Benefits of Offering Feast Offerings (Ganachakra/Tsok)

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye Rinpoche

The Naturally Arisen Perfection Tantra states:

"The virtues of performing feast offerings
Are such that the obscurations of countless past and future lives
Will be purified in a mere instant in the presence of the peaceful and wrathful deities."

The two obscurations, the habitual tendencies, the general downfalls of transgressing the three vows, and the particular transgressions of the root and branch samayas of secret mantra that have been accumulated since time without beginning—all of these are purified and restored. The tantra continues:

"Wherever you are born in your lives to come,
You will never lack necessities,
The wheel of Dharma will always turn for you,
And you will always have an abundance of wealth,
Enjoyments, sustenance, and belongings."

As the karmic ripening, you will have mastery over a sky-treasury of both spiritual and material enjoyments. You will be blessed with an excellent environment, pure intentions, and vast accumulations of merit and wisdom. Such benefits will be reaped not just in your future lives, but you will experience them in this life too. Moreover, the Vajra Net tantra states:

"From among all types of merit, the practice of gaṇacakra is supreme.
Through these, all your aims for this life will be fulfilled,
And all negative forces and obstacles pacified.
In your future lives, in the pure realms of victorious vidyādhara,
You will reach the level of Samantabhadra."

As stated, all adversities—such as diseases, harmful forces, and hardships—will be pacified, and your lifespan, merit, and prosperity will increase. The infinite activities of pacifying, increasing, magnetizing, and subjugating will all be accomplished, just as you desire. The samayas of the boundless three roots (deities) will be fulfilled. The protectors and guardians of phenomenal appearance will be delighted, all beings of the six classes will be satisfied, and all siddhis will be effortlessly attained. In short, the benefits are limitless...

The Naturally Arisen Perfection Tantra continues:

"There are also the higher qualities that you will receive:
In the intermediate state, you will recognize your own perception as the wisdoms.
Being liberated there, you will remain on the unchanging ground.
Filling the three-thousandfold realm with emanations, you will fulfill the benefit of beings.
Qualities like this you will attain!"…

Those of the highest capacity will experience their innate, intrinsic nature dawning from within while seated in the gathering, and delusion will thereby dissolve without trace. For those of middling capacity, through the cause of gathering the two accumulations through the feast offering, they will capture the stronghold of accomplishment after death.

For those of lesser capacity, when the appearances of the intermediate state manifest, they will be invited to the pure celestial realms by vīras and yoginīs, accompanied by displays of offerings and a symphony of music. There they will be reassured and uplifted by the vajra-gurus abiding at the levels of great vidyādharas, and will be established at the supreme state. The Laghusaṃvara-tantra states:

"When practitioners pass away,
Glorious herukas and yoginīs
Will welcome them with flower-filled hands.
So-called ‘death’ will greet them
With victory banners and parasols,
With symphonies of music
And choruses of song,
And will lead them to the celestial realms."

~~

Gonpo Tseten Rinpoche
(A siddha who is an emanation of Vimalamitra)

Yeshé Tsogyal said:

“On the tenth day of the waxing moon and the tenth day of its waning,
On the eight day and the fifteenth,
Gather the gaṇacakra and make offerings.
Offering the gaṇacakra merely once will close the doors to the lower realms,
Is it not certain that one will be born in the irreversible stage?
Understand that this can be established with certainty, through logic.”

The victorious Longchen Rabjam said:

“Amongst all conditioned virtue, there is no merit greater than gathering the profound gaṇacakra.
Its excellent benefits are as follows:
It perfects the accumulations of merit and wisdom.
It restores all transgressions of samaya.
Assemblies of ḍākas and ḍākinīs will gather in the places of the practitioners and will accomplish the activities.
The masters and the gathering of the deities of the maṇḍala will be delighted.
The ocean of samaya-bound guardians will guard and protect you.
Your present life will be long, free from disease.
You will enjoy renown and numerous enjoyments and helpers.
Whatever you wish for will be effortlessly and instantly accomplished.
The supreme and ordinary siddhis will be attained.
All obstacles and negativities will be purified
And in a future life you will gain unsurpassable awakening.
Like this, you will attain inconceivable and unutterable qualities!"

Yeshé Tsogyal said:

“On the tenth day of the waxing moon and the tenth day of its waning (the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month),
If you pray with fervent devotion from the depths of your heart
To Orgyen Tsokyé Dorje, the Lake-born Vajra of Uḍḍiyāna,
With his retinue of ḍākas and ḍākinīs,
And if you generate bodhicitta—
Vast heart of the awakened mind for the benefit of beings,
If you strive in offering the gaṇacakra wherever you may be— In whatever land, place, great sacred site, monastery, or city— You will reap benefits and results defying the imagination.

In all lands and all places, crime will be averted, as will famine, war, evil, and unfavourable circumstances.
Rain will fall on time, harvests will be abundant, and auspiciousness will prevail throughout the land.
If you offer the gaṇacakra every month without interruption, the obstacles to your life will be pacified and whatever you wish for will be spontaneously fulfilled.
Material possessions, food and wealth will effortlessly come to you.

If you offer the gaṇacakra a hundred or a thousand times, you will take rebirth as a king with the power to transform the entire world.
If you offer the gaṇacakra ten thousand or a hundred thousand times, you will become a universal monarch with dominion over multiple world systems.
If you offer the gaṇacakra a million times, you will bring the three realms under your control; your glory and splendor will outshine the three planes of existence; you will accomplish without difficulty the four activities; and in your next life you will take rebirth in the buddhafield of Lotus Light, amidst vidyādharas and ḍākinīs, where you will receive the nectar-like speech of Guru Rinpoche. Thus blessed, you will be able to benefit beings in infinite ways.”

It is also said:

“Whoever strives in practicing the gaṇacakra
Will reach, in the future, the pure stages of the vidyādharas
In the realm of Lotus Light.
There is no doubt – they will not return to saṃsāra!”

The Guru’s Jewel Ocean by Pema Lingpa states:

“If we link the excellent benefits of practicing on the tenth day to the supreme siddhis of the four vidyādhara stages, then:
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the tiger month will lead you to attain the mahāmudrā vidyādhara;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the snake month will lead you to attain the vidyādhara with power over life;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the monkey month will lead you to attain the spontaneously accomplished vidyādhara;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the pig month will lead you to attain the matured vidyādhara.

Or, if we link the excellent benefits to the ordinary siddhis of the accomplishment of the four activities, then:
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the rabbit month will lead you to accomplish the pacifying activity;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the horse month will lead you to accomplish the enriching activity;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the bird month will lead you to accomplish the magnetizing activity;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the rat month will lead you to accomplish the subjugating activity;

Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the dragon month, will mean all illnesses, negative forces and obstacles will be pacified;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the sheep month will mean lifespan and merit will increase, and wealth and enjoyments abound;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the dog month will mean whatever you wish for will effortlessly come to be;
Offering a gaṇacakra on the tenth day of the ox month will mean all harm from unfavourable circumstances, enemies and obstacles will be pacified.”

The same benefits apply to the tenth day of the waning moon (the twenty-fifth day) of every month. The blessing that comes with gathering the gaṇacakra on every tenth and twenty-fifth day of every month will purify, without exception, all negativity and evil accumulated with body, speech and mind, and will guarantee that we become, in future lives, a buddha. Inconceivable and unutterable benefits such as these will be ours.