Ganachakra Explained
A ganacakra (Sanskrit : gaṇacakra "gathering circle";) is also known as tsog, ganapuja, cakrapuja or ganacakrapuja. It is a generic term for various tantric assemblies or feasts, in which practitioners meet to chant mantra, enact mudra, make votive offerings and practice various tantric rituals as part of a sādhanā, or spiritual practice.
The ganachakra often comprises a sacramental meal and festivities such as dancing; the feast generally consisting of materials that were considered forbidden or taboo in medieval India, where the tantric movement arose. As a tantric practice, forms of gaṇacakra are practiced today in Hinduism, Bön and Vajrayāna Buddhism.
Professor Miranda Shaw summarises the experience of a gaṇacakra:
The feast is an esoteric ritual that unfolds in many stages. The sacred space for the ceremony is demarcated by geometric designs drawn on the ground with powdered pigments, and an elaborate array of offerings and foods are laid out.
The participants don special insignia like bone ornaments and crowns and use musical instruments of archaic design... for inducing heightened awareness. Practitioners sit in a circle and partake of sacramental (dry) meat and wine (often liquor) served in skull-cups.
The feasts also provide an occasion for the exchange of ritual lore, the ritual worship of women (sripuja), and the performance of sexual yogas. The feast culminates in the performance of tantric dances and music that must never be disclosed to outsiders.
The revelers may also improvise "songs of realization" (caryagiti) to express their heightened clarity and blissful raptures in spontaneous verse.[1]
Samual holds that:
Serious Tantric practice is generally seen as appropriate for a small minority only. The ancient Indian , the circle ritual...discussed earlier, is far in the past.
In Tibetan practice it has long been replaced by the (Tibetan: tshogs), a considerably tamer affair, still involving a sacramental meal but normally performed indoors and without possession or dancing.[2]
Origins
John Woodroffe (writing as Arthur Avalon, 1918) affirms that the panchamrita of Tantra, Hindu and Buddhist traditions are directly related to the Mahābhūta or Five Elements and that the panchamakara is actually a vulgar term for the pañcatattva:
The ganachakra, or 'tantric feast', can be seen as a mandala of sacred space. Pettit emphasises the importance of the gathered "group" (gana) or sangha to Vajrayana sādhanā and the creation of sacred space such as the ganachakra:
Pettit links the importance of the group or gana to the manifestation of the ganachakra and the sacred space or the mandala (in this sense cognate with chakra) with the liturgical tools of mantra, visualisation and sacred architecture:
Pettit states that sacred space is created spontaneously wherever the Three Jewels (cognate with the gankyil) is manifest and that this sacred architecture or mandala is not dependent upon the built environment of monolithic cultures:
In Hindu tantra
In Hindu tantra, a ganachakra typically consists of five elements known as panchamakara or the "five Ms": madya (wine), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (rice or grain), and maithuna (Sanskrit for "union" and coition or yab-yum) a form of tantra.
Ganachakra and the Mahasiddhas
Samual defines the ganachakra succinctly:
Vajranatha associates the Ganachakra with the "higher tantras" or mysteries, the anuttarayogatantra, and associates a non-monastic origin and tributary of this Mystery Rite to the Mahasiddha tradition which has roots in a complex and coterie of esoteric traditions of numerous Siddha, Yogi, Sadhu and holy peoples of Buddhist, Hindu and non-sectarian practices and views:
In Vajrayana and Dzogchen, it is traditional to offer a gaṇacakra to Padmasambhava or other deities, usually gurus, on the tenth lunar day, and to a form of dakini such as Yeshe Tsogyal, Mandarava or Vajrayogini on the twenty-fifth lunar day.
Generally, participants are required by their samaya "vow" to partake of meat and alcohol, and the rite tends to have elements symbolic of coitus.
Traditions of the Ganachakra liturgy and rite extends remains of food and other compassionate offerings to alleviate the insatiable hunger of the hungry ghosts, genius loci and other entities.
David Snellgrove (1987) holds that there is a tendency oft-promoted by Tibetan lamas who disseminate teachings in the Western world, to treat references to sexual union and to sadhana that engages with the "five impure substances" (usually referred to as the "five nectars") as symbolic.[3]
In the twilight language of correspondences and substitutions there is no inconsistency. Although, when modern tantric apologists and scholars employ the term "symbolic" as though no external practices were engaged in literally, they mislead and perpetuate an untruth.[3] Snellgrove (1987) provides an amended translation of his earlier translation of the Hevajra Tantra (II. vii.5-13):
In the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Chöd, a variation of the gaṇacakra has the practitioner visualizing offering their own body as a feast for the gods/demons invited to the feast.
Alcohol in Vajrayana Crowley states:
Meat in Vajrayana
See Vegetarianism in Buddhism#Vajrayana.
See also
Notes
Book: Shaw, Miranda. Passionate Enlightenment::Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton University Press. 1995. 0-691-01090-0. 81.
Samual (1998: p. 126)
Snellgrove, David (1987). Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors. Volume One: p.160. Boston, USA: Shambhala Publications, Inc. (v.1).
References
Free Encyclopedia of Thelema (2006). Ganachakra. Retrieved June 1, 2006. RangjungYesheWiki (2006). Ganachakra. Retrieved June 2, 2006. Crowley, Mike (1996). When the Gods Drank Urine: A Tibetan myth may help solve the riddle of soma, sacred drug of ancient India. Fortean Studies, vol. III, 1996. Source: http://www.erowid.org/plants/amanitas/amanitas_writings1.shtml (accessed: Tuesday, 5 March 2013) Pettit, John W. (2002).Tibetan Buddhism in Diaspora: Individuals, Comminities and Sacred Space. Source: http://www.damtsig.org/articles/diaspora.html (accessed: Monday July 9, 2007) Vajranatha (2007). The Mahasiddha Tradition in Tibet. Source:
