Tsok day, Holy day - Again!

This Sunday is "tsok-day" again - this time the 25th day in the Tibetan calendar. A group of us are gathering to practice the "Very Brief Gurupūjā of the Great Drikungpa"and celebrate "Shower of Blessings Gaṇacakra-offering" in Swannanoa, at Brianna and Joel's home. It's scheduled for 11 am - 1 pm. Join us if you are in the area (call one of us for details) and if you are not around this area, you should celebrate this holy day in your own way. It means making extra effort to experience "all forms as deity, all sounds as mantra and all thoughts/feelings as wisdom." In particular, all enjoyments are to be enjoyed without grasping or heaviness but with delight, spaciousness and equanimity. Call me if you want more tips on celebrating tsok-day.

I'm "re-posting" the initial post on celebrating tsok-day.

Brian and I celebrated "tsok-day" on Friday by practicing the "Very Brief Gurupūjā of the Great Drikungpa" (Lama Chöpa) and "Shower of Blessings Gaṇacakra-offering" (Tsok). Tsok-days occur twice a month, on the tenth and twenty-fifth day of the (Tibetan) lunar calendar. According to the tantras, these are days when actual dakas and ḍakinīs are said to gather at the twenty-four holy sites to celebrate the tantric vision of purity-emptiness of all phenomena by bringing all sensual enjoyments onto the path - they feast, sing and dance. These are also days when the inner dakas and ḍakinīs - i.e. masculine and feminine energies - gather in the twenty-four nodes in our inherent vajra-bodies (crown of the head, point in-between eyebrows, throat, palate, calves, knees etc.). As practitioners of deity-yoga (i.e. vajrayana) and especially those who have received any unexcelled yoga tantra empowerment, it is best if we are able to celebrate these bi-monthly tsok-days. In this way, we become in-synced with the gathering ("tsok" literally means "gathering") of actual dakas and ḍakinīs as well as the inner dakas and ḍakinīs. Celebrating tsok is the most effective way to "accumulate the two heaps (of wisdom and skilful-means/compassion)" and "purify the two obscurations."

Originally Valerie (whom some of you met a couple of times already) was planning to join us but she couldn't in the end. So, Brian and I had to visualize harder the presence of ḍakinīs (I guess the monks in their monasteries also needed to do that whenever they did their tsok celebrations). But we did gather "choicest offerings pleasing to the senses": offerings of "compassion" (solids) - mango-nectarines, bananas, Gruyere on sour-dough grilled cheese sandwich, cashews, dried mangoes, apricots and bing cherries and a lotus-seed mooncake and offerings of "wisdom" (liquids) - organic apple juice. Everything was carefully and beautifully arranged and I've decided that I'll only use my small collection of antique plates, bowls, cups for tsok-offering (well... maybe once in a while for tea purposes... which I will argue *is* part of tantric experience of purity-emptiness!). The actual practice took about an hour and half - I gave a running commentary of the practice as well as showing Brian the proper use of the bell, dorje, damaru and various other tsok-etiquette and shrine protocol.

This practice - "The Very Brief Gurupūjā of the Great Drikungpa" with "Shower of Blessings Gaṇacakra-offering" - will be one of the core practices at Urban Dharma. It'll form the center of our bi-monthly celebration of experiencing and realizing the tantric vision of purity-emptiness. It will be our bi-monthly entry point to "more fully embody(ing) the entire spectrum of (our) lives." We are temporarily prioritizing these special occasions, these holy days, as doorways to revealing the fundamental purity-emptiness of all phenomena.

At the end of practice last night, Brian asked me, "so when's the next tsok-day." So on the spot, we decided that we will keep the upcoming tsok-days regardless of whether it'll be on a Sunday or Tuesday or Wednesday. We figured that in our particular situation, it won't be so much of a challenge to not let "busy-ness" stand in our way of celebrating the tsok. And something that Brian said was helpful: "I felt good the whole day - seeing it as a 'holy day'." And in doing so, got a little bit closer to experiencing the tantric vision.

And in the context of our plans of manifesting Urban Dharma, as I have said before, we need to ground this whole effort in our deepening our commitment to practice. "Engagement bodhicitta" (i.e. building Urban Dharma) cannot be actualized if we do not have "aspiration bodhicitta" (i.e. training the mind). And no matter where we are in our practice right now, I am sure, we can all deepen it. Whether practice at this point consists of reading a couple of pages of Dharma now and then or daily, or even just thinking a little bit about Dharma when in the shower or while driving, or a couple of sessions of sādhana practice daily, or weekly or monthly, as long as we make effort to improve - whether it's improving in quality or even quantity, it's progress. It's one step closer to awakening, one step closer to sanity. If we are not practicing to end confusion, then we are only practicing confusion. And the trouble with practicing confusion is that it can never be perfected! Furthermore, to start something like Urban Dharma requires A LOT of merit and blessings and this cannot be achieved without applying the powerful methods of accumulating merit taught in the tantras. There will also be a LOT of obstacles and so the purification that tsok celebrations deliver is very important. Indispensable if we want to manifest Urban Dharma.

Tsok at Drikung-thil, Tibet

Upcoming tsok-days are: Sunday 10/3, Sunday 10/17, Monday 11/1, Tuesday 11/16 & Tuesday 11/30.

If you want some ideas of how to observe these "holy days," let me know or scribble your thoughts here!