Offering Practices

My most dear one,
I think you may already know this or have heard these examples, but anyway, in the past one man who had nothing offered medicinal food just one time to four fully ordained monks. These monks were not arya beings who had wisdom directly perceive emptiness; they were just ordinary Sangha. Due to the karma of making that offering one time, after he died, he was reborn as a most powerful and wealthy king in India, called King Kashika. That was the result of offering just one time.

Of course, the karma goes on and on, as I explained previously. Karma is expandable, it is most amazing, and depending on your motivation you can create the cause of achieving enlightenment, especially if the action is done with bodhicitta.

In the very beginning Sera Je Monastery had approximately 4,000 monks, then 3,000 monks, and now there are about 2,500 monks. Wow, wow, wow! There are so many monks—wow, wow, wow, wow, wow—therefore, what good karma you can collect!

Also, [supporting] the center can be of great help or small help, but it all depends on the person. Helping the center also becomes an offering to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and by offering to the Buddha—wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

In the Buddha’s teachings it is mentioned in the Mantra of Undying Drum Sound:

If you devote to the Unimaginable Ones (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, who have unimaginable qualities)
The ripening aspect of the result of that devotion has unimaginable benefits.

Also, it is mentioned in the Compassionate Buddha Sutras:

The Tathagata Buddha has immeasurable qualities
Offering to the tathagatas also has immeasurable benefits that are endless,
Inconceivable, incomparable, unfathomable and numberless.

Offering to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is unbelievable. So you should think like this when you give the money. You should think this is offering to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Think that it is helping the Sangha, who, of course, do the Vinaya practice of confession practice here—all the Sangha gather here and also there are teachings at the center. So you should think that helping the center is also helping His Holiness the Dalai Lama and helping Lama Yeshe and myself, the small Mickey Mouse’s wishes to be fulfilled.

Before I mentioned the benefits of offering to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, but this is also an offering to the guru. From this you collect the highest amount of merit, the most merit, more than offering to numberless Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and to numberless statues, stupas and scriptures in the ten directions. All that merit becomes small compared with the merit of offering to the guru. No matter how many extensive offerings you make—even filling the whole sky—all that becomes very small compared to offering to the guru.

Additionally, this is the most powerful purification, it purifies defilements and negative karma collected from beginningless rebirths. It is the most powerful purification. You should know this. It is the quickest way to achieve realizations, the quickest way to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, and the quickest way to achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

Even giving one rupee offering to the center has these benefits. Then of course it also has the benefit of preserving the Dharma and helping to spread the Dharma.

However, the ultimate point is that this offering is benefiting all the six-realm sentient beings, not only those in your country. The center is used to do practice and any practice done there is for the six-realm sentient beings, to benefit them. Every sadhana or practice starts with the motivation to benefit mother sentient beings, so this means all the six-realm sentient beings and in particular those in your country.

Every dollar offer to the center—even one dollar, even the smallest amount of money—has all these benefits, which is received by all sentient beings. So every mosquito, every fish, every pitiful chicken that is taken on a truck to be killed, every sentient being in numberless universes receives this benefit, as well as every deva, sura and asura. So please think about this and understand this.

Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for thinking this way. I hope to see you soon.

With much love and prayers ...

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling ones,
I would like to thank you all and to offer you ice cream and potato pancakes from Solu Khumbu and thin pizza (not thick) and vegetarian momos—inside with nothing, just empty space, but having the most taste with bliss and voidness—or you can have spaghetti, and inside bliss and voidness.

In Tibet this happened. There was a great lama in Amdo, I’ve forgotten his name, who went to the monastery to look for the text on Gyalwa Gyatso. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche advised of this. So this lama explained that in Tibet he put up a big tent and then many people made the water bowl offerings together. Then they offered them all together, so that means even though all the water bowls weren’t done by each person, the group counted them together. The lama used this technique in this way to finish them. Therefore, when you make an offering, you can offer even what has been offered by others. 

I think similarly you can do this for light offerings. For example, even though many people have worked making the butter lamps and so forth, when you offer them you can offer them all and count them all. Like the water offerings, you can count all of them together.

Also, it’s the same with tsog offerings—even if the tsog is made by different people, when you offer it you can offer all the tsog together. So if there are one hundred people and they make a billion tsog offerings, then each person offers the billion tsog offerings.

But for other preliminary practices it isn't the same. For example, if one person eats delicious ice cream, the other one hundred people or a billion people, or tens of thousands of people or one hundred thousand million billion people, don't get the benefit of that one person eating ice cream.

I don’t think so, otherwise in that case, for example, if a monk eats ice cream does everyone feel like they have also eaten ice cream? When the monk’s stomach is full, is everybody’s stomach also full? When the monk is hungry, is everybody also hungry? When the monk eats potato pancakes, does everybody in France feel like they have eaten potato pancakes? If you can do that, then it’s OK.

When the monk does Vajrasattva practice, has everybody in the world done Vajrasattva? When the monk's stomach is full after eating potato pancakes or eating momos, are all the people's stomachs in the whole world full? Have they received the same momos or potato pancakes? If so, then it’s OK.

Anyway, from my heart I want to thank everyone, all the sixteen people, everybody. Billions of thanks for creating the cause of enlightenment. That means the cause of enlightenment for all the numberless sentient beings. That means each water bowl is done for the numberless hell beings’ enlightenment, the numberless hungry ghosts’ enlightenment, the numberless animals’ enlightenment—every mosquito, every single ant, every maggot, every slug, every spider—for all their enlightenment. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Every water bowl has been done for the human beings in the numberless universes, and for the numberless suras and numberless asuras. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow ! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I dedicated this for everyone to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

With much love and prayers ...

The way you dedicated the money, through me, collects the highest merit, so think,

I will dedicate it for sentient beings, for the best way to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and for them to achieve enlightenment quickest.

I dedicate for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for all His Holiness’s holy wishes to succeed. And for the FPMT, the whole organization always to be most wish-fulfilling for His Holiness, also for me to become like that; for the success of the two Maitreya projects, in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar; and for all the projects in FPMT, especially building big statues. May that benefit the rest of the world and bring benefit to the numberless sentient beings, in order to collect merit and purify the defilements and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

May all students be free from all the sufferings of body and mind, and may all their wishes succeed according to the holy Dharma. May all their actions become the cause of enlightenment, and may they be able to achieve all the realizations of lamrim, sutra and tantra in this life.

May I be able to benefit the teachings of the Buddha and numberless sentient beings, and may I offer service to the Sangha—who preserve and spread the Dharma—and to the sentient beings. May I be able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible, and be able to fulfill His Holiness’s wishes in all the future lifetimes.

Dedicate for all your wishes to be successful according to the Dharma and for you to have a meaningful long life and actualize the path in this life—guru devotion, the three principal aspects of the path and the two stages—in this very lifetime as quickly as possible and for your son also, exactly the same. May all his wishes be successful according to the Dharma and may he have a meaningful long life and actualize the path in this life—guru devotion, the three principal aspects of the path and the two stages—in this very lifetime, as quickly as possible.

Most importantly, dedicate for your mother who died a long time ago—if she is in a lower realm or higher realm, but has not met the Dharma—may she be born in a pure land where she can be enlightened or at least receive a perfect human body and meet the Mahayana teachings. May she meet a perfectly qualified Mahayana teacher who reveals the unmistaken path to enlightenment and by pleasing the virtuous friend may she achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.

Every single flower here is offered to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha on behalf of every single sentient being in each realm—the numberless hell beings; the numberless hungry ghosts; the numberless animals in numberless universes, including every single fish in the ocean, those as large as a mountain and those so small that they can only be seen through a microscope, the numberless pitiful ants, the numberless pitiful mosquitoes, the numberless pitiful maggots, slugs, tiny crabs at the beach and so forth, every animal; the numberless human beings in the different universes; the numberless suras and asuras—may they be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and the causes and achieve peerless happiness, the cessation of all obstacles and the completion of all realizations.

This means that every single flower is every sentient being’s offering and this is similar with the water offerings—they are offered for every sentient being and are every sentient being’s water offering.

Thank you very much.

[Note: The card is available from FPMT’s Foundation Store.]

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling ones,
I don’t have much to say, but when we make offerings, I always remember in particular the offerings you are making in Mongolia—upstairs two rooms and downstairs also.

I just want to say numberless thanks to all of you for making the offerings. Every day you are making offerings and dedicating your life, so that is for all sentient beings to be free from the oceans of suffering of the six realms and for them to achieve full enlightenment. And also for the happiness of all sentient beings; where this happiness comes from is the teachings of Buddha. Also dedicate for the teachings to last a long time and dedicate for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all holy beings, for all of them to live long.

Also, it’s important to dedicate for FPMT Mongolia to be highly beneficial for sentient beings, and for all sentient beings to have perfect peace and happiness, by generating loving kindness and compassion in the hearts of all sentient beings in this world and especially everyone in Mongolia.

By offering to the buddhas [with bodhicitta] it is more beneficial than if you make [extensive] offerings, as many as atoms in this universe. If you offer even one water bowl, one flower or one light, one Christmas light, with bodhicitta, then with every single offering—every single water bowl, light or flower—you collect more than skies of merit.

The great bodhisattva [Shantideva] said in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life:

Even the mere thought to benefit somebody is greater and more excellent than making offerings to all the buddhas. So to actually attempt to benefit somebody, then no question.

Since you are starting your day with the motivation to benefit numberless sentient beings then the benefit is much greater and you collect skies of merit from each and every light, water bowl and flower offering. This means, for example, offering universes filled with water and so forth to the buddhas, or offering even the seven different kinds of jewels, diamonds, gold and so forth to the buddhas. So here this means even having the thought to benefit just one person, your mother, and also to benefit numberless sentient beings.

So please generate strongly the bodhicitta motivation before offering. It is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. This is just mentioning the motivation, so then when you actually do the offerings for sentient beings, then wow, wow, wow! No question. Hope to see you soon.

With much love and prayers...

It’s good to take care of the flowers. I gave money for the flowers and also other monks bought many flowers with their own money. The flowers don’t just come.

I made extensive offering of the flowers to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Every day when you make offerings, you can think of offering all the monastery flowers, plus when you recite the Clouds of Offerings mantra. You then collect most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merit. You have to know that. And the result is not only in this life but in all future lives up to enlightenment. The greatest benefit is that you can free all sentient beings from all their suffering and bring them to enlightenment.

You can’t imagine the result—bringing all the numberless sentient beings to full enlightenment. So the result is even more amazing, amazing. Just even yourself freeing all the hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras and asuras from suffering is amazing, amazing, without mentioning enlightenment and benefiting sentient beings.

Also, when people come here—I’m not sure about the kangaroos, but when human beings come here they enjoy so much, especially the way all the flowers have been put together. The way the flowers are put together is amazing. And, of course, I myself enjoy the flowers. When people come, they will be so happy. A bodhisattva works for sentient beings; a bodhisattva cherishes and works for sentient beings. This means bringing happiness to every sentient being, temporary and ultimate, with the third ultimate, full enlightenment. Numberless buddhas work for sentient beings.

You have to know that the essence of the whole practice is to cherish sentient beings, to work for sentient beings, freeing them from suffering and bringing them to enlightenment. Learning all that is what you do. The ultimate aim of your life is not for yourself but for sentient beings.

Please take care of the flowers. That means you have to know a little bit about the flowers, how to take care of them.

Of course, I don’t remember every time, but when I see a flower, I do make offering to the root guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Of course, that means you collect the most merit, more than making the offering to numberless Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, statues, stupas, scriptures.

Thank you very much.