Food Offering 8 - tsemrinpoche.com

1 THEYOGAOFOFFERINGFOODFood Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 1 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this preciousfood Offering teaching and practice on Christmas Day, 25 December 2000, at Langri Tangpa Centre, Brisbane, Australia. Food Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 2 LAMAZOPARINPOCHETHEYOGAOFOFFERINGFOODHow to Make Eating the Cause ofEnlightenment for Oneself and AllOther Sentient BeingsEdited by nicholas RibushLAMAYESHEWISDOMARCHIVE Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 3 First published in 200310,000 copies for free distributionLAMAYESHEWISDOMARCHIVEPO BOX356 WESTONMA 02493 USA Lama Zopa Rinpoche 2003 Please do not reproduce any part of thisbooklet by any means whatsoever withoutour permissionISBN 1-891868-09-8 Front cover photographer unknownDesigned by Mark GatterPrinted in Canada on recycled, acid-free paperPlease contact the LAMAYESHEWISDOMARCHIVEfor copies of our free bookletsFood Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 4 CONTENTSI ntroduction.

2 The three ways of Offering food 7 The Food Offering Practice 13 Motivation 13 Visualization 16 Blessing the offerings 16 Offering the food 18 Making other offerings 24 Dedication 26 Commentary 32 Offering food with meditation on emptiness 32 Dedication 39 Notes 41 Food Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 5 PUBLISHER SACKNOWLEDGMENTWe are extremely grateful to Lama ZopaRinpoche for his eternal and unsurpassed love,compassion, wisdom and guidance; to all ourbenefactors large and small, regular andoccasional; to the kind Jesse Sartain, who hasgenerously sponsored the production of thisbook; and, of course, to the great Lama Yeshe,who started it all and whose kindness exceedsthat of the buddhas of the past, present andfuture.

3 May whoever sees, touches, reads, remembers, ortalks or thinks about this book never be reborn inunfortunate circumstances, receive only rebirths insituations conducive to the perfect practice ofDharma, meet a perfectly qualified spiritual guide,quickly develop bodhicitta and immediately attainenlightenment for the sake of all sentient Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 67 INTRODUCTIONTHE THREE WAYS OFOFFERING FOODT here are Hinayana and Mahayana ways ofoffering food. The Mahayana way includesboth Paramitayana and Secret Mantra, orVajrayana. Making charity of food to allsentient beings, including those who live inour bodies, is the Mahayana Hinayana way of Offering food isbasically as expressed in the prayer byNagarjuna, where he says that the purposeof eating food is not to develop the body, toput on weight or become fit purposes thatcome only from attachment but simply tosurvive in order to practice Dharma.

4 Foodshould be eaten without the three poisonousminds of ignorance, attachment and the motivation seeking your own free-dom from samsara, offer your food to theFood Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 78 Triple Gem and then eat it. This is theHinayana way of eating Mahayana sutra way of eating foodis to dedicate every spoonful of food andmouthful of drink to all sentient beings,including those living in your body. In thisway you make a connection with all sen-tient beings such that when, in future lives,they eventually become human, you canreveal the Dharma to them and lead themto enlightenment. The Mahayana way ofoffering food is thus done with bodhicittamotivation, as are all the daily actions of aMahayana practitioner, thereby becominga cause for achieving Mahayana tantra way of eatingfood is to see yourself, your guru and thedeity as one, and make every bite of foodand every mouthful of drink a tsog offer-ing.

5 Offer everything you eat and drink tothe oneness of the three: guru, deity Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 89 The way to do this practice is to under-stand that you are all the buddhas but in theaspect of the deity you are practicing. Youare in the aspect of the deity but are, in real-ity, all the buddhas. If you make the foodoffering with that awareness, that medita-tion, every single thing you eat and drinkbecomes a tsog Offering . Every bite andevery sip become an extraordinarily power-ful means of purifying all negative karma,defilements and degenerated samaya vowsand collecting vast amounts of this meditation, the guru yogamind seeing yourself as one with your guruand deity, you create more merit than thatof making offerings to all the Buddha,Dharma and Sangha and all the statues,scriptures, stupas and thangkas of the bud-dha in the ten directions.

6 The merit of mak-ing offerings to all Buddha, Dharma andSangha and all statues, scriptures, stupas andthangkas in the ten directions becomesFood Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 910insignificant when compared to the merityou create when you offer each spoonful offood and each mouthful of drink to yourselfas one with your guru and main thing here, however, is think-ing of and making Offering to yourself as theguru. Thinking of yourself as your guru andmaking Offering with guru yoga mind is anunbelievably powerful means of creatingmerit. There s a huge difference in theamount of merit created between Offering tothe Buddha without thinking of the guruand Offering by thinking of the guru; youcreate vastly more merit when you think ofthe guru and make Offering .

7 You can apply this practice to all otherdaily activities in order to create extensivemerit. When you enjoy objects of the fivesenses beautiful sights, sounds, smells,tastes and tangible objects or when youreceive something from somebody, if youthink that you are making an Offering toFood Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 1011yourself as the guru-deity, you create anenormous amount of merit. In this way youcan make everything you do in your daily lifeextremely meaningful. Similarly, when youwash yourself, if you do the washing yoga ofoffering a bath to the guru-deity, it becomesa very powerful means of the great Tibetan yogi Milarepa, whoattained enlightenment in just a few years ofthis brief lifetime of the degenerate age, said, Every time I walk, I circumambulate all theholy beings; everything I eat becomes a tsogoffering.

8 There s more to this quote, but inshort, it means that everything he didbecame a powerful means of purifying hismind and creating merit and, therefore, aquick path to enlightenment. Similarly, whatever you do eating,walking, washing, everything else canbecome a very powerful method for quicklyachieving enlightenment. As you purify andcollect extensive merit, you bring yourselfFood Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 1112closer to enlightenment, every minute ofevery day. In this way, you make your lifemost beneficial, meaningful, satisfying andfulfilling. Through this Mahayana practice,which is based on the Hinayana andadorned with the Vajrayana, your lifebecomes most beneficial, not only for your-self but for all sentient Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 1213 THEFOODOFFERINGPRACTICEMOTIVATION The purpose of my life is to free all livingbeings from all suffering and its cause andlead them to full enlightenment.

9 There are numberless hell beings fromwhom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone. There are numberless hungry ghostsfrom whom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, Offering 20/02/2003 08:13 Page 1314 There are numberless animals fromwhom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment.

10 They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone. There are numberless human beingsfrom whom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone. There are numberless surabeings fromwhom I receive all my past, present andfuture happiness, all realizations and enlight-enment. They are the kindest, most preciousbeings in my life. Therefore, I must liberatethem from all suffering and its cause and leadthem to enlightenment by myself, alone.