Tsog Offering

Tsog Offering

Lama Chöpa Tsog Offering
Date of Advice:
August 2014
Date Posted:
September 2023

A student asked Rinpoche about doing a six-month calm abiding (Tib: zhinä; Skt: shamatha) retreat. Rinpoche suggested 100,000 Lama Chöpa tsog offerings, to purify and collect merit.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very much for your kind email. I am sorry for the long delay in replying.

You do have to check it is definitely zhinä [calm abiding]. You can check in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand and other texts to make sure you are doing zhinä correctly. Make sure, so that you can recognize the gross and subtle mistakes, like the gross sinking thought and the subtle sinking thought. That is very important. Even many famous meditators in Tibet sometimes aren’t able to recognize that, and they think they have achieved zhinä. Lama Tsongkhapa made it so clear; also, we need to be able to recognize gross attachment sinking thought and subtle attachment sinking thought.

I checked regarding your retreat, and you need purification and to collect extensive merits, so my suggestion is to do Lama Chöpa tsog offering 100,000 times.

Do Lama Chöpa every day with Yamantaka generation (assuming you have Highest Yoga Tantra initiation) then do tsog every day and try to finish some number of tsog each day. Do the long version of the tsog offering three times and the short one three times. The short one is composed by Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo. Also, when offering the remainder of the tsog, it should be the same number of tsogs that you have offered. This means you recite that verse the same number of times that you have recited the other tsog verses. So if you offered one hundred tsogs, then offer the same number of the remainder, one hundred.

Most importantly, you must have the bala and madana (meat and wine), just a very small amount, in a clean container, and bread and other things that you can use for offerings. First you have to bless yourself as the deity, then bless the inner offering tsog. Nectar doesn’t mean something wet; nectar means infinite bliss nondual with emptiness.

With each prayer, you offer that to the Lama Chöpa merit field, but the essence is the root guru. You have to visualize that and generate infinite bliss nondual with emptiness. Generate infinite bliss in the heart of the merit field each time and that becomes offering.

Also, for the numberless sentient beings in each realm, [visualize them] in the form of the deity and offer the tsog to all of them. [Think they are] purified of all the defilements, all the illusory appearance; the delusions and hallucinated appearances are purified.

You can do some zhinä, but with bodhicitta. Do some zhinä, but continue with the tsog practice. If you don’t do purification and collect merits, then only a very lucky person can achieve zhinä, fully categorized zhinä.

So this is my advice. Please continue to make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta.

With much love and prayers ...

The Essence of the Guru
Date of Advice:
July 2018
Date Posted:
August 2020

A student had received teachings and a Vajrasattva initiation from Rinpoche but had subsequently stopped practicing Vajrayana and guru yoga. Later, while in retreat, the student said they felt a direct connection to Padmasambhava and received a powerful teaching on samaya (tantric commitments). Rinpoche gave this advice, which includes an explanation of tsog offering. 

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,

Thank you very much for your kind letter expressing yourself and for confessing that your samaya degenerated. Of course, as you said, enlightenment comes from keeping samaya. How quickly we achieve realizations, enlightenment, is based on samaya. That is most important.

If you have taken any great initiation of Highest Yoga Tantra you can do tsog offering, whether you do tsog offering to Padmasambhava or Lama Chöpa or Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga, that is OK. You can do the longer version of the tsog once or three times, then for the rest, do the short verse. You need to do the short tsog offering 3,000 times.

I don’t know how much you understand regarding tsog. If you have received a Highest Yoga Tantra initiation then you can do tsog completely. It is the same whether offered to Lama Tsongkhapa or Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava manifests as Lama Tsongkhapa, so it’s the same. You perform bala and madana (meat and wine), just very small, very small for blessing, then make some offerings, then recite the prayers and tsog offering prayers.

Generate as the deity, which you have received in the Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, then generate the tsog into nectar, as it is mentioned in the prayer. The nectar is transformed as the wisdom of great bliss nondual with emptiness, like oceans of great bliss. Then recite OM AH HUM and each time you offer, generate infinite bliss nondual with emptiness in the holy mind of the merit field.

Whatever name you mention there, it is all the essence of the guru, no matter what, the root guru all embodied into one and one embodied into many. The way of visualizing the essence of the root guru is as it says in Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo Rinpoche’s Calling The Guru from Afar, the long one, the first verse, that explains what the guru is, how you are supposed to think. Realize that the guru is the dharmakaya, the transcendental wisdom of great bliss of all the buddhas. This is the way to understand and realize the root guru. So it is a most important practice.

In your letter do you mean you have received teachings from Padmasambhava? Is that correct?

Generally, in some cases, it is possible for maras to manifest as a buddha, then sentient beings believe that is a real buddha and they receive harm. They could be wrong teachings that cause harm. At that time if you invoke numberless buddhas absorbing to that being who shows the aspect of a buddha, and if that being then disappears, it means that being was negative. If it is positive then that being becomes even better, more glorious. In that way, sometimes, for some people, maras manifest as a buddha.

But if it’s very helpful to your mind, then good.

With much love and prayers ...

Tsog Offering Practice
Date Posted:
November 2009

Rinpoche made the following comments on the tsog (offering substances) ceremony.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Maitripa College, 2010. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.

My very dear one,
Thank you very much for all your devotion, dedication, and service to me and to all sentient beings in the organization. When I was doing Vajrasattva tsog with the group, I saw a few things in the text that I wanted to comment on.

First, there needs to be a brief introduction to the tsog offering practice to help others to understand more, to elaborate a little the explanation, the meaning of tsog. It does not just mean torma and foods that you offer, that is not the meaning. This is a more extensive explanation of what tsog is, and the importance of and benefits of it.

When only male yogis gather it is called a feast of heroes, when only female yoginis gather it is called a feast of heroines. When both males and females gather it is called a feast of yogis and yoginis (heroes and heroines). This is what is called tsog.

It is said by Pandit Ratna Raksherita:

Those doing the activities of the heroes, it is called the feast of the heroes,
Similarly, those doing the activities of yoginis, it is called the feast of the heroines,
Those whose minds are enriched with control of the circle
Of the integrated method and wisdom,
That is called the circle of unification

The very highest meaning of tsog is to join method and wisdom. The real meaning of experiencing tsog is the transcendental wisdom, non dual great bliss – the wisdom of emptiness, the non-duality of that, and uniting these two. That is the very essence of tsog. It is the offering of that experience, oneself experiencing it, the male and female heroes and heroines, of which the essence is the guru deity, and oneself also experiencing that, as the guru deity. The real meaning of tsog is integrating method and wisdom, the transcendental wisdom, non-dual bliss and voidness (this is the secret meaning).

The need for the actual tsog substances is to develop the very heart of the Mahayana and tantric path, that brings enlightenment in one brief lifetime of these degenerate times, because it ceases the defilements quickly, including the actual negative imprints left on the mental continuum by the delusions, and is the quickest way to collect extensive merit, which takes three countless great eons on the paramita path to collect to achieve enlightenment. Here, in a brief lifetime of these degenerate times, using the transcendental wisdom of non-dual bliss and voidness to increase this, one needs to enjoy these tsog substances.

This is the principal method of the circle of tsog, to gain general attainments, and it is the principal method to restore samaya, tantric vows, pacify obstacles, and is the main cause for achieving Heruka and Vajrayogini’s pure land – Tharpo Kachoe (pure sky enjoyment). This is the principal cause to be born there. Therefore, one should practice offering tsog.

The best is to offer tsog every day. If not, then as it is explained in the Heruka Root Tantra:

Quickly attempt to make offerings
Every waxing and waning of each month do tsog.

[On the waxing moon means on the 10th day of the Tibetan calendar, and on the waning moon means on the 25th day of the Tibetan calendar.]

The great tantric master Abayakaya says:

Every day as much as possible (meaning if one cannot do it every day, then as many times as possible)
It is especially admired in the night time
At least once a month, or if that doesn't get done then at least once a year
If one transgresses this circle then you degenerate samaya.

According to the Heruka Root Tantra, the best time to do tsog is the nighttime.

From the Heruka Root Tantra:

Offering extensive food and drink
Always do at night time – why?
Because it is admired to do at nighttime
Always wander at nighttime and always gather at nighttime.

This means the dakas and dakinis always wander at night time and gather at nighttime.

The Tibetan 11th month (Gyal Dawa) is a special time for mother tantra, a special time for Vajrayogini, and a special month to offer Vajrayogini tsog. The Tibetan 12th month is a special time for father tantra, a special time for Chakrasamvara, and a special month to offer Chakrasamvara tsog. Especially in these two months it is very important to offer tsog.

Heruka appeared to Khedrub-je and spoke:

The waxing and waning of each month
If good tsog is offered
Then one has no hardships, no difficulties
And one goes to the pure land of Tharpo Kachoe.

This is in the biography of Khedrub-je, who is Lama Tsongkhapa’s heart disciple. Of Lama Tsongkhapa’s two main heart disciples, Khedrub-je is the one whose eyes have a more wrathful aspect.

Regarding the actual offering substances, even if you don't have any other substances, then at least you need bala (meat) and madana (alcohol). These two are of utmost importance; you need to have these two for tsog substances.

From the Tantra Do Jung:

Without torma intoxicating
You won’t have quick attainments

Here, the intoxicating refers to alcohol; it does not refer to other drugs.

From the Heruka Root Tantra:

Vajra goddess – intoxicating and meat
If the capable being offers these with devotion and respect
Then Heruka will be actually pleased
Therefore making offerings with a very satisfied mind
Then sublimeness (enlightenment) will be granted.

This means that those who are doing this practice, because Heruka is actually pleased, sublimeness (enlightenment) will be handed to you, it will be very easy to achieve full enlightenment (it is like saying you will achieve liberation in the palm of your hand, very easily.) If you correctly practice, then liberation is not far, not difficult, it is in your hands. It means you can achieve liberation easily and very quickly.

When you perform tsog, the tsog substances should be as follows: on the right side is the bala (meat), and on the left side is the madana (wine).

It is mentioned in the tantric text Nyingpo Gyen (Heart Ornament) with this special term for wine – madana, and meat – bala. What happens when you use these two terms is psychological. If you mention just wine and meat, then it is ordinary, and then one has an ordinary appearance. Also, when you experience it (taste it), all you taste is meat and wine. Then, it does not become part of tsog practice. You have to taste it with pure thought and pure appearance. One has purified and blessed it into nectar. The real meaning of tsog is transcendental wisdom, non-dual bliss and voidness.

So, when one takes the tsog, one experiences that. Even if it is not actually experienced, then at least visualize it is happening, that one is experiencing that. So take them with this recognition, with the pure transcended mind.

Also, you can't put tsog on the ground. Sometimes at Kopan Monastery I see that they just offer the tsog and throw it on the ground (i.e. they don’t put it on a plate or in a bag). It is always better to use a paper plate or paper bag. If you just put it straight on the ground, then the people who serve the tsog and the people who receive the tsog actually receive a tantric vice (bonpo); this is very heavy. So, it is better use a paper bag or paper plate, like they use in Namgyal monastery, to protect the tsog. It is mentioned when collecting the remaining tsog to start from the bottom of each row. When you offer tsog, you offer it first to the Vajra Master, and when you collect the remaining tsog you start from the bottom of each row and work up to the top, and, lastly, you collect it from the Vajra Master.

As well as having the bala and madana to collect more merit, you can also offer other substances as extensively as you can. On certain specific occasions, if you have the substances, you can make an actual torma tsog, using tsampa (or oats, flour, or whatever can be shaped).

Make the torma in the shape of a human heart or human breast. The torma must have decorations. The decorations should be a Dharma wheel, with flower petals around it, and it must have a sun, moon, and nada (three curves) on the top. This is according to Lama Tsongkhapa and Pabongka Rinpoche’s tradition.

When offering Vajrasattva tsog, what I remember according to Lama Yeshe, is that when you recite the Vajrasattva mantra you play the bell only. Then, regarding the rest, it should be the same as Lama Chöpa: “…Nye cher bul,” then you ring the bell. If you are doing the chanting in a short way, then you must ring the bell. When you are doing the chanting in a long way, then you can you can play the bell and damaru at “OM AH HUM”. When you are doing it quickly, then just do “nye cher bul” and “em ah ho,” then play the bell, damaru, and cymbals. When doing “Lama Dorje Sempa,” you must ring the bell. At the last words, then ring the bell, damaru and cymbals. But when you are just reciting Vajrasattva mantra, then you just ring the bell. As I mentioned during the initiation, when you ring the bell during the mantra, this is not an offering. When you ring the bell the sound means: no phenomena among us has inherent existence, everything is empty. Here, it is reminding you that negative karmas are empty, do not exist from their own side, so you can purify negative karma by meditating on emptiness; the bell is reminding you of this. Meditate that you – the creator, the action – creating, and the object – negative karma, are also empty. This is the meditation to be done when ringing the bell during the Vajrasattva mantra.

Cheese is not qualified for tsog, it actually needs meat, as I have explained in those quotations, the pure references from the tantric texts.

Those who are not familiar with tantric practice can be totally shocked if you are Buddhist and you are seen eating meat; they think it is like killing a human being. Once in Bodhgaya, there were one or two Theravadin monks present, and the leader of the temple passed the meat and also offered it to them. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was present. He made a little smile, because the person had offered meat to somebody who doesn't understand the practice. But the Theravadins ate whatever they were offered. Normally, they don't eat in the evening, and for them to be offered tsog substances in the afternoon was strange. Using cheese is for such an occasion when there are people from other traditions present who might be shocked or lose faith.

But it seems even some monks at Kopan Monastery, as well as other people, are using fruit juice for alcohol. The people passing the substances should be aware not to pass the meat and alcohol to people who do not practice Highest Tantra or to Theravadins who do not eat in the evening or afternoon.

The Meaning of Tsog Offering
Date Posted:
November 2009

Rinpoche wrote the following letter to a Chinese temple in New York, to answer some questions they had about Tibetan Buddhism.

My very dear, devoted, dedicated Buddhist organization of Mahayana Buddhists,

I am very happy that we met that evening. Your request and questions stayed in my mind very clearly. It seems from your talk there are a few issues, not only the problem with the tsog offering.

I already explained to you about the tsog, the meat and alcohol. There is no public distribution of this, because everyone has not taken a Highest Tantra initiation, so it is not a pledged samaya to take meat and alcohol.

As I mentioned that night, it is not ordinary meat and wine. You have to take it with a pure view and pure experience. The pure view is of yourself as the deity and the meat and wine as totally pure nectar.

The meaning of nectar is not just some special taste, like honey. In Tibetan, the word is dutsi. Du is mara, tsi is medicine. So here, du is ordinary appearance and ordinary concepts, delusions, negative imprints and defilements. Tsi means medicine —the ultimate medicine is the transcendental wisdom of non-dual bliss and voidness, which is like an atom bomb to cut through those delusions, which are the maras.

One has to think of the meaning of nectar, dutsi, the transcendental wisdom of non-dual bliss and voidness. By taking that nectar, you generate that experience within you. If you don't have the actual experience of that, then you visualize it. That blesses the mind, body, and the chakras, the winds and drops. It becomes a preparation to achieve the path, the Highest Tantra accomplishing path of the illusory body and clear light, and it enables you to achieve the resultant dharmakaya and rupakaya. Then, one is able to offer perfect works for sentient beings, without the slightest mistake, until everyone, every single sentient being, is brought to enlightenment.

In tantric texts it is advised to not to give an ordinary label to this, but to give the special name "bala and madana", the secret name.

So, as I mentioned, you only need a small quantity for the lama and those people who engage in Highest Tantra practice. The other thing is after you offer it to the lama, then leave it at the altar for the people who have taken Highest Tantra initiations, or who have a commitment to do tsog daily. Later, they can come to take little bit of the bala and madana from the altar. This way the public doesn't have to see it, and it doesn't create any confusion. It can be kept secret, you don't need to expose it much. That is the essence.

Many times in my experience, the ritual attendant and the people who are offering service don't know that it creates a problem if it is distributed to the public. So, this has to be guided by the person who is the head of the organization and is in charge, who knows about tsog and the problems. Please tell the ritual attendant and the people who are offering service during the tsog, who are distributing the bala, madana and tsog.

As far as offering meat to the lama, if there is a problem, like people losing faith by seeing or hearing the lama eat meat, then in that case the organizer should inform the lama and the attendants. That will help. In this way, they are aware. Sometimes the old lamas get sick if they don't have meat for a long time. This happened in the past in some of our centers. Then, after somebody brought meat for the lama, the lama got better. Some lamas are quite old and they have to eat meat, as they did their whole life in Tibet. All geshes and lamas are not the same, so one has to check.

As far as teachings and initiations, you can request the lama to teach whatever is most beneficial for the people coming. First, you have to think of the level of people's minds and their understanding of Buddhism, whether they have an understanding of Buddhism or not, and if they do, what level of understanding. I am not talking about each person but the majority of the people.

With much love and prayers...