Food offerings, Gung Bun 供品 (Saamlawnese: Gong Bin), and food sacrifices, Jaai Bun 祭品 (Saamlawnese: Ji Bin), are very similar but different! You might see that it’s all about putting food on the altar table and burning incense in the ritual, but they are done for a different purpose. As a Taoist, you must clearly understand what you are doing, leading you to the wisdom you can apply daily.

After reading the eye-opening and mind-blowing article on “What is God,” “Worshiping,” and “Sacrifice,” this is the next one that will bring you more clarity. If you have not read those articles yet, please do so before digging deeper because this article is episode 4 of the same series!

Food offerings are meant to provide and supply something for the gods. The word in Chinese 供 Gung is to provide. For example, you can put your wife at home and not let her go to work; you only supply her with anything she needs and wants. People would say you are Gung-ing your wife like a god. It’s a good metaphor!

Food sacrifices are made to request something in return. For example, I am sacrificing a cow for god to bless us for good luck this year. There is always something that you are requesting or sacrificing for.

Offerings are given to invest in the god; sacrifices are given to show your heart and request something from the god.

Real Offerings

What are your offerings to the gods? The gods don’t need your food; they are not physical living beings; they don’t eat this food. What they eat is your heart. The heart that has faith and passion. You show your heart, appreciation, and gratitude when you give the food. This is what the gods are consuming. Our heart is what the gods need, and we must supply them in all ways. As you have read in the “What is God” article, god will die when the heart is gone. Giving the heart in food is just one of the many methods.

To offer your heart, you can show the gods how thankful you are and give food like you treat the gods to a meal. This method is very simple, think of the gods as if they are human and buy something good for them to enjoy.

Another way of offering the heart is to show your faith in the gods. You can use the food to relate a message and tell the gods that you have faith in the gods for giving you help and blessings in whatever ways. For example, I offered a chicken, and its code brings in opportunities like how a chicken always gives birth to eggs. You can set your metaphors and codes, but we also have many of them in the lineage, which you can learn and use. 

It may not be unclear at this point because it sounds very similar to food sacrifice since we also request something in return. However, the difference is that a sacrifice is made for whatever you want to come immediately, like an exchange. Offerings are done to give, and you believe that the gods will give what you want to you in the future at another time. Sacrifice is done when there is a problem or need, and offerings are done for future potential.  For example, people can always make offerings and hope the gods will help them when needed. However, there was a big flood in the village, and everyone lost their homes. They will gather, make a big sacrifice, and ask god to help them recover the village quickly.

Our chanting that we do daily could be an offering to the gods or a sacrifice when we have something we want from the gods. It depends on the mindset and purpose.  When we are just doing it daily, it is an offering. When we are doing it daily to reduce covid cases in our neighbourhood, that’s a sacrifice. The same thing is done, just with a different purpose.

Food Offerings to Uppers

One of my closest disciples will do food offerings to us every week, and if other disciples want to chip in, they can also send money to her to get the order placed together. She gathers up the pool of money from everyone, including her own and does the orders. Thanks to the internet and UberEATS, she can order food from Hong Kong even though I live in Toronto!

When I consume the food offerings, the food goes into my body, and the energy circulates to my Yuen Sun when I sleep. Whoever contributed to the food offering at that time would have their energies in the food I ate. This will allow my Yuen Sun to build a connection to their Yuen Sun in the PreHeaven dimension, which serves as a line that allows both of our Yuen Sun(s) to communicate and interact.

This connection between the Yuen Sun(s) allows my magic powers and potentials to flow to them in the PreHeaven, which increases their channelling power and also allows my powers to support, repair and protect their Yuen Sun(s) at times. The stronger the connection, the more I can help I can give. At the same time, their potential for learning Taoism will also increase because of this relationship since our life is now connected.

However, I don’t eat the food bought by most newbie disciples because I don’t feel a connection with them yet. I would only consume the food bought by the close disciples because their heart is good and loyal, which won’t give me any negative after-effect.

Food can be enjoyable but also lead to danger because of the energy factor. If someone cooks you some food while they are grumpy, the food could also make you grumpy because the energy contaminates it. If you kept eating with a villain at work, your life would also be entangled with that person, and the villain would become more annoying and glued to you.

These food offerings from the disciples also show me their heart and passion for learning under me, and as a result, I would want to teach them more and give them more help. If you grow up in an Asian culture, you would see that children who started working will often make food offerings to their parents on the weekend and bring them to a meal to show their heart. The relationship will grow and improve if done truthfully with love. It’s not the food that has the power, but your heart that was being shown through the food that does the magic.

Other Offerings

Besides food, anything can also be used as an offering, just like we said in the sacrificing article. For example, one can gift their master a nice sword, a new tablet, or any gift that would make the master happy. This offering would pump the master’s heart and make him want to put all more heart into you later. Some common practice in Asia is buying fruits and snacks for the master, and sometimes liquor and more expensive things depending on the situation and whatever fit the vibe. 

The meaning of offering is to provide and supply what the other side wants, likes or needs. It doesn’t always have to be food. It could even offer time, energy or other non-tangible things.

If you have not yet read about how I got into Saam Law Tao, welcome to read these posts on the nine main gods in order. You will enjoy the awesome readings!

The nine main god posts in order: Dei Law, Tin Law, Daai Law, Saam Law, and Sun Lung Jo Si. Then Gum Lung, Jee Lung, Ng Lui and Baak Hork Sin Si.

Ordain today to learn more about these awesome fun things and be a Saam Law Taoist so you can cultivate and use the power of our gods too!