The Yoga of Offering Food

The Three Ways of Offering Food There are Hinayana and Mahayana ways of off ering food. The Mahayana way includes both the Paramitayana and Secret Mantra, or Vajrayana. Making charity of food to all senti ent beings, including those who live in our bodies, is the Mahayana way. The Hinayana way of off ering

food is basically as expressed in the prayer by Nagarjuna, in which he says that the purpose of eati ng food is not to develop the body, to put on weight or become fi t – purposes that come only from att achment – but simply to survive in order to practi ce Dharma. Food should be eaten without the three

poisonous minds of ignorance, att achment, and anger. With the moti vati on seeking your own freedom from samsara, off er your food to the Triple Gem and then eat it. The Mahayana sutra way of eati ng food is to dedicate every spoonful of food and mouthful of drink to all senti ent beings, including those

living in your body. In this way, you make a connecti on with all senti ent beings so that when they become human in future lives, you can reveal the

Dharma to them and lead them to enlightenment. The Mahayana way of off ering food is thus done with bodhichitt a moti vati on, as are all the daily acti ons

of a Mahayana practi ti oner, thereby becoming a cause for achieving enlightenment. The Mahayana tantra way of eati ng food is to see yourself, your guru, and the deity as one. Off er everything you eat and drink to the oneness of the three: the guru, the deity, and yourself. You understand that you are all

the buddhas, but in the aspect of the deity you are practi cing. If you make the food off ering with that awareness, every single thing you eat and drink becomes a tsog off ering. Every bite and every sip becomes an extraordinarily powerful means of purifying all negati ve karma, defi lements, and degenerated

samaya vows and of collecti ng vast amounts of merit. With this meditati on – the guru yoga mind that sees yourself as one with your guru and the deity – you create more merit than that of making off erings to all the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and all the statues, scriptures, stupas, and thangkas of the

buddhas in the ten directi ons. The merit of making off erings to all Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and all statues, scriptures, stupas, and thangkas in the ten directi ons becomes insignifi cant when compared to the merit you create when you off er each spoonful of food and each mouthful of drink to yourself as

one with your guru and deity. The main thing is thinking of and making off ering to yourself as the guru. Thinking of yourself as your Guru and making off ering with guru yoga mind is an unbelievably powerful means of creati ng merit. There is a huge diff erence in the amount of merit created between off ering

to the Buddha without thinking of the Guru and off ering by thinking of the guru. You create vastly more merit when you think of the guru and make off ering. You can apply this practi ce to all other daily acti viti es in order to create extensive merit. When you enjoy objects of the fi ve senses – beauti ful

sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangible objects – or when you receive something from somebody, if you think that you are making an off ering to yourself as the guru-deity, you create an enormous amount of merit. In this way you can make everything you do in your daily life extremely meaningful.

Similarly, when you wash yourself, if you do the washing yoga of off ering a bath to the guru-deity, it becomes a very powerful means of purifi cati on. As the great Tibetan yogi Milarepa, who att ained enlightenment in just a few years of this brief lifeti me of the degenerate age, said, “Every ti me I walk,

I circumambulate all the holy beings; everything I eat becomes a tsog off ering.” There is more to this quote, but in short, it means that everything he did became a powerful means of purifying his mind and creati ng merit and, therefore, a quick path to enlightenment.

Food Offering Practices 7 Similarly, whatever you do – eati ng, walking, washing, everything else – can become a very powerful method for quickly achieving enlightenment. As you purify and collect extensive merit, you bring yourself closer to enlightenment, every minute of every day. In this way, you

make your life most benefi cial, meaningful, sati sfying, and fulfi lling. Through this Mahayana practi ce, which is based on the Hinayana and adorned with the Vajrayana, your life becomes most benefi cial, not only for yourself but for all senti ent beings.

On the following pages, you will fi nd an Extensive Food Off ering Practi ce, General Food Off ering Prayers, and the Yogas of Eati ng Food According to Hinayana, Mahayana Sutra and Mahayana Tantra. Each of these are stand alone practi ces that one can combine according to ti me and inspirati on.