Offering Practices

Student: People come to make tea light offerings in front of the stupa table. These tea light candles take four hours to burn out. The center closes at night, without anyone around, and the tea lights are left burning, which can be a fire hazard. Therefore, is it OK to blow them out, even if the tea light is not finished?

Rinpoche: It’s very good to leave it until the natural end of the flame, according to Rinpoche’s mo. Why not light the candle four hours before you have to leave, so there is no issue.

For your mother, do the extensive Medicine Buddha puja three times. First, do it one time, then it can be checked again. It may be OK just doing it well one time. Do what you can with a very good motivation—it should be bodhicitta motivation for all the sentient beings, for anyone who needs this puja.

The other practice to benefit your mother is reading the Prajnaparamita, but first make sure to discuss the expenses for the Sangha —the tea, bread and money offerings.

[Offering to the Sangha] collects so much merit, because all the monks who will recite the Prajnaparamita are getsul, living in the thirty-six vows, or gelong, living in two hundred and fifty-three vows. There are unbelievable merits collected. That many monks are living in that many vows, so there are unbelievable merits collected.

The most important thing is that most of the monks have received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They have taken His Holiness as their guru, so they are disciples of the same guru as you. Therefore, you collect the most unbelievable merits.

There is a story of one person a long time ago who had nothing; he was a very poor person who made one offering of medicinal food, just one time, to four ordinary monks. “Ordinary” means the monks did not have the wisdom directly realizing emptiness. After that person died, he was reborn as King Kashika, the most powerful, wealthiest, most famous king in India. That was the result of having made that offering in his past life.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,

Shakyamuni Buddha said in the collection of teachings called the Dhammapada:

Mind precedes all mental states.
Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.
If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts
Suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

Mind precedes all mental states.
Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.
If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts
Happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

All existence comes from the mind. The mind is the principal and the preliminary. An example of this is by generating a good heart and then speaking [with that pure mind] to somebody, happiness follows, just as a shadow follows the body.

All existence comes from the mind. The mind is the principal and the preliminary. An example of this is by generating a bad mind and then speaking [with that impure mind] to somebody, suffering will follow, just as the heavy cart follows the ox. For example, in India, on top of the cart there is a very heavy load, like iron, and also humans are sitting on that. The cart is extremely heavy and then the ox is beaten by people, but it still has to keep walking until it can’t walk any more.

The happiness mentioned above is not only this life’s happiness; it means happiness for many hundreds of lifetimes, such as five hundred or even thousands or millions of lifetimes. The suffering mentioned above is not only this life’s suffering, but also after this life. So [if we speak or act with a pure mind] we won’t experience that suffering; we won’t get reborn in the lower realms, as a hell being, a hungry ghost or animal and then have to experience the suffering there for an unbelievable length of time. Depending on how heavy the negative karma [of speaking or acting with an impure mind] is, we could be [in the lower realms] for many eons.

It is just one time that we have received this perfect human rebirth and it can end at any time. We can’t even say that we will be alive tomorrow or tonight; we don’t have omniscience or even ordinary clairvoyance, so we can’t see the future. We only have this opportunity right now, being alive, therefore we need to practice exchanging ourselves with others.

The great holy being, the Indian pandit from Nalanda, the great bodhisattva Shantideva said, “If we do not exchange ourselves for others, we cannot be enlightened.” That means we cannot achieve the peerless happiness, which is the total cessation of gross and subtle obscurations and the completion of all the realizations. “Even while we are in samsara, there is no happiness”—there is no happiness in our future lives and even the works of this life cannot succeed.

If I do not actually exchange my happiness
For the sufferings of others
I shall not attain the state of buddhahood
And even in cyclic existence shall have no joy.
   – Bodhicaryavatara, Ch. 8, v. 131

Also,

Cherishing the I causes all suffering for oneself and other sentient beings.
Cherishing others causes all the happiness for oneself and other sentient beings.

This means the happiness from beginningless rebirths, now and all the future happiness, including liberation from samsara and the peerless happiness, enlightenment. Sometimes this can be recited as a motivation.

LC 94: Cherishing myself is the doorway to all loss,
While cherishing my mothers is the foundation of all qualities.
Hence I seek your blessings to make my heart practice
The yoga of exchanging myself for others.

The teaching which has the same meaning is, “The chronic disease of cherishing the I, by seeing that this is the cause of all the undesirable sufferings and problems, all the past, present and future sufferings and problems.” So, put all the blame on that. That means when any unfavorable problem arises, immediately blame the self-cherishing thought, as it comes from that. “Keep this in mind and please grant me blessings to destroy the great demon, the self-cherishing thought.”

“Cherishing the mothers, the sentient beings, brings all the happiness, and seeing that is the doorway to receiving infinite qualities”—the happiness from beginningless rebirth, now and in the future, including peerless happiness, enlightenment, and all the realizations—“Even the sentient beings, who are numberless, appear as my enemy”—meaning that everyone turns into our enemy—“May I be able to cherish them more than my life.”

LC 91: This chronic disease of cherishing myself
Is the cause giving rise to my unsought suffering.
Perceiving this, I seek your blessings to blame, begrudge,
And destroy the monstrous demon of selfishness.

LC 92: The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these transmigratory beings
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.

So the purpose of circumambulation is not just to avoid being reborn in the lower realms and to achieve a higher rebirth—a deva or human rebirth. It’s not just to be free from samsara and achieve lower nirvana, the everlasting happiness. There are numberless living beings in each of the six realms, so every hell being, to free them from the sufferings of samsara and bring them to the peerless happiness, enlightenment, buddhahood. Same thing, there are numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings in numberless universes, also numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings, so to free everyone from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to enlightenment by myself alone.

Think, “Therefore, to be able to do that perfectly, without mistakes, I must achieve the state of omniscience. Therefore, I need to actualize the stages of the path to buddhahood. Therefore, I am going to circumambulate, to purify all the defilements and obstacles and collect the necessary conditions, the merits.”

With this bodhicitta motivation you walk around the holy objects, the stupas, statues and scriptures, any holy objects, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, then with each step you collect endless skies of merit. So that is the motivation.

The actual practice

Just by the shape of the stupa, it is called a holy object, because the stupa represents the Buddha’s holy mind, dharmakaya. Then you go around it, circumambulating, and that itself becomes Dharma practice and unbelievable purification and you collect merit, just even from that.

Now here, think this is His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the real, compassionate Avalokiteshvara. That means it is all the numberless buddhas, numberless Dharma, numberless Sangha, even the ten-direction statues, scriptures and stupas of Buddha. By thinking in this way, you circumambulate every single holy object in India, Tibet, China, Japan, Thailand, Burma, everywhere, and even the statues in the shops that are for sale, wherever they are in the world. If you are able to go around the holy object with this meditation, you get the merit of having circumambulated every single holy object in the world.

Then from this holy object, the stupa, think that light is emitted, like sunbeams, totally purifying all your obscurations. Then think you generate all the realizations up to enlightenment, including bodhicitta.

Now this is also the same for every hell being, every hungry ghost, every animal, every human being, every sura being, every asura being and every intermediate state being. Think they are totally purified of all the obscurations and generate all the realizations up to enlightenment. So with that mind, with that meditation, you go around the holy object.

Before you start to circumambulate, recite this mantra:

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RINCHEN GYÄLTSÄN LA CHAG TSHÄL LO (7x)

[NAMO RATNA TRAYAYA] OM NAMO BHAGAVATE RATNA KETU RAJAYA TATHAGATAYA ARHATE SAMYAK SAMBUDDHAYA TADYATHA OM RATNE RATNE MAHA RATNE RATNA BIJA YE SVAHA (7x)

After reciting this, each prostration and circumambulation is multiplied by one million. I also saw other texts that said more than ten million.

You can also recite OM MANI PADME HUM or any mantra.

These mantras are very powerful and extremely good to recite while circumambulating:

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ PÄL GYÄL WA SHAKYA THUB PA LA CHAG TSHÄL LO

OM NAMO DASHA DEKA TRI KALA SARVA RATNA TRAYAYA MAMA PRADAKSHA SUPRA DAKSHA / SARVA PAPAM VISHODHANI SVAHA

There are six benefits when you recite this Buddha’s name and mantra before you circumambulate.

1 and 2. You receive the benefit of having prostrated and circumambulated to all the buddhas, Dharma and Sangha of the ten directions and the three times;
3. All the negative karma collected from beginningless rebirth is purified;
4. You will quickly achieve full enlightenment;
5. You won’t be harmed by enemies and interferers;
6. You are liberated from disease and spirit harms.

It’s good to also go around saying this mantra. Try to train the mind so you are able to memorize and then recite this mantra. First you can read it and later recite it by heart.

Dedication

“Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, may bodhicitta, which is the source of all happiness and success for myself and for every sentient being, be generated in my heart and in the hearts of all the sentient beings. For those who have developed bodhicitta, may it be increased, particularly in the hearts of all my family members.” Then you can think in particular of anyone you want to pray for, a person or a dog, for example.

“Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas and numberless sentient beings, who are merely labeled by the mind, may the I, who is merely labeled by the mind, achieve merely labeled buddhahood and lead the merely labeled sentient beings into merely labeled buddhahood, by merely labeled myself, alone.”

Offering the sound of the bell to the stupa

At the end of the circumambulations, you can offer the bell to the stupa. The benefit of offering bells or any music to the holy objects, to the guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas and scriptures, is that while you are in samsara, it creates the cause for your voice to become so unbelievable, so interesting, so sweet (for example, like Lady Gaga or someone like that, who is so famous), then many millions and millions of people like to hear your voice and are attracted to it, so then they follow you and you can bring them to enlightenment. Of course, you don’t just have the motivation to make yourself happy—that is the self-cherishing thought. The motivation is to bring all sentient beings to enlightenment, so they follow you. That is the purpose. That is the ultimate result of offering music to the Buddha, as well as to buddha statues, stupas and scriptures. The result is to achieve the perfect holy speech of Buddha, which has sixty qualities, so you need that to enlighten the sentient beings. That is the ultimate goal of offering music.

Think, “I must liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to the full enlightenment, the total cessation of obscuration and completion of realizations, therefore I must achieve enlightenment, therefore I am going to offer the bell, the sound.”

Then offer the sound. You can ring each bell, one after the other. You can ring the small one and after that ring the bigger one, then ring the bigger one, then ring the smaller one and so on, like this. The ringing can go faster and faster. There isn’t a number of times to ring the bells. You can ring them together, then again go one by one, the big one and the small one, or the small one then the big one, then stop.

At the end, dedication. You can do the same dedication I mentioned before. In this way it makes your life unbelievably useful, not only for you to be free from samara and achieve enlightenment, but for numberless sentient beings to be free from the oceans of suffering in samsara and bring them to enlightenment, so your life brings skies of benefit to every sentient being—to every insect, every hungry ghost, every hell being, every animal, every human being. So this is how to enjoy the life.

Thank you very much. It makes your life so worthwhile.

With much love and prayers ...

To anyone who comes to this room to fulfill all the wishes, to practice Dharma, to make offerings to the Stupa:

Think that all these offerings belong to sentient beings and then, on their behalf, make offerings to the Stupa.

It is not just a stupa. To me, for example, it’s in essence His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which means of all the past, all the present, and all the future buddhas. You can think like that for whoever your own root guru is, which means [think that] your root guru is all the three-time and ten-direction buddhas.

Your root guru is the one to whom you make offerings, and, by so doing, you make offerings to all the numberless buddhas. By making an offering to your guru—for example, even if you offer a tiny drop of perfume that would stay on the tip of a needle to just one pore of your guru—you collect far greater merit than making offerings to the numberless Buddhas, numberless Dharma, numberless Sangha, and to the numberless statues, stupas, and scriptures of the Buddha.

There’s no question how much merit you will collect with each offering you make to the Stupa while thinking that, in essence, it is your root guru. You collect the most unbelievable merit and it becomes purification as well.

Please think this with any offering you make to the Stupa, and then offer it on behalf of all sentient beings: the offerings are theirs and you are offering them on their behalf. So then every sentient being gets merit—every hell being gets merit, every hungry ghost gets merit, every animal gets merit. For example, every ant gets merit, every mosquito gets merit, and every chick gets merit. No matter how tiny it is and no matter how big it is, every animal gets merit. Also, every human being, every asura, and every sura gets merit. In this way, the offering helps them to become free from their suffering of pain and to receive peace and pleasure. You can also dedicate the merit of having made the offerings to achieve enlightenment and for them to achieve enlightenment. So, it’s unbelievable.

Generally, whenever you collect merit, such as by rejoicing, do it as expansively as possible and especially, do it with bodhicitta. Then, if you dedicate for sentient beings, everyone gets merit. That’s the way to help sentient beings achieve enlightenment.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for spending your precious time reading this, understanding it, and practicing it.

Please dedicate your merits to the Chinese students who pay the rent here, giving us the opportunity to practice.* Dedicate that they will never be born in the lower realms, but will become free from samsara, achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible, and enlighten all sentient beings.

* At the time of this advice, the room’s rental was being paid by some Chinese students, thus the dedication.

Find links to a PDF of this practice, and watch Rinpoche making prayers in the offering room next to Boudha Stupa in this FPMT News post. 

Colophon:

Advice dictated by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, transcribed and lightly edited by Ven. Tenzin Namdrol, Kopan Monastery, January 2022. Further editing by Ven. Joan Nicell, January 2022, and FPMT Education Services, March 2022.

Even writing one letter from the Prajnaparamita; even writing one letter, one syllable, the benefits are unbelievable, unbelievable, more than making extensive offerings, skies of extensive offerings to all the buddhas for so many eons. The merits you collect are unbelievable.

Offering one grain of rice or a tiny flower to a picture of the Buddha or a statue of the Buddha, small or big, the benefits are that it brings us up to enlightenment and then we are able to free numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring everyone to enlightenment. Just by making skies of offerings to numberless buddhas for eons.

Now here, writing one word of the Prajnaparamita, the teachings on emptiness, we create far greater merit than making that many offerings, skies of offerings to numberless buddhas for so many eons.

The benefits are incredible. I read them before I recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

The Prajnaparamita in 12,000 verses, we have completed writing four volumes. It was done by Ven. Tsering, one monk from Kopan. I have also started writing the Prajnaparamita in 8,000 verses in gold. Then the Diamond Cutter Sutra was written in silver by Ven. Tsenla. Also, Jane Seidlitz is writing a volume of the Prajnaparamita. She does it well, in good Tibetan writing. So she is slowly writing one Prajnaparamita text.

I haven’t yet managed to organize this, but my idea is to have the monks at Kopan learn well Tibetan writing, then some monks at Kopan can do it together, like that.

My idea is that not only during my life; my idea is even when I die, even when I’m dead, that work, writing the Prajnaparamita texts, can be continued.

This was done to create the cause to build the fifty-story Maitreya Project. To build that, to do that, we need to create the cause, so this is why I started to write the Prajnaparamita. Before I got paralyzed I started to write with real gold.

One time, Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche came and he saw I wrote Gyetongpa [Prajnaparamita in 8,000 verses] with gold, but I didn’t finish since I got paralyzed. I wasn’t able to write after that but there is so much left to write. Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche was saying how fortunate I was, to be able to write the Prajnaparamita.

My idea is that even when I’m dead [for students] to continue this gold writing as much as possible; for it to continue even after I’m dead. I didn’t have that idea at the beginning, but for the last two or three years I’ve had that idea, to do it all the time.

For example, similarly, we build statues or stupas, then even after we are dead, we may be in hell, somewhere far away from this universe, but the stupa or statue we built still benefits sentient beings. For as long as it exists, continuously from life to life, it benefits sentient beings—even the birds, the flies, the people, anybody who sees that holy object—and it brings them to enlightenment. Anybody who can see that, anybody from far or near, from life to life wherever we are born, it benefits sentient beings all the time, as long as it can last, however many years it lasts, hundreds of years.

So like that, I thought to continue the gold writing of the Prajnaparamita.

I would also like [the organization] to continue, after I am dead, making offerings to the stupas, Boudha Stupa and Swayambunath, and also to the Jowo statue in Tibet and the Buddha statue in Bodhgaya, offering robes and offering gold every month. So for these offerings to be continued by the organization, even after I’m dead.

[Read about Rinpoche's resumption of writing the Prajnaparamita on this FPMT blog.]  

After generating a motivation of bodhicitta, think, “The purpose of my life is to not only achieve nirvana for myself but to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to peerless happiness—the total cessation of all the obscurations and the completion of all the realizations—by myself alone. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I am going to make the offerings to these monks.”

Remember, all these monks are disciples of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, so if you have received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, because they are disciples of the same guru, for you they are the pores of the guru.

“Pores of the guru” does not only refer to the body, it means the disciples of the same guru. It also refers to the neighbors of the guru and, if the guru is a lay person, it refers to the guru’s husband or wife and children as well, and even the guru’s horse, dog and belongings. “The guru’s pores” refers to all these things.

So think, “I am making offerings to the same guru’s pores.” Then, no matter many monks there are, no matter how much money you are offering, or offerings of tea, bread or lunch, you will get the same merit as actually having offered to numberless buddhas, Dharma and Sangha. You collect the same merit as having made offering to them. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. You also collect the same merit as having offered to numberless statues, stupas and scriptures. Making these offerings creates the most powerful good karma and is the quickest cause of enlightenment.

Whatever offerings you make—rice, tea or any other offering—to the Sangha or even lay people, who have the same guru, you think like this.

These days, so many people have taken teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, so many more than before; so many people now are disciples of His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Tibetans, other sects, Western Sangha, Chinese Sangha, and lay people. Think that by making offerings to them, you are offering to the pores of the guru.

Before you make the offerings, think in this way.

First generate bodhicitta motivation, so it is not enough to achieve happiness only for oneself, to be free from samsara. We have to do this for all sentient beings, therefore we have to become enlightened. In this way, generate the best motivation.

Think next, the Sangha and other people, Tibetans, and even other sects, come for teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. So many people have taken teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, so many more than before; so many are disciples of His Holiness the Dalai Lama—Western Sangha, Chinese Sangha and also lay people. Therefore make offerings to them, thinking they are the guru’s pores, which means they are also disciples your own guru. So they are the pores of the guru. This includes even the guru’s dogs, horses or any animal that belongs to the guru. For a lay guru, it refers to the guru’s wife or husband, and children, so they are the guru’s pores. The guru’s neighbors are also the guru’s pores—not your neighbor, but the guru’s neighbors. So, thinking in this way make offerings to them.

For example, offering even one cup of tea, or a piece of bread, or sweet rice, or even a dollar; offering this to just one disciple of the same guru you collect the same merit as having made offerings to numberless buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha, as well as numberless statues, stupas and scriptures.

Making offerings at the large monasteries where there are many Sangha—1,000 monks, 2500 or 3000 monks—you collect the most amazing, powerful merit; you create incredible, powerful good karma to achieve enlightenment quickly. Even offering one cup of tea, one piece of bread, one rupee, one dollar. It is incredible!

Often people remember to offer to the Tibetan monasteries, but maybe not so much to the Western Sangha. I think that is not logical! Sometimes more faith arises in Tibetan Sangha rather than in Western Sangha—maybe people don’t realize that their lives are the same, the vows are the same. We should have faith in any country’s Buddhist Sangha; we should have the same faith.

But not just at the monasteries; at your center also. You can do so much at your own center, right there, by thinking you are offering to the same guru’s pores. You collect unbelievable good karma. By giving even a glass of water, or offering tea or snacks at the puja, or even at a meeting—if they are your guru’s disciples, it is very powerful. You must know this. This is how you generate so much good karma. Don’t just leave it to intellectual understanding; you must practice.

By making offerings in the monasteries and nunneries, where many are living in the getsul’s thirty-six vows, we collect so much merit. Also, by offering to fully ordained monks and nuns [Tib: gelong and gelongma] who are living in the vows, we collect ever greater merit. It’s unbelievable. Then, offering with bodhicitta, we create even more skies of merit!

By offering even to one Sangha, whatever you can—even one dollar, one cup of tea, one piece of bread—there is so much merit. And when it is to larger monasteries where there are several thousand monks, it is unbelievable merit.

As I mentioned, thinking that they are the disciples of the same guru, the pores of the guru, such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, then we collect the highest merit, the most extensive merit. This is the greatest way to purify and the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.

It helps sometimes if we hear how much a puja costs.

This is just to educate you, by the way.