Stages of offering and charity
with the body*

Tönyon said:

Wow!
An ordinary woman in impure aspect
Is Vajravarahi herself in the essence of pure perception.
Mother –five buddha families and the five mothers,
Host of heroes, heroines, and dakinis,
Immeasurable millions emanating and gathering–
Your enlightened activity skilled in methods of taming anyone
Guides countless sentient beings.
In this snow mountain charnel ground, in these degenerate times,
Your kindness is great, Great Mother.
I pay homage to you with devoted body, speech, and mind.
Through aspirations, karma, and interconnection
I have become your son.

I have entered the teaching of the Mahayana Dharma.
This sacred Dharma, Severance of Evil Object,
Is just as Machik has taught.
Holding your hand, I have practiced.
Both the signs and level of warmth
Are stabilized, thanks to the lama.
Remember me over and over, and bless me.
Repaying you is endless, Machik.
Open the door of your heart and mind.
Explain the instructions, the profound teaching;
Please give them all without exception.
Once again I beseech your kindness.
As in the prophecy of the local protector dakini,
I request you to give clear, unobscure teaching
On how to practice offering and charity with the body.
I, and all those like me,
Will listen with devotion and unshakable faith.

The mother replied, “Son, endowed with faith, diligence, and intelligence, you are incomparably engaged with your destiny of awakened potential. Insatiably holy man, listen! Although the offering and charity with the body is just as I explained before, once again I will explain in detail the stages for practicing offering and charity with the body, and especially, the visualization and how to do it. So pay attention, for it is like this.

“A wise individual who has distinguished the virtue and vice of cyclic existence in general, and all phenomena in particular, and who has fully understood the difficult-to-obtain, free and endowed human life, and the enumeration of meaningful or meaningless karmic cause and effect, and especially one who has comprehended my dharma system and wants to pursue freedom through this Mahayana mind training should always stay in mountain retreat and practice offering and charity with the body. This is important. For such an individual to begin the stages of offering and charity with the body, there are seven parts, but twenty-four completes it:

1. Arousing the resolve for enlightenment and gathering the guests.
2. Meditating on the objects of refuge, training the mind in the four immeasurables, and inviting the field of accumulation.
3. Paying homage with the eight branches and making offerings.
4. Separating body and mind, and offering the mandala.
5. Supplicating and bringing down blessings.
6. Offering the body and giving it in charity.
7. Concluding with the dedication, prayers , and dissolution.

Clarifying the Meaning of Chöd – Tönyon’s Questions on Chöd

From Machik’s Complete Explanation, translated by Sarah Harding, © 2003, 2013 by Tsadra Foundation. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boulder, CO. www.shambhala.com.

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