations are offered. One can also take this opportunity to confess any broken vows or commitments to the deity and receive purification and renewal of those vows. The eight offering goddesses are imagined to arrive from the vastness of space and to present the eight external offerings to the assembly of deities. Then, rakta mixed with black tea is offered as a symbolic offering of the liberation of our desire and attachment. Next, the ritually prepared medicinal alcohol is empowered and presented to the yidam deities as a symbolic offering of our realization and wisdom developed during our practice. The tsok is then liberated by being cut. The top-most portion is offered to the yidam deities, and the next portion is offered to the lineage lamas of the practice being performed. The linga torma represents outer enemies and obstacles as well as the inner five poisons, wrong views and so on. This torma is now presented to the yidam and religious protecters, liberated by cutting, and then offered while requesting the bestowal of both the ordinary and supreme attainments of the practice. The Yungdrung Bön protectors are then invoked and presented with offerings. After this, the prayer of delighting the deities and the lineage with the tsok is performed, and the prayer of attainment through accepting the tsok is performed. Then, by eating the tsok, vows are renewed and the blessings of the deities are received. The leftovers of the tsok offerings are given as a gift of charity to those lower beings who are powerless to take part in the tsok and who depend upon our generosity to receive its blessings. The concluding practices include prayers of aspiration and auspicious followed by dedicating all of the virtuous activity performed during the tsok for the benefit of every sentient being within cyclic existence.
“Within this mandala where marvelous things arise, there is a collection of enjoyable things such as sights, sounds, smells, tastes, things to touch, ornaments, Bön treasures, and so on. Through this unsurpassed cloud of offerings, both actually set out and imagined, may our sacred commitments be fulfilled!
Through the blessings of having fulfilled our sacred commitments to you, may the enlightened teachings of the Yungdrung Bön spread! Dispel into space all external, internal, and secret obstacles!”
And,
“Amazing! This sacred food is the essence of spiritual attainment. I will partake of it and receive both the ordinary and the supreme spiritual attainments!”
For more information about the cycle of Mother Tantra texts, see previous article: https://ravencypresswood.com/2021/12/18/a-brief-introduction-to-the-mother-tantras-of-yungdrung-bon/
Tibetan translations by Raven Cypress Wood
Raven Cypress Wood ©All Rights Reserved. No content, in part or in whole, is allowed to be used without direct permission from the author.
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