Innate Happiness: Realizing Compassion-Emptiness by Dawa Khenpo Drimed

Author:Dawa, Khenpo Drimed [Dawa, Khenpo Drimed]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2013-08-24T16:00:00+00:00

Ganachakra or Tsok Feast

Many of the elaborate versions of Highest Yoga Tantra practices include a ganachakra[110] or tsok feast. Mipham Rinpoche explains it this way: “A gathering of fortunate individuals collects a gathering of precious materials and offers this to the gathering of deities that are being accomplished, thereby perfecting the gathering of merit and wisdom.”

This may be a simple or very extensive practice, as detailed as the main practice itself. A tsok feast may also be included as part of an empowerment. As a tantric practice, this may have included forbidden food and drink such as meat and alcohol. As part of its early origin in India, the main ritual of small tantric cult groups was to practice outdoors in the forest, a cremation grounds, or other scary place. In Passionate Enlightentment, Miranda Shaw describes these practices as follows:

The feast is an esoteric ritual that unfolds in many stages. The sacred space for the ceremony is demarcated by geometric designs drawn on the ground with powdered pigments, and an elaborate array of offerings and foods are laid out. The participants don special insignia like bone ornaments and crowns and use musical instruments of archaic design ... for inducing heightened awareness. Practitioners sit in a circle and partake of sacramental (dry) meat and wine (often liquor) served in skull-cups. The feasts also provide an occasion for the exchange of ritual lore, the ritual worship of women (sripuja), and the performance of sexual yogas. The feast culminates in the performance of tantric dances and music that must never be disclosed to outsiders. The revelers may also improvise "songs of realization" (caryagiti) to express their heightened clarity and blissful raptures in spontaneous verse.

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