Tuesday, April 17, 2012

What is a Tsok



Tsok means gathering. We gather together the things we're offering, and we ourselves gather together to do the practice. Gathering together with other practitioners, concentrating our minds into the same space, gives us great inspiration. It's much better than just doing puja alone in our own rooms. This is the Tibetan connotation of tsog.

An example from my college at Sera likens a group puja to a straw broom. You can't sweep much floor with just one straw, but when many straws are gathered together to make a broom, you can clean an entire assembly hall in no time at all. We are not as strong as distinguished practitioners such as Milarepa. He was okay by himself, we are not ready for that yet.

So it's good that we come together trying to develop single-pointedness of mind; one hundred people's minds all meeting at the same place. This becomes very powerful.

Tsok in the Tibetan tradition is a most profound method of purification, a profound way of gaining realisations. When you recite the text in English you can see how many subjects are included in the practice. The Guru Puja, for example, covers the entire path to enlightenment from beginning to end. 

So it can happen that in your daily meditations you're not making any obvious progress, then suddenly during a puja, because of the conducive atmosphere you've created, zoom! -- some realisation comes into your mind. Many people have gained realisations during a puja simply because of the atmosphere.

Normally, we push ourselves to achieve, but nothing happens because we've not made the space for something to happen. By gathering together to offer tsok we're making space. When the right space opens, zoom! - realisations come as if magnetically attracted. This is true.

Thus, to gain realisations we need to create the right atmosphere. We do this by gathering together and directing our minds to the same place. The power of this practice brings understanding. I think it's great: we're an international gathering and each of us has developed in our own unique way; but despite our differences our minds can still meet at the same place and we can communicate with each other. I really think it's wonderful. Parents may not be able to communicate with their children but here we are from different countries all over the world and we're able to communicate with each other, heart to heart.

Another connotation of tsok is 'party' - a party at which we share simultaneously born great wisdom and bliss. Now that's a party.

Guru Rinpoche Tsok

Throughout the world, Vajrayana Buddhist practitioners of the Nyingma and other traditions celebrate the Guru Rinpoche Tsok on the 10th day. Guru Rinpoche, commonly known as Padmasambhava, brought Buddhism to Tibet is considered a second Buddha.

During the Tsok Ceremony, along with meditation and prayers, we will make offerings of many things, including flowers and various foods brought by the participants. Food offerings can include many types of food. (see picture of typical offerings). Through meditation and mantra recitation, the offerings are consecrated and offered to the invoked gathering of enlightened beings, to bless sentient beings and free them from suffering. At the end of the ceremony, the food and drink are shared by all, and the merit which has been generated is dedicated for the benefit of all beings.

It is said that a single day of practice on a tenth day is more powerful than a year of practice at any other time.

This year the anniversary of Padmasambhava's birth is especially auspicious as it is a monkey year, which according to the Tibetan calendar occurs only once every twelve years. 


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