The Mahayana Feast Offering - Lama Shenpen Hookham

A feast is a coming together and a bringing together. It is an assembly and a celebration. It is about gratitude, and one could also say it's about spiritual communion, communication and community. It is about generosity, auspiciousness and connections; a deliberately empowered time set aside to express shared values, trust, support, common purpose and mutual appreciation. It's a cementing of relationships or a renewal of them, a time for generating good energy within the mandala. It marks the settling of old scores, when all is forgiven; it's a new beginning with the giving of one's word in new resolves, the time to make pranidhanas. This is what feasting is all about. A Feast is an occasion when people come together to celebrate their connections with each other and honour the principles that bring them together. In the Awakened Heart Sangha we celebrate Feasts at the full moon and on other significant occasions, such as the end of a retreat. This book is to offer support to students of Lama Shenpen who are practicing the Mahayana feast offering. It is also a wonderful resource for all students of Buddhism or even other traditions who wish to learn more about the practice of offering the enjoyment of food.