Dear friends around the world, Since the time of the previous Buddhas, enlightened beings have manifested numerous Bodhicitta actions to be an example of Buddhahood to lead Sentient Beings onto the path of liberation. These enlightened beings’ actions and activities later became different Mahayana Buddhist practices, teaching us the way to achieve Buddhahood with that bodhicitta motivation to liberate oneself and all sentient beings from the state of suffering. One of the practices that helps to cultivate bodhicitta is giving. When practitioners put giving into practice, the subject of their giving is usually the needy, the poor, the sick and, less often, animals. What is rare and easily forgotten is giving to unseen and formless beings. As they are also sentient beings stuck in a cyclic existence determined by karma, they are like any one of us and they too will know hunger, pain, joy, sadness and fear. For those who practise giving to humans, animals and spirits, the offering of food is the most common. What is incredible is that there exists a Tibetan tantric meditation practice known as ‘Chöd’, in which a practitioner can even offer their own body to unseen beings. The word ‘Chöd’ (Wylie: gCod) means […]